Conan Rick's Investigator

It feels like holding a real human face in your hands...

Mary rubbed the surface of the human skin mask with her fingers, which also had the texture of imitation skin.

But as long as you pinch it a little harder, you can still feel the slight elasticity and toughness that does not belong to human skin.

"Don't use too much force..."

"It's afraid of pain."

Qin Zhibo quickly reminded him to avoid damaging this "treasure".

Although this human skin mask is perfect in every aspect, it still has one flaw.

That means it is particularly easy to lose face.

The mask breaks easily with just a little force.

This is also the inevitable consequence of making the mask too thin

.

"Oh... sorry."

Mary returned the human skin mask to Qin Zhibo and asked, "Where did you get this mask?"

Qin Zhibo smiled and replied, "I asked a craftsman to help make it."

"Craftsman?"

"Yes, a craftsman."

Qin Zhibo put away the human skin mask to avoid misunderstanding from nearby guests.

"What I want to say is that there are such 'craftsmen' in the organization who can make such lifelike human skin masks."

"Her name is Vermouth. She's a key member of the organization, nicknamed the 'Thousand-Faced Witch'."

"Her ability isn't just to create masks like this. She can also use her powerful acting skills to impersonate anyone, even the sound of their voice."

"That's why I'm worried that the Akai Tsutomu currently wandering around London might be her in disguise."

"Once she impersonates Akai Tsutomu and doesn't arouse anyone's suspicion, she can infiltrate MI6 and obtain their intelligence smoothly."

After listening to Qin Zhibo's analysis, Mary looked thoughtful.

After thinking for a moment, she said seriously, "If that's the case, can we just take advantage of their trick?"

"Pretend to be deceived by her, then take her to MI6 headquarters and capture her in one fell swoop..."

Mary's words provide a new idea.

If it is carried out smoothly, capturing Belmode will also be a major gain.

But Qin Zhibo shook his head and rejected her idea.

"No, you'll only put MI6's position in jeopardy if you do that."

"I may not have made it clear to you yesterday, but we are now up against one of the most powerful men in the UK, and perhaps even the world."

"The organization's origins are in the UK. The fact that there were no spies infiltrating MI6 before might just be a coincidence..."

"Once MI6 is allowed to arrest Vermouth openly, the organization will focus all its efforts on dealing with MI6."

"You don't want MI6 headquarters to be engulfed in flames, do you? Mary..."

A look of surprise flashed across Mary's cold face, and her sharp eyebrows frowned slightly.

Qin Zhibo sighed and continued to explain, "You may still not understand the organization's workings well enough..."

"This organization is unlike any criminal organization you've encountered before."

"I once orchestrated the capture of another organization leader by the Japanese police, but the organization boss arranged for someone else to execute the leader who failed the mission."

"This is enough to prove that if a mission fails, the organization's boss will not leave anyone alive."

"Even if we manage to capture him alive and bring him back to MI6 headquarters, MI6 will be overwhelmed by the various attacks from the organization."

"With the organization's manpower and resources, they could create chaos in London, distracting the police. By the time MI6 was overwhelmed, they could achieve their desired goal in one fell swoop."

"And F had captured this Vermouth before, but he didn't actually get any useful information from her."

"Every cadre in the organization is absolutely loyal to the boss. They would rather die than betray the organization."

Mary's expression froze. "So, the organization is invincible, then?"

"No..." Qin Zhibo shook his head. "No matter how strong a fortress is, it can't be impenetrable."

"Isn't there a saying? A fortress is often broken from within..."

"Although every cadre in the organization is absolutely loyal to the organization's boss, they still have some selfish motives."

"For example, this Vermouth..."

Qin Zhibo recalled that he had captured Vermouth before by taking advantage of her concern for Conan and Ran, forcing her to cooperate with him and find the Parnest fragments.

Come, leave it to yourself.

Belmode has a special affection for Mao Lilan and Conan, due to the incident in New York a year ago...

Therefore, Qin Zhibo plans to take advantage of this again.

Because this is probably the only way for Belmod to defy the organization's boss.

"So, in the afternoons I'll be pretending to be someone and wandering around Vauxhall Bridge..."

"If 'Akai Tsutomu' shows up, and he's Vermouth in disguise, he'll definitely try to get close to me."

"But be careful, she might have other companions with her, so I'll be relying on you to provide support."

"I wonder how good of a shot you are, Mary?"

Facing Qin Zhibo's question, Mary's eyes showed a hint of doubt.

"Oh? Have you forgotten my marksmanship?"

"Don't forget, that year in Hawaii, even Wu Wu only managed to tie with me..."

Qin Zhibo was stunned for a moment, but then he let out an awkward laugh, "Ha... It happened so long ago, I've almost forgotten..."

