Chapter 194
Although it was Usuha Izuki who recommended Plamia to the organization, Plamia's killing spree truly didn't affect Usuha Izuki at all.
Just as Vodka said when making excuses for Usuha Izuki, Plamia's qualities in all aspects met the organization's recruitment standards—she was just too much of a lone wolf, refusing to join any organization...
Theoretically speaking, given Usuha Izuki's image in the eyes of organization members, everyone thought he should have been able to see this. If they wanted to suspect him of deliberately causing trouble, they indeed could.
But Usuha Izuki turned the tables, saying that if he had gone to recruit her, Plamia might have agreed, and even if she hadn't agreed, she would have already been killed by a sniper—where would all this trouble come from?
The pressure instantly shifted to the organization member responsible for recruiting Plamia.
Ah, this.
The person wanted to defend himself, but Gin wouldn't listen. After all, Usuha Izuki hadn't done anything, so naturally he could boldly hypothesize without any fault, while this person had acted and failed, so it was all his problem.
As for whether Usuha Izuki had planted the seeds of trouble before he went to recruit her, causing Plamia's hatred to explode early... as long as no one knew, Usuha Izuki was completely innocent.
Plamia was very cautious and careful. After discovering this organization seemed quite large, she immediately and rationally went into hiding. Unfortunately, it was already a bit late—the organization hadn't encountered such an arrogant person in a long time. If they didn't completely eliminate her, the organization would lose all face.
It's just that this person was too slippery and her strength was formidable. Forming a special team to deal with her would waste too many resources, so the organization finally chose to issue an internal bounty.
This way, it wouldn't occupy the time of personnel who might need specific deployment, and could let those bored members form their own teams.
And indeed, the organization was quite generous when it came to money—not stingy like Gin. For executives, this money might not be much, but for some ambitious people who couldn't access money-making missions, this was a good task.
Then they discovered that Plamia's real identity suddenly made the news one day.
Organization members who were eating watched the television and fell into deathly silence.
Vodka swallowed the sandwich in his mouth, his mouth twitching as he said: "I suspect it was Botanist who did it... what about you all?"
No one answered, but silence was consent.
Everyone could even hear the phantom voice: "When we ordinary people encounter such vicious criminals, we directly call the police."
Bourbon sighed: "He's not short of money..."
Rye couldn't help thinking that Usuha Izuki wasn't short of money—he was just short of entertainment...
It was possible that after staying on the Middle Eastern battlefield too long, life on the ordinary people's side was too peaceful, so he occasionally came to the organization's side to cause some trouble?
He'd heard that having him live as an ordinary person was Yarik's dying wish—it was possible that Usuha Izuki himself wasn't actually adapted to it...
Gin said coldly: "Call him."
Vodka immediately took out his phone and dialed Usuha Izuki's number.
Usuha Izuki didn't answer. Vodka panicked a bit: "Oh no, he's not really going to cut ties with me, is he?"
Looking at the treatment of Big Brother, the first to be cut off, he was a bit scared!
Bourbon comforted him: "He didn't really answer your calls much before either."
Vodka thought this made sense and felt a bit comforted: "Then Bourbon, try calling Botanist."
He directly skipped over Gin and Rye, because Vodka felt that if he wouldn't even answer his calls, then these two who were already on the blacklist definitely wouldn't get through.
Vodka even felt regretful: "Too bad Scotland isn't here, otherwise he'd probably answer if Scotland called..."
Bourbon was looking through his phone's contact list and his mouth twitched when he heard this: "Where did you get that illusion... Ever since Scotland got his codename and stopped being his partner, moved out to live separately, and stopped cooking for him much, Botanist doesn't really answer Scotland's calls either."
Vodka was shocked: "This friendship is too fragile!"
"...Do you really think this is friendship?"
Vodka thought about it and corrected himself: "It's a housekeeper. In that case, maybe I should have Miyano Akemi call—the success rate might be higher."
Bourbon didn't like hearing Miyano Akemi's name from organization members' mouths.
Because Miyano Akemi was the daughter of Dr. Elena, whom he liked. He currently had no way to rescue the Miyano sisters, so he naturally hoped they could live better. With Shiho being an important executive in the research institution, Miyano Akemi was actually quite safe as a low-level member. On the contrary, being by Usuha Izuki's side and frequently mentioned by Vodka, Gin and their ilk always made him somewhat uneasy.
"Miyano isn't here right now." Bourbon listened to the waiting tone on his phone, hoping Usuha Izuki would give him some face.
He hadn't been bad to Usuha Izuki!
When the other party called him, he always tried to answer, went along when asked to travel together, and gave whatever intelligence he could... Considering this was the adopted son of his undercover predecessor, even though Usuha Izuki's stance remained unclear, Bourbon had tried his best to help him.
But Usuha Izuki was truly ungrateful... Being so serious just to tell him that Rye really was FBI—wasting his emotions!
