o-oOo-o

Megure sat at his desk in the Beika Police Department, scratching his head under the ever-present hat. Just who had come up with all these forms they had to fill out for each and every case? Must have been someone who had never run an investigation himself.

He reached for the cup of coffee next to an impressive pile of manila folders and nipped on it, only to put it aside in disgust. Cold… again.

The Inspector sighed, got up and took the cup to drain it in the next sink and refill it with some new, hot, sense-reviving coffee. When he came back, his phone signaled him a new message.

He called it up. A text and a picture. Sender: Kudou Shinichi.

Megure hummed. Of course. Kudou was always in contact with him for one case or another. He was still mourning the loss for his task force as the boy had turned down his offer to join. Still, he was a great asset to the MPD and Megure was grateful Kudou had decided to at least stay in Beika.

Sometimes, he still wondered if the district would be calmer without the young detective around, but he was sure that won't be true. There would be as much murders, kidnappings and so on, just if Kudou wasn't there to solve cases, chances were that more crimes would go unnoticed – hence appearing as if the crime rate had dropped.

Not a reassuring thought.

Opening the picture first, Megure frowned.

He knew he had seen this man before, even if he could just see the face in profile, but he couldn't immediately say where. Switching to the text, his eyes skimmed over the few lines and he gasped as it hit him.

Forcefully setting down the cup and making its dark content spill on the desk, he sent a quick reply, dialed a number and waited for a connection. His churning gut was telling him that this could end badly if they weren't fast enough. Kudou just seemed to attract these kinds of situations and not seldom they ended with a visit to the hospital for the young man. He just hoped five exclamation marks were enough to convey his message. Stay low! Don't do anything rash!

"Satou-keiji! Gather the task force right now!" he barked into the receiver. "Possible robbery at the Second National Bank. Confirmed suspect is Sugihara Kenta, so it's highly probable that he is not working alone."

Satou Miwako knew when a case was dicey and hurried to wave Takagi over, giving him the instructions. "Do we have contact into the bank?" she asked. With someone on site it could be easier. Could be more difficult as well, depending on who it was.

"Kind of," Megure answered. "We got a text-message and a photo." He exhaled heavily. Satou and Takagi as well as the rest of the department knew what his next words meant. "It's from Kudou-kun."

Satou looked up at the ceiling for a moment. Well, damn.

o-oOo-o

When Shinichi slowly came to, his head was an aching mess. Opening his eyes a slit ended in a pained hiss. Light-sensitive. Fantastic. Probably a concussion if the also underlying feeling of nausea was anything to go by. How many did that make? … He couldn't concentrate enough to come up with a definite number, but he was sure he'd had his fair share of head injuries to last for the rest of his life.

Carefully, he tried again. One eye felt a bit sticky. Blood? He sat slumped over with his arms in an uncomfortable angle behind him, holding him up. Looking down, he could also see blood staining his dress-shirt. Must have dripped down from his headwound. Almost impossible to clean up – would be easier to just buy a new one. He leaned back to ease the strained muscles in his shoulders and felt the cold surface of a pillar. His arms were positioned around it, his hands chained with what were most certainly his own handcuffs.

"Awake again?" a scruffy voice he faintly recognized sneered at him. His vision was still blurry, but he could see a person-shaped shadow coming closer and next something warm and hard was pressed against his temple. 'Gun. Recently fired. I can still smell the gunpowder very prominently and the muzzle hasn't cooled down yet.'

"Who are you?" the voice went on. Still dizzy and disoriented, he had problems to place it and to comprehend what the hell was going on. The muzzle was shoved against his head again, a bit more forcefully this time. "Are you a cop? You don't have a badge. You don't even have a damn wallet on you!"

No wallet? Huh, how come? He always took it from the decorative bowl next to the door when he left the apartment. And today? Today… Ran had called the moment he was about to leave, reminding him to go to the bank. She'd had to leave early and wanted to make sure he didn't forget. He must have left his wallet at home and he didn't even notice until now.

