Chapter 257
Usuha Izuki knew exactly what Rum's reaction would be.
But he wasn't in a hurry. He turned around and sent another email to Vodka: [I kindly reminded Rum that Stout might be an undercover agent and told him to investigate, but I feel like Rum is brushing me off.]
Vodka, upon receiving the email: "..........."
Vodka's feelings were complicated. His first instinct was that Rum was in trouble, but reason told him that Usuha Izuki might just be having another episode.
Having been fooled countless times, Vodka cautiously asked how Usuha Izuki had made this judgment. Usuha Izuki directly forwarded the email he had sent to Rum.
After reading Usuha Izuki's analysis, Vodka fell silent again.
Originally, he thought maybe Stout was another Akai Shuichi and that Rum would follow in his boss's footsteps, but looking at the reasons Usuha Izuki gave...
At this moment, Vodka's thoughts overlapped with Rum's—aren't you even going to pretend? Really identifying undercover agents just from documents?! At least fly to Britain to see Stout in person!
As someone Rum had carefully selected, the information might even have been summarized by Rum himself. If there really were problems, would Rum so openly promote him?
Using information summarized by Rum as evidence to say Stout was an undercover agent was no different from pointing at Rum and calling him an idiot.
Vodka, having been stimulated by the truth that Akai Shuichi really was FBI, felt confident again.
He hypocritically consoled Usuha Izuki: [If Rum doesn't believe it, then he doesn't. Anyway, Stout can't take over the Middle East route all at once. Don't Arak Wine's old friends have good relationships with you? Just go badmouth Stout and drive him away.]
Workplace ostracization—if this method didn't work, just switch to another.
If this were Usuha Izuki's first time accusing someone of being an undercover agent, Rum might be more cautious, but this kid had been calling people undercover agents everywhere before. Now he was finally getting his comeuppance!
Vodka was practically dancing with joy.
After a long time, Usuha Izuki finally replied: [Tragic, too tragic. The organization is full of people like you and Rum. I truly feel sorry for the Boss.]
Vodka was already immune to this level of trash talk.
Let Usuha Izuki say whatever he wanted. If things went smoothly with Stout, he could only be arrogant for a few more years. Even if Arak Wine had put some kind of love potion on the Middle East, seven years should have shaken that.
Once Usuha Izuki completely lost his value, everyone he had offended would line up to settle scores. That would be truly exciting.
Unfortunately, this waiting process was too long. Before Vodka could enjoy seeing Usuha Izuki fall from grace, an event occurred that directly affected him and Gin.
"Boss, something happened!!!"
Vodka looked at the emergency intelligence from the research facility, his face pale with shock: "Sherry has disappeared!!!"
Gin: "...???"
Gin had always been annoyed by Vodka's occasional panic, but this time, he was shocked too: "How did she disappear? Wasn't she locked in the gas chamber?"
He had planned to starve her for two days, and if she still didn't give in, proceed to the next step. But now the person had directly disappeared—what the hell?
"Boss, what do we do now?" Vodka held his phone like a bomb, his face full of resistance and worry. "Are there traitors in the research facility?"
Gin felt this possibility was very high. If so...
"Bring everyone from the research facility for interrogation, start transferring important data. After I check where Sherry disappeared, burn the research facility to the ground..."
Sherry had disappeared without a trace. Considering the worst possibility—that she had betrayed the organization—this research facility couldn't be kept.
At the very least, they couldn't let whatever new force Sherry had joined get more leverage. Rather than slowly relocating and erasing traces, it was more convenient to just burn everything clean.
Ridiculous—locked up and handcuffed, how could she still disappear? There was definitely a traitor!
Gin angrily issued a series of orders. Vodka listened and nodded as usual, but after Gin finally finished, he cautiously suggested:
"Since there might be a traitor, should we have Botanist take a look?"
Gin: "................"
Seeing Gin's terrifying expression, Vodka knew he had said the wrong thing.
Sweating profusely, he tried to say something in his defense, like "maybe he'll guess right again this time," but Gin spoke first in an ominous tone:
"You trust Botanist that much?"
Vodka quickly took a stance: "No! I just chatted with Botanist recently and he was randomly accusing people of being undercover agents again. I had a momentary brain lapse!"
Gin frowned: "He accused us again?"
"No, this time it was Stout, that guy Rum promoted."
Vodka obediently answered, and to make Gin forget about his slip of the tongue, he embellished: "Botanist was even more ridiculous this time. He's never even met the person, just looked at the information Rum gave him, saw that Stout was British, and said he was an MI6 undercover agent, telling Rum to investigate further... If Rum dares to use someone, he must have investigated countless times. This time he's hit a wall for sure."
Gin's tightly furrowed brow relaxed slightly: "Hmm."
If it weren't for the Sherry incident on his end, his mood might be even better now.
While Gin was using Usuha Izuki's gossip as entertainment, someone else was using Gin's gossip as entertainment.
Bourbon, who had been following the Miyano sisters and was in the intelligence group, immediately shared the news with Usuha Izuki: "Did you hear? Sherry disappeared from the research facility. Gin's in trouble this time..."
Actually, Bourbon was somewhat suspicious that Usuha Izuki had a hand in this and wanted to probe where Sherry was now.
After all, Public Security hadn't received any information this time. Could she have fallen into FBI hands?
But this time really had nothing to do with Usuha Izuki. It was entirely Sherry who, with the determination to die, took the drug and, like Kudo Shinichi, became small and escaped through a passage adults couldn't fit through.
Not knowing about the drug's effects, Gin, after checking the room where Sherry was held, couldn't figure out this escape route no matter how hard he thought. He could only guess in the direction of traitors, and his attitude toward interrogating research facility staff became increasingly terrifying.
