Secrets and Lies: Chapter 18

Okiya glared balefully at his captors with visible hatred from the chair that he was handcuffed to. He had finally been given the order to attack the residents of the house next door to his current residence which would have lead to his promotion in the ranks of the Organisation. Unfortunately everything had gone downhill from there when the Kudos had burst in on him and knocked him out.

Nothing of interest had really occurred since had had moved to 2-21 Beika aside from being mixed up in a few murder cases and scaring a certain little girl until a night ago when he had glimpsed a shadowy figure walk past his house through his bedroom window. Upon closer inspection he had realised that it was Vermouth. He had run downstairs and out the front door carrying a camera with a telephoto lens; the only long viewing instrument he could get his hands on at such short notice. Besides he might need to take photos of what Vermouth was doing as he hadn't heard anything about Vermouth going after Sherry.

He had darted across the street making sure that Vermouth wouldn't spot him and hid in a neighbour's garden. He had only started snapping photos from his covert hiding place when a young girl who he recognised as being Aoko Nakamori, who was wanted by the Organisation, emerged from the gate of 2-22 Beika. As she walked towards the dustbin she was skilfully knocked unconscious by Vermouth. Next Vermouth had forced a pill that resembled APTX 4869 down the girl's throat and he had watched as her body began to shake and shrink. When it had stopped Vermouth had disappeared down the street. He had left the scene after the boy Conan Edogawa and 2 other teenagers that he realised were Kaito Kuroba and Saguru Hakuba had come running.

That night he had debated what to do. He now had definite proof that the little girl that resembled Sherry that lived next door and went by the name Ai Haibara was definitely the escaped scientist Sherry and that Vermouth's loyalties were no longer with the Organisation. The biggest coup was that fact that the 3 fugitives that were wanted by the Organisation were hiding in the house next to him. If he reported everything to Anokata now, he would be rewarded immensely, but he had to play his cards right or someone else like Gin would steal all the glory. He made his mind up. He would wait until new orders were issued the next day.

Then something in his mind made him think of Conan Edogawa and Shinichi Kudo. He knew the real owner of the house he was living in was Shinichi Kudo who was currently listed as being dead by the Organisation, but the girl with long black hair that had mistaken him for a burglar seemed to be in contact with the teenage detective or at least someone that took care of his matters. A lot of things about the case of Shinichi Kudo didn't add up and neither did Conan Edogawa. The boy was too smart for his age. It would make sense if he was the same person as Shinichi Kudo and had been shrunk by APTX 4869. Okiya thought it would be better to decide what to do the next day rather than worry about it now.

Now, sitting handcuffed in the basement of an FBI safe house and bearing scars from several attacks with a taser he wished he had sent the email the night before. If he had done it there and then he wouldn't be in his current predicament.

The secretary of Chief Hakuba knocked quietly on her employer's door. He had told her that he was not to be disturbed, but it was important. After receiving a gruff reply to enter she walked into his office to find him deep in conversation with a police officer that she recognised from the 1st Division.

"I'm sorry for interrupting," she apologised. "But your son called and since I told him you didn't want to be disturbed he left a message."

"What?" he exclaimed. "Give it here." He held out his hand and he had a strange expression on his face whilst the other police officer watched with an amused look on his face.

She placed the memo that she had copied the message onto into his outstretched hand and took the opportunity to leave the room. She knew he hated being interrupted and wasn't very fond of his son.

Chief Hakuba read the message with a raised eyebrow and passed it to the man sitting in front of him.

Father,

I'm in trouble. I need your help. I will be at the house at 8 o'clock this evening to explain everything to you. I hope you will help.

Saguru.

"It's a trap," the man stated simply. "A very obvious one at that. They know that you are in the Organisation and they want to add to their collection of arrested agents."

"Who have they got now?"

"Gin and Vermouth are dead," the man began.

"Good," Chief Hakuba interrupted. "Sorry."

The man glared at him for interrupting and continued. "Kir, Vodka and Chardonnay were captured at the warehouse and were taken by the FBI which wasn't reported to the Police. No one ever tells the Police anything. Later on in the day Bourbon was captured too and the agents that stormed 2-22 Beika to find Shinichi Kudo were killed when the house caught alight."

"So we're in a big mess at the moment," Chief Hakuba concluded. "As Anokata, what are you going to do? If this continues at the current rate the Organisation will no longer exist. You have only just taken over recently and you need to prove your worth."

"I am going to get to the root of the problem. Shinichi Kudo/ Conan Edogawa, Kaito Kuroba, who by the way is Kaito Kid, Sherry who currently goes under the name of Ai Haibara and is 7 years old, your son and Aoko Nakamori."

The night before Anokata had pulled an all-nighter researching. He had known that he desperately needed to know more about the fugitives in order to know how to track them down and capture them. Finding out Kid's true identity had been easy. You didn't have to look very hard to find out that Kaito Kuroba was Kaito Kid. Everyone in the Organisation knew that this was a new Kaito Kid and the previous one had been Toichi Kuroba. The heists had started again when Kaito Kuroba had hit 16 and was old enough to know who his father had been. It therefore followed that he had picked up where his father had left off. He was the most likely person to be the new Kid as he was the closest magician to Toichi Kuroba and had a good reason to continue the heists. Anokata couldn't understand why the previous Anokata and Snake for that matter hadn't carried out basic research into the Kuroba family. It was infuriating to think that the previous Anokata hadn't been capable to do that or hire any decent agents.

