Conan: I'm really not the mastermind behind the scenes

Since Cinderella betrayed a lot of information, Aaron ran around outside for several days, moving or simply blowing up those strongholds.

This time only Gin followed, Anatoly and Artemis did not go, and Aaron found that his boss seemed not to want them to show their faces in front of too many members of the organization.

By the time Aaron and Gin returned to Staten Island, it was already late at night a week later.

Snake Venom Beer, who had not had a good rest for several days, felt that his head was about to explode. When he was blown by the night wind, he started to feel throbbing pain, and his abdomen began to hurt. As soon as he entered the villa, he couldn't wait to close the door, blocking out the cold wind behind him, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is your health so bad?" Gin said coldly after seeing his actions.

"The spleen is completely ruptured, how can it be so easy to fully recover?" Aaron was helpless.

Ordinary ruptures are not that serious. The problem is that he stayed in Russia when he was injured. In order to come back as soon as possible, he delayed the best opportunity for treatment, leaving considerable sequelae.

The old butler received the communication when they landed on the island. Now he came to the door to greet them. He bowed slightly to them and made a gesture of invitation.

"Master, please go underground."

He thought he could go to rest immediately. Aaron was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered today's date.

"Today is 'Judgment Day'?"

The old housekeeper nodded: "Yes."

"——This incident has come to an end. Mr. Goldwasser plans to let the two young masters execute the traitor."

……

The interrogation room is located on the seventh floor underground. Aaron and Gin separated as soon as they got out of the elevator.

He watched the silver-haired killer walk away. Instead of going to the interrogation room that he visited almost every day, he turned and walked in the opposite direction and opened a door.

This room is very much like a high-end VIP seat in a concert hall. There is no wall on one side, only a waist-high guardrail, and a sofa behind it.

A man was sitting on the sofa. When he heard the door opening, he looked up, revealing a pair of green eyes.

"Anatole," Aaron called.

The young man blinked at him and pointed to the seat next to him: "Sit down."

Aaron didn't sit down, he walked to the guardrail.

There was an open space not far below. This observation room was about 2 meters higher than the bottom, which was not too far away. As long as he stood here, he could see everything in the open space. He saw a pillar in the center of his field of vision.

There is an instrument at the top of the pillar. Two slender chains hang from the left and right sides of the instrument and fall to the ground. There is a metal collar at the end of each.

Aaron didn't understand what he was doing, so he turned back to look at the young man on the sofa: "What are you going to do with her?"

Anatole was wearing a white shirt today, which was so big that it seemed to hang on his shoulders. He sat cross-legged, leaning his elbows on the armrests of the sofa, and looked at the open space.

Hearing Aaron's question, he answered without question: "I read it."

"What?" Aaron wondered.

"The confessions you asked for."

Anatoly said calmly: "I discovered that Cinderella betrayed her to protect her son."

These confessions were all asked by Aaron, and he naturally knew this. He was about to continue saying something when he saw someone coming out of the door next to the open space.

It was Artemis. He led Cinderella toward the pillar.

Cinderella was in a very embarrassed state, and her once beautiful blond hair was covered in blood. But honestly speaking, as a traitor who had clearly betrayed important information about the organization, she was in pretty good shape at the moment. She only had injuries from the arrest and interrogation, but no injuries. Other torture.

Neither Goldwasser nor his men like to torture people. For them, causing physical pain to others is just a means to achieve their goals, not a way to vent their stress or a special hobby.

Perhaps knowing that her death was imminent, Cinderella still struggled instinctively even though the possibility of escaping was slim.

Her struggle made Artemis' movement of holding her a little difficult. Anatoly, who was sitting on the sofa, suddenly put his legs down from the sofa, sat up straight, and looked there with concern.

In the open space, Artemis spent a lot of effort and finally brought the person to the pillar and put a collar around her neck. Gin came out of the other door, his pace was obviously much faster, he threw the things in his hand to the ground and put on the collar.

Aaron recognized what Gin had thrown down at a glance.

……

In the open space, Gin put a metal collar on the guy he fished out a few days ago, and then stepped back a few steps away.

He took out a cigarette and wanted to enjoy the next performance. Just as he was about to take out a lighter and light it up, he heard a sharp scream not far away.

Gin glanced up and saw Cinderella rushing to her son's side, touching the collar with trembling hands, as if she wanted to take it off.

She looked extremely embarrassed, and her scars were all exposed, making her look particularly hideous. The other members did not torture her intentionally, but they also did not provide treatment. When she went to the interrogation room just now, she did not have the strength to speak a complete sentence.

But now this woman who was originally so angry started to cry. Her voice was intermittent, hoarse and unpleasant, and big tears fell from the corners of her eyes.

"Please...please, Artemis, Gin...please don't kill my child...kill me..."

Gin was chewing on his cigarette. He had heard similar begging for mercy dozens of times, but it didn't move him at all.

But he knew a certain experience of the people around him, so he looked at Artemis.

