Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 370, Section 364: A Major Serial Murder Case

Ireland?!

When Ireland announced his code name, Lin Longma immediately realized his identity.

Pisco was a senior executive whom he mentored; to be precise, their relationship was both that of mentor and student, and also like that of father and son.

The deputy director of the intelligence support department took office quietly.

Lin Longma also realized who those two intelligence officers were driving them to monitor and follow him.

Isn't this right?

Lin Longma pondered that he hadn't done anything extra in the matter of Pisco's death.

Only a few people who would never betray Lin Longma knew about the things that had been done to fuel the flames.

Gin was in charge of executing Pisco, and Ireland should not have harbored such hatred towards him under any circumstances.

“Ireland…?” Lin Longma stared intently at Ireland for a moment, then revealed a gloating expression, his eyes unconsciously glancing at Gin.

Since he didn't know what kind of people Ireland was dealing with, Lin Longma decided to remain unchanged and deal with everything as it came.

Vermouth, standing to the side, also glanced around, silently watching the spectacle.

Ireland stared at Lin Longma meaningfully for a while, seemingly not noticing anything, then turned his gaze to Gin and Lin Longma, who, along with Vermouth, were staring blankly at Gin.

"Let's get down to business." Gin felt completely out of place with these three "lunatics."

How can you organize things properly when you're with this bunch of insects?

Seeing that there was no excitement to watch, Lin Longma got down to business.

"Masaaki Okakura, head of the intelligence support department." Doi played a slideshow in the conference room, and Masaaki Okakura's photo was projected onto the screen.

"I joined the organization ten years ago, and my former partner was Kobayashi. Kobayashi is involved in another incident."

This involves members of the organization faking their deaths and defecting.

"When we found out about Xiaolin, he had already committed suicide at home by taking cyanide."

All materials related to the organization were completely deleted. We then retrieved a large amount of information and discovered that Masaaki Okakura and Kobayashi had been partners when they were frontline intelligence agents.

"Therefore, I have reason to suspect that Masaaki Okakura may have known about the situation of those members who faked their deaths and defected."

Just as I was requesting the intelligence department to recall Masaaki Okakura, he was killed today in the Resting Forest of Nerima Ward, East Longitude.

Because Masaaki Okakura was accompanying a member of parliament as his secretary, the Metropolitan Police Department arrived at the scene immediately after the murder, and detectives subsequently took over Okakura's home.

"After questioning the intelligence department, we learned that Masaaki Okakura likely had a list of infiltrators sent by the intelligence department into government departments over the years."

If this list comes to light with the authorities, it will put the organization in a very passive position and could even expose it.

After hearing Ryoma's description of the situation, Gin's reaction was exactly the same as Ryoma's at the time.

"Why would an undercover agent have a list of other undercover agents?!"

Even Gin knows it's unreasonable that this list ended up in Okakura Masaaki's hands.

If you want Masaaki Okakura to be in charge of the intelligence department's infiltration of the government, then you should let him operate everything from behind the scenes.

If you think Masaaki Okakura has a talent for infiltration and want him to continue operating as a secretary to a member of parliament, then don't let him know the identities of the other undercover agents.

This both transforms what was originally a single-line contact system into a tree diagram—with Masaaki Okakura at the very top of that diagram. Of course, this approach isn't entirely without its advantages; at least, the person in charge of deploying undercover agents would find their work much easier with Okakura's help.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be so easy to squeeze people into the civil service.
When there are no problems, it's all about political achievements; but when problems arise, even if it's not a cataclysmic event, it's probably not far off.

This is why even a thousand pounds can't stop it!
“Someone has to be held responsible for Okakura Masaaki having a list of undercover agents, but now is not the time to dwell on that.”

The undercover agent list could be discovered at any time. What methods do you all have?

Lin Longma shrugged, indicating that the Safety Countermeasures Division had done its best in this matter.

We issued an early warning immediately and located Gin, Vermouth, and Ireland as quickly as possible.

If we still can't handle this, then it's not our fault; we'll all share the blame, and no one can escape responsibility.

"Ireland? Masaaki Okakura is one of your intelligence agents. What's your opinion?" Gin asked, glancing at Ireland.

"The moment Okakura Masaaki died, my subordinates reported the situation to me."

According to the investigation, Masaaki Okakura had a memory card that he always carried with him.

No one knows what the memory card contains; it might be a list of undercover members of the organization, or it might be a list of members who faked their deaths and defected.

In short, he treasured this memory card.

In the intelligence support department, everyone makes a living through their skills, and Masaaki Okakura is a veteran of many years.

His seemingly secret information was naturally not difficult to obtain.

People don't talk about it or ask questions on a regular basis because they're afraid of trouble—the more guidance and organization there is, the more dangerous it becomes.

But at such a critical moment, some information that would not normally be revealed becomes as easy to find as common goods.

"Since Okakura Masaaki carries it with him, why not have the police's mole retrieve it?" Vodka blurted out.

Isn't this the time to use the mole that's been buried for so many years? If we can get the list back with a single hidden weapon, then it's a very worthwhile deal.

“It’s not that simple.” Ireland rejected Vodka’s suggestion: “After learning about this, I immediately used the police’s informants to find out some details about the Okakura Masaaki case.”

The Masaaki Okakura case is somewhat complicated; the police force has now combined it with cases from several other districts for processing.

"In other words, the Okakura Masaaki case involves a major serial murder case."

"A major serial murder case?" Vodka was a little confused. Even if it was a serial murder case, what did that have to do with them retrieving the memory card?
"The memory card was taken by the murderer?" Lin Longma realized instantly and looked at Ireland in surprise.

Is this case really that unlucky?

Not only was Okakura Masaaki's death linked to a major serial murder case, but what they wanted was also taken by the killer.
"Are you sure the killer wasn't after the memory card?" Gin asked, frowning.

This is the situation Gin dislikes the most. For Gin, his comfort zone is when you tell him what time, what place, and who he is going to kill.

Gin can accomplish this task perfectly.

But Gin gets very impatient with these roundabout methods.

"I can't be sure, but it's probably not." Ireland took out several photocopied files and placed them on the table.

At Ryoma Hayashi's instruction, Doi distributed a copy to everyone.

"This is the case file. Take a look."

(End of this chapter)