Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 1224: Surrounded Vodka

"What is this?"

"I don't know, but it's something the target is carrying. Just take a look."

When handing the USB flash drive to Vodka, Vermouth's expression was still relaxed.

She and Bourbon did not communicate with each other, but they both chose to conceal Kumail's appearance, so she guessed that Kumail's going to the facility was purely his personal behavior.

Considering Kumail's recent movements, it seems clear what he is going to do.

It makes sense. For Bourbon today, the more Kummel increases his efforts to suppress the Rum forces, the more beneficial it will be to him. Even if Bourbon discovers Kummel's actions, he will not stop him for the sake of his own interests.

Since Kumail has made full use of the information related to Binga and found Binga himself like a ghost, she has nothing to do with this anyway, and the situation is not complicated.

Amuro Toru also didn't show any reaction as he watched Vodka push the platinum USB flash drive into the interface.

There would be plenty of time to ensure Naomi Argento's life safety once he was free from this mission.

Regardless of himself, Tang Ze, who has already arrived at the scene, will not condone the organization to persecute other scientists.

So no matter what is discovered here, it will not have much impact on the development of the situation.

He simply gave a nonchalant warning: "The target is a scientific researcher proficient in computers. Be careful that your equipment is not detected."

"Tsk, a virus?" Vodka just grinned and patted the metal wall behind him. "You mean it can penetrate such thick 'protection' and use the network to lock my device?"

At this time, they were sitting in the submarine that came to pick them up.

This is the part that annoys Amuro the most: how on earth did they manage to get a submarine so close to Japan? What country has gone mad?
Being at such a depth and in a sealed diving device, let alone intrusion, without the support of relevant equipment, one wouldn't be able to make a single phone call.

With physical protection, there is really no need to worry about this problem.

So after a simple scan, Vodka directly opened the USB drive.

The content in the USB flash drive was very concise, with only a picture named test. After opening it, the content inside stunned everyone present.

The left half of the photo is labeled "Search Target", which seems to be the basic content used for retrieval.

The right half of the photo, where the answer is retrieved, is a face they are all familiar with.

"Shirley?" Vodka frowned deeply. "This target, you know her, and you're still looking for her?"

Vermouth looked at the photo in shock and didn't respond for a moment.

She was not shocked that the target person was looking for Shirley, but she felt it was absurd because the content in the picture was seriously inconsistent with reality.

She knew Sherry's whereabouts very well. Sherry, whose real name was Shiho Miyano, had taken that experimental drug and luckily survived. Instead, she turned into a seven or eight-year-old girl, just like Cool Guy. She now lived near Cool Guy's house and had become acquainted with Kumail, maintaining a delicate balance with all parties.

However, the photo shows a young woman wearing a white coat, holding a pile of documents, and crossing the road with an expressionless face. She looks to be around 20 years old and should not be the current Sulli at all.

Having witnessed similar situations before, she roughly knew that Sherry was developing reverse drugs for Cool Guy and herself, and that briefly appearing in her original form was normal. But could such a coincidence really exist? Was she captured by a camera just as she was transforming into an adult, and was the target just as they were testing the system, thus preserving these images...?

Something's wrong. I feel like there's something else going on here.

Vermouth collected herself, controlling her expression before Vodka could recover. She leaned back and waved her hand casually, "It wouldn't be surprising if they knew each other. Don't forget, the target is also a genius who graduated with a doctorate from Stanford at the age of 18. If you think about it, they might even be from the same genius class."

This is true.

The reason why Shirley's talent was discovered so quickly was that she showed extraordinary intelligence when she was only five or six years old.

She was quickly accepted into a class that specialized in developing young geniuses, and was recommended to go to university when she was just over ten years old. She studied and graduated successfully, and it was normal for her to meet talented girls of about the same age.

