"You are obeying him so easily?" The harshness in Gin's eyes intensified as he heard Vodka's explanation, he was clearly dissatisfied with it.
"No! I decided to come early on my own... that guy said the villa had a power outage due to a snowstorm, so I called and asked him to come," Vodka explained.
Vodka couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as Gin gradually lowered the gun. "But that Itakura guy is cunning. When we arrived, only the things and the check we gave him were there, but he was nowhere to be found."
"The check?"
"Yeah, he put our payment and program CD in the storage box," Vodka smirked. "I guess he hoped to beg for his life by using this method."
"It's just a little clever, but as long as we have the thing. As for the little mouse, I'll keep him alive for another two days."
Gin put away the CD after inspecting it and walked towards the stairs. "Also, remember to pick up the cigarette butts."
"Eh?" Vodka was puzzled for a moment, but he obediently followed Gin's advice and picked up the cigarette butts from the ground.
"You easily get impatient and smoke when you can't meet the person you're waiting for. Change that habit."
Leather shoes stepped on the steps, and Gin said without looking back:. "If you leave the cigarette butts here and someone with ill intentions finds them, they can determine your DNA, and it will become evidence for monitoring your DNA."
As the two moved farther away, the voice in the eavesdropping device gradually diminished until it returned to silence. Conan also put away his detective badge.
Thanks to Senichi's skillful driving, they arrived in Tokyo much earlier than the agreed time even in this snowy weather.
So, Conan had already placed the check and CD in the "0032" locker as agreed, and avoided the embarrassment of being stuck in the underground station.
As for the eavesdropping device, it was naturally arranged by Senichi.
Previously, Professor Agasa had given him a communicator with the same frequency as Conan's detective badge, but it didn't have a shell like Conan's...
He placed it in the bottom seam of the locker and then used Conan's detective badge as a receiver.
"I didn't expect Gin to come too. He's a cautious guy," Conan exhaled slowly and a hint of fear flashing in his eyes. He once again realized the difficulty of dealing with Gin through this eavesdropping.
"I'm afraid small tricks will probably be discovered by him soon," Senichi agreed, and at the same time pointed out: "Those clever tricks can only put yourself in trouble.."
"No envy, But that's true," Conan nodded in agreement.
This scene left Senichi, who had the memory of Conan's embarrassment in his mind, with a strange expression. And he did not know how to describe his current feelings.
From the conversation between Gin and Vodka, Senichi learned that they seemed oblivious to any suspicious actions regarding Itakura's escape.
They believed Itakura sent the items ahead of time and then fled out of excessive concern.
With this information, the likelihood of the "gift" being successfully deployed increased significantly.
After all, their rush back from Gunma, which was quite a distance from Tokyo, was not merely to act as urgent couriers for Gin and Vodka.
This is also why, Conan decisively stopped pondering after discussing the plan with Senichi.
It can be said that although this operation was Conan's intention, its shape had already completely turned into Senichi's form.
There's no way around it; this is the difference between thorough preparation and impromptu "quick wits"!
The so-called quick wits can never compare to a well-thought-out plan because quick wits are the best response made in urgent, unprepared, or unforeseen circumstances.
But it is not the optimal solution.
Does Conan in the original storyline want to find himself in a situation of escaping death!?
He doesn't want to, but there's no choice. The car broke down, and he had to hitchhike with the criminals midway through the journey... ...
He couldn't tell Yamamura what happened, but let the criminals take them back to Tokyo before dealing with them.
As a master-level driver, Senichi made Conan pay a small price for turning pale but advanced the timeline significantly.
Ensuring they wouldn't be stuck in the underground station and coupled with disguises their safety was guaranteed.
In addition, Conan's techniques in the original work, such as "using adhesive tape to extract fingerprints" and "placing a locator on the CD," were also subject to criticism.
Those traps ended up being a foil for Gin's brilliant deduction and, incidentally, a way to subtly mock Vodka's lack of intelligence.
But does Conan want to use timer technique? Doesn't he know that placing a locator on the CD can be easily discovered?
After all, the CD box is only so big, and sticking that large locator on top, if one is cautious enough to open the disc box and take a look inside, it would be easily discovered.
But Conan still did it because he didn't have better conditions.
And now, even though the plan had completely turned into Senichi's plan and he was almost just a bystander...
It smelled really good!
After the eavesdropping went silent, soon the figures of Gin and Vodka appeared in the telescope.
Following Vodka's command, several black cars quickly started and followed Gin's vehicle, leaving the station from various intersections.
At this moment, Conan saw the black-clad individuals searching around the underground station through the telescope. He couldn't help but be thankful that they had arrived early; otherwise, it would have been difficult to come out again.
Watching the cars leave one by one, Conan was continuously making notes in his little notebook with great excitement!
What to note... of course, the license plate numbers!
Vodka, not having good intentions from the beginning for this deal, summoned quite a few people in the vicinity to prevent Itakura from escaping and, incidentally, to guard against him calling in police reinforcements.
Even though most of these people wore sunglasses to cover their faces in the middle of the night, the cars were still exposed.
After recording the license plates, they could investigate each one in the future. In addition, the car that Vodka came in was a key target.
As for the other vehicles, they may not be as important as the key members like Gin and Vodka, but these extras were actually the largest group within the Black Organization.
If they could apprehend them, not to mention how much valuable information they could gain, at least the colleagues they are familiar with wouldn't be able to escape.
There was also the Black Organization's secret base. If Senichi and Conan were to investigate, it would be extremely difficult for them, but for organization members, even if they were nameless extras, they would at least know where their own base was.
Little chess pieces also have their uses; it just depends on how they are utilized.
As for whether the license plates would be discarded after use, Senichi believed that once his "gift" appeared, he should be able to divert attention.
As for whether the final intelligence would become invalid in the end, it would depend on how the opponent responds.