To understand this fanfiction it would help to read "Midnight Meeting" as this is the sequel. However you don't have to.
Summary: After the events at Tokyo Tower Hakuba knows that he, Kaito and Aoko aren't safe and the only leads they have to the Black Organisation they have are APTX 4869 and "Sherry". To find out more they team up with Conan Edogawa to bring the Black Organisation down. Sequel to Midnight Meeting.
Secrets and lies: Chapter 1
That night Hakuba found himself unable to sleep. His mind kept whirring away deducting and worrying. When this criminal organisation found out what happened at Tokyo Tower they would investigate and found out about Aoko and his involvement they were bound to thoroughly examine the statements that had given to the police about a criminal gang taking Aoko hostage and shooting at Kid. He wouldn't be safe anymore and neither was Aoko.
He felt responsible for Aoko as she was his classmate and he worked alongside her father who had made him promise to keep her safe anyway. He quite liked Kaito Kuroba now that he had finally confessed about being Kaito Kid and he obviously wasn't doing his night job for profit of any kind. Judging by the way that the mysterious organisation had found out that Aoko had a romantic relationship with Kaito Kid they must have an efficient intelligence service so his movements would have to be careful from now on.
He sighed and rolled over in his bed and closed his eyes. He would think about it in the morning when he saw Kaito and Aoko to discuss what they were going to do. Hakuba wished he had bought his hawk Watson with him to Japan as he wouldn't have minded someone to talk to. His father was never at home and they didn't talk much anyway.
Chikage Kuroba closed the door behind a red-eyed Hakuba and smiled at him knowingly.
"They're in the front room," she informed him, pointing.
Hakuba thanked her and looked at his pocket watch. It was 1 minute and 0.012 seconds after 11 o'clock in the morning. He had arranged to meet Kaito and Aoko at Kaito's house sometime in the morning. He had guessed deduced that Kaito wasn't the type of person that got up early in the morning so he had estimated that at 11 o'clock he should be sufficiently awake to plan. He heard Kaito's mother footsteps return to another room on the other side of the house and judged that she wasn't the type of person to listen in.
He entered the room that she had pointed out and found Kaito and Aoko curled up on the sofa next to each other. They were both reading different Arsène Lupin novels which didn't surprise him one bit. On the wall there was a lifesize portrait of Toichi Kuroba. He absorbed all the details of their appearances and clothing and came to an immediate conclusion about what they had been doing.
"Holmes is superior to Lupin," was Hakuba's only comment as he sat down in the armchair opposite with his posture perfectly straight. "Aoko-san by any chance did you spend the night here?"
"H-how did you know that?" spluttered a very red-faced Aoko. "My father said that since my address was known I had better stay somewhere else and he called up Kaito's Mum."
Hakuba decided to keep it brief and not go into detail about everything that he could deduce about what happened the previous night between the two. "Your hair is wet and you are close to the end of the book you are reading. So you've clearly been here for a while and you are wearing the same skirt you were wearing yesterday, but you are wearing one of Kuroba's shirts. It's obvious."
"Very well deduced Holmes," Kaito congratulated sarcastically making sure he had his poker face on to hide his embarrassment at getting caught out. "We're over 16. Can we get to the important business please?"
"Snake's body disappeared on the way to the mortuary; the driver was drugged and replaced. All the members that were captured committed suicide by using a poison capsule concealed in their mouth whilst in police custody. So we can't get any leads from them."
Kaito nodded. "That makes sense. They haven't got where they are by making careless mistakes. They're careful so we have to be even more careful."
"Does that mean that we are all in danger?" Aoko asked worriedly.
Hakuba and Kaito exchanged looks. Hakuba made a hand gesture to Kaito indicate that they shouldn't tell her everything so she wouldn't have to worry too much about her safety. Kaito shook his head at him to indicate the opposite. He knew Aoko wouldn't want a softened version; she would demand the whole truth with a mop for a weapon if it came to that.
"Aoko," he said taking her hand. "You might have to stay with me for a while. It's dangerous for you to be in your house alone. I'll look after you and so will my mother. It's to protect you and your father."
Hakuba broke in, "I can't really find a believable pretext for you to have Police guards without having to explain everything to the Police. The current story was that all the members were at Tokyo Tower last night."
"That's the trouble with lying, you have to make sacrifices with the truth. I think to minimise risks we have to get in contact with Conan Edogawa as soon as possible without leading Them to him."
"Yes, we should take trip to Beika, loose any tails we have and pay a visit to the Mori Detective Agency."
"I'm coming," Aoko volunteered interrupting the conversation, knowing that she would be left behind if she did not voice her allegiance. "You were planning to leave me out, weren't you?"
"Yes, we were but-"
"Here comes the but."
"But, we it will look unprofessional if we take a female along with us," Hakuba said the first plausible explanation that came into his head. He knew she would protest if they told her it was for her own safety.
"That's wrong," Kaito interjected. "Tantei-kun is almost always with that girl when I see him. Aoko, we'll just have to disguise you. I've got plenty of female disguises. You can be an old lady, a businesswoman or a maid. Anything is possible with my disguises!"
"I always knew you secretly cross-dressed, Kaito."
"Do you want to come with is or not?"
