I'm in Conan, I'm not a gangster

Chapter 697 Screening Prisoners (2 Updates)
Shiraishi E, Conan, and Air Marshal Bill arrived at the communications area outside the cockpit.

After a brief but serious discussion, they were given the opportunity to speak directly with the captain.

The captain was a tall, white male. During the tense international flight, he was not very good at recognizing Asian faces. When he heard Shiraishi E claim to be the famous high school detective "Kudo Shinichi" in Japan, and saw Bill, an air marshal, confirming it, he did not have much doubt and chose to trust him.

The captain carefully examined the threatening message from the mysterious hacker on Bill's phone, his brow furrowing deeply. He said in a low voice, "These chat logs alone aren't convincing enough. I'll immediately report the situation to ground control and the airline's security department. But..."

He paused, his tone tinged with helplessness: "You need to understand that when it comes to huge ransoms, the company's decision-making process is very complicated, and we are unlikely to compromise with terrorists easily. I cannot guarantee the final outcome."

Bill nodded gravely. He understood the captain's meaning; relying on the company to solve the problem was unlikely, and they had to prepare to rely on themselves: "I understand, Captain. The most urgent thing is that we need to identify the suspect among the passengers as soon as possible. We need the passengers' information!"

The captain expressed his support: "No problem, I will do my best to cooperate with you."

He immediately contacted the ground control tower via encrypted communication equipment, requesting the complete passenger list and related basic information for the flight under the pretext of "potential security threat investigation".

A few minutes later, an encrypted electronic passenger profile was transmitted to the onboard equipment.

Bill stared at the dense list of names and information on the screen, feeling a headache coming on. He turned to Shiraishi E and asked for help, "Mr. Kudo, we've got the data, but what do we do next? So many passengers..."

Shiraishi E, however, appeared quite composed. He pointed to Conan beside him and said in a calm tone, "Just send the information to my 'assistant,' and he'll handle it."

Bill looked at the little boy with big glasses in surprise. Although it was hard to believe, he still transferred the data to a small tablet computer that Conan carried with him, despite his doubts, remembering his previous keen observations: "Smart kid, then... thank you for your help."

Conan didn't say much, took the tablet, and immediately focused intently on his work.

His little finger slid and filtered rapidly across the screen, his eyes focused, and his speed was astonishing.

Shiraishi added, "Data screening takes time; we can't just wait around. Officer Bill, please take me to a place where we can see the cabin's internal surveillance cameras. We need to prepare a backup plan."

Bill immediately led Shiraishi to a small screen in the flight attendant work area, where they could switch between viewing the monitoring footage of several key areas inside the cabin.

Bill was about to call his trusted flight attendant for help with the surveillance when Shiraishi waved her hand, saying, "No need to trouble others, I can keep an eye on things by myself."

Bill, remembering that the other party was "Detective Shinichi Kudo," nodded: "Okay, then I'll leave it to you."

Time ticked by, and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense. Finally, the agreed-upon twenty-minute deadline arrived.

Bill's phone vibrated precisely on time. The mysterious hacker had sent another message via the internal network, this time with an even more aggressive tone. Bill nervously whispered, "Here it comes! He's messaged again!"

Almost simultaneously, Shiraishi's gaze swept across the monitoring screen like a hawk's, and his fingers tapped rapidly on the touchscreen, quickly circling more than thirty images of passengers who clearly looked down at their mobile phones or other electronic devices before and after the threatening message was sent.

While Bill was using his phone to stall the hacker for time, he glanced at the more than thirty red circles on the monitor screen and gasped, saying with a headache, "More than thirty?! This... the scope is too broad. We can't check them one by one!"

Shiraishi E remained calm: "Don't worry, this is just a preliminary list. We can cross-reference it with the information that Conan has filtered, and we'll be able to narrow it down quickly."

As expected, Conan lived up to expectations. He had efficiently completed the first round of data screening, eliminating a large number of passengers who clearly did not meet the criteria, such as family travelers, frequent business travelers, and premium cabin passengers.

He compared the filtered list with the list of suspects identified by Shiraishi E, and quickly eliminated more than a dozen people.

"Now, there are twenty-one suspects left," Conan calmly reported, looking at the final list.

Bill looked at the still considerable number of twenty-one names on the screen and felt immense pressure: "Twenty-one more... What's next? What should we do? We can't just call all twenty-one people in for questioning, can we? What reason would we use?"

Shiraishi E's lips curled into a confident smile: "The reason? It's simple. I'll ask Officer Bill and the flight attendants to cooperate and invite these 'lucky passengers' to the galley or an empty rest area in batches under the pretext of 'in-flight lucky draw,' 'filling out a special entry questionnaire,' or 'randomly inviting passengers to experience first-class meals.' I want to have a 'chat' with them myself."

Bill was even more troubled by this audacious plan: "This... will this work? What if someone doesn't want to come, or it causes a commotion..."

Conan shrugged nonchalantly, speaking like a little adult, "Then let's ask those who are willing to cooperate to come first. As for those who are unwilling to come, or those who make excuses to avoid it... they are more suspicious. After dealing with those who are willing to come, we'll personally 'visit' those who are uncooperative and give them special attention."

Bill looked at the two "detectives," one big and one small, and although he felt their methods were a bit unorthodox, there seemed to be no safer or faster way at the moment.

He gritted his teeth and finally nodded in agreement: "Alright! We'll do it your way! I'll go and arrange for reliable flight attendants to start 'inviting' the guests!"

Just as Bill turned to contact a trusted flight attendant to "invite" passengers according to the list, Shiraishi E looked at Conan, who was still deep in thought beside her, and asked in a low voice, "Well, great detective, have you come up with a specific way to identify the criminal?"