The eyes of Artemis next to her moved slightly, and her light brown eyes were like two pieces of glass, shining with a clear luster. He took a few steps forward and squatted down in front of Cinderella.

"I know it's a 'Cinderella' story."

He looked directly into her eyes and slowly narrated:
"You come from a sound family. Your parents were very loving. Unfortunately, when you were fifteen, your father had an accident. Your mother found a new boyfriend with two stepbrothers. He tried to rape you, but you killed them. But when you asked your mother for help, she called you a murderer and wanted to call the police to arrest you, so you had no choice but to run away from home. "

"You don't have the luck of the girl in the fairy tale. You don't have a prince, no glass slipper, and you don't even have a mother who loves you and is willing to protect you. So you swore at that time that if you have a child in the future, you will do your best to protect him or her. , will never be like your mother."

Cinderella's eyes widened, she looked up at the fourteen-year-old boy in front of her, her lips trembled, and she couldn't make a sound.

Gin saw her reaction and knew he was telling the truth.

"After that, you wandered around, met a lover, and was pulled into the organization by him. He died a few years ago, but you survived and even got your own code name."

Artemis's voice was soft and gentle. He took out the handkerchief from his arms, and like the prince in the fairy tale holding the glass slipper looking for his sweetheart, he gently brushed Cinderella's cheek and wiped away the tears on her face.

A smell of smoke wafted over, and he couldn't help but cough a few times and continued:

"But actually, you don't care about that guy anymore, right? You also had a fight about whether your child should join the organization. You were willing to be with him for so long just because your child liked this dad. After his death, you Doubly good for the kids.”

"However, during the mission half a year ago, you made a mistake during your retreat and went to a monitored area, and then you were targeted by the FBI. It took them several months to find you, and even found the child and took him away directly from the school."

"You are afraid of your child's disappearance. You have seen many cases over the years and have caused many yourself. You are worried that he will be killed, and you regret your incompetence... You should have thought about asking my father for help. Right? As a result, the FBI called you first."

"I……"

Cinderella Cocktail managed to make a little noise, and behind Artemis, Gin frowned.

"They tell you that they have 'protected' your child and are willing to provide a witness protection plan and arrange for him to leave with a false identity. He does not need to join an organization, learn to kill, and he does not need to live in fear every day."

"And in return, you have to provide them with intelligence about the organization."

Cinderella stiffened.

The Aniset brothers have similar looks to their mother, with a gentle smile on their face that seems to have been kissed by God. An even greater chill crept up her back inch by inch.

"What specifically did they say? 'You are a mother, do you want your child to kill someone in the future? 'As long as you cooperate with the FBI, he will be safe and we will do our best to protect him'?"

"When they said these words, did they specifically let you hear the child's voice? Listen to him calling you 'Mom', 'Mom', 'I want to go home', and the like?"

Artemis spoke softly, imitating the scene vividly.

The boy held in his mother's arms seemed to have heard some key words. He raised his head, grabbed her blood-stained clothes in fear, and cried out in a sob:
"Mom, where is this... I want to go home..."

Cinderella woke up from her son's voice, and suddenly she reached out and grabbed Artemis, clasping her fingers tightly on his left hand, making it difficult for him to break away.

"It's true as you said, the FBI caught my child and asked me to provide organizational intelligence... But, but he is innocent..." Cinderella lowered her head and glanced at the boy in her arms, tears falling from the corners of her eyes again. Roll down.

"...Can you let him go?"

Gin next to him had finished smoking a cigarette. He wanted to step forward and persuade Artemis to hurry up and stop talking nonsense, but he saw the other party waved his hand at him.

Artemis was held tightly, her expression still gentle. He put his right hand into his pocket and handed a key to her eyes.

"You are a good mother."

he commented sincerely.

"For the sake of what you have taught us, I will give you two choices."

"You should have discovered that there is a keyhole on your collar. This is the key. As long as you insert it, one of you will be able to get rid of the collar immediately."

Like someone blowing a breath into a handful of burning sparks, Cinderella's eyes burst into astonishing light.

"Really?...Really?" she asked in surprise and disbelief.

"Of course." Artemis smiled softly, "I can also promise that I will not pursue you in the future...I always keep my word and never lie."

Cinderella took the key and held it firmly in her hand like a life-saving straw, completely ignoring the reactions of the other two.

Gin, who was ignored, looked on. He seemed to realize something. He reached into his coat pocket and held Beretta's hand and quietly let go. He took out the cigarette case again, randomly picked out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. .

Cinderella lovingly kissed the face of the child in her arms as a final farewell, and then inserted the key into the hole of the collar on the opposite side.

"Pfft-"

A round object suddenly flew in front of her eyes.

The rich smell of blood spread quickly, and at the same time, the sound of chains shaking was heard.

Artemis took out a remote control and pressed the switch on it. The instrument on the pillar clicked and started to recover the chain outside.

Cinderella sat on her knees, staring blankly at the headless body in her arms.

