Chapter twelve
Exchange
ooOO-OOoo


The room was silent.

Ichinose had just left with an exorbitant high check from Yukiko and a smug expression on his face. The others were stunned by Yukiko's action. Yusaku had just raised an eyebrow while his wife set her signature under a vast number of zeros. It wasn't as if they couldn't afford it after all. His books sold good – very good. Maybe even better since his son had made the headlines of the newspapers with the downfall of the Black Organization. He wondered if Yukiko intended to keep the jewel after this whole ordeal or if she was going to sell it again.

But that didn't matter right now. They had to decide what to do about the heist. Yusaku knew that KID wouldn't be able to take the jewel even if Yukiko presented it to him on a silver plate. But how to let Nakamori know about it without giving Kaito away? Was it possible at all? And was it even the right decision to keep his secret?

Yusaku sighed. Why did boys always have to get into trouble knee-deep? He was very concerned about Shinichi and he blamed himself that he hadn't been more attentive even though he knew what his son was doing, and how he tended to bite off more than he could chew. Okay, so Shinichi's intention had been to cancel his role for the heist to prevent exactly this kind of situation, but still – it was typical for him to be tangled up in the mess anyway. Yusaku should just have gone with him to Kaito this morning. No, he should have intervened the moment he'd learned that something was troubling Kaito that needed the attention of the police.

He looked at Nakamori and wondered how the Inspector would have reacted to Kaito's hidden identity. Well, seemed that he would know soon, because Yusaku didn't see a way around informing him about his neighbor's nightly activities. He was about to open his mouth when Nakamori spoke up.

"Now that we are between us, I think it is time to let you know about something I just learned from an old acquaintance of mine. It will be important for the task ahead and it will change our whole approach concerning the KID heist."

He put his hands on the table and lowered his head for a moment before fixating one by one with an intent gaze.

"I believe that every single one of you is trustworthy and that you care about the hostages the most – no matter what. So, I am sure nothing I will tell you next will leave this room."

He waited for the affirmative nods from around the table and went on.

"Kaitou KID won't come to get the jewel," he said and held up a hand to silence Megure's attempt to say something. Yusaku leaned back in his seat. He had a very good hunch about what was to come next.

"He won't come because he can't," Nakamori continued before taking a deep breath. "Kuroba Kaito is the Kaitou KID. There is no mistaken. It was confirmed to me by his personal assistant and Kudou Shinichi this afternoon," he said in a defeated tone. "Some of you know that I have personal ties to Kaito-kun and there is no excuse as to why I didn't see what was right before my eyes, but right now, all I want is to bring him, Kudou-kun and my daughter back safe and sound. What happens after that, we'll have to see, but until then no one can know about this!"

No objection came after his declaration, so Nakamori sorted out his thoughts. He had to put his feelings aside and lead this operation successfully or he would never forgive himself. "Now that we have the jewel, thanks to Kudou-san, we don't have to bother with the whole heist. We will just surrender it to KID, so he can give it to the kidnappers and free the hostages."

Takagi blinked. "Okay, but didn't you say Kuroba-kun is KID? How will he be able to take the jewel if he is one of the hostages himself?"

Nakamori looked at him slyly. "Yes, but the kidnappers don't know that. So, all we have to do is to find a stand-in for KID. Any volunteers?"

Yusaku cupped his chin with one hand. The idea was standing to reason, especially now that they wouldn't have to look for someone with KID's exact abilities. Since the police knew about Shinichi's abduction it wouldn't seem out of place for his parents to offer the jewel willingly to help their son. But who should do it?

Nakamori was out of the picture as he had to be present at the scene as the leading inspector. Megure was no option for obvious weight-related reasons. Similar reasons ruled out himself and Takagi – they were too tall, plus, Yusaku wanted to stay at his wife's side and she would be the one to hand over the jewel. Even though he was sure Heiji would be more than willing to play the part for his friend's sake and with some make-up from Yukiko it would be possible for him, they couldn't let him do that. He was a civilian after all and Yusaku refused to endanger him for this case. Same went for Hakuba. So that left…

"I will do it!" Satou stated, standing up. "My stature should be about right and if it comes to the worst, I am well able to defend myself."

Nakamori seemed baffled. "But – but you are female. I'm sure KID's assistant can provide us with KID's suit and hat, but that will only do so much to hide your identity. And what about your voice? When you have to speak, your cover will be blown immediately."

Yukiko sniggered a bit. "I'm sure we can fix that. As a former actress, I know a thing or two about make-up, and a friend of ours will sure be happy to help us out with an invention of his."

Megure's eyes widened in understanding. "Aah, you're speaking about Agasa Hakase, who, uh…" He stumbled over his words as he realized that he was about to say something he wasn't supposed to. Shinichis's identity as Edogawa Conan was still just known to a very few selected members in the police after all. "Who made this little, uh, toys for Conan-kun."

