Work Text:
Kunikida and Fukuzawa sat at the conference table, listening as the Chief of Security for one of Japan’s largest tech firms explained his problem.
“It’s happened too many times now to be coincidence,” Hattori said. “For the last year and a half, every new feature we’ve set for expedited development has been leaked. Not full-on industrial espionage; they’re not handing code over to our competitors or anything. But when our competitors know what we’re working on, they can target the same features too, and we lose the opportunity to gain market share from being the only source for an innovative new tool.”
Kunikida inquired, “Is it safe to assume there’s a limited pool of suspects? Presumably there aren’t that many people involved in making these decisions.”
Hattori shook his head. “Not as limited as you would think. The senior leadership who are making the decisions are a small committee, yes. And since different development teams get assigned to different projects, you would think that they’re out of the running, because you don’t have a single person who’s worked on all the leaked projects. But these leaks aren’t happening the moment a new feature is proposed, they’re happening after it’s prioritized and assigned to a development team. And there are a lot more people than you’d think involved up to that point. It’s not just the eight people on the decision panel and their executive assistants. There are also the members of a team that’s tasked with an initial feasibility study and cost/benefit estimate used in the decision-making process. And while any given proposal is only reviewed by one or two members of that team, intake for that team is via a single application that, by necessity, the whole team has access to. And the team members undoubtedly collaborate, giving another way for the information to be available to people not assigned to a given proposal. And then, once their assessment is done and the panel decides to move forward with an idea, it’s not as if the panel is assigning it directly to a development team; they just prioritize it and hand it off to the actual tech division, and the leadership of that division works together to decide which development team it gets assigned to, so there’s all of them and their executive assistants as well. And it’s possible that the tech team that maintains the intake and workflow applications for the analysis team and the development teams has access to their contents. We’re probably looking at forty or more suspects.”
“I see,” said Kunikida, scribbling away. “What about on the other end?” he asked. “Does your mole appear to be leaking to a specific competitor, or does it vary?”
“Ah,” the security chief said, leaning forward intently. “That’s interesting. The information isn’t making it out to every competitor, but it is showing up at multiple firms, and it’s the same ones every time. I’ve been asking around, and what I’ve heard is that these particular firms all have a standing contract with a high-end information broker. So I suspect the mole is talking to the information broker rather than directly to our competitors.”
Kunikida paused in his note-taking. “I see,” he said again, his deep voice grim.
Kunikida returned to the conference room after escorting Hattori out of the Agency and re-took his seat.
“This is going to be very difficult, President,” he said.
Fukuzawa sat with his hands in his sleeves, unmoved. “We must do our best,” he said.
“Of course we will do our best,” Kunikida said, almost offended. “Nevertheless, we have several significant challenges. Have I your permission to put together a team? If their quarterly development initiatives are being rolled out on Friday, we can expect that the mole will be meeting with Takechi either Friday night or Saturday.”
“By all means, Kunikida,” Fukuzawa said. “I leave this in your hands. Please keep me apprised of developments.” He rose from his seat and swept out of the room.
Kunikida remained seated, his mind racing as he tabulated the skillsets required and the detectives best suited to provide them. After a couple of minutes, he rose from his chair and went to collect his team.
Junichirou, Atsushi, and Kyouka took seats around the conference table as Kunikida slowly circled the room with a wand, sweeping for bugs. Upon finding none, Kunikida sat down at the head of the table.
“I’ll get right to the point,” Kunikida said. “The Agency has been tasked with identifying a mole at a major tech giant who is leaking confidential information. The problem is that the mole is leaking the information to Takechi, the information broker.”
“Oh, no,” Atsushi said apprehensively.
“That’s not good,” Junichirou said, concerned.
“Agreed,” Kunikida said. “We’re expecting the next meeting to occur Friday night or Saturday. Ideally, we will get recorded evidence to prove who is selling industry secrets to Takechi. If we can’t manage that, we need to at least get evidence of who is meeting with him. Even if we can’t prove what they talked about, the mere fact that they met will be sufficient justification for his or her employer to question them and put them under surveillance. But the preferred outcome - getting proof that they’re selling secrets - means that we need to beat Takechi’s security again.”