"Don't forget, this system was only connected to the European cameras today." Attracted by their movements, Mizunoshi Reina looked at the images on the screen and reacted quickly, giving a clear explanation. "Before this, they had been using Japanese surveillance data during testing. In other words..."

"...This footage was captured on the main island of Japan in the past two weeks." Amuro Toru reacted quickly, adding seriously, "Sulli is still in Tokyo."

Regarding the missing Shirley, the organization has never given up the plan to hunt her down.

Whether it was her defection at the beginning that forced the organization to fight for survival, destroying many stable cooperative laboratories and causing serious losses to the organization, or her later suspected connection with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, which caused varying degrees of damage to many of the organization's partners and underground bases in Tokyo, all seemed to confirm the organization's worst assumptions about traitors.

——Traitors who have access to core secrets use the intelligence and power they possess to continuously cause losses and blows to the organization, and face the risk of exposure at any time.

However, after Gin's plowing and Vermouth's investigation, they found nothing. After so long, the only clue they found was broken with the explosion of the twin skyscrapers. Now they generally believe that Shirley either died in the explosion or left Japan as quickly as possible after that provocation.

This is consistent with her character and can explain her disappearance.

If you don't accept this conclusion, you can only assume that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts have all the energy and technology to crush them in this area, and it would be easy for them to hide. The consequences of this answer are terrifying.

Vodka's thoughts followed their words and he enlarged the picture again to observe the details on it.

The photo source on the left shows a little girl with brown hair wearing an ordinary sweatshirt, with a smile on her face, sitting at a corner of the table.

Apart from being able to recognize that this should be Shirley as a child, there is almost no clue that can point to the time and place.

In the photo on the right, you can see the outfits of the other people walking around her.

New mobile phones, new clothes and shoes, not only can you tell the time, but you can even vaguely tell that this is probably the famous oversized intersection in Shibuya.

Vodka quickly agreed with the other three people's opinions and began to think about it.

"The target knew Shirley, and she used her interpersonal relationships to take a test and found Shirley? Then why did she save this photo separately?" Soon, he found the last loophole and was puzzled again.

This system poses a serious threat to privacy and security; even their kidnapping is ostensibly aimed at addressing this issue. As the system's developer, the target couldn't possibly be unaware of this security risk. Saving and carrying the retrieved data without authorization is absolutely against regulations. She probably knew this herself, which is why she secretly hid the images in her necklace.

So why do we do this?

"Then you have to ask her. How would I know what she thinks?" Rena Mizunoshi immediately rolled her eyes.

"You can wait until the target wakes up and ask him. Isn't Binga still in there anyway? At worst, you can send a copy of this photo to Binga and let him find a chance to search." Vermouth was also not proactive and snorted twice.

Amuro Toru held his chin and tentatively offered some suggestions: "Putting it in a necklace reminds me of some people who put photos of their loved ones in openable necklaces and hang them around their necks... Could it be that this target has some feelings for Sulli and wants to keep them as a commemoration?"

When these words were spoken, not only Vodka, but the other two people also couldn't help but look sideways, revealing a subtle expression.

"What are you looking at me for?" Amuro Toru spread his hands innocently. "The target is studying computer science. Didn't you see the photo I sent for identification? It's good that she's not wearing a plaid shirt to work."

"Huh? What happened to you studying computers?"

"Well, for science and engineering majors, this might be romantic."

"Romance or something..."

The expressions of the other three people were hard to describe, but after thinking about it, they found that this idea surprisingly made sense.

Indeed, using the system I developed to find someone I cared about who had lost contact with me for many years was truly a very memorable moment...

"...Anyway, I'll let my brother know first." Vodka, who had given up on figuring out how Bourbon came up with this incredible idea, shook his head and took out a satellite phone.

"Why are you notifying Gin?" Vermouth didn't stop him, but her expression made her point clear. "You only have one picture now. Do you want Gin to search for her based on it? Why don't you contact Binga? With more footage, we'll be able to find her area."

