Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 372, Section 366: Let's go! He walked out with a powerful and vigorous stride.

"What idea?" Gin was the first to speak.

Although Lin Longma seems like a fun-loving person, you have to admit that his ideas are sometimes quite reliable.

It's Gin certified.

Now that Gin has heard that Ryoma Hayashi has some ideas, he is naturally happy to listen to them.

"My idea requires someone to cooperate with it. Let me see."

Lin Longma first looked at Gin and vodka, then shook his head with great disdain.

Although Gin's face remained expressionless, Vodka could clearly see the veins bulging on his older brother's forehead...

It has to be Lin Longma; no one else has that same flavor!

Lin Longma looked at Vermouth again. This time it was suitable, but something was amiss.

If that's the case, then it seems that only... Lin Longma raised his head and stared intently at Ireland.

Ireland and Lin Longma exchanged glances. Gin, vodka, and Vermouth were all out of the question. Who was left in the room?

Isn't Ireland the only one left?

"Ireland, would you mind getting up and taking a walk?" Lin Longma invited, meeting Ireland's gaze.

Ireland wasn't intimidated at all; upon hearing Lin Longma's words, he instinctively took a few steps to the side.

"You can't walk like this, you have to walk with a powerful and imposing presence!"

"Powerful and vigorous?"

"We must also find someone who is concerned about the country and its people!"

"Concerned about the country and its people?"

"In the end, you still have to step out into a position of high power!"

"A high position of power?"

Ireland felt increasingly uneasy as he listened, and immediately asked Lin Longma, "You're not planning to send me undercover, are you?"

"Oh, is that not allowed?" Lin Longma looked at Ireland with an innocent expression.

Well, Lin Longma's suggestion isn't entirely wrong, but it's somewhat inappropriate.

If Ireland were a high-ranking enforcer with only a code name, similar to Cohen and Chianti from the Executive Division, then sending him undercover would be perfectly reasonable.

But now the Irishman is the Deputy Minister of Intelligence Support, and theoretically, whether it's Curaçao or Binga, they are all under his command.

In addition, Ireland was sent by the boss, so Rum couldn't utter a single word of objection at this moment.

They even had to cooperate in helping Ireland gain a foothold in the intelligence support department.

Whether they openly fight each other or secretly undermine each other after they have established themselves is another story.

It's really inappropriate to send someone in the "administrative" management team to be an undercover agent.

However, Lin Longma's suggestion was not without merit.

First of all, Gin and Vodka definitely can't go undercover. Ryoma isn't afraid of anything else, but he's afraid that these two, especially Gin, won't be able to control their tempers.

When I was undercover, I encountered a situation where, in a moment of excitement, I pulled out a gun and killed one or two important figures.

We don't want to fail to achieve our goal of going undercover and instead cause new trouble.

As for Vermouth, although she would be a perfect candidate for an undercover operation, considering her mystical nature and other factors, Lin Longma also excluded her from the list of candidates. As the one who initiated the suggestion, Lin Longma naturally didn't intend to act personally.

Ultimately, the most suitable candidate was Ireland.

For any other mission, Ireland would have simply refused. But this mission is different—it's one that even the boss is paying attention to.

Ireland was even personally "placed" into their group by the boss. Furthermore, Ireland, the newly appointed deputy head of intelligence support, was backed by the boss himself.

Ireland would never abandon the support from its boss before it has even established a foothold in the intelligence support department.

Faced with suggestions that seemed to be for the sake of the mission but were actually all Lin Longma's personal agenda, Ireland found it difficult to refuse.

Aside from the factors mentioned above, Lin Longma made this suggestion simply to retaliate and also to test Ireland's capabilities.

"Sure, of course. So, where and when does Chairman Lin plan for me to go as an undercover agent?"
Don't forget, we don't have that much time to waste right now; every second is crucial for the organization to recover from its losses.

Is your undercover plan really feasible?

Ireland's meaning was clear: he was willing to go undercover for the mission, but there was obviously not much time to waste on this mission.

An undercover agent isn't someone you can just deploy on a whim; the preliminary preparations for an undercover agent take quite a while.

Ultimately, this is also a euphemistic way of expressing refusal.

"Don't worry, given the urgency of the mission, we naturally won't use conventional undercover methods." Lin Longma smiled slightly; it would have been better if Ireland hadn't given him that hint.

Now that he has given this hint, Lin Longma naturally wants to take advantage of it.

"I think that whether we hire a detective ourselves or use resources to find the murderer, it's a very bad idea."

"If we do that, we'll not only have to find the killer, but we'll also have to race against the Metropolitan Police Department."

"If it's just the Metropolitan Police Department, then it doesn't matter. But based on my understanding of the Metropolitan Police Department, if those guys get stuck in an investigation, they'll definitely call in a detective for help."

Then our opponents will become various famous detectives.

This situation of being led by others is definitely not going to work, so I came up with a great suggestion: we need some help from Vermouth.

Lin Longma held up the case file from the Metropolitan Police Department in his hand: "Why should we race against the police?"

In terms of available resources, who can match the Metropolitan Police Department? Moreover, this case is clearly a multi-location serial murder case; the police force has a significant advantage in handling such cases.

“I think we can send in an undercover agent to replace someone in the police force.”

This way, we can control the police investigation's progress, and if the person being replaced holds a high enough position in the investigation headquarters, they'll have a greater chance of accessing the memory card than others.

Lin Longma put down the file in his hand, took out his phone and searched for a while, then projected Matsumoto Kiyonaga's photo onto the screen.

"A rumor has it that Kiyoshi Matsumoto, the superintendent of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigative Division, will be promoted soon."

The head of the First Investigation Division had already made room for him. This was clearly an unusual promotion, and Matsumoto Kiyonaga needed an impressive resume at this point.

"A major serial murder case may not be much of a help to him, but directing and coordinating joint searches by criminal police in multiple locations must be a very prestigious command experience."

This is a skill he, as a future section chief, urgently needs to demonstrate to others.

"Therefore, Matsumoto Kiyonaga will definitely do his best to win the position of head of this investigation team."

We just need to wait for things to settle down on Matsumoto Kiyonaga's side, then we can have Ireland replace him.

"The newly formed task force within the police force will be headed by one of our own people. Isn't that a cost-effective and efficient solution?"

(End of this chapter)