A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.

Sweat was slipping down Shinichi's face as he walked carefully through the door held open by the girl which led onto the roof. He was desperately trying not to tilt the bomb in any way as he placed it near the water tower, stepping back from it with a sigh of relief. He looked at the girl who was sat back on her haunches, regarding the bomb.

"You say that you know what kind of bomb it is." she stated carefully.

"Yep." Much to Shinichi's dread, he did. Images of that cramped elevator came to mind. "It's a mercury lever. Tilt it too much, we go boom."

It was by luck that they'd discovered the dumb waiter which they'd used to get the bomb to the top floor, he'd carried it the rest of the way. It didn't seem to have had the strong jolt that primed the lever system so, for now, they were safe from that.

He looked at the bug he'd pinned to his trousers. They'd realised that the bomber would be listening to every word they said, so, while putting on a show for the bug, they'd been exchanging notes and reasoned that they had an idea for the actual code. They actually had a few.

They disregarded the bombers words over the PA, figuring that he didn't really want them to diffuse the bomb, so he'd mislead them with other clues. True to an extent, but part of him felt(something which would soon be realised) that they were giving the bomber too much credit.

They decided to look at time, place and other things relative to the bomb.

Shinichi crouched and put his fingers to the dial. 0-3-1-2, 1-2-0-3. Floor and number of bombs. No luck

2-3-0-3, 0-3-2-3, building number and floor number. No Joy.

The girl, without pausing in her rambling, scribbled something down in her pad and slid it towards him.

Today is a very important day.

It hit him. Possibly, the date. 6-2-1-0. With a click, the bomb casing slid open.

Shinichi punched the air as a grin stretched over the girls face. A grin she tried to keep out of her voice as she continued to elucidate combinations from Evanescense's 'My Immortal.' Shinichi imputted with hmm's and small comments as he bent over the bomb, relieved to recognise the criss cross of wires. The only real differance was the lack of an LCD screen to disconnect, bearing last second information which you get blown up for. It made him wonder if the bomber had access to the Touto Tower incident.

If so, why weren't teh other bombs like this. Oh. They could contact the police in the origional scenario, the links to the Tower case wold be all too obvious for the police to piece together, risking the bomber. However, they weren't supposed to live through this situation to tell the police. Filing this deduction away for later, he focused on teh bomb before him.

Shinchi took a deep breath, trying to push away the niggling symptoms associated with fever and, for him, shrinking. He looked out at the rooves of teh surrounding buildings. They'd risked bringing the bomb up to the roof, with the small hope that the explosion, should it occur, would be less devastating for the surrounding buildings and their inhabitants.

If push came to shove, they could drop it into the water tower. However, if the bomb was big enough to do the damage depicted by the bomber, their efforts would doubtless be futile.

A note was pushed into his face.

You're hands are shaking, let me defuse the bomb, write me what to do.

Shinichi looked at the girl who was still verbally listing off combinations as she held his gaze.

His hands, he realised, were shaking uncontrollably, side effects of the antidote wearing off. Was this how Takagi had felt? Left with letting a kid defuse such a momumental bomb? He nodded, moving aside

She took his place, flicking the knife that she still had with her, looking at him for instructions.

"Give me a minute to think," he said outloud, the girl lapsed into complying silence.

After a moment, he began writing.

A/N This is my final posting before Christmas, thought I'd get one off before going to the Midnight Service. Never been to one before. Lots of singing apparently, sounds like fun. Merry Christmas.