She had reason to believe that even if Shirley returned to her original appearance, it would only last for a short time.

With Kumail's cover, the help of the Phantom Thief of the Heart, and the cool guy's wisdom, there are plenty of ways to cover it up. Binga can do whatever he wants.

"Indeed. And since the target values ​​her so much, she may also value the target himself. This is an opportunity. You don't want Gin to look down on your ability to do things, right?" Amuro Toru pointed to the door and asked suggestively.

There is no way that Tang Ze would let Naomi fall into the hands of the organization. Increasing her importance now will only be beneficial to protecting her personal safety, so he can continue to exaggerate this aspect.

No matter how Tang Ze did it, the information currently conveyed is misleading enough, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

"Don't look at me." Mizunashi Rena sat down on the sofa in a very unconcerned manner. "My only mission is to assist Gin and clean up Binga's mess. Let Binga worry about the technical matters."

She always believed that the person who could make such a perfect plan, and even secretly change the plan under Gin's nose, so that she could bring the jamming equipment to Tangze today, was definitely not so easy to deal with.

The more Binga was urged to test Shirley's problems, the easier it would be for her to fall into Tang Ze's trap. She had reason to believe that any intelligence that fell into the hands of the organization must have been screened and processed in advance.

Don't panic, everything is going according to plan.

Surrounded by three people, Vodka was stunned by their tacit cooperation without any prior communication. His thoughts gradually became clear.

That makes sense. Anyway, this photo is from surveillance footage, so there's no point in alerting the enemy. Sulli has nowhere to run to right now.

It would be better to let Binga completely lock the target direction, so that it would be easier for them to set up an encirclement and capture Shirley in one fell swoop.

Vodka, having figured it out, nodded and said nothing more, but still said, "We need to inform Brother Gin. He's been concerned about Shirley's situation for a long time, and he'll definitely be interested in any news."

The main thing is, last time when the eldest brother was following the clues to find the Twin Towers, not only did he not end up well, he was also shot by a sniper who was hiding in the area.

After going back to think about it, Brother Gin had already determined that the clues exposed by Shirley were also part of the plan, a hunt against him. For now, Shirley's position on the hatred list is very stable.

Especially after Shuichi Akai's death, there are no more enemies worth his attention.

If Big Brother Gin found out that he didn't look for him first when he had news, but went to Binga instead, then he really didn't want to live...

"You should have informed them." Vermouth, admiring her manicure under the dim light, laughed. "Binga is famous for wanting to climb the social ladder. He became famous even before Bourbon. It's no secret."

Vodka, who was dialing, glanced at her, then glanced at Amuro Toru who seemed not to hear: "Of course I know that."

"What you probably don't know is that after Curacao's death, there are very few people who can pose a threat to Binga. The person he wants to bring down the most is Gin." Vermouth grinned, not hiding her malicious intent at all. "Now you have no choice but to cooperate with Binga. Good luck."

Vodka's hand was awkwardly dialing: "..."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

There was a faint beeping sound from the USB flash drive behind him. Conan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly pulled it out and stuffed it into his trouser pocket.

The cracking speed was much faster than he had imagined. Everything was completed in just ten seconds.

He really had reason to believe that the Phantom Thieves' technical capabilities in this area probably no longer needed to be strengthened by cracking this system. They might just hack in to take a look at the reference answers and then go back and build it themselves.

Having said that, the fact that he assisted in the illegal invasion still made him feel guilty, and he couldn't help but talk more.

"If there is a backdoor, could the system be accessed by someone from elsewhere at any time?"

"If you don't stop using it now, what if the other party's technology is more advanced than yours and they search for something and secretly record it? That would be very bad."

"Records? But he was able to delete the access records of the control center, and after deleting them, he also deleted the deletion records themselves..."

Makino Yosuke, whose heart was almost pierced: "..."

Okay, that's enough. It would be impolite to say more.

(End of this chapter)