Kyouka said softly, “But this time, without Dazai and Chuuya’s assistance.”
Kunikida nodded. “It’s even worse; Takechi hired Dazai months ago to improve his security and close the gaps. And it’s not impossible that Takechi will learn that the chief of security met with us today, and will be expecting us. In which case he may hire Dazai to work against us, making our task even more difficult. Setting aside his cunning, No Longer Human could negate our best advantage, Light Snow.”
Kyouka’s brows drew together. “I understand why Junichirou and Atsushi are part of the team,” she said. “But how are my skills pertinent?”
Kunikida spoke carefully. “Well, to begin with, we don’t know where the meeting will be, and we’ll have to tail Takechi’s vehicles - both the one he takes, and the one he sends to pick up his informant. You and I are by far the most skilled drivers at the Agency.”
Kyouka eyed him. “Understood,” she replied.
“Any other questions?” Kunikida asked, looking around the table. When his colleagues shook their heads, he resumed. “Before we begin, a warning: Dazai excels at surveillance. Nothing regarding this mission is to be communicated in writing, or via phone or other electronics, or discussed in your dorms or anywhere else that hasn’t been swept for bugs. Our job is going to be hard enough without handing him information about our tactics.” Kunikida looked around the table, meeting each detective’s eyes in turn, and they nodded their understanding.
“All right, then, let’s discuss our strategy. We’re going to have to be very clever, and very creative. Our plan will need to have enough backups, enough layers, that at some point Dazai will think he has defeated them all while our last one actually sneaks through. Each of you will have a role to play, and this may require some of you to acquire new levels of precision in your control of your abilities.”
Kunikida locked gazes with each of them in turn again, and his voice rang with conviction as he said, “I have faith in you, and am confident that we can do this.”
The other detectives braced in their seats, determined not to let him down. “Right!” they said.
Dazai, freshly scanned, was escorted by Tsuda through Takechi’s home to an interior room with no external walls. Takechi and all his other security personnel were seated around a table. As Tsuda sealed the door behind them, Takechi stood to greet him.
“Thank you for your assistance,” Takechi said, and gestured to the open seat at the foot of the table opposite him. Tsuda took the other empty seat at the table, and he and his colleagues looked attentive.
Takechi said, “Everyone is already apprised of the situation. Dazai, I’ll ask you to lead this planning meeting.”
Dazai spoke seriously. “The Armed Detective Agency is full of very competent, intelligent people with extraordinary special abilities. Our objective is to obtain the information that your informant is offering, without allowing the Agency to breach the security of your meeting to get proof, and also without allowing the Agency to use this meeting - or the travel to or from it - to identify your informant.”
He leaned forward. “There are two main abilities they will leverage against us. Tanizaki Junichirou’s ability Light Snow allows him to create powerful illusions. The potential applications are nearly limitless. He can conceal himself or someone else completely, he could disguise himself as one of us, he could potentially make us think we’re in a different room. His ability doesn’t work on me, and I can dispel it, but they will likely be prepared for my presence and will have a plan to deal with it.”
He continued, “I expect that Light Snow will be the keystone to their plans regarding the meeting itself. However, for the travel to and from the meeting, they will likely be relying on Nakajima Atsushi, whose ability Beast Beneath the Moonlight gives him, among other things, enhanced senses.
“All right, let’s start identifying the ways they could potentially use their abilities against us, and come up with counters.”
The detectives assigned to the industrial espionage mission arrived at the Armed Detective Agency offices late Friday, reaching the office at one p.m.
“If the meeting turns out to be on Saturday instead of Friday night, we’ll all have to pull an all-nighter. In order to be operating at our best, we should sleep late Friday and ensure we’re well-rested,” Kunikida had instructed them during their initial planning meeting.
