Kid was airborne a few kilometers from the warehouse when his cell phone rang. "Hello?" he answered, fumbling with it.
There was a burst of static. "Hey, Kaito!"
"Michael? How'd you get a phone?" Kid squinted up ahead towards the warehouse complex. "Look, I'm about to be very busy--"
"I know," Michael answered. "Just do me a favor. Don't show up as Kaitou Kid if you can at all help it."
"Eh?"
"I have every reason to believe they know who you are."
--
The guard scanned the interior of the warehouse again. "Area zero. All clear," he said into his radio.
"Area zero clear, roger," Vodka repeated from Gin's car.
Gin took the microphone. "All units, remember to shoot to kill. Repeat, shoot to kill. This thief must not escape."
"Roger," came a chorus of voices.
"S-5 reporting a bogey at 6 o'clock," a voice crackled through. "Out of range and dropping rapidly. I can't get a clear reading on it."
"Bogey at six o'clock from S-5," Vodka scanned the map on Gin's laptop. "Approximate course?"
"Erratic. Now it's gone."
"Roger that," Vodka said. "Ground units, mobilize. Form a lineup between S-5 and area zero." He examined the screen, where the gunmen were displayed as blinking dots, spreading out to cover the possible paths to the central warehouse.
--
Michael paced his cell, bored. He'd have been inclined to go exploring except that he didn't know when someone would decide to make sure he was still in his room where he was supposed to be. And he didn't particularly want to let on to his captors that he could get out whenever he wanted.
Then he heard the lock beep, and in a flash, he was Kaitou Carmen again.
The door clicked open, admitting Stingray and the guard. "It looks like he's almost there," Stingray sneered. "You better hope he survives."
"We'll see," Carmen said calmly. The guard glanced at her; Carmen shivered. There was something wrong. Something... Her poker face clicked on almost automatically. So, that was it... "Stingray-san?"
Stingray looked at her oddly. "What?"
"Did you know that there's a spy among your goons?"
Stingray looked completely taken aback. She, evidently, was unfamiliar with the concept of a poker face. "What are you talking about?"
"I suspect," Carmen said calmly, "that the owner of those documents is waiting for our favorite thief with open arms."
Stingray glared at Carmen. "All right then, if you're so smart, who is this spy?"
The guard's eyes narrowed as they met Carmen's gaze. There was a pause, then the guard nodded soberly. "The girl's right, ma'am," he said.
Stingray glanced at him sharply, already suspecting the truth. The guard reached up and calmly peeled off his mask.
"And she's right here," finished the silvery-haired disguise expert.
Carmen scowled behind her poker face. Vermouth, of course.
Vermouth held her weapon on Stingray. "Unfortunately, I can't stay here any longer," she said. "So I'll be taking the girl and leaving."
Carmen nearly let her mask slip. /What!?/
Vermouth punched in the combination without looking. The door clicked open, and she seized one of Carmen's arms, never taking the gun off Stingray as the door swung shut. She quickly reset the code from the outside and hurried down the corridor to the roof. There was a helicopter waiting, and Vermouth lifted Carmen bodily into the copilot's seat, where she could easily keep an eye on her.
Carmen made no move to resist her. Yet.