My brain freezes over, my mind completely blank.
This can’t be. It has to be some sort of trap. Dazai’s been with me the entire time investigating the…
—The enemy is somebody who knows everything about the detective agency’s investigation and every move we make. Somebody who can constantly tamper with the scene of the crime and manipulate the situation from afar.
“I’ll call you back.” I hang up the phone.
“What was that about? It sounded like you were talking to Rokuzo.”
“Just shut up for a moment.”
My thoughts are scattered.
Dazai. Osamu Dazai, a newcomer at the detective agency who popped up out of nowhere.
This sequence of events started after he showed up.
“I asked a close acquaintance in the military’s intelligence department to do a background check on him, but eerily, they found nothing.
“It’s as if someone very carefully wiped his background clean.”
The poison gas at the abandoned hospital was triggered when Dazai touched the trap while we were trying to save the kidnapped victims…and yet, for some reason, he wasn’t in any of the released footage.
How was he able to stay clear of the cameras?
A clever and cautious string puller, the Azure Apostle never soils their own hands.
Someone of considerable intellect, whose acting abilities could deceive even embassy staff, with knowledge of the organ trade…
I start the car engine and begin driving again.
“Dazai.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go for a drive.”
I turn the steering wheel, entering a deserted mountain path and continuing down it until we reach an old abandoned storehouse.
“What’s this?” Dazai asks while looking at the storage shed.
“It’s a storehouse I used for work once. At one time, it was used for industrial materials, but it was abandoned after the company moved overseas. Nobody comes here anymore, which makes it the perfect place to discuss things in private.”
“Oh, great.”
A lukewarm r
eply. I drive inside the storehouse and park. Since the building still has all four walls, I don’t have to worry about being watched, and I would be able to hear any reinforcements should they come.
“Get out.”
Without a word, Dazai gets out of the car. Before I do the same, I open my automatic pistol’s magazine to make sure it’s loaded. Then, after writing in my notebook, I exit the vehicle as well.
“Gee, it sure is quiet here. Definitely the perfect place if you ever wanted to talk in secret. So why are we—?”
I point the pistol at Dazai.
“…What’s the gun for?”