Upon their arrival Friday, the four detectives met in the small conference room. Kunikida swept it for bugs again, and got straight to the point.
“All right, everyone knows their assignments, correct?” After they each nodded, he began sorting the equipment on the table, pushing each set of kit to the appropriate party. As he did so, he reiterated a few points. “Kyouka, you’re driving Junichirou. Take the Yaris.” He added a keyfob to her kit. “Head out right after this meeting for Takechi’s compound; we don’t know how far ahead of time they’ll leave. You two are following Takechi’s car, not the one he sends for the informant. Takechi will likely go straight to the meeting place, so he should be easier to follow. I’ll drive Atsushi and create as many trackers and bugs as needed. We’ll be right behind you until we get to the stakeout area.”
The group put their earpieces in and filled their pockets. “All right,” Kunikida said. “Let’s go.”
Dazai kissed Chuuya good-bye and bent to stroke the cats. Cloud leaned into him; Storm did not.
“Have a nice evening,” Dazai said. “I’m heading out.”
“Have fun,” Chuuya said wryly, and turned his head back to his laptop, determined to finish his work early so that he could cuddle with the cats until the office closed at five.
Takechi and his men had an early dinner while Dazai simply drank coffee, and then Takechi’s team departed to prepare for the meeting. Around six o’clock, Tsuda returned to the room where Takechi and Dazai were still engrossed in conversation. He bowed his head to Takechi and said, “We’re ready, sir.”
Takechi and Dazai rose and followed Tsuda to the enclosed garage. As Takechi and two of his men entered one car, Dazai stood with a hand on the door and looked across the garage at Tsuda.
“Any last questions?” he asked.
“No,” Tsuda said. “I’m as ready as I can be.”
“Good,” Dazai said, and climbed into Takechi’s car, closing the door behind himself.
Tsuda entered the other car, and the garage doors began to open.
Kunikida’s voice came over the earpiece as the information broker’s cars idled at the front gate, waiting for it to open. “First car is ours, second is yours,” he said.
“Understood,” Kyouka said, and started the ignition.
Kunikida tailed the pickup car at a judicious distance as it moved toward the busier parts of Yokohama. Traffic grew busy, with Friday evening rush hour. Many people had just left work for the weekend, and many others were getting an early start on celebrating.
“This is actually good,” he told Atsushi. “If we and the target keep getting in traffic jams, that’ll make it easier for you to get there on foot without having to run and be conspicuous.”
“Right,” Atsushi said, determined.
“Be ready,” warned Kunikida.
Kyouka followed the main car a little closer than she might have, had Junichirou not been disguising their own car and themselves.
Junichirou looked back and forth between their location and the map on his phone. “If they aren’t trying to shake us, and haven’t set up an entirely new meeting place, then they’re probably having the meeting at site four or site seven,” he said.
Kyouka continued driving.
Dazai had chosen to take the rear-facing seat rather than sitting next to Takechi. He looked out the tinted rear window and smiled.
He took his phone out and texted Chuuya.
I’m going to be late tonight. Don’t forget to feed Cloud and Storm.
On it. Have fun.
Dazai smiled and pocketed his phone.
Chuuya set his phone down on the kitchen counter and verified that Storm and Cloud had finished their dinner. He bent to stroke them, and said, “Papa’s just going to go for a walk and get some fresh air.” He rose from his crouch and walked over to the genkan and put on a hooded jacket, preparing to head out for a boring evening. Dazai gets to have all the fun, he thought.
Kunikida tensed as the car they were following signaled and pulled over to the curb in front of a train station, and did the same. “Now,” he said sharply, and Atsushi slipped out of the car and walked briskly up the street, matching his pace to a group of college students.
