Detective Boys - The Mystery of the White Tiger

[WBoon]

I posted this story many years ago in another Detective Conan messageboard (Mysterious Eyes, perhaps?), but I didn't get to write it to its completion. Hopefully, this time, I will get to do so and, of course, I hope you would enjoy it as the members in the aforementioned site did.

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Who helped a robber escape from prison?
Who is desperately trying to kill him?
Who will stop at nothing to keep the deadly secret of the white tiger?

Edogawa Conan and his team of young investigators are plunged into danger, mystery and intrigue. Someone is trying to kill an escaped convict. Now, someone wants to silence the Junior Detective League, too!

Is it the Black Hand gang?
Is it Benny, the mysterious circus trainer?
Or is it the criminal mastermind known only as... The Snake?

There is only one truth!

~~
A word from WBoon

GREETINGS, dear readers...

Welcome to my first fan fic in DCTP. Mystery, suspense, and lots of heart-pounding action will keep you scrolling down to find out what happens next. Naturally, most of you here have met our team of young detectives, but just for the sake of orientating, let's meet them now.

- Edogawa Conan is the star detective, period. The rest of the team are just tagging along for some reason. Obviously, you guys know him as the once koko meitantei, Kudo Shinichi, shrunk down to the size of a 7 year old child.
- Yoshida Ayumi files the criminal records. She's the 'cute one' in the team.
- Ai Haibara is in charge of investigations. Formerly Miyano Shiho, she's an ex-member of the mysterious criminal organization known as Black that's now working for the forces of good and justice.
- The above members are also assisted by Kojima Genta, a plump but also a righteous, honorable kid that loves eels (for whatever bizarre reasons), and Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko who's more of a 'Sciencey' guy, but has his moments, too.

You could be sure that all of them will be plunged into danger and peril in every upcoming story, and you are invited to read about their adventures. No matter how mysterious the cases are, no matter what trickery the culprits use, there is only one truth!

So, get ready for thrills, as we start solving exciting cases.

Your mysterious friend,
WBoon

~~
1: Jailbreak at Daybreak
"Nothing ever happens around here," Kojima Genta complained moodily, staring out the window. The sunlight streamed in on his blubbery features. He looked like a beached whale, sitting across the cold, concrete floor.

It was a Saturday morning and the young investigators had gathered at the Junior Detective League's headquarters as usual. It was located at the corner in Class 1-B at the Teitan Elementary School that they had classes in. In the morning, they attend lessons in the room, and in the afternoon, Miss Kobayashi allowed them to station themselves behind a wooden stand, leaving the class open for their purpose. By now, the class looked more like a police squadroom.

They even had the classroom door as its own entrance. On a small window by the panel doors was a big sign, designed by Yoshida Ayumi using crayons. It announced:

Junior Detective League
We investigate anything
No case too big or too small

Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko looked up from another desk where he was clipping articles articles from the newspapers. He kept dozens of interesting stories in huge box files. The faces of well-known criminals were pasted up on the wall behind him.

"The police are solving all the mysteries nowadays," he sighed, resting his chin on his palm. He held up the article he had just snipped from the morning paper. "Like this one. A man shot a guard and robbed the bank, but the man is now in jail. There's nothing for us to do."

"The police will never call us for help anymore," groaned Ayumi, who sat beside Edogawa Conan at the wooden stand. Secretly, she wished she and Conan could escape to the local swimming pool. It was too sunny to spend the morning cooped up in the headquarters.

Mitsuhiko disagreed. "They will," he asserted, as he sorted through a box of special detective equipment. He flicked his Junior Detective League flashlight wristwatch on and off to make sure it still worked. "One day!"

Ai Haibara, slim and pretty, swung round in her chair and gave her most sarcastic grin. "The police don't know how good we are," she said. "Do they, Edogawa-kun?"

Ayumi could see that Conan had not fixed his hair properly with a comb, again. His hair was always cut very short at the sides, which seemed to make his ears stick out. And because a few strands of his hair sprouted up from the side of his head, a peg-like shape had always appeared there. One day, Ayumi promised herself, she would change his hairstyle to something much nicer.

Conan had been checking his mobile phone for messages, but there were none. He looked at the team of self-titled 'investigators' and rubbed his round, smooth chin.

"All we need is another big case, a really baffling mystery that's too tough for the copes," he told them. "Then, we can solve it, and then we could regain the required recognition that would let us be involved in even tougher cases in the future."

"And then we'll be famous!" exclaimed Genta excitedly, much to Conan's annoyance.

'What are you really here for really...?'

~~
Early the next morning, the team's wish came true in a way they could not really expected.

The rising sun had punctured the dawn sky with streaks of red. Hidden in a forest on the outskirts of the city, the grim concrete blocks of the jail were still cloaked in shadow. Occasionally, a searchlight probed the darkness