Chronologically this chapter follows chapter 5, Frustration.

"Enough, Hattori-kun," Haibara says sharply. They've been sitting here for nearly half an hour and haven't done anything other than basic introductions. The detectives had been taunting each other even before Agasa brought out a tray of tea, but the minor distraction the professor had provided had been set aside almost immediately in favor of Hattori-kun instigating yet more bickering. "If you'd rather sacrifice our best chance at finding Edogawa-kun than work with other detectives, you can leave."

Hattori-kun bristles, probably in protest to her implication that he wouldn't be able to get whatever information Hakuba-san found out, and glares at her. She refuses to back down, returning his stare. She doesn't like the idea of working with an unfamiliar detective; it's dangerous to give too much knowledge about her and Kudo-kun to anyone. But at this point, they can't afford to pass up any chance at information.

The fact that the thief sent Hakuba-san to her at all was startling enough for her to shove aside her doubts for a moment, but really she still wonders what she's done to make the thief trust her with anything. She only knows that the source of Hakuba-san's information is actually KID because after the first time the flashy idiot broke in to Agasa's house, Kudo-kun had asked her what she'd done to scare the thief so much, and later the thief himself had commented to her how odd it was that such a small person could be so terrifying. (The thief is admittedly justified in his fear of her; she can't bring herself to trust an unknown criminal who has disguise skills equal to Vermouth, and has made no effort to disguise the fact that she considers KID a potential threat. She still doesn't understand how Kudo-kun can trust the thief so easily.)

Haibara supposes it's a measure of her own desperation that she's willing to rely on such a tenuous chain of trust: Kudo-kun trusts KID, who apparently trusts Hakuba-san enough to send him to her with some kind of information that will help them find Kudo-kun. (It had taken every bit of her willpower not to run the instant Hattori-kun had described the men who had been seen on the security footage. Haibara knows it's only a matter of time before They find her now that They have Kudo-kun, but she refuses to stop searching for him until she has no time left.)

Hattori looks away first, silently sitting back and folding his arms sullenly, appearing to ignore Hakuba-san's presence entirely. Haibara refrains from rolling her eyes at the continued pettiness, instead turning to address Hakuba-san. "Any information you have is likely more than the police have been willing to tell us."

Hakuba-san takes a moment to visibly calm himself and nods at her. Haibara listens closely to his summary of what was discovered the night Kudo-kun went missing, but the retelling doesn't reveal any new information. The blonde takes a sip of his tea before continuing, "I believed that Kaitou KID would have noticed something, as Edogawa-kun was kidnapped from the heist building itself, and confronted KID at his recent heist. He informed me that Edogawa-kun is alive and uninjured, and was kidnapped to be used as leverage against him. KID also believes that the group of criminals holding Edogawa-kun hostage are monitoring the police in some way—he told me that if they believed he had informed the police of anything that Edogawa-kun would be killed."

Haibara tenses, "You believe They are monitoring the thief to ensure he doesn't get the opportunity to undermine Them."

"I suspect they forced KID to wear a listening device on his person for the duration of the heist, yes," Hakuba-san confirms. "He was using sign language to communicate. Before he left he mentioned that his next heist would be soon and that I should bring questions for Edogawa-kun, so KID is possibly allowed limited contact with him or they've found some way to pass messages to each other. Ah, and the message he wanted me to convey to you was: badge and glasses."

Eyes widening, Haibara lunges off the couch and runs to the desk drawer with the spare tracking glasses, ignoring Hakuba's confused questions as he follows her. Hastily shoving the glasses onto her face, she activates the tracking function and starts slowly widening the range. She continues to ignore the detectives' demands for explanation as they step in front of her to attempt to get her attention; counting off the badges under her breath—her, Tsubaraya-kun, Ayumi-chan, and Kojima-kun— and keeps going, carefully watching the lens for another dot to appear.

She hears Hakuba-san's incredulous question, "Edogawa-kun has a tracking device with him?" but ignores him until she's reached the maximum range the glasses can monitor.

The display shows no sign of Kudo-kun's badge.

Holding back a sigh of disappointment, she pulls off the spare pair and starts to explain, "The five of us have a set of badges that Hakase designed—originally they were just for short-range communication, but the Shounen Tanteidan get in so much trouble Hakase decided to add a location transmitter that the glasses could receive."

"But Ku-onan's not showin' up on th' glasses," Hattori-kun adds glumly.

Hakuba-san frowns at the display still shown on the left lens, "Is the range of transmission comparable to the range of the receiver? Can the signals be blocked by anything?"

Haibara huffs, "The signal strength can't be too high or it would cause too much interference; it's not much stronger than you'd find on a cell phone, so it could be blocked if Edogawa-kun is being kept in a technologically secure location or a building made from say, concrete."

"Looks like we're outta leads again," Hattori-kun concludes.

"It's unlike Edogawa-kun to rely on the slight chance he's being kept somewhere the signal from his badge could reach us," Haibara counters, frowning as she looks at Hakuba-san, "Did the thief say anything else to you?"

The blonde detective blinks, "You think there's a second clue? Hmm…" Hakuba-san's brow furrows in thought, and Haibara waits semi-patiently as he murmurs to himself. "Ah!"

"What're ya thinkin' now?" Hatttori-kun prods.

"The heist; Kid said there would be a heist soon and to, I quote, 'bring questions for Tantei-kun'. They must be in contact somehow, and KID wouldn't risk sending a message like this unless he was near certain the plan would be successful—Edogawa-kun must have managed to give his communication badge to the thief."

Haibara's eyes widen, "If They want the heists to continue, They have to let the thief out of wherever they're being kept—it's likely They guard Edogawa-kun more heavily during heists to keep KID from breaking him out, but we'll know where the heist will be."

Hattori-kun interrupts, "We can track th' guy back to where they're keepin' Ku-onan!"

"It will have to be done very carefully," Hakuba-san points out. "If the criminals monitoring KID notice he's being followed it would put Edogawa-kun at risk."

Reluctantly, Haibara decides, "I suppose it's time to bring in Edogawa-kun's American contacts."

Hakuba-san blinks in surprise at Hattori-kun's answering shout of enthusiasm.

A/N: Progress!

Hattori is thrilled to be working with Kudo's spy friends, who wouldn't be? And I just realized poor Hakuba is still out of the loop, Haibara spent this entire chapter emphasizing Them and failed to explain who she was talking about XD

Next chapter is mostly incomplete, and I still have NaNoWriMo backlog on my other fics, so it'll probably be a while before this updates again.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!