Secrets and Lies: Chapter 7

Outside the bathroom Hakuba was waiting. What exactly he had been waiting for was unknown. He had deduced that Kaito would be in the bathroom and had suggested to Aoko that she should look in the mirror at herself so she could get the full effect of the transformation that the drug had caused and so she wouldn't underestimate the Organisation again.

As Kaito and Aoko passed holding hands, Hakuba winked at Kaito who scowled in annoyance and a tiny amount of embarrassment as he suspected that he had been listening in.

"After breakfast Kudo-kun and I would like a word with you. It's nothing major," Hakuba called after them. Kaito nodded in reply, not really listening.

For breakfast Kaito made two stacks of perfectly browned pancakes for himself and Aoko. He surprisingly hadn't blown up the kitchen in any way, due to Aoko standing threateningly close to a mop. Either it was her influence or he was getting better at cooking. Aoko complained when they sat down to eat that he was hogging all the chocolate sauce for himself and attempted to get revenge by drawing a fish with strawberry sauce on his pancakes. She pouted sulkily which Kaito found quite cute when he explained that he wasn't afraid of fish anymore. He offered to make it up to her by letting her sit on his lap which she refused with a punch and a furiously red face.

Conan and Haibara watched the couple indulgently, both smiling at their playful banter and how different Kaito was when he was around Aoko. Conan felt a little jealous that Kaito had been able to tell the truth about his criminal alter ego to the girl that he loved, but he consoled himself by reminding himself that their circumstances were very different. Haibara found almost found herself wishing that someone treated her like that and accepted her for what she was rather than her appearance and loved her, but she remembered that she was determined to have a stone wall around her heart to protect it from further cracks.

Conan hated to interrupt the happy couple, but he did. "Sorry Kuroba, Hakuba has got some ideas and wants us to listen to them."

"Can I come too?" Aoko asked turning around and wiping chocolate sauce off her cheek from when Kaito tried to feed her.

"Hakuba says that it would be best for you if you didn't get involved right now and agree with him. We'll discuss your new arrangements later."

Aoko opened her mouth to argue when she was joined by Haibara who took her by the arm and spoke to Conan.

"Don't bother involving me either. I've got to work on an antidote. You can help me Nakamori-san."

Aoko closed her mouth and smiled at her. Conan shot Haibara a grateful glance for stopping Aoko from arguing as he knew Kaito was weak against her and would insist on having her there too. Haibara and Aoko headed off to the basement leaving Kaito and Conan behind.

"Are you okay now Kuroba?"

"I'm better now," Kaito answered as Hakuba entered the room and sat down. "So what ideas do you have then?"

Hakuba fluffed his blonde hair; a trait that Kaito found annoying and cleared his throat like magician about to introduce his next trick. He had thought they had better get on with bringing the Black Organisation down for Aoko and Kaito's sake as well as his because the longer it was the more chance that they would be hunted down and killed.

"As we know there are a large number of spies and paid informers in the Police. Some of them were wiped out when they killed themselves two days ago, but there are still plenty left that will be a risk of we investigate the Black Organisation through the Police. Most of the spies and informers probably don't know who they are really working for and are possibly paid through an intermediary or a third party," Hakuba started with his weakest idea. "So we shouldn't bother trying to find them and arrest them as they won't be able to tell us much. Instead we could use them to pass false information to the Black Organisation."

Conan nodded in agreement. He was glad that he had more people to help him as they came up with different ideas than him. "I don't know how we would find them though. It's going to take a long time, that's why I have never really considered doing that before. I say we use that as a backup plan if all else fails."

Kaito sceptically raised his eyebrows thinking of how long it could take and how many lives would be ruined. Fighting against the Black Organisation had killed his father and he hoped that no one else would follow his fate. "What's your next idea Hakuba? I hope it's better than your first."

Hakuba sensibly ignored Kaito. He had had enough of experience with Kaito's comments before and knew better than to respond. "My next idea is that we could lure them out and use that to trap them or find out more information about its members."

"What's the bait going to be to lure them out?" Kaito enquired nervously, fearing that it was going to be a person.

Hakuba smiled knowingly. Kaito could swear that his teeth had suddenly become sharper and more vampire like. "Why, you of course. After your last heist they are bound to be targeting you."

Kaito thought quickly, searching for a way out of it. "But it will be obvious since they know that I've destroyed Pandora and that we know each other. In fact they probably know who I am already."

Hakuba's vampire smile disappeared. "True. There is always Shinichi Kudo or..."

Kaito guessed who Hakuba was thinking of that would be perfect bait for the Black Organisation. They both looked over at Conan for his views.

"You want to use Sherry. It's an idea-not one that I'm particularly happy with, but we would need to wait for an antidote and that could be a long time to wait."

"You could be the bait if you like Hakuba. Next idea please and it better not involve Aoko," Kaito threatened. "Or your hair colour might be changing permanently."