Now Nakamori was at a loss. "Conan-kun? You mean the little boy who has been present on a few of KID's heist, Edogawa-kun?" Thinking back on their last meeting at the heist involving Kirin's horn, he still couldn't believe that KID had used a stun-gun on a child. Knowing that it had been Kaito made him even angrier. He would have to have a word with the boy about that for sure.

Yukiko smiled. It felt a bit weird to talk about Conan now that Shinichi was back to his old self, but his name came up occasionally. "Yes, that's him. He was very into the toys Agasa-hakase invented and he and the other kids played with them a lot. I think there was something about a voice-changer as well if I remember correctly."

Yusaku had to hold back a smile at her innocent acting. The voice-changer had been a fundamental piece of Shinichi's disguise. Without it, he wouldn't have been able to create the 'sleeping Kogoro' and boost the man's reputation. But Nakamori didn't know that, so best to play it down. He was even sure that the Professor had been working on an update that Shinichi could use now.

He stood up. "I will give him a call right now. Best to get everything on the way as soon as possible. Yukiko can start working on Satou-keiji's make-up as that might take a while. My wife is a perfectionist when it comes to these kind of things," he said with a slightly apologetic smile in Satou's direction, who shivered a bit and prepared for the worst.

"Alright," Nakamori said and turned to Hakuba and Heiji. "You two will come with me. I don't want any more teenagers to disappear on my watch."

They both cringed. They weren't that bad now, were they?

"We are going to get the white suit and stuff the thief likes so much to stand out with from his assistant."

ooOO-OOoo

It was dark. Well, as dark as it could be with all the city lights and the floodlights illuminating the huge rooftop. But night has fallen and it was finally time for Yukiko to take her place on the roof and wait for KID to take the 'Circle of rain' from her. The wind was a soft breeze, tugging at the hem of her skirt. Right behind her, she could feel the reassuring presence of Yusaku. Now all they could do was to wait for the announced time for the thief's arrival. Or Satou's arrival in this case.

Yukiko was quite proud of the job she had done with the make-up. Okay, it had helped that the face she was trying to create was basically her son's and there was no face she knew better than his. The harder part had been to hide Satou's cleavage and it had taken quite an amount of bandages to get the shape of her upper body right.

Agasa had been very proud to tell them that yes, he already had a new version of the voice-changer done and ready-to-use. After hearing what had happened, he had been more than willing to help them out. The new model came in form of a neckband that could be easily hidden under a collar or a scarf.

The end result was a Kaitou KID that could give the original a run for his money, aside from the acrobatics maybe. Though Satou was quite athletic, the usual stunts KID performed during his heists were way above her level, not to mention the magic tricks. Fortunately, they wouldn't need any of this and by now, Satou should be ready to begin her act.

Aside from her and Yusaku, there were not many persons present. Nakamori had forgone the whole usual heist preparations and just a few taskforce members secured the exit and some strategical points. The rest were the people who had been in the meeting with them. She was surprised to see Hakuba and Heiji as well. After what Nakamori had said earlier, she had expected they would be banned from the scene altogether, but it seemed they had convinced him otherwise on their ride to collect KID's get-up.

Figures.

Waiting wasn't one of Yukiko's strong points, so she was relieved when the alarm of her wristwatch gave a short beeping sound and told her that their plan was going under way now.

Just when Yukiko expected Satou to appear, her attention was drawn to the sky, where she could hear the noise of a helicopter. And sure enough, there was a black chopper nearing the rooftop and Nakamori shouted to all of them to clear the area.

Yusaku pulled her back to the entrance while she watched the helicopter touching down. As the rotor blades slowed down, the door slid open and a figure, apparently male, clad all in black jumped out. He took a look around, straightened and strolled over to them with his hands in his pockets. A black baseball cap was drawn deep into his face and hid his eyes and features, but she recognized him nonetheless.

'Kaito.'

For a moment, she thought he had managed to escape and waited for Shinichi and Aoko to also emerge out of the copter, but he was alone and his demeanor gave her the chills. The clothes might be all black, but he was here as the Kaitou KID not Kuroba Kaito. It seemed Satou had interpreted the same, as she was nowhere to be seen. Thank heavens for her quick thinking. If the kidnappers were somehow observing them, the presence of two KID's would have surely blown the deal off.

She watched as Kaito made his way over to where Nakamori, Hakuba and Heiji were standing. When he reached them, they exchanged a few words she couldn't hear because the helicopter was too loud. But what she could see was that Heiji suddenly seemed to snap and how he grabbed Kaito's jacket with both hands, fisting them into the material and shouting something at him. Yukiko cursed his hot-blooded temper that caused him to burst out even in the most inappropriate situations.