As Atsushi, walking at the rear of the clump of chattering youths, approached the vehicle, a small individual clad in loose clothing with a hood drawn low over their face came out of the station and approached the car. Atsushi lagged a bit and then tripped right in front of the hooded person. He looked up from his hands and knees and apologized. Looking hugely embarrassed, he rose, bowing apologetically once more, and backed away quickly, running into the suited figure waiting by the rear door of the car. Atsushi flailed briefly, catching the man’s jacket so that he didn’t fall, and apologized again, face flaming as he scampered away. Kunikida rolled his window down and reached out. With his hand largely concealed by the side mirror, he fired a small air-propelled device and a tracker stuck to the trunk of the vehicle. He rolled the window back up and waited.
As Atsushi worked his way back, Kunikida watched the hooded individual and Takechi’s man approach one another. Takechi’s security wanded the guest and picked a bug off their shoe, tossing it into a nearby trash bin. He wanded the guest again, and then patted them down, and then opened the door of the car to allow them inside.
As Atsushi climbed back into the car, still red and genuinely embarrassed, Kunikida’s eyebrows rose as Takechi’s security guard wanded himself, removing the bug Atsushi had placed in his coat pocket and discarding it as he’d done the other. The security guard wanded himself once more and checked his pockets, and then joined the informant in the back of the car.
As the target pulled away from the curb, Kunikida said, “Good job. They caught your bugs and that distracted them so they missed my tracker. Were you able to see their face?”
“No,” Atsushi said regretfully. “They had something inside their hood. But I got their scent, and I’ll be able to pick them out of a lineup. I’m pretty sure it was a woman.”
“Very good job,” Kunikida said. The target car was out of sight, and Kunikida pulled up the tracker on his phone’s GPS and pulled away from the curb.
Dazai received a text from Tsuda.
2/0 1/1 0
Takechi watched as Dazai smiled. “Good news?”
Dazai’s smile grew wry. “Just news. So far everything is as expected. They tried to bug your guest and Tsuda. He cleared the bugs. They put a tracker on the car and he left it. They’re currently staying back out of sight and are relying on the tracker.”
“Hm,” Takechi said.
“Almost there,” the driver said.
Dazai’s smile widened.
Chuuya found himself in front of one of Soukoku’s old safe houses. He smiled inside his hood, remembering the last time they’d stayed there, and made his way inside.
“Definitely site 4,” Junichirou said to Kyouka.
“Understood,” she replied. “Please notify the other team.” She turned off onto a side street, abandoning the tail, and Junichirou passed the information along, grabbing the oh-shit bar and hanging on for dear life as Kyouka raced to beat Takechi’s car to site 4. She parked the car around the corner from the front door.
She and Junichirou checked their kit once more, and then Junichirou changed their personal appearances once more and they exited the vehicle, locking it behind them, and ran for the fire stairs.
“Four,” came Junichirou’s voice over the team’s earpieces.
Kunikida dropped back behind another vehicle and quickly slung the car around a corner. He floored the pedal and took a different route, which was only a shortcut due to the breakneck speed at which he drove.
Junichirou pointed to a door. “Wait here,” he said, and Kyouka vanished into the room, locking the door behind her. Junichirou raced to the next room. He quickly planted a bug inside an air vent, one atop the door casing, and after quickly removing a pair of screws, concealed one behind the light switch plate. Rendering himself invisible, he quickly exited the room and concealed himself in the room on the opposite side from Kyouka’s hiding place, closing the door just as the elevator dinged.
Takechi’s driver let the group off at the curb. Dazai, Takechi, and the two security specialists in their car exited with their equipment and entered the building. They rode up an elevator in silence, and passed through a series of corridors until they reached their destination.
One of the security specialists began to open his briefcase, and Dazai said sharply, “Not yet. Inside.”
The man nodded and walked into the room. Dazai followed, and turned back to the second security guard. “Stand in the doorway,” he ordered. He examined the man’s stance. “Feet in a little bit,” he said, and watched the man adjust. “Good. Hands on your hips, elbows touching the doorframe,” he said, and the man assumed the position without complaint. “Good,” Dazai said, satisfied. “No gaps large enough for a small invisible person to crawl through. Hold that position, please.”
