There hasn't been a lead into the Dark Syndicate for a while now.
I Edogawa Chronon thought this while having breakfast with the Kaguro Family as usual on Friday morning.
Ring!
We heard the ringer of the main door. Mr. Kaguro wiped his face and straightened his tie. He left us to go downstairs to see who was there.
A little later, since we had time, Ran and I went to see who the visitor was.
Across the table from Mr. Kaguro, there was a woman wearing a lavender dress and hat.
Ran spoke, interrupting them, "I'll bring some tea for you." She went into the kitchen.
The lavender hat lady cleared her throat,"I believe a detective as esteemed as yourself could handle it, right?"
"Hahha! Yes, I suppose I could handle it Ms. Hikiko."
"You see, its not a theft in a physical sense. That's the troubling part. They used my online persona to gain access to my clients' accounts through a social networking site. They have been notified to change their settings and passwords. However, for a few of them, they lost access to their financial data. They run the risk of losing all they had saved."
"That's not something that I can do about unless there's a physical aspect to your case. It's not something I specialize in doing. It makes it difficult if you've got your phone back."
"Well, I have a hunch that its someone I work with. Our team in the company I work for had a social with another group. That was the day before I realized that my phone was gone . After that, my online persona has not been under my control. I didn't erase the service because It meant cutting off the only link we have."
"That's a mighty big risk you have taken," I started. "It may start a chain reaction of further malicious data mining."
"I hadn't thought of it that way," was her response.
"Don't you have to go to school now," coughed Mr. Kaguro.
He doesn't like being shown up as usual.
"So tell me the site's name and exactly what it does."
"Its name is: Eden of the East. People can pull out information about other users through its search engine. It acts like a central hub to other sites which specialize in their own applications."
"The information about the targeted accounts was accessible through your particular administrator account then."
"Yes. Their real identities are able to be seen and..."
Buzz!
"Hold on while I take this."
Mr. Kaguro gestured that it was fine and then leaned back slightly in his chair.
"What, yes... it does...That's terrible... I've consulted someone to look into this. We're in the middle of the discussion right now."
"Mr. Kaguro, that call notified me of a complication that has arisen. There have been reports that of assaults and thefts happening by people using the online aliases that have been hacked into. The caught assailants had no identification on them save the password to a Paradise account. They're causing trouble for my clients by impersonating them."
It was a diversion. Who ever was behind this was after something and needed a screen to work behind.
...
Walking home from school, "Hey, Edogawa, you know how popular those online networking sites are. I hadn't realized how widespread Paradise was ," Ran told me. " Even I have one that though I rarely use it."
Yeah, even kids in my grade have online personas." I could have meant both the grade I pretended to be in and Ran's.
"I wonder if Shinichi has one too."
Honestly, I could have gotten one right away if it let me ease Ran's worries about me. She could have talked to me as Shinichi. Only, it would have put her in danger. It would also have compromised my identity since the Dark Syndicate would know I was alive art the click of a button.
"I don't think Shinichi has the time to keep up with online fads with his mind working constantly on that important case he was on concerned about."
"Yeah... that must be it."
We were walking up the stairs to the detective agency and when we reached the landing we ran into Inspector Katagi exiting the office.
"Ah, Hello kids. Hope you have a good day." He said briefly.
We entered the room and Mr. Kaguro informed us about what happened since Inspector Katagi had dropped by, "I called Katagi about that women that was here this morning ."
He has a soft spot for pretty women.
"I've got a lead you see."
Impressive old man.
"There's been a string of assaults and thefts using aliases that had the same names as the personas that have been stolen from that online networking site."
"So they've caught the suspects it look like."
"Trouble the part is that they were given those personas to use through anonymous emails."
Someone well connected and scrupulous about method is behind this. This might be something the Dark Syndicate is behind!