"Put the phone down."
L's voice was extremely quiet, almost indistinct beneath the low hum of the underground bunker's industrial air conditioning.
He did not turn around. He remained tightly curled up in the broad swivel chair, showing only a huddled silhouette in black.
Watari froze, the pad of his thumb already hovering over the red send button that represented the highest-level elimination order.
One press, and within half a second, the signal would travel through low-Earth-orbit satellites straight to INTERPOL headquarters and the CIA's top-secret servers.
Five minutes. Five minutes at most.
The Navy SEALs and Special Operations Task Force stationed in Asia would mobilize, fully armed.
They would seal off every exit and passage at Linhai University.
Light Yagami, the god who had played eight billion people for fools, would become a prisoner.
Or a corpse riddled with bullet holes. This was their only chance to save the world.
Watari's voice was painfully dry.
"L... you just said you were-you were one hundred percent certain?!"
He stared at the thin figure in the swivel chair, searching for some sign of a joke, but there was none.
"The three timelines line up perfectly, and with that psychological profile you put together,
you've already proved that Light Yagami is Kira. That college student drinking coffee from a paper cup on the screen
is the one bringing death!"
Watari abruptly stepped forward, his tone taking on an exceptionally rare severity.
"If you're certain, why aren't we arresting him?!
Why!"
"I am one hundred percent certain."
L slowly slipped his thumb into his mouth.
His eyes remained fixed on the enormous video wall before him, composed of thirty-six top-of-the-line LCD screens.
"But we can't arrest him. We can't..."
L mumbled indistinctly.
Watari felt as though his breathing had stopped.
He slowly set