He turned back to the first security guard and said, “Go ahead.”
Junichirou heard Dazai’s voice enter the room next door. He activated Light Snow, ensuring the security guard in the doorway and Takechi would see nothing. Illusion in place, he opened his door and stepped out, listening carefully as Dazai positioned the security guard. The moment he heard Dazai turn and say, “Go ahead,” he stretched the endoscope Kunikida had provided to the very corner of the doorway, above the security guard’s head. Watching the feed on his screen, he held his initial illusion and simultaneously cast an illusion on the readout on the scanner inside the room, ensuring that when it scanned the bugs, it would still appear to read as clean.
Inside the room, Takechi’s security expert opened his briefcase and removed some electronic equipment, and prepared to begin sweeping for surveillance devices.
“I apologize,” Dazai said. “This may be uncomfortable and inconvenient, but it’s necessary.” He reached out and wrapped his hand around the back of the guard’s neck. “Don’t walk too fast; if I lose contact with you, you won’t be able to trust the readings on your device.”
“Understood,” the man said, careful not to nod and risk breaking contact. “Let me know if you need me to slow down or redo a section.”
“I will,” Dazai said. “Proceed.”
Junichirou’s face set as the scanner caught and removed the bug over the doorframe, and then the one in the light switch plate, and then the one in the air vent. He moved forward, careful to stay out of Dazai's line of sight, and placed one last bug on Takechi himself, and then retreated to his room and closed the door. He whispered into his earpiece, “Room cleared.”
Kunikida and Atsushi waited, concealed in an alley outside the building.
“Room cleared,” Junichirou’s voice came softly over the earpieces.
Kunikida turned to Atsushi. “You’ve already been seen. I’ll have to take this one.” He removed his vest and string tie, his glasses, and his hair tie, and handed them all to Atsushi. He rolled up his sleeves, undid a shirt button, and mussed his hair till it looked long and wild, hanging over one eye.
Atsushi kept watch around the corner as Kunikida activated his ability and quickly produced several more bugs from his notebook.
As the last bug inside the meeting room was destroyed, Dazai surveyed the room again. “All the walls specially soundproofed? No other doors and no windows,” he said. “Just that vent?”
“Yes,” the security expert said.
“And now that it’s been cleared, how do you keep them from sending a new bug into it, by wire or drone?” Dazai asked.
“There’s a sensor device just this side of the last bend that will notify us if anything electronic passes it,” Takechi’s man reported. “And the next room is on the same duct system, but not the same outlet port, so a drone couldn’t go from that vent to this one without passing through the sensor.”
“Very well,” Dazai said.
He tapped the shoulder of the security guard in the doorway, and the man stepped clear. Dazai waved the other specialist through and then followed, pulling the door closed behind him.
Dazai’s phone dinged, and he checked it. There was a text from an unknown number that consisted entirely of a thumbs-up emoji. He pocketed his phone and looked up to see that the security specialist was just finishing wanding Takechi.
Dazai frowned just as the man said, “Clear,” and he himself said sharply, “Wait.” Advancing, he wrapped his hand around the back of the specialist’s neck, and said, “Again.”
Junichirou, watching via the endoscope sticking out of the crack below his door, watched as the security specialist wanded Takechi while Dazai’s back was turned. He ensured that the man didn’t see the light turn red when it passed over the bug, and his heart began racing. Could we have gotten so lucky? he wondered.
Dazai looked up and said sharply, “Wait,” and Junichirou nearly swore. Dazai made the specialist repeat the wanding while he kept physical contact, and the man located the bug this time. “Target cleared,” he murmured into his earpiece.
Chuuya stepped back out of the safe house, locking it, and checked his watch. He removed the SIM card from his burner phone, crushed it to destroy it, and threw the remains of the SIM card in the trash. He strode briskly one block to the station and caught a train across town.
“Target cleared,” Kunikida heard over his earpiece. Atsushi, still peering around the corner of the building, turned and said urgently, “They’re here.”