As for Sherry, he had looked carefully at the report of her escape. The handcuffs that she had been restrained with were undamaged as if she had been able to just slip her hand out. More importantly there had been a rubbish chute in the room she had been confined in- just big enough to fit a child. If you factored the effect of APTX 4869 into the equation it was glaringly obvious as to how she had escaped.

Anokata had also met the little girl Ai Haibara on a few occasions and had noted that she resembled Sherry, but he hadn't really paid much attention to her. Now he knew why there had been something about her manner that bothered him. Now he knew.

"How would we get to them?" Hakuba enquired.

Anokata held up the message from Saguru Hakuba.

"They are planning to trap us so I think we should employ a bigger trap and trap all of them. Let's just say there will be as many agents as we can spare at your house this evening."

8:00pm

Hakuba pulled at his collar nervously and wiped a bead of sweat that had trickled down his face away. If someone had told him a year ago that he would put his life on the line to protect his worst enemy and a 17 year old that looked like 7 year old he would have politely suggested that they check into a mental asylum as they were evidently insane.

He took a deep breath and rang the doorbell to what used to be his home. Casually, he looked around him. The agents from the Black Organisation weren't doing a good job of hiding themselves he could see one of them barely concealed in a tree. It was as Yusaku Kudo had expected. That man was wasted as an author.

After a few seconds the door was unlocked and pulled open by Chief Hakuba who was dressed formally in a suit.

"Hello Father," he greeted politely as if he had just come home from school.

"Are you alone?" Chief Hakuba asked brusquely.

"Yes."

Chief Hakuba surveyed his garden carefully and smiled.

"Of course. Come on in. I believe you wanted my help." He turned and Hakuba followed him down the dark hallway.

They both entered the front room and Chief Hakuba sat himself down in his preferred armchair and helped himself from a decanter of Sherry.

"If you could just wait a few minutes, I'm expecting some visitors. Help yourself to a drink if you like," he said and left the room.

As soon as he left Hakuba let out the breath that he had been holding. So far so good. He patted the gun in his pocket. He shuffled his position on the sofa and listened deeply to the sound of the front door opening and the faint muffle of voices.

The door was thrown open and Agent Camel, Conan and Jodie Starling were pushed into the room by his father and another agent at gunpoint. The agent was sporting a fresh nosebleed and had a cut on his face.

"Nice try, Son," Chief Hakuba congratulated sarcastically. "They weren't hidden very well at all."

He switched his attention to Conan. "We've all been looking for you Shinichi Kudo. We have a lot of questions to ask you and a proposition to put to you. Anokata is very eager to meet you."

He let a sardonic laugh as he watched fear dilate the boy's pupils. "The rest of you are just baggage to be disposed of later."

"What are you going to do with me?" Hakuba asked with a raised eyebrow.

Chief Hakuba laughed again. "You aren't going to get any special treatment just because you are my son. You can stay with the FBI agents and you can give me that gun in your pocket first."

With a cold expression Hakuba passed the gun over and allowed himself to be handcuffed and led off by the agent. Camel, Jodie and Hakuba were blindfolded before being locked in the wine cellar of the Hakuba residence. They weren't afraid. Everything had gone to plan.

Hakuba's mouth which was really Kaito's stretched into a smile. Kaito spat a paperclip out his mouth which fell into his lap and picked the lock of his handcuffs accurately. Due to his blindfold it took him a few more seconds than it normally did. He pulled off his Hakuba face mask and wig and stretched.

"Having hair like that is annoying. I really don't know how Hakuba copes. No wonder he has no sense of humour- he's blonde."

"Kuroba-kun," Jodie reminded him of where he was. "Please keep your voice down."

Conan Edogawa who was really the teen detective Shinichi Kudo was not what Chief Hakuba had expected at all. He was the size of a young child, but something about his eyes- a glint, showed that he wasn't your average 7 year old.

Those eyes were coolly gazing at him now. However the shadow of fear remained despite the fearless facade the boy was putting up. That made him admire the boy slightly more even in spite of the problems he had cause for the Organisation.

An agent passed him the contents of Shinichi Kudo's pocket. A spare pair of glasses, a mobile phone and house key. No obvious weapons.

"We also found a listening device on him and a tracker," the agent informed him in a businesslike tone. "I took the liberty of destroying those devices as well as his shoes and watch."

Chief Hakuba was unconcerned about the listening device as there was a jammer in the house that blocked the transmission on such devices in the house which came in useful in situations like this although his son had complained frequently about having to go out onto the street to make a call on his mobile phone, but that had never bothered him personally.

He consulted his watch. Anokata was due to arrive in a few minutes to talk to Shinichi Kudo and kill him and his allies. He didn't care that his son was about to die; he had chosen the wrong side to support and he had no sympathy for him.

Merry Christmas.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've just had too much coursework and exams.