He let out a short snort. Of course – typical. He would have waited for hours just to find that he had no bank card, no ID, no nothing. And now he was chained to a pillar with a gun to his head and a headache so massive he could barely see straight.

With some effort he lifted his head to his assaulter. Hopefully the pain would cease a bit after a few minutes, or he would be completely useless and defenseless here.

"Not a cop," he answered a bit slurred. He was finally able to put a name to the voice and to recall what exactly had happened. Sugihara Kenta. Two more men with guns. Bank robbery. A kid that looked like Ran.

His eyes searched for Meiko and he was relieved to see that she was fine, and huddled next to her mother, sitting at the wall next to him with the other people – hostages.

The police were nowhere to be seen or heard, so he couldn't have been out for long.

Sugihara bent down to him, his breath ghosting over Shinichi's face, who suppressed the urge to turn his head away. "So, what – you're a kinky son of a bitch? Carrying handcuffs around?"

Shinichi didn't care what Sugihara called him. Obviously, he hadn't been recognized as a private detective, and he intended to leave it at that. If the criminal underestimated him, maybe it gave Shinichi more options.

Another shove. "Answer me, pervert!"

"He's not a pervert!" a small voice squeaked up. "He's with the Detective Boys!"

Both, Sugihara and Shinichi turned their heads and looked at Meiko in surprise, who hurriedly tried to hide behind her mother.

Sugihara got up and went over to the other hostages. Meiko's mother stared at him in horror and shielded her little girl. "No, le-leave her alone, please! She… she doesn't know what she's saying, she's just…"

"Quiet!" Sugihara snapped at her and pointed his gun at the woman's chest, while fixating his eyes on Meiko. "Better tell me what you know, girl. Who is he?"

"Kudou Shinichi," Shinichi cut in. Scaring the girl even further wasn't worth it. She must have seen him related to the cases he had solved with the Detective Boys after he had been back as Shinichi for good. He had taken them under his wing for some time, to be sure they wouldn't get into trouble without Conan around. She was the age where she was most likely to be interested in them. "A private detective," he added. So much for his plan to hide his identity.

Sugihara watched him taxingly. "Kudou Shinichi, hm…"

"Now I remember him too," another of the criminals spoke up. "He's in the papers all the time. Solving murder cases and stuff."

"Y' can read the newspapers, Ichikawa?" the third one laughed mockingly.

"Shut up, Muto," Ichikawa growled back.

"Shut it! Both of you!"

It was clear, that Sugihara was the leader and maybe the other two weren't the brightest bulbs in the box, but that didn't mean they weren't able to shoot someone. For sure there had to be a fourth man outside the bank with a getaway car.

Sugihara came back to Shinichi's side with a calculating smile Shinichi didn't like at all. He set his jaw and stared back with a steady, determined gaze. He wouldn't show weakness in front of a criminal – ever. Even if it took some concentration to keep himself from throwing up due to the concussion.

The man squatted down. "So, you're a private detective. A famous one even. I think I can work with that." He took Shinichi's phone out of a pocket in his jacket. "I'm sure you've already informed your friends, obedient dog that you are. You knew I had a weapon after we collided, didn't you? That cuts the time we have, unfortunately."

He turned around and gestured at Muto. "Take the bank director and let him hand over the cash. And don't try to hide anything," he smirked at the director, who got up when faced with a weapon. "We know that you've got money today. So, hurry up!"

"Even if they got money today, it won't be that much," Shinichi stated calmly. "Banks have an eye on the amount of money in the branches, so it will never be more than a defined sum. Does this really pay off for you?"

