Stay away from Conan.

"By the way, according to previous reports, wasn't Louis supposed to have come in ahead of time to scout the situation? Where are Louis's men now?"

After Rum explained that the next course of action would primarily focus on capturing the intruder, he suddenly reviewed the events of the incident and recalled noticing Louis's presence—

Before Gin and his group arrived, Louis, who had arrived earlier, actually broke into the pharmaceutical factory alone. At that time, the organization believed that there were more than one infiltrator in the factory. Under such circumstances, what was Louis thinking that he would choose to infiltrate alone first?
Could it be that this was merely a preemptive reconnaissance mission?
Moreover, according to the new intelligence we just learned, the organization member who was tied up in the trunk of the car was originally assigned by Louis to follow Sherry. However, it was at that time that the person she sent was attacked. Then the infiltrator took his place and successfully infiltrated the organization, which led to this incident.

Therefore, upon closer examination, it seems that the root of all the problems lies in Louis's arrangement!

So, at this point, since the investigation into the infiltrator is currently impossible due to their ability to disguise themselves, we must not overlook any possible clues. Let's start with Louis!

Having said that, Vodka, still somewhat apprehensive, reported back to his superior regarding the issue:
“Well, Louise…she’s still not awake…”

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Rum asked with a slightly dissatisfied tone, seemingly because everything he had encountered that day had gone wrong, making it difficult for him to be in a good mood.

Vodka then had no choice but to bite the bullet and begin to explain:
"After we sent people to pursue the intruder, some of our men were also assigned to stay behind and re-search the lab area, after all..."

"At first, we thought the intruders were so adept at infiltrating the pharmaceutical factory so perfectly, even subduing all our personnel left here without giving any warning, and breaching our security systems, etc., that we were completely in trouble..."

"It's hard to imagine that this could be done by one person."

"Therefore, when we tried to force the infiltrators who had sneaked into the laboratory to come out, only one man who was holding Sherry hostage came out. To be on the safe side, we thought he might have come out first to protect his other companions and distract us. So, after we went out to pursue them, Brother Gin sent Chianti and the others to conduct a full search of the laboratory again."

"That's the result. We found Louis inside, knocked unconscious, and a damaged laboratory. Other than that, we didn't find any other intruders, so..."

As he said this, Vodka noticed the reactions of Gin and Rum, realizing he might have gone off-topic, and quickly steered the conversation back on track:

"In short, after we found Louise unconscious, we examined her and discovered that she had likely been knocked unconscious with a heavy blow and then injected with some kind of drug..."

"This can be basically confirmed after asking Shirley..."

"Huh? Sherry?"

At this point, Rum remembered that Sherry, as the other party's hostage, enabled them to escape successfully. However, after they escaped, they didn't have time to take Sherry with them, so Sherry is now... "Bring Sherry here... no, take me to see Sherry!"

Rum realized that Sherry must have witnessed what the intruder did after infiltrating, so since Louis was still unconscious, he would ask Sherry first.

So, led by Gin and the others, Rum met Sherry, who had been brought back to the organization and placed in a room that seemed to be for her to rest, but was actually a form of house arrest.

Here, Sherry, who seemed to have just undergone a brief physical examination by the laboratory's medical staff, felt an overwhelming and terrifying sense of oppression upon seeing Rum and his group suddenly enter. This startled Sherry, but she quickly regained her composure, remaining as composed as ever.

But deep down, Shirley had a premonition about this situation. Or rather, after playing the hostage in that intruder's act, Shirley knew what she might encounter, so this...

Let's just recount the events according to the so-called "script" prepared in advance by the infiltrator, which was actually almost identical to the truth.

As expected, upon the arrival of Gin and his group, and the bald old man leading them—whom Sherry recognized as Rum, the organization's second-in-command who never truly revealed himself—Sherry had no choice but to appear subservient in his presence. After hearing Rum's direct questioning, Sherry recounted her experiences and observations after the infiltrator's infiltration of the laboratory.

In short, the incident unfolded as follows: when Shirley was walking around the internal laboratory, she noticed something unusual in one of the lab rooms. As a researcher, she was preemptively attacked and held hostage. Her life was threatened, and she was forced to reveal information about the drug, such as drug data and finished products.

Later, while Sherry was forced to temporarily comply with orders due to her life being threatened, Louis also entered the laboratory to try to find out what was going on inside. However, because the intruder was using Sherry as a hostage, Louis was afraid to act freely, so Louis was immediately at a disadvantage in the fight and was knocked unconscious. Then, as a precaution, Sherry was forced to inject Louis with a sleeping drug, so Louis was unable to wake up for a short period of time.

Thus, based on Shirley's description, it basically matches what Vodka just said—

Louis was indeed knocked unconscious and then injected with drugs, remaining in a coma ever since.

This seemed to clear up all the doubts surrounding Louise's coma, but the crucial question remained unresolved for Rum. After interrogating Sherry a few more times, Rum ordered the medical staff to quickly find a way to wake Louise; there were still questions awaiting her answers. As for Sherry…

Rum wasn't in the mood to waste time with her for the time being.

Putting aside the matter of the drugs, with most of the finished drugs destroyed and the drug data also destroyed, Shirley is the only candidate to develop the drugs, and no matter what the reason, it is impossible to touch her now.

Another thing made Rum even angrier—

"So, the intruder spared the life of the person he was impersonating, and also spared the life of Louis, who almost broke into the lab and disrupted their plans. But when he saw my car, did he really want to kill me?" (End of Chapter)