Chapter 196
Despite this incident, the bomb expert quickly recovered his mood. After getting in the car, he continued driving them to the hotel while explaining:
"Although you encountered bomb cases both in Hawaii and here, these things are actually quite rare. Don't worry—what's more common here are shootings, and I chose a hotel in a neighborhood with relatively good security!"
"...Oh, thank you."
Great comfort. Please don't comfort us next time.
The hotel choice was indeed good, and it was close to the conference venue—after all, it was a technical exchange conference where many people had to give presentations. One or two days definitely wouldn't be enough. With a longer duration, the distance between accommodation and meetings would affect the happiness of this trip. It could be said that the bomb expert was really thoughtful.
They were here on leave with a tight schedule and no time for tourism or leisure. The exchange conference began the next day.
Before the official start time, with quite a few social types around, when Usuha Izuki and his group arrived, everyone was already standing or sitting in small groups throughout the venue, seeking out people of interest to chat with.
The bomb expert spotted Usuha Izuki's group at a glance and hurried over to invite them to join his side.
"This is my colleague from the FBI, Rock Blade. These are the three friends I mentioned before, invited from Japan."
Rock Blade smiled and greeted them: "Hello, just call me Rock..."
The bomb expert said enthusiastically, as if proud of his own deduction: "Yesterday's bus case—didn't Morgan say 'actually got everything right'? He was talking about Samukawa's deduction!"
"I see." Blade looked at Usuha Izuki again and nodded in acknowledgment. "No wonder Joseph fought for several spots to invite Japanese experts. I finally understand—you really helped us a lot... But do Japanese bomb experts need to know so much?"
"...I'm actually a detective."
"..."
"Asia likes cultivating well-rounded talents..." The bomb expert coughed, trying to change the subject. "Plamia ran rampant in so many countries without being caught, but her real identity was discovered in Japan. Change your habit of always looking down on other countries!"
Blade: "Don't make me sound racist. I just don't have much contact with Asia, and those names are hard to remember... Speaking of which, what do your names mean in Japanese?"
After some casual chat, as the conference host arrived, everyone found seats. The room returned to quiet, with only extremely soft whispers and coughing.
Usuha Izuki had also roughly scanned the conference attendees earlier. He didn't know if it was stereotypical thinking about America, but the more socially extroverted ones seemed to be Americans, while people from other countries were somewhat aloof, not animated when talking, leaning toward another stereotype about researchers...
But considering certain people's identities, this was understandable.
Based on Usuha Izuki's analysis skills for profiling people—exchanged for Samukawa Shinryu—at least five attendees had committed crimes and might have been recruited...
When he entered with his "Black Screen Aura" active, everyone just glanced over without anyone being blind enough to say he looked suspicious. They probably thought he was also recruited, so having a somewhat dangerous aura was normal.
Thinking of this, Usuha Izuki suddenly felt speechless.
Some positions probably couldn't avoid recruitment... like IT personnel, like bomb experts... The former because regular forces might not match wild hackers, the latter because regular forces had higher casualty rates...
At the conference start, they first explained the meeting's purpose, process, etc. Perhaps everyone here seemed too lifeless about these things, preferring practical matters, so the flashy preliminaries quickly passed, entering the stage of sharing recent classic bomb cases from their respective countries.
Since it was held in America, naturally American experts would start.
Joseph, the expert who invited Usuha Izuki's group, went first, fumbling to insert a USB: "Ahem, let me share a bomb we encountered a couple years ago... Don't make that face, everyone. I know technology has developed rapidly these years, but this bomb would still be difficult even now... Found it, in this folder. Let me show you the model I reconstructed..."
Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei's expressions became somewhat strange.
...At home, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit studied this model. Coming abroad, they still had to discuss this model. It was like they'd come abroad for nothing.
It must be said, classics were classics. Even after several years, they were still classics. Everyone had been a bit cold initially, but once the 3D model appeared and Joseph began explaining, the discussion below immediately became heated.