Sugihara laughed. "Yeah, right – that's true, but I tell you something. A penny stolen is a penny earned, or so the saying goes. Of course, it is a pain to rob many small banks like this here instead of just a big one and be done with it." He craned his neck to check Muto's progress with the money. "But the smaller branches' security isn't as high, and we are in and off again before the police even know we've been there." A quick annoyed glare as sirens howled outside. "Well, normally that is. Today might be a bit more complicated. Good thing I'm a sucker for the thrill," he grinned and held up Shinichi's phone. "Care to unlock that for me?"

o-oOo-o

With screeching tires, Megure's car came to a stop in front of the bank, accompanied by five more police cars, which's occupants quickly got out and took aim at the entrance. Some ran to put up barrier tape to keep bystanders at bay and out of the danger zone.

A waiting transporter was identified as getaway car and promptly secured, the driver arrested.

Megure took out a megaphone. "This is the police! You are surrounded! Give up and leave the bank with your hands above your heads!"

He didn't believe that would actually happen, but it was some kind of opening-phrase to begin the negotiations. Just when he thought he'd waited long enough for a response, his cellphone rang. Startled, he read the caller-ID. 'Kudou Shinichi' was displayed on the screen. He gestured for Satou and Takagi to come over and warily tapped on the green shaded 'accept'. "Kudou-kun?"

"Sorry, no," came a rough voice out of the speaker, decidedly not Kudou's. The three officers exchanged a glance. For the robber to use Kudou's phone to call Megure directly could only mean that Kudou's identity was already known to him. Not good.

"He's a bit – occupied at the moment, but I'm sure you wanted to talk to me anyway, so he didn't mind that I lent his phone."

Megure's hand gripped the phone a bit tighter. Seemed like they would need the ambulance that was arriving just now after all.

He hated it!

It made him feel as a failure as a police officer. Kudou was so young and still he had already faced off with more criminals than some officers got to see in their whole career, before he had been of legal age. And not just small pick-pockets or such, no – Kudou seemed always to be drawn to the big shots. Or they to him. Whatever the case, it often left Megure with not more than the clean-up and Kudou in bandages.

Megure wasn't alone with this feeling of helplessness regarding their young consultant. He knew that the whole task force was very protective of him. Those who knew about Conan even more so, like Satou and Takagi.

Why was it that one young man outsmarted the whole department with ease without ever having seen the insides of a police academy? Don't get it wrong – Megure was thankful for the help, and he felt some kind of surrogate-fatherly pride whenever Kudou had done it again, but still…

Shouldn't they be the ones solving the cases, cornering armed criminals, defusing bombs – the list went on.

The case of the Black Organization was still a sore spot for Megure. He could understand that Kudou had tried to keep the number of involved people as small as possible, and that there had been moles in the police, but he knew Megure for years. He should have been able to trust in him to handle the situation. Still, he had decided that the matter was too dangerous for the police to know – the police!

Until today, Megure hadn't been able to swallow that entirely, maybe he never would, no matter in how high regards he held Kudou. It stung.

And therefore, he would absolutely not fail him today! It was just not an option. Period.

"What do you want?" he pressed out through clenched teeth.

"Getting straight to the point I see? I like that," Sugihara laughed. "Alright then – I'm sure you know that I have more than enough hostages in here to be a real problem for you guys. But differing from your opinion, I don't like to shoot kids, women and old geezers all that much. I really don't, but you see – you don't leave me any other option if you don't guarantee for our safe escape. What brings me to my point: I want my transporter and driver back. You've arrested him, right? Set him free. I want to see the car right before the door in less than fifteen minutes or the first hostage will kick the bucket."

With that the connection was cut.

He wasn't negotiating – just demanding.

A heavy breath left Megure. Meeting Sugihara's order wasn't a problem. They had figured that he would want something like that and had kept car and driver nearby. But what would come next?

He feared, he knew how this was going to continue. Kudou was just too valuable as hostage to let him go before they were sure they were safe. So, they would most likely take him with them. The only blessing was that a dead hostage would be useless.

He just hoped that the criminals thought so too

TBC