After hearing Bourbon's account, Usuha Izuki sighed: "I bet Gin let Sherry escape himself and is now crying thief to catch the thief. That's exactly how he helped Akai Shuichi hide his identity last time."
Bourbon: "..........."
If it has nothing to do with you, then it has nothing to do with you. Could you show some sincerity when trying to fool people?
Ignoring his sudden stomach pain, Bourbon responded helplessly: "Can't you think of some new tricks? How long have you been using this one? I also suggest you try a different approach with Stout."
When Usuha Izuki was sending emails to Akai Shuichi, Bourbon was sweeping there. His vision wasn't good enough to see around corners, so he only knew Usuha Izuki had accused Stout of being an undercover agent, but knew nothing else.
Hearing Usuha Izuki's domineering declaration about "making Stout give up himself," Bourbon thought he had some good idea, but after asking around with Rum, discovered it was still the exhaustive method of accusing people of being undercover agents.
Seeing Usuha Izuki's methods so crude, Bourbon wanted to sigh.
Had this kid put all his skill points into tormenting people? He had zero emotional intelligence and workplace maneuvering skills!
Using this trick after a few successes would have higher odds, but only succeeding with Akai Shuichi wasn't quite enough. As for that American con artist, most people in the organization didn't take him seriously anyway, so now this...
Usuha Izuki: "Tricks don't need to be new as long as they work. Just wait, I'm going to email the Boss right now to report Gin for guarding and stealing while crying thief, and also mention how Rum doesn't take my words seriously."
Bourbon: "...Fine, whatever you want."
He had reminded Usuha Izuki to keep a low profile and consider retreat options, but this guy was going crazy and still courting death even at this point.
Honestly, he didn't even know that undercover predecessor—he was just taking care of the predecessor's adopted son out of respect for those who died without remains as undercover agents and his own sense of justice. He had already done more than enough.
Even if Usuha Izuki was killed by the organization tomorrow, he could say with a clear conscience that he had tried his best.
He couldn't expose himself to help someone whose stance was unclear, could he?
Public Security had spent considerable resources and effort making him an undercover agent! He couldn't waste that!
Usuha Izuki did what he said and really wrote an email to the Boss.
The organization's Boss had received quite a few emails from Usuha Izuki over the years.
But because of his early experience with harassment-call-level incidents, even if Usuha Izuki sent one email per week, the Boss felt the child had grown up and learned to respect leadership, which made him feel gratified.
...This was the effect of lowering the baseline first—after that, no matter what he did, it was an upward trajectory.
Moreover, Usuha Izuki's emails weren't all nonsense. His letters conveyed a sense of seriousness, as if he treated the Boss like a family elder, not hiding his emotions, directly saying when he disliked someone. Therefore, even when he badmouthed Gin, it didn't seem like scheming but rather pure complaints.
What he complained about was quite magical, making the Boss think "so there's this kind of perspective" or "this is how things look from his angle"...
Since the Boss had accepted from the beginning that Usuha Izuki was mentally ill, he didn't think Usuha Izuki was deliberately distorting anyone's image. He just felt that from Usuha Izuki's own perspective, Usuha Izuki was indeed wronged.
In Usuha Izuki's view, only the Boss could control those who bullied him, so Usuha Izuki relied on him and complained to him.
[Everyone in the organization dislikes me]—sigh, with this kid's behavior and way of thinking, who would like him? So having many complaints about the organization was understandable.
And no matter what he did behind the scenes, the Boss appeared responsive to Usuha Izuki's needs, so it was natural for Usuha Izuki to rely on him, trust him, and respect him most in the organization.
At the Boss's age, he indeed saw Usuha Izuki as a child. Though not easy to control, it was mainly because he was mentally ill. As long as Usuha Izuki's heart was with him, that was enough. Didn't he see that Usuha Izuki never interfered with smuggling routes, always doing whatever he said, content to be a mascot?
Not very well-behaved or obedient, but he could only rely on himself, which satisfied the Boss.
Therefore, the Boss always read Usuha Izuki's emails with great tolerance, patiently extracting useful intelligence from Usuha Izuki's novel perspectives.
For example, last time when Gin knew Usuha Izuki was on the shinkansen but said nothing—while he wouldn't completely believe Usuha Izuki's claim that "Gin took this mission to find an excuse to assassinate me," he could see Gin had some tendency toward acting on his own initiative.
This made the Boss somewhat displeased, but Gin was a very useful blade, and years of accumulated trust couldn't be shaken by one or two incidents, so he only hinted at Gin, hoping Gin would understand his painstaking efforts.
Now, let him see what Usuha Izuki wanted to complain about this time...
Reading along, the Boss couldn't help but laugh.
Usuha Izuki was indeed raised like a son by Arak Wine. Aside from occasional unpredictability during episodes, he was usually like an innocent fool. Even when feeling threatened, his methods were still so crude...
But reading further, when Usuha Izuki again mentioned how Gin investigated Akai Shuichi without finding problems, the Boss's smile gradually disappeared.
It was unlikely that Gin was crying thief to catch the thief regarding Sherry's disappearance, but some undercover agents indeed couldn't be detected. Rum investigating Stout...
The Boss hesitated, then sent Rum a message: [Is Stout really trustworthy?]
Seeing this, Rum immediately knew Usuha Izuki had complained to the Boss. He replied through gritted teeth: [Investigated several times, no suspicious points whatsoever.]
The Boss relaxed.
Then, within two days, the Boss received the latest news:
—Report! Stout suddenly disappeared with classified intelligence!!!