Conan pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting a wise glint, and replied in a low voice, "Hmm, I've come up with a few preliminary testing methods."

He paused, his tone tinged with uncertainty: "These few tricks I've prepared might not be precise enough. If the other party has excellent mental fortitude, or is well-prepared, they might easily slip through."

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi E showed no concern whatsoever. He patted Conan on the shoulder and said in a relaxed tone, "It's alright. You've already done a great job narrowing down the scope to this point. Leave the rest to me."

Conan's curiosity was immediately piqued, and he looked up to ask, "Give it to you? What method do you plan to use?" Shiraishi E's lips curled into a mysterious smile, keeping him in suspense: "It's a secret, you'll find out later. Guaranteed to be efficient."

Seeing that he wouldn't tell, Conan, though itching to know, had no choice but to suppress his curiosity and continue to refine his identification plan in his mind, thinking about whether there was a more foolproof method.

Soon, at the flight attendants' clever "invitation," the more than twenty passengers on the list gradually arrived at the relatively isolated area near the front cabin galley.

To Shiraishi E and Conan's slight surprise, not a single person declined or made an excuse not to come. It seemed that the long flight really did bore most passengers to death, and any "special activity" could pique their interest, even if it was just being called to the galley for a question.

The small kitchen area suddenly became a bit crowded. Passengers, with curiosity, doubt, and even a hint of anticipation on their faces, whispered among themselves, guessing why they had been called here.

Air marshal Bill scanned the group warily, his hand unconsciously resting on his concealed pistol at his waist. He leaned closer to Shiraishi E and asked nervously in a low voice, "Mr. Kudo, everyone's here. What's next? Question them one by one?"

Shiraishi E didn't answer, but instead held out her hand to Bill: "Give me your phone."

Bill paused for a moment, puzzled, but still handed over the phone containing the threatening message.

Shiraishi took the phone, unlocked it, pulled up the horrifying extortion message, and handed it to a middle-aged male passenger standing at the front. Speaking clearly enough for everyone around to hear, she said, "Please take a look and then pass it on to the next person. I don't want to hide it from you all, but we are all in a very dangerous situation right now."

Bill was so surprised by what he heard that he almost cried out!

He never expected that "Shinichi Kudo" would directly disclose such sensitive information to the public! What if this caused panic? But seeing Shiraishi E's calm and composed eyes, he had no choice but to swallow his words and force himself to remain calm, though his heart was pounding with anxiety.

Passengers began taking turns looking at the content on their phones. As the information spread through the crowd, the whispers gradually turned into suppressed gasps and uneasy commotion.

Everyone's face turned serious, and an atmosphere of fear filled the air.

When the phone was finally handed back to Shiraishi E, he glanced around at the panicked passengers and calmly said, "As you can see, an anonymous threatening agent is attempting to blackmail and threaten the safety of this flight. And according to surveillance footage, at the exact time that threatening message was sent, all of you were using your mobile phones or other electronic devices. Therefore, you have been brought here."

He paused, his gaze sharpening. "Of course, the real culprit might be among you, or he might have cleverly hidden himself."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a tall male passenger in a flashy shirt in the crowd immediately shouted in a defiant tone, "Hey! Are you kidding me! I was just playing on my phone out of boredom on the plane, and you suspect me of being a criminal? Are you going to forcibly check everyone's phones next? What right do you have to do that?!"

His shouting drew the agreement of a small group of people, and the situation was on the verge of getting out of control.

However, Shiraishi E's reaction exceeded everyone's expectations.

Without uttering a word of argument or explanation, amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, he suddenly stepped forward, his right fist striking the troublemaking passenger squarely in the face like a cannonball, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound!

A sharp, teeth-grinding cracking sound was clearly audible!

Before the male passenger could even utter a sound, his nose collapsed instantly, blood spurted out, and he fell straight backward like a puppet with broken strings, crashing onto the floor with a "thud" and immediately losing consciousness.

This sudden and ruthless violence instantly stunned the entire audience!
All the whispers and grumbling ceased abruptly, and the kitchen area fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the roar of the aircraft engines.

The passengers stared in horror at their companion lying on the ground, then at Shiraishi E, who remained expressionless as if she had merely swatted a mosquito. They turned pale with fright and dared not even breathe.

Shiraishi flicked non-existent blood off her hands, her cold gaze sweeping over the trembling crowd. In a calm yet undeniably authoritative tone, she said, "Knowing that the plane might have been hijacked and people could die at any moment, he jumped out to obstruct the investigation and incite resistance... I can't think of any other reasonable explanation other than that he is an accomplice of the criminals, trying to create chaos and confuse the public."

He paused, looked at the other passengers, and said in a slightly gentler but still guiding tone, "Do you all think what I said makes sense?"

The passengers, still shaken, were intimidated by the powerful aura and "reasonable" logic. Although they were terrified, upon closer reflection, it seemed... that this was indeed the case.

Why would an innocent person be afraid to cooperate with an investigation?

So they all nodded frantically like chickens pecking at rice, their voices trembling as they echoed, "That...that makes sense..."

"Yes, yes, cooperating with the investigation is the right thing to do..."

In an instant, all resistance vanished, leaving only obedience and fear.

Shiraishi E nodded in satisfaction, turned to Conan who was equally stunned by the operation, and said casually, "Alright, the troublemakers are taken care of. Detective, begin your performance. Now, they should be very 'cooperative'."

Conan looked at the unfortunate guy lying on the ground, then at the passengers who had suddenly become incredibly "well-behaved," and couldn't help but twitch his lips.

He finally understood what Shiraishi E meant by "efficient method"... It was simply the ultimate use of the "elimination method"!

(End of this chapter)