Her hair, cheeks, and clothes were covered with blood that had just been spattered on her. Even as the chain attached to the collar began to shrink, she remained motionless.

"Look, I didn't lie, did I? He did get rid of the collar." Artemis said kindly, fearing that she might not react.

Gin let out a light chirp, and he watched coldly as the body of the organization traitor was dragged into the air by the chains.

Cinderella finally reacted. She grabbed the collar around her neck and kicked her legs down, but she could never find any support. After a few minutes, she stopped moving.

Execution of traitors has always been Gin's favorite drama. Even if he can't do it himself, he is willing to watch from the side and doesn't mind at all if the blood spilled by the other party stains the soles of his shoes.

"You just talked so much nonsense just to get her to kill her child with her own hands?"

It wasn't until the people above him stopped moving and Gin, who had a fishy smell on his body, that he looked away and cast his unexplained gaze at the young man with black hair and brown eyes next to him.

"Anatole?"

……

It was quiet in the open space, and at the same time, there was also deathly silence in the observation room above.

Aaron heard the entire conversation through the listening devices around the clearing. He didn't bother to ask Artemis and Anatole why they wanted to exchange identities. He stood there blankly, staring at the body hanging in the air.

"...Who came up with this?" he asked slowly.

"What do you think?" Artemis said with a smile.

Such a casual attitude is reminiscent of the nobles in the ancient Colosseum. They sat there high up, looking at the slaves fighting beasts below with malice, contempt, or pity.

Aaron heard the real Artemis sighing pitifully: "Threatening a mother with a child is really too much. Due to a certain experience, I understand her and sympathize with her, but..."

"I can still kill her this way."

"After all, she killed my mother in the same way back then."

Artemis' voice was as soft as a whisper, even with a smile, and Aaron could hear it clearly.

He met those eyes, and the eyes of his boss in the reception room could not help but appear in his mind.

The biggest difference between these twins who look exactly the same is not their physical ability, but their eyes - Artemis's eyes are light brown, and only Anatole has the same viper-green eyes as Goldwasser. .

But at this moment, these false green eyes almost overlapped with that of the boss.

……

Four years ago, Aaron and several colleagues went to Moscow on orders from Goldwasser to bring back the two sons born to their boss and a spy.

That mission was a nightmare for him.

He was afraid of the cold and almost died in that icy country, not to mention being beaten up with a rattlesnake cocktail, his spleen was severely ruptured, and he suffered sequelae because he was not treated in time.

However, that's not the scariest thing.

The most terrifying thing, and the most puzzling thing for Aaron, was that after the remaining three of them came back, Goldwasser left most of the cultivation work of the two children to them.

He is responsible for teaching killing techniques such as fighting, shooting, and making and installing bombs. Witte teaches Japanese and survival skills such as lock picking, wilderness survival, and emergency escape. Cinderella is responsible for teaching disguise skills such as makeup, cross-dressing, imitation, and micro-expression control.

Aaron wasn't sure why Goldwasser did what he did.

Exercise children's emotional control ability?

Are they strong enough as confidants and chosen to train the next generation purely for their strength?
Want to destroy the self-esteem of these two children? Let them remember the revenge of killing their mother, and at the same time have to bow to the enemy who killed their mother and learn self-protection skills, and their mentality becomes increasingly unbalanced and distorted?
Aaron never understood.

Not only him, but the other two people may have similar concerns, resulting in a delicate atmosphere when they get along. Fortunately, he still had Gin. The other two only had to face these two brothers, and their mentality was probably even more torturous.

……

Now Cinderella is dead.

She was one of the few people who went to Moscow that year. She also taught Brother Anicet and had just died in front of Aaron.

Aaron knew that she had betrayed first and deserved to be killed by Goldwasser's order, but for some reason, a huge panic enveloped his heart.

He had an inexplicable feeling - all of this was just the beginning.

"...Did you listen to me?"

While waiting for Gin and Anatole to come up, Artemis changed to a more relaxed posture. He leaned on the sofa and played with a pistol in his left hand.

He was originally right-handed, but his index and middle fingers were injured four years ago. Whether because of perfectionism or because he wanted to be more different from his brother, he started practicing with his left hand, and now he can shoot accurately with both hands.

Aaron came back to his senses and was shocked to find that he had been distracted for a long time: "What?"

"I said that I was going to my uncle's house soon, and that I might have a new identity and a new code name. Before that, Goldwasser was willing to give Anatoly and me a holiday and let us travel abroad."

Would you actually let them travel far away? Aaron asked, "Where are you going?"

"Is going……"

Before Artemis could speak, a burst of footsteps hurriedly came from outside.

Without knocking, the door was pushed open directly. A man with an Asian face stood at the door. When he saw the body hanging under the pillar, he froze on the spot.

"Witt? Why are you here?" Aaron shouted out the other party's code name in surprise.

Artemis was not surprised, as if she had known the other party would come. He raised the Shinnan M60 in his hand, a common police pistol in Japan, and answered the interrupted questions with a smile.

"Go to Japan." (End of chapter)