"The probability of successful installation is actually quite low. For the victim to give such an opportunity... practicality isn't really high..."
"Indeed a bit cumbersome, but since it was for extortion, as long as it could be successfully installed, that's a win. Very clear thinking—luck is also part of strength."
"Actually, I think..."
After some discussion, someone asked: "How did you finally solve this bomb? Did you detonate it directly?"
Joseph answered: "That's what I planned, but we had outside help at the time. They blew up the control box above, so the hotel had almost no damage."
The audience immediately erupted.
"To blow up the control box without disturbing the mechanisms inside and the bomb box below? And it actually succeeded?"
"Where was this outside help from?"
"Did this outside help come?"
Joseph quietly glanced at Usuha Izuki, seeming to ask if he was willing to go up.
Usuha Izuki pondered for a moment.
There were no important plot characters among these people, so the suspicion values he'd farm had no weight. His appetite had already been spoiled—he couldn't really appreciate these and was too lazy to bother. So he gently shook his head, then nodded, meaning keep his presence here secret but everything else was fine.
Joseph immediately understood and coughed: "That outside help used self-mixed plastic explosives with very precise amounts, which is why they could do so well... And this design was actually created by him for his department's training, but it was leaked. Everything was quite coincidental—anyone else couldn't have done it. I recommend direct detonation, and I'd like to remind everyone present that liking bomb design is a personal hobby no one can interfere with, but please store your designs carefully to avoid trouble..."
Perhaps out of guilt, and also feeling such cumbersome bombs had too few practical applications, that mole in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit only privately traded this one copy without widespread leaking. That's why Joseph chose this bomb for today's exchange—otherwise, if everyone knew about it, there'd be no point in exchanging.
For some reason, following Joseph's explanation, Usuha Izuki inexplicably received a bunch of suspicion values.
He opened them and found all these suspicion value contributors were conference attendees.
System: [...??? What's happening? You can farm suspicion values without even going up to say strange things?]
Usuha Izuki thought for a moment, analyzing what Joseph had just said, and suddenly understood: [Joseph's explanation was easily misunderstood.]
[Ah? What he said seemed quite normal?]
[Feel it again—'The bomb designer didn't mean it that way, just that the design leaked,' 'The bomb designer just happened to be there,' 'The bomb designer helped solve it'...]
The system understood: [...Why does Joseph make it sound like everything was planned by the bomb designer?]
[That's what they're suspecting too—it's too coincidental.] Usuha Izuki sighed. [He naturally helped me farm so many suspicion values... just by speaking normally...]
—Could Joseph be a genius?!
Although Japan had endless bomb cases, it lacked creativity in bomb design, so the three of them hadn't prepared materials and just listened.
This exchange conference lasted three days, all proceeding smoothly until the fourth day when Blade, who had only attended the first day, suddenly returned with bad news.
"Sorry, we received a warning letter. Someone seems to be planning to kill someone at the conference..."
After three days of exchange, what needed to be said had mostly been said. Those who hadn't shared their materials felt it didn't matter—having seen others' shared experiences, leaving now wouldn't be a loss at all.
So everyone expressed that the meeting should just disperse!
Blade looked embarrassed: "Well, sorry, that won't work either. He says if any of you leave, he'll detonate a bomb somewhere... Since you're already being targeted, why don't you stay under our protection for a couple days to avoid problems on your way home."
"What's going on?" Joseph, also being FBI, directly asked his colleague with justification. "Too sudden. What happened? Where's the warning letter? Could it just be a joke?"
"...The warning letter was found on a corpse." Blade frowned. "So we can't treat it as a joke. He might take the next step at any time."
"A corpse?"
"Yes, and the corpse..."
"—had a glass ball in its mouth."
A female voice suddenly continued. Judy Starling, a female FBI agent Samukawa Shinryu's group had met in Hawaii, walked in with the conference roster, looking at the dark-haired, red-eyed youth with complex eyes.
"Dark red."
—Just like this person's eyes.