Kunikida moved forward to the corner of the building and looked. As the car containing the informant pulled over to the curb, he stepped out of the alley, adopting an arrogant, slow strut, doing his best to look like a delinquent. He timed his approach perfectly, passing by without any blatant, clumsy collisions, and the hooded figure and Takechi’s security guard passed into the building without incident.
As Kunikida looped around the building to rejoin Atsushi, he murmured, “One each.”
“One each,” came Kunikida’s voice in Junichirou’s ear. Junichirou had little to no hope that the bugs Kunikida had planted would go unnoticed, not with Dazai there, but he continued watching the feed from the endoscope. As two figures approached from the elevator, Junichirou murmured, “Stage.”
In the room next to Takechi’s, Kyouka called Demon Snow. She directed her ability to phase through the wall into the ductwork, and once Demon Snow was inside, Kyouka reached up and poked a small bag through the louvres of the vent. Demon Snow accepted it, holding it in her outstretched palms. “Wait,” Kyouka ordered, and Demon Snow obeyed.
Junichirou watched as Takechi’s security, with Dazai’s hand on his neck, scanned the two late arrivals and removed the bugs. “Both cleared,” he murmured into the earpiece. One of Takechi’s men knocked on the door and reached for the handle. Dazai stood alertly, his back to the hooded figure and door, scanning to make sure nobody would be able to toss another bug into the room when the door opened. As the handle turned, Junichirou whispered, “Go!”
Kyouka, still locked eye to eye with Demon Snow, instantly said, “Go.” Demon Snow flew through the ducts, her immaterial form invisible to the sensor, and the small bag did its job, preventing the sensor from registering the bug inside as it passed. Once Demon Snow made it to the end, past the sensor, she removed the bug from the Faraday cage and placed it silently next to the louvres of the vent. She left the bag nearby, and then phased back through the wall to Kyouka. “Done,” Kyouka said into the earpiece, and dismissed Demon Snow.
Kunikida and Atsushi, back in the car, bent their heads together as they listened to the feed. They heard the sound of a door closing, and then footsteps.
Atsushi whispered in disbelief, “Did we really beat them?” and Kunikida shushed him.
Takechi’s voice came over the feed. “Kouko, my dear, you look well. Please, sit down.”
All the detectives froze. Kouko? Wasn’t that-
“You look well, too, Father,” came a melodious voice.
“Damn,” Kunikida said. He touched the earpiece. “Might have to reset, looks like this is the wrong meeting.”
Junichirou’s voice came over the earpiece as Takechi and his daughter spoke of her recent activities. “New arrival, hooded, elevator.”
The group waited, breathless, and Junichirou said, “They’re being scanned.” Another minute later, he said, “Going in with Dazai.”
Kunikida, his glasses back on, murmured to Atsushi, “If this is the real informant, you’ll need to do another intercept afterward to get their scent.”
There was a brief sound of the door opening and closing, and footsteps.
Dazai’s voice said, “Your information has arrived.”
There was a rustling, and then Kouko’s voice exclaimed, “Kousei!”
Kunikida’s stomach lurched. “No,” he breathed.
Atsushi gulped, and then all doubts were put to bed as Chuuya’s voice came over the feed.
“I met with your informant. I have the details, and I let them know that they’ve been compromised and that you’re having to cut ties with them for their safety.”
“Thank you,” came Takechi’s voice. “Please proceed.”
Kunikida swore as Chuuya began calmly reciting the expedited development initiatives for the next quarter. He continued recording the feed, but spoke into his earpiece. “Junichirou, collect Kyouka while Dazai’s out of sight and clear out. We’ll meet up back at the Agency.”
Less than half an hour later, Kunikida and Atsushi walked into the bullpen, where Kyouka and Junichirou were already seated at their desks. The lights were still off in the rest of the Agency offices. Kunikida dropped a bag of takeout on Dazai’s old desk. He opened it and began handing out food, then took his own and sat at his desk.
