𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬

file 050 | foiling an assassination

"You were hanging out with Ai?"

"Professor's idea, not mine," Hiro told her as he drove his car with Suzume in the passenger's seat and Ai sitting in the back with crossed arms. "Bit hard not to let her come with it's them, you know."

"Yeah, yeah."

"So, you guys received a request for a case from an announcer that you incidentally met, so you went to her house and planted the wireless tap and transmitter for the investigation," Ai recapped. "However, the gum accidentally came off, and got stepped on by her and attached to her shoe, and she happens to be a member of the Black Organization by coincidence. Is that it?"

Suzume grumbled under her breath. "Yeah. It's not like I ask these things to happen, you know."

"No one said that," Hiro assured her, giving her a worried glance.

"So? Is Mizunashi Rena really one of them?" Ai asked.

"She sent a message with the boss' email address," Suzume said. "And she called the person who called her after that 'Gin'."

Ai gasped.

"Bit of luck, though," Hiro said. "Running into a member by accident."

"Not lucky at all." Suzume shook her head with a frown. "If they find that wiretap and transmitter, they're going to wonder who and where it came from. The first two people they'll look at are me and Kogoro-san, who were working that case."

Hiro's eyes widened. "So that means—"

"Even if it was placed to solve the case she requested, there's a possibility he listened in on their conversation," Suzume said. "If they suspect that, they'll definitely go after him, and by extension, Ran."

"How would we even retrieve it without them noticing?" Hiro wondered, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "I mean, I'm supposed to be dead, Haibara can't be seen by them, and you..."

"It doesn't feel right," Ai spoke up. "Why would that announcer ask you and Detective Mouri for help? It was just to find the culprit behind the bell-ringer prank, right? On top of that, the culprit was a child. If she's one of them, that kind of case is..."

"Yeah, that bothers me as well," Suzume agreed before glancing down at her phone. "The transmitter's slowing down. And the engine is echoing. She's probably entered a parking garage somewhere." She held a hand up to her earpiece to try and hear the noise better. "She's closing in on something. A car?" Her eyes widened. "That unique and erratic idling sound... And a responding snorting sound from a parallel big engine."

Hiro's expression darkened. "Gin's Porsche."

Ai gasped in horror as Suzume's theory was proven correct.

She heard both cars park and windows roll down.

"What's wrong, Kir?" Gin asked. "The promise was for 10 o'clock."

"I'm sorry. I felt like some car was following me, so I went around a bit."

Suzume pursed her lips. Maybe our car? No, we're at least 600 meters away. It couldn't be us.

"There's no problem, right?"

"Yeah, just my imagination. So can you please put away that Beretta which you're pointing at me behind that door? If you shoot me by jumping to some weird assumption, then you can't do DJ, right?"

She heard Gin scoff in response. DJ?

"I guess that's fine," he said. "We can oversee within 500 meters of this building. If any weird car comes close, we'll know immediately."