LRAB Chapter 279 The Mystery of the Crab and the Whale
Chapter 279 The Mystery of the Crab and the Whale
Chapter 279 The Mystery of the Crab and the Whale
After calming the employees down, Akutagawa Hiko didn't intend to get involved himself. Instead, he sent a whistleblower letter to the only employee in the firm who wasn't present. With the little plugin developed by the doctor, there was no need to worry about him knowing that he was the whistleblower.
Although Amuro Tooru could very well guess it was him, guessing is still just guessing.
As a public security officer, Rei Furuya could easily make things difficult for the FBI agents whose credentials were incomplete.
After all, whether it's because these people themselves still have some conscience, or simply because of the existence of someone like Shuichi Akai, the FBI members who come to Tokyo at least don't act so unreasonably and bully others.
In this situation, rules are just as useful as force.
Akutagawa Hiko didn't go home tonight. He wanted to see if any audacious uninvited guests dared to break into the office at night, so he could teach them a lesson and stop being so reckless, bullying his employees.
However, it is clear that they are still very cautious about things they are unsure about.
According to Subaru Okiya, both the assailants who attacked him and the FBI agents who were observing from the shadows saw the wooden dragon that suddenly emerged from the potted plant, and they might be questioning their existence right now.
Akutagawa Hiko wasn't in a hurry. Around 9:30 a.m., he received a call from Endo.
Endo tried to extract information from the kidnappers as he and Conan had taught him, but the results weren't very good. However, he did a good job of persisting in talking to Keita and obtained a lot of information from him.
"Okay, I understand. I'll bring Conan to discuss the details in person."
When Akutagawa Hiko brought Conan for a follow-up appointment, no one wasted any words and they went straight to the point.
"The kidnappers said they wanted to increase the ransom by 20 million. I told them that this amount was too much and that I needed more time to raise the money and buy some time. I also let Guitai answer the phone."
Although they were unable to extract any more useful information, none of the kidnappers' actions escaped the detective's deduction. Therefore, Endo no longer had any doubts about whether Akutagawa Hiko could help him rescue his son.
"What did Keita say?"
"Keita said a lot of nonsensical things back then —"
When he answered the phone, Keita said a lot of things that sounded strange to adults, such as that he saw a lot of crabs there and that he saw a whale spouting water.
Conan listened thoughtfully and analyzed, "Could it be somewhere like an aquarium? Only there can you see crabs and whales spouting water at the same time. It can't be as far away as the seaside, can it?"
Akutagawa Hiko stroked his chin and shook his head in denial: "Didn't the kidnappers say that they warned Keita not to talk nonsense, and that Keita was talking rubbish and talking nonsense? In their view, the information Keita revealed could not possibly have revealed their location."
Well, it's hard for an adult to have the innocent thinking of a child anymore. The days of clipping a ruler to a ballpoint pen to simulate a Thunder Fighter are gone forever.
Akutagawa sighed: "Children's minds are innocent and active. Perhaps Keita mistook something for a crab and a whale, while the kidnappers thought there were no such things around there, so they said Keita was talking nonsense."
Meeting the hopeful gaze of his father, who was deeply concerned for his son, Akutagawa Hiko stopped being coy: "Mr. Endo, do you remember the place where we ate yesterday? The kidnappers might have been observing you from there."
Therefore, it can be inferred that the kidnappers had a base at the Starlight Hotel.
"I remember that today's TV stations used whale-shaped airships for advertising. This whale doesn't spout water, so what Keita saw was probably not real water spouting, but rather smoke coming from the chimney that just happened to overlap with the airship."
Akutagawa Hiko called the television station directly and learned that the airship had flown directly above Beika Park at the exact time the kidnappers called.
Take out the map. There's only one chimney from a cleaning factory nearby. Connect the two points with a straight line, and the line extending outwards leads directly to the Starlight Hotel.
"If that's the case, then I roughly know what a crab is. Do you remember the tables and chairs placed downstairs in the restaurant? If you look down from above, they look exactly like crab plush toys."
Endo, as if grasping at a lifeline, stared intently at the Starlight Hotel circled on the map, repeatedly saying, "That's it, that's it! There's no mistake! We have to rescue Keita!"
"Ah Yan still has a childlike heart, doesn't he?
Conan scratched his head and sighed silently to himself.
If we consider their actual ages, Akutagawa Hiko is three years older than him, but as a minor, he didn't immediately connect these things; it was Hangzhe, the adult, who thought of it first.
He could let other cases slide, but he should have had the upper hand in today's kidnapping case, yet he still lost so badly. It shouldn't be like this.
"Although I'm quite confident in my deductions, to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, I'll need you to continue dealing with the kidnappers. I'll go to the Starlight Hotel to investigate."
Time was of the essence; they needed to snatch Keita back from the kidnappers before Endo "raised the money" and completed the deal with them.
"We'll take this photo."
When Akutagawa placed Conan on the back seat, he saw that Conan had already put on his helmet, so he grinned and said, "Conan, get ready and hold on tight. If necessary, use your chakra to press your butt against the seat."
"Wh-what?!"
Before he could finish speaking, with a roar, the motorcycle shot off like an arrow. If Akutagawa Hiko hadn't been there to block him, he would have been hit by a mouthful of wind.
Next, Conan fully experienced what it means that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
They didn't use any plugins, yet no obstacle could stop them; they leaped over low obstacles and scaled towering ones.
For Akutagawa Hiko now, even if it really is 90 degrees, it is a slope, not a wall.
Conan dared not relax for a moment. Even with his current physical abilities, being thrown off a motorcycle at this speed would at least leave him badly injured.
Such radical actions are bound to attract the attention of others.
However, it doesn't matter; a wide-ranging mental suggestion is enough to make them ignore all the abnormalities.
As for the small group of people with exceptionally strong mental strength who are unaffected, even if they knew, it wouldn't cause them any trouble.
On the contrary, it is still advantageous for him to filter out such a small group of people.