'Calm down, Hattori, please! We need to be level headed if we want to help them. I understand your frustration, but I'm sure Kaito is doing what he can.'

She relaxed slightly when she saw how Hakuba pulled him back and talked insistently to him. Kaito gave him one more look and then walked in Yukiko's direction. She swallowed and realized that her mouth and throat were completely dry. She was nervous. Things were not going as they'd planned and it made her anxious, frightened. What had happened for Kaito to be here? Were Aoko and Shinichi okay? She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath through her nose as Kaito came to a halt in front of her.

From up close she could see that he wasn't as nonchalant as he tried to make it look. In fact he was emitting a tension that radiated around him like waves. She wanted to help him, to drag him into her arms and give him a warm hug, to say him that everything would be just fine. She did nothing of all that. He wasn't Kaito right now, he was KID and she wasn't supposed to know him or to care for him.

"Yukiko."

Yusaku's voice startled her out of her thoughts and she noticed that she was gripping the necklace hard in her hands, leaving marks on the soft skin of her palms. She uncurled her fingers and reached out her open hand, the necklace in it.

"Please, take it." She couldn't help the tears that were suddenly springing to her eyes. "Take it and bring them all back safely."

Now Kaito raised his head and locked his eyes with hers. His gaze was earnest and determined as he carefully took the jewelry from her.

"I will. I promise." His eyes softened somewhat. "I'm so sorry."

Yukiko gave him a sad smile and nodded at him encouragingly. She understood what he was trying to say her.

'I'm sorry for dragging your son into this. I'm sorry I couldn't protect him. I'm sorry you have to go through all of this'.

But he had also promised to bring Shinichi back, what at least meant that he was alive. That didn't do much to lessen her worry for him, but it was better than nothing.

She watched Kaito turn around and run back to the helicopter that was accelerating the rotor blades' speed again. He got in without looking back and the door slid close. The noise intensified and they took off.

ooOO—Oooo

Kaito leaned back in his seat and let out a long breath. That had been short, but intense and exhausting. Even more exhausting than an actual heist where he had to put in effort to get the jewel. The black clothes they had given him to wear were itching and he really wanted to take them off as soon as possible.

Next to him sat Snake and pressed a gun in his ribs. He had taken the necklace from him and was vibrating with anticipation. Kaito really couldn't care less if the jewel was Pandora or not. Most probably it was just another expensive rock, but he hadn't been able to check, because clouds were hiding the moon.

He prayed that Takamoto would keep his word and let Aoko and Shinichi go. Kaito held no such illusions for himself after he had seen what hatred the man held for KID. He was sure he wouldn't come out of this unscathed, he just hoped that it would not be the end of the line for him.

At least, he now was able to take the earpiece out. Snake's hissing voice directly in his ear had been one of the most unpleasant things he'd had to endure ever. It had taken all his willpower not to rip the thing out on the spot and crush it under his shoe.

Meeting Nakamori had been tough. Knowing that Snake was listening to everything he said hadn't made it any easier. Knowing that one wrong word from him would seal the fate of the two others had been more efficiently than any weapon in his back.

One look at the Inspector and Kaito had been sure that Nakamori knew everything about him. There had been anger in his gaze, maybe accuse. For sure Kaito had seen worry for Aoko, and sadness – so much sadness. It had hurt him to hold a steady eye-contact while he was speaking, telling Nakamori what he was instructed to say from the devilish voice through the ear-piece.

Don't put up a fight. Don't follow. Don't do anything at all. If they disobeyed, the hostages would die before anyone would be able to reach the hideout.

He'd wanted to reassure Nakamori that his daughter was alright. He wasn't allowed. He'd wanted to tell them where to find them. He wasn't allowed.

He did the only thing he could do and used his knowledge about the western detective's short temper. He would have to apologize for that later.

"If you detectives could just mind your own business, your friend wouldn't be in this situation."

That alone had been enough to get the reaction Kaito had hoped for. When Heiji grabbed him, Kaito used the opportunity to slip him the piece of paper with the casino's name on it.

"Pocket a profit – that's all you care about."

Hopefully, Heiji was as good as his reputation made him out to be and he would get the hint. At least Hakuba should know that it was out of place for Kaito to say something like that. Especially since he knew that Kaito and Shinichi were connected on a friendly basis.

'Come on, detectives – lend a thief a hand just once.'


A/N: Yes, I went and took the idea of a neckband-voice-changer from the later DC-chapters. Because I thought if Agasa made it for Okiya, why shouldn't he have the idea for Shinichi as well? Because, honestly - the bow tie is more than inconvenient, and suspicious as heck.