Just when everyone's patience was about to run out, Usuha Izuki finally answered: "Bourbon? What do you want?"
Bourbon felt tired just hearing Usuha Izuki's voice and said decisively: "It's not me, it's Vodka looking for you."
After speaking, he handed the phone to Vodka like it was a hot potato.
Vodka was a bit speechless but could understand. After taking the phone, he greeted: "Botanist, good evening..."
"I'm not doing well." Usuha Izuki sounded a bit impatient. "I'm playing games. What is it? Say it quickly."
This suited Vodka perfectly. He immediately said: "Did you watch the news? The police are offering a bounty for Plamia."
"Oh, I didn't watch. You guys still haven't found her? How did you let the police find out?"
Vodka: "...??? Didn't you report it to the police?"
"Hah? What does this have to do with me? I provided the list, you guys screwed up and offended her, and now you want me to clean up the mess? What beautiful dream are you having!" Usuha Izuki was very indignant. "This isn't my job! Don't try to make me work overtime!"
After saying this, Usuha Izuki hung up.
Vodka didn't even have time to say anything else.
Like how the police catching her meant the bounty couldn't count as his, or what if the police caught her alive and questioned Plamia about organization intelligence...
Now that Usuha Izuki denied it, all of this was void.
Vodka blankly put down the phone: "Big Brother, Botanist says he didn't do it..."
The group immediately fell into doubt.
"...Could it really not be Botanist? Every time he reports to police, it's open and aboveboard. If it really was him, there's no need to deny it, right?"
"But besides him, who else in the organization likes reporting to police?"
"...Well, is it possible that someone else wanted to use the police and the public's eyes to force Plamia to appear? Otherwise she's too good at hiding—there aren't many clues..."
"And this really doesn't have much to do with Botanist. Since he thinks others screwed up, with his personality, he indeed wouldn't help clean up for no reason..."
"True, what if Plamia has already gone abroad? Publicly sharing her information internationally would catch her faster..."
"Too reckless. What if she wants to die together with the organization and releases organization intelligence? Who exactly did this?"
Rye watched these people fall into confusion because of Usuha Izuki's few casual words, and remained silent himself.
Gin concluded: "Investigate."
With one word from him, the intelligence group had to work overtime again, producing preliminary results in a few days.
"The police discovered this information on a dark web where bomb enthusiasts gather. They even provided several safe house addresses... The police have always had people fishing on this dark web, so discovering this is normal."
Vodka looked through the intelligence group's report and summarized for Gin: "As for the person who posted, they claim to be from that organization called Надоуничтожить that's been hunting Plamia. They're probably also fishing on the dark web. They say after learning Plamia's real identity, they directly made it public everywhere and threatened other people on the dark web, saying these bombers would go to hell sooner or later whether they were caught or not..."
Mm, reasonable and well-founded, logical and coherent—everything seemed to make sense.
"...Where did the Надоуничтожить people get the information? What about the poster?"
Vodka flipped to the end and said regretfully: "The intelligence group can't find out, and we have no contact with Надоуничтожить people..."
Little did they know, the Надоуничтожить people were also asking everywhere who posted this, whether this information was accurate—no one was admitting to it either.
But... how to put it, if they were being framed, they would definitely report to police and request police protection, right? But according to the Japanese police, this person voluntarily disappeared, and since the police dared to release the news, it meant they should have more intelligence and could confirm the person indeed had problems...
So the Надоуничтожить people decided that regardless of who posted it, they'd find Plamia first!
Not only Japanese police—those countries that had been bombed by Plamia before also quickly requested evidence from Japanese police, confirmed its authenticity, and similarly issued wanted notices.
The exposure of a world-famous bomber's real identity was quite big news, and for a time the whole world had a sense of changing winds.
When Hagiwara Kenji, Matsuda Jinpei and Usuha Izuki were eating at the Metropolitan Police, they all discussed this topic.
Matsuda Jinpei, who had discovered Plamia-related intelligence from the dark web, complained: "That dark web changed addresses again. The new address hasn't been released yet—they'll probably wait for things to calm down before reopening..."
"After this incident, shutting down for reorganization is normal," said Usuha Izuki, who had uploaded Plamia's intelligence, calmly. "The bombers are probably feeling sorry for their kind, worried about when their identities might be exposed. They probably won't dare post anything during this period."
Hagiwara Kenji sighed: "Suddenly becoming like this—truly, doing too many bad things will always leave traces... I wonder what Plamia did recently. She was fine for so many years, but now she's suddenly been discovered."
Usuha Izuki: "...Yeah, who knows."
Actually, it started just to get rid of that bomber who was causing him trouble... As for it becoming this big, it was to farm some suspicion values from the organization's side.
Just clicking a mouse—not earning this suspicion value would be quite a loss, wouldn't it?
Plamia lived like a rat crossing the street, while the organization investigated everywhere who was so careless... What did any of this have to do with him?
What mastermind or not—he was just a data porter!