"Conan-kun, there's some visitors for you," Ran poked her head through the doorway of the bedroom that the boy in question shared with her father to see him working on his homework. She could have sworn that he had been reading a book with a complicated name on the front just before she spoke, but she put it out of her mind. He couldn't read complicated words like that.
Conan looked up without much enthusiasm. "Genta and the others? I'll be along in a few minutes."
Ran shook her head. "No it's three people that I that I don't recognise."
Conan's interest was piqued. "I'm coming now," he said surreptitiously kicking the fascinating forensic science book that he had been reading under the bed and bounded down the stairs to the detective office.
He came face to face with three people of varying ages that he had never seen before in his life. One was your average salary man with black hair and suit and a forgettable face, one was a young women in a low cut top, short skirt and black stilettos and the third was a dark haired teenager dressed in tight purple skinny jeans and red converse. He didn't know what to think so he absorbed every detail their appearances.
Conan sat guardedly down on the sofa opposite the with his stun gun wristwatch open behind his back and the other was primed to activate his belt even though he was wearing slippers instead of his trainers. He couldn't afford any mistakes. They were obviously not his parents. The woman could be Vermouth in disguise; she liked her high heeled shoes and the men could be Gin and Vodka. Kogoro Mori was snoring blissfully with his head slumped on his desk behind a mountain of beer cans so he couldn't rely on any help from that quarter.
"Good afternoon," Conan greeted, having no idea how the conversation was going to go.
"Hello," the woman said.
There was an awkward silence. They all stared at each other not knowing what to say. The teenager nudged the woman who in turn punched the man who winced.
"You explain it; you know the most of out of us."
The man cleared his throat, looked around to make sure there was no one else around and spoke in Kaito's Kid's voice. "So Tantei-kun, what do you know about APTX 4869."
Conan jumped in his seat, unable to control his surprise at hearing Kid's voice. Then his brain processed what he had just said. Did Kid know who he was? He had always thought that he treated him differently like he was an adult, or maybe that was how he worked; he respected his opponents and didn't make assumptions.
"Kid? How-What do you know about it then? You can take your disguise off if you like." He pointed over at Kogoro Mori. "You'd better knock him out first though. He has a tendency to suddenly wake himself up with his own snoring. Ran-neechan is upstairs so you don't have to worry about her."
"I didn't bring my full paraphernalia so it will have to be the taser or the syringe," Kaito answered digging through his pockets.
"Syringe is fine," Conan said hastily. It was less painful and obvious than a taser. Truth be told he believed that he Kogoro Mori was beginning to suspect that he didn't solve his own cases and that his house guest had something to do with it so he didn't want to give him any evidence that something was going on behind his back.
Kaito sterilised part of Mori's arm with a wipe and injected the contents of the syringe he had found in his pocket. "He should be out for about three hours if I have used the right syringe," he announced pulling off his mask and wig once he had sat back down.
The black haired lady did the same and now she resembled Ran in face and hair. She had bags under her eyes and her eyes were slightly red. She smiled at him.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Aoko Nakamori. You're cuter than I expected by the way."
Conan grimaced slightly. "Any relation to Inspector Nakamori? I suppose you are if Kid is here."
She nodded. "He's my father. The sulky teenager next to me is Saguru Hakuba in heavy disguise. I believe you two have met."
Conan eyed up the denim clad legs and the converse and tried to match it with the prim suit wearing blonde detective he had met twice. No, he couldn't see it.
Hakuba guessed what he was thinking. "I got forced into this outfit; he thought it would be funny to put me in the tightest pair of skinny jeans he could find. I'm only keeping these uncomfortable jeans on because it is a good disguise."
"At least he didn't force you into and really low cut top and a really short, tight skirt," Aoko retorted.
Conan thought it would be a good idea to interrupt before it got out of hand. At least he knew they were definitely teenagers now and not members of the Black Organisation now,
"How do you know about APTX?"Conan asked again wondering why they all had gone to such trouble to disguise themselves, it would have been sufficient for only Kid to disguise himself. Whatever the reason it probably wasn't pleasant.
"Actually we don't know much. That's why we came to you. Judging by your reaction you know more than us."
Hakuba proceeded to explain the events of the night before and included all the details about Snake, Pandora and Sherry. The Police were keeping as much out of the papers as possible as Hakuba had requested to maintain secrecy.
"It all makes sense now," Conan said. "You're only here because I'm your only lead to Sherry. I can only tell you what you need to know for now. I'll need to get permission for the rest."
Hakuba drew the case of APTX 4869 out of his pocket slowly and carefully watched Conan's reaction. His eyes were fixed on it and at the same time he seemed a little angry or scared as his fists were clenched and his knuckles were white.
"Does it contain pills?"
"You can open it yourself if you like."
He took the case from Hakuba and opened it gingerly as if he were afraid it was going to break. He picked out one of the tiny pills and stared at it for a while with a blank face. He was good at hiding his emotions now. He needed to hide his excitement.
"Can I keep one of these," he requested, longing to run over to Hakase's house and give it to Haibara. If she had the exact poison she should find it easier to make an antidote.
"On the condition you tell us what it is," Hakuba replied narrowing his eyes to watch Conan's eyes carefully to see if he was lying.
Conan took a deep breath and decided on what he should say.