At this moment, the bell at the door of the restaurant rang again.

Dang rang, dang rang, dang...

This time the sound of the bell ringing was longer because four people came in at once.

The waiter took the initiative to greet these four people, still using the same basic skills.

The leading girl smiled and showed two tiger teeth. Although she had short hair, she looked a little cute.

"Four people~"

"No reservations, any seat is fine~"

"Of course, it would be even better if we could get as close to the window as possible!"

Behind her were all Asian faces. One of them was a beautiful girl with a signature horn on her head.

Behind him is an old man in a suit and a mustache, a bald old man with a big belly.

Seeing this group of people, Qin Zhibo's pupils quickly dilated.

How could it be them!

Mary, who was sitting opposite, was also attracted by the energetic and familiar voice. She turned around and looked slightly surprised.

So pure...

I saw that group of people, led by the waiter, sitting in the last row. It was only one table away from the window seat reserved for others. It was a good seat.

Sera quickly thanked the waiter, "Thank you!"

After the waiter put a menu on the table, Serang handed the menu to Mao Lilan who was next to him.

"Haha~ Order whatever you want, it's my treat today!"

When Kogoro Mouri heard "someone is treating us", his eyes immediately lit up and his saliva started to flow rapidly in his mouth.

"Huh?" Mao Lilan asked a little embarrassedly, "But if that's the case, wouldn't it be a waste of money for you, Majun?"

"It's okay! It's okay!"

Shiliang waved his hand, pulled out a black card from his pocket, and said with a smile, "My mother and I often come to this restaurant to eat, so I got a prepaid card here."

"There's still plenty of money in there, so you can eat as much as you want!"

Mary looked at her daughter's hospitable look and realized why she suddenly couldn't find her prepaid card before going out today.

It turned out to be in the hands of this prodigal daughter.

When Qin Zhibo looked at Mary's cold and terrifying eyes and the hidden black line on her forehead, he also foresaw something.

Looks like someone is going to be punished tonight...

Fortunately, these people were still some distance away from their dining table, and the beautiful scenery outside the bright window on the other side easily attracted attention, so they didn't notice themselves at the first time.

But in order to avoid being discovered, let’s disguise ourselves first…

Qin Zhibo put the human skin mask on his head with lightning speed.

When Mary came to her senses, she found that she was facing a man with blond curly hair.

She was startled for a moment. If she hadn't seen that her clothes were not changed, it would have been easy to misunderstand.

The.

"You..." Mary looked doubtful.

Qin Zhibo stroked his fake face and said, "Let me show you the effect of the disguise. How is it? Realistic, right?"

"Uh... well, it's quite true."

Mary stared blankly at Qin Zhibo's fake face and nodded.

Qin Zhibo stretched out his hand and said, "By the way, can you lend me your sunglasses..."

……

On the other side, the waiter brought three more menus and distributed them to the remaining people.

The four of them took their respective menus and started ordering.

Since it was Shiliang's treat, Mao Lilan didn't want to show off his kindness to others, so he didn't refuse and just gave some token tokens.

Dr. A Li also ordered less, saying that he was told by Xiao Ai not to eat or drink too much before leaving.

Mouri Kogoro originally wanted the lion to open his mouth, but under the warning from his daughter's eyes, he could only restrain himself.

"What? That's all you ordered? You didn't even order the restaurant's signature dish..."

"Just look at me!"

Sera ordered six items by himself, all of which were the restaurant's signature main dishes.

After the four people at the table had ordered their dishes and the waiter left with the menus, Sera quickly put away his relaxed expression and said seriously, "From what I've seen so far, the code for Big Ben is the drain cover with the letter 'A' engraved on it that we found on Westminster Bridge..."

"And since there are two lines of Big Ben in the code, that means the letter A appears twice."

"Combined with the N and T we cracked earlier, if this is a seven-letter word, we've already cracked four of the letters."

"Now, let's think about it. Where are the places that contain the letters N, T, and two A's?"

After everyone explored the Big Ben just now, they successfully found the meaning of Big Ben.

This one is relatively easy to find.

There is an arrow on Westminster Bridge under Big Ben. According to the arrow's guidance, you can find that a drain on the bridge has no cover.

The edge of the drain is engraved with "The Valley of Fear", which is also one of Sherlock Holmes' famous works, the Valley of Fear.

Mao Lilan didn't need to ask Kudo Shinichi this time, because Sera casually searched nearby and found that the missing drain cover was tied with a rope and hung down into the Thames River.

There is an A engraved on the lid.

“A, A, N, T…”

Maori Kogoro held his chin in his hands. "How can we guess that? We're not familiar with London..."

Professor Agasa also nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it's probably hard to find a word for a place like this, right?"