Moonlight Magician

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Two men stood outside of an opposing set of wooden doors. They had been waiting for over fifteen minutes, but they knew better than to give up and leave.

Finally, the doors opened to admit them, noiselessly gliding apart. The two men waited for the lazily drawled, "Enter", before stepping into the room.

It was a room that immediately put you in mind of great riches. The floor was made of white marble that rang like a bell as they walked over it. There were wooden draws set into the panels that made up the room's walls in place of filing cabinets, and a huge set of windows behind the desk before them were the only things that admitted light into the room. The desk was made of expensive, polished wood, with sage green leather stretched over the top. The man who sat in the magnificent chair behind the desk somehow fit right into the picture, despite his kindly face. It was a face no one would suspect, and only those who knew what the man behind it was capable of could feel fear at the sight of it.

For behind that sweet exterior lay the soul of a man as cold and pitiless as the mountainous slopes of hell.

"Ah, Gin and Vodka", the man said, flipping closed the files before him.

"Boss", the two men rumbled in acknowledgement.

"Report."

"Sir, we are not yet certain about the Kudo girl", Gin said. "The two agents we have observing her have reported that the girl acts normally. Although she regularly interacts with the police, and once with the FBI-"

"The FBI?" The kindly old face didn't so much as twitch an eyelid, but a faintly menacing aura began to permeate the air around him.

"In regards to an assassin from a separate organisation targeting some flashy magician. The assassin in question died, and contact with the FBI ceased."

"Very well. Continue."

"Although she regularly interacts with the police and FBI, no mention has been made of us or the dealings the girl witnessed. We have reason to believe that the girl is an impostor. Perhaps someone looking to take over the girl's life for personal reasons or money, or an attempt by the law to lure us out. I am of the opinion that the girl's death was somehow discovered- perhaps a witness of some sort came forth- and now they wish to pique our interest by subtly proclaiming the child is indeed alive. This may very well be an attempt to trap us."

"Have you proof for this?"

"FBI agents have been spotted scoping out the area around the Kudo mansion", Vodka offered. "This leads us to believe that they are waiting for an agent of ours to appear to kill the girl once and for all."

The boss of the Black Organisation was silent for a few moments. Finally, he spoke. "Continue to watch over her. And if she shows any sign of knowledge about us and our dealings, kill her."

Gin smiled a slow, scimitar grin, as sharp and savage as a knife's edge. His dead eyes glittered. "With pleasure."

===

Shinichi's eyes snapped open. Had she fallen asleep? That wasn't good.

Shinichi straightened up and tried to look as though she had been listening to Sonoko talk. Beside her, Heiji gritted his teeth as he was interrogated about KID. Sonoko kept firing questions at them, hoping for an answer that wasn't, "I couldn't see his face, it was pretty dark in there", "How should I know what kinda girl tha thief likes?", and, "No, I won't kidnap him for you the next time we meet.".

Shinichi blinked at the wall, and had a sort of waking hallucination that there was moss growing up it. She squeezed her eyes closed, and then pawed around for her mug of coffee. Empty. Shinichi signaled the waiter for a refill and tried to return his smile as he topped it up.

"Shinichi? Shinichi? Are you listening to me?"

"No", Shinichi said, yawning.

"But this might be my chance to finally meet with KID-sama!"

Shinichi looked at Sonoko blearily. She had been up half the night helping solve a case over the phone, and then a heist note from KID had arrived... taped to her fridge. Nakamori and a few officers had insisted on coming over to see how KID had got in. By the time she had solved the note and got the taskforce from her home, it was sunrise.

"I can get you into the heist", Shinichi suggested, desperate for at least a few more minutes of silence.

"Really?", Sonoko breathed, her eyes lighting up.

"There's another heist next Tuesday, and I can get you in", Shinichi said. "Just please, please, stop talking to me."

"Er, ah... okay. Thanks."

Shinichi closed her eyes and slumped in her seat. Sonoko greeted Ran as she returned to the table from the toilet.

"Shinichi's acting really weird."

"Detective geek was probably up all night reading again", Ran sighed.

"Not reading", Shinichi mumbled. "I had a case."

"Did someone die?" Sonoko seemed to enjoy hearing the gory details of a case.

"No, they flew away to candy mountain on a lilac alpaca", Shinichi snapped. "Of course someone died!"

"Ha! You should have called Deduction Queen Sonoko!", Sonoko said proudly. "I would have solved that case for you in no time!"

"Shinichi, Sonoko's really good at solving things!", Ran said eagerly. "If you were having trouble with things, you should have called her! She can solve mysteries in a flash!"

Beside Shinichi, Hattori snorted. Shinichi opened one eye to give the two girls the most contemptuous look she could muster, and then turned towards the window.

"Don't mind her", Hattori said loudly. "She just can't accept tha' she sometimes needs help with cases."

Shinichi kicked him under the table and closed her eyes again.

===

Pandora was troubled. It had at first thought was it was seeing was a figment of its imagination, or maybe a coincidence. But now it was certain.

They were being followed.

It had told Shinichi, who hadn't reacted with panic or worry, but with admirable calm. She sent the jewel out of it's vessel to see who the person following her was, and Pandora reported back that it was the small, nervous man who it had thrown at KID before. A fairly new member of the taskforce, Akio Matsuoka. The next day, it was another new member of the taskforce, Okura Nagai. Shinichi had then requested that the jewel follow one of them to their homes, and the jewel complied. The man the jewel had followed walked for hours around a shopping centre, stopped off for dinner at a restaurant, and the finally went home. The way he did all these was casual enough, but Pandora saw that the man acted as though he knew someone was watching, and was trying to lose them- stepping through the doors of a tube train seconds before they closed, turning corners suddenly, and walking briskly. The man looked in his post once at home, and burned a piece of paper, an advertisement leaflet, that was in there after reading it- when Pandora reported this to Shinichi, the detective said that the leaflet most likely contained coded orders for the man. The other men Pandora followed over the course of that week all acted the same.

But that wasn't what made Pandora so worried. What made it worried was the fact that every single one of these men wore black.

Shinichi listened thoughtfully to Pandora's tale, and then said, "Jodie-sensei suspected this would happen. Like you said before, the Black Organisation appear to believe that I'm an impostor. All I've got to do is act normally and trust in the FBI to prevent anything bad from happening. Sooner or later, one of them will interact with me to ascertain whether or not I am the real Shinichi Kudo. Then the FBI will act."

But what if something goes wrong? I don't want you to die, Shinichi.

"We're all dying, Pandora. We just choose the speed."