Chapter 23

Bolted to his seat in a vehicle going God-knows-where, Shinichi desperately tried to keep his cool. He couldn't see anything; that bastard Snake had thrown a hood over his face the moment they'd left Suzuki's building, dragging his shock-ridden body out and blocking his Interpol tracker before throwing him in a van. He had to stay focused. If he didn't, then KID… no, KID was still alive, he had to be.

But the blood…

No, the building was full of police men. Even if it resulted in KID getting captured, someone would have heard the gunshot and investigate. Right?

For now, he had to gather information about his situation if he wanted to survive. The fabric of the hood was good, but so were Shinichi's ears, allowing him to listen in on Snake's henchmen with relative ease. They didn't even bother lowering their volume.

"So, this is Lupin's kid?" One asked. "He doesn't look like much."

"Yeah, I was expecting to get into a firefight with him, considering his family."

"Well, he was arrested by Interpol. Hard to get a gun that way, I guess. Why do you think we captured him?"

"Does it really matter?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Then shut up about it. He's probably a hostage or something. Either way, it doesn't involve us so shut up and keep your head down."

Shinichi rolled his eyes. Henchmen. He doesn't know why he expected to get concrete information out of them.

"Still, aren't you the least bit worried? This is the kid who took down Champagne twice."

Champagne?

"Champagne was a crazy broad who couldn't even properly kidnap a 9-year-old kid. Rum is going to make sure this brat doesn't go anywhere."

Were they talking about Valentine? Was this the organization she had worked for? If so, that meant they were planning on blackmailing his family again. But who was Rum? Valentine's boss? Shinichi frowned, testing his restraints again. Damn. He'd have to break free when they got to their location.

Reaching said location took longer than Shinichi anticipated, but soon the van jerked into park and he was manhandled out of the vehicle. Snake was the one dragging him along; he could hear the man's voice barking orders at his henchmen. They walked hallway after hallway, Shinichi stumbling a lot since he couldn't see where he was going until they stopped. A door opened and Shinichi got shoved in, nearly falling before being forced into a chair.

Bright light blinded him as the bag was ripped off. He was in an office, trapped in a chair in front of a dark desk. The door opened again behind them and he heard Snake leave as another person entered. "You've caused us a lot of trouble, Lupin-kun," the man said.

Shinichi recognized him.

He walked in front of him and Superintendent General Hakuba glared down at him from behind his desk. The Superintendent General loomed over him, seemingly bigger than ever before as Shinichi froze in his chair, betrayal gurgling up his throat like vomit.

"You're surprised," the Superintendent General commented, tilting his head. "As expected. I doubt you ever imagined that I was the one who ordered your kidnapping."

"I don't… understand…"

"I could hardly allow you to be kidnapped in my own home, in presence of my son. It would reflect poorly on me." Valentine had taken him within the first hour of Hakuba leaving him alone. Snake had taken him when he left Hakuba behind to catch KID. "But now we can successfully get Lupin and his ilk to steal for us again; even better, Lupin's actually out of prison, unlike last time."

"You… you have an entire organization at your disposal, but you can't even hire your own thief?" Shinichi sneered, allowing his anger to well. He couldn't afford to dwell on the betrayal because of course Hakuba had to have known—"Some organization."

"We have our own thieves; you met one of them tonight. However… you Lupins have always had a tendency to make myths reality and steal the impossible. We need that kind of skill on our side." The Superintendent General folded his hands. "But you're not really a Lupin, are you?"

Ice water rushed through his veins. Of course, not even that was a secret anymore.

"Some sort of amnesia, I gathered. Still, despite Gin and Vodka's initial kidnapping attempt on you all those years ago, I never expected you'd find your way into Lupin's hands, Shinichi Kudo."