“You all did an amazing job,” Kunikida said heavily. “The fact that we got a scent and actually managed to bug the meeting is an impressive achievement. Even if Dazai anticipated the worst and arranged for the meeting to be a decoy, you still beat Takechi’s security.”
His colleagues seemed to take no consolation from his words.
“But we failed,” Atsushi said. “We didn’t get proof, and we can’t even identify the mole.”
“But we do know that the mole won’t be leaking any more information to Takechi,” Junichirou pointed out. “That’s worth something, surely? I mean, even if the mole doesn’t get punished, the leak has been plugged.”
Kunikida frowned somberly. “It’s worth something, but not as much as you might think,” he said. “Takechi may be dropping the informant, but there’s nothing stopping the informant from approaching a competitor directly.”
Everyone’s shoulders hunched. Atsushi picked at his food. Everyone else moved theirs around and merely contemplated eating.
“Damn it,” Kunikida said eventually with quiet frustration. “Dazai beat us. I never considered the possibility that he’d risk having the meeting with less security rather than more. I just assumed that where the fanatical security was, the informant would be.”
There was silence again as they picked at their food.
Kunikida muttered to himself some more. “At bare minimum, we needed to be able to tell them who the mole is, so they can make sure they don’t approach a new buyer.”
“So why don’t you tell them, then?” came Ranpo’s brash voice from the door.
Everyone turned, surprised.
“Ranpo, why are you here at this hour?” asked Kunikida.
“We went out to dinner, and were on our way home when I saw the light in the window. I knew that meant that your mission was over,” Ranpo said simply.
The group looked over Ranpo’s shoulder, and sure enough, Poe was just peeking around the doorjamb.
Curiosity assuaged, Kunikida answered Ranpo’s question. “We can’t tell them who the mole is because we don’t know. We fell for a bait-and-switch, and the actual meeting happened elsewhere,” he said grimly.
Ranpo complained, “That only explains why you don’t have proof of what they discussed. It’s not like you don’t know who the mole is.”
Kunikida ground his teeth. “Yes, actually, Ranpo, it is like we don’t know who the mole is. As I said, we didn’t catch them.”
“You didn’t catch them this time,” Ranpo corrected. “But they’ve been doing this for a year or two, and they didn’t have Dazai covering their tracks till now. You’re detectives, aren’t you?”
Kunikida straightened, and the other detectives perked up as well. Yes, they had gotten so caught up in the preferred result - proof of who said what to Takechi - that they had forgotten that there were other successful, if less optimal, outcomes.
“That’s right,” he said, pushing aside his uneaten dinner and reaching for his computer. “We can still investigate the forty or so suspects. We can divvy up the suspect pool; it may take all weekend-”
Junichirou suggested tentatively, “Or we could just ask Ranpo?”
All eyes swiveled to Ranpo, who looked smug.
Kunikida made a lightning calculation, and decided he didn’t want to do the whole dance of trying to wheedle Ranpo into helping. He cut straight to the chase. “If you tell us who the mole is right now, I will take you to Motomachi Street as soon as the shops open in the morning and buy you ¥10,000 worth of sweets of your choice from the confectioners there.” He swung his laptop around to present the list of employees provided by Hattori.
Ranpo whipped out his glasses. “The stores are open till nine tonight,” he said. “We can go right now.” He slid the glasses onto his face, and as Poe looked awed in the background, Ranpo’s expression grew intense.
He scrolled down through the list and stopped on an employee profile. “This one,” he said, his fingertip landing on an innocuous face.
Kunikida quickly noted down the identity of the informant. Rising, he slipped his keys and phone into his pocket.
“All right, everyone out,” he said. “I have- let’s see, forty minutes to get Ranpo his sweets, and I need to lock up. I may call some of you in tomorrow to help investigate the informant and find evidence related to previous instances. For now, go get some sleep.”
They hastily cleared out.
All right, Kunikida thought eagerly. We’ve got him!