"All right," Hakuba said feeling a little irked that everything was going wrong so quickly, but then the criticism was why he asked them what they thought and they had pointed out some undeniable holes. "Kudo-kun gives us a list of all the members of the Black Organisation that he knows and all the cases he knows that they have been involved in and we look for a correlation."

"That is basically saying we don't have a plan."

"We could use it to work out who the spies in the Police are by requesting those case files," Conan suggested, knowing he was going to be calling some favours from Takagi and Sato. Well, he had solved a lot of cases for them and they were always willing to help. "I'll write a list."

"Any ideas yourself Tantei-kun? You must have tried to come up with some at the beginning. Why are you living with Kogoro Mouri and making him famous? There must be something in that."

"My plan had always been to make him successful so he gets more cases and some of those cases are bound to involve the Black Organisation and some of them have, but I've changed it now," Conan explained remembering how shaky he was after he was first shrunk. "I'm in contact with some FBI agents that have the same goal as me, but they don't know who I really am; they just think I'm a very smart child who stuck his nose in where it didn't belong."

"Are the FBI doing it secretly, they must be to keep themselves safe?" Hakuba wanted to know. He guessed that they were as they would have been killed already.

"Yes. There is a CIA agent of a fairly high rank in the Organisation. Her alcoholic codename is Kir. We could ask her for some inside information, but I would have to go through the FBI to ask and I'm reluctant to do that as they would ask a lot of questions. Also Kir's position has been a little precarious since a certain incident and there hasn't been any contact from her in a while."

Hakuba understood what he was implying. "She could be dead then or in very deep."

"I think that idea should go on the maybe list," Kaito commented beginning to lose interest and brought a dove out from in his jacket and stoked its head.

"Have you got any ideas yourself?" snapped an annoyed blonde detective finally at his breaking point.

"Not at the moment," Kaito admitted reluctantly and hastily racked his brains for ideas. "Can't you ask Vermouth to give you some information?"

Conan pulled a face remembering other times he had. She had never given him a straight answer. "I don't know how to contact her and she always talks in riddles and walks off when you think you have got somewhere with her."

"Can't you ask your father Yusaku Kudo to help? He was my father's greatest rival. He should be able to do something." Kaito had read the accounts in the newspapers of his father's heists on a fan website he had found and Yusaku Kudo had been mentioned in every one of them. He had figured that he had been a detective like Hakuba that had sworn to defeat Kid. He had only just realised that he must be Shinichi Kudo's father.

"That is a good idea. I'll call him later and ask him for some suggestions if nothing better is suggested. I have asked him to not help me, but I think your current situation might call for it. Any other suggestions Kuroba?"

"I think we need some more people to help. Does anyone else know about APTX 4869?"

"Good point Kuroba," Hakuba agreed. "Doesn't that hot-blooded Osakan know? What was his name again? Himeji...? No, Heiji. Heiji Hattori. You could ask him to come."

Conan thought about it. They did need more people and Hattori was a good detective and was aware of some of the Black Organisation members, but he wasn't aware of some of the more recent occurrences. However sometimes Hattori rushed in without thinking of the consequences. He could think of a few examples. Then again he hadn't seen him in ages and it was good to talk to fellow teenage detectives as he rarely was able to talk to any properly.

"I'll call him as well. He does know; he caught me out the second time I met him. I slipped up badly."

"How long do you estimate that it will take that creepy little girl to make the antidote?"

Conan pulled a face and mentally calculated how long it had been since he had laid eyes on Ai Haibara for the first time that day at school. It had been quite a while ago. He didn't really think about it anymore; he had become used to living as Conan Edogawa. "It has been around two years."

"Two years!" Kaito spluttered in horror at the implication. "Has she actually made any progress yet?"

"A little. She has made some temporary ones. However nothing really concrete and they keep getting weaker."

Kaito moaned thinking of how long Aoko might have to wait and the amount of time it was going to take to destroy the Black Organisation. "Should I suggest to her that she hurries up a little?"

Conan sniggered. He could picture it happening and her response as he had suggested it a few times and instantly regretted it. "I'd love to see you do that. Seriously though, don't. You'll regret it."

"Yes, you will Kid," Haibara threatened appearing suddenly behind where Conan was sitting giving everyone a fright. She glared at Kaito; she hated being hurried with her scientific work and to have Conan doing it was annoying enough let alone a cocky thief. "I hear you've recently got over your Ichthyophobia. I'd hate to accidently bring it back by throwing you in a tank of piranhas."

The threat was enough to make Kaito go pale, gulp and keep his mouth shut. Hakuba watched his face, amused at how he couldn't keep his precious poker face when threatened by fish.

"Do you need something Haibara?" Conan asked tilting his head back so he could see her.

This fanfiction is hurting my head in a good way as it is the most complex one I have written so far. I'm going to have to take liberty with some facts about the Black Organisation that are assumed and not actually known. Please review-it keeps me going.