Dazai and Chuuya entered their apartment, closing and locking the door. They removed their shoes and went to look for Storm and Cloud, and eventually found them entwined on the loveseat in the study.
“Aww,” Chuuya said for approximately the hundredth time since they’d brought the cats home. He wrapped an arm around Dazai’s waist and leaned his head on his husband’s shoulder.
“You did well tonight,” Dazai said. “Although that’s a trick we can only pull once. They won’t ever fall for it again.”
“Not much to do well on. You got all the exciting stuff, I just went and talked to somebody,” Chuuya disagreed, leading Dazai away from the napping cats. “Do you think they figured out who it was?”
“They were all at the decoy meeting, so I’d say no,” Dazai replied. “But Ranpo will tell them soon enough. They’ll try to find evidence from previous handoffs, and will almost certainly succeed.”
“Fuck, so we failed after all that?” Chuuya demanded with a scowl, stopping abruptly. “They beat us?!? How the fuck am I supposed to hold my head up next time we have them over for dinner?”
“No,” Dazai assured him. “Just because they achieved their objective doesn’t mean we failed ours. We weren’t hired to keep them from identifying the informant, per se.”
Chuuya raised a skeptical eyebrow. “We weren’t?”
Dazai smiled conspiratorially. “No, actually, we weren’t.” He tightened his arm around Chuuya, ushering him back into motion. “Nightcap, or soak?”
“Hmm, snack,” Chuuya replied. “Cheese and crackers, and maybe fruit and a small glass of wine. And we’ll decide about the soak later.”
Dazai removed his arm from Chuuya’s waist at the door and allowed the redhead to precede him into the kitchen. “Sounds good,” he said.
Two Days Earlier:
Dazai sealed the door to the soundproofed computer/surveillance room and said, “Thank you for waiting. You can speak freely now.”
Takechi’s businesslike voice came over the earpiece. “Dazai, thank you for taking my call. I have a situation that requires… rather more security than usual, and am hoping to hire you for the job.”
Dazai’s eyebrow rose. “More security than you normally have?” he asked, surprised.
“I’m afraid so,” Takechi said. “I have had an informant at a major tech giant for several years. The informant has some valuable information for me, and I am scheduled to meet with them Friday night. Unfortunately, I have learned that the security chief at the corporation in question has figured out that they have a mole, and he has hired the Armed Detective Agency to find out who my informant is.”
Dazai’s face was grim as he waited for Takechi to finish.
“I feel reasonably confident that we can keep the Armed Detective Agency out of the meeting this time, but I don’t know how to ensure that the Agency doesn’t simply follow my informant after the meeting and learn their identity. Can you help us with post-meeting security?”
Dazai spoke regretfully. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it’s already too late. When the Armed Detective Agency was hired the first time, the job was to get proof that the minister was selling secrets, so it was necessary to breach your security to obtain that proof. If the objective this time is just to identify the mole, the Agency can accomplish that with ordinary detective work. They don’t need to breach your security for a future meeting, or even a past one. I can promise you that Edogawa Ranpo will deduce your informant’s identity, whether there’s another meeting or not.”
Takechi sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of.” His voice strengthened. “Very well, then, I suppose this will have to be my final interview with my informant. Do you think that it would be possible to at least ensure that the Agency doesn’t obtain actual proof or unmask my informant due to any faults in my security procedures for this meeting?”
“Yes, I think I can arrange that, especially if the Agency is actually trying to infiltrate the meeting to obtain proof,” Dazai said. “We should be able to secure the upcoming meeting. As long as you understand that doing so won’t save your informant from an investigation of their past activities.”
“Then that will have to be our objective,” Takechi said.
“Then I would like to meet with you and your security personnel first thing tomorrow morning,” Dazai said.
“I’ll send a car,” Takechi promised.
Dazai ended the call. His eyes narrowed in thought, and then a slow smile broke over his face. He made his way jauntily back from the computer/surveillance room to their joint office. As he opened the door, he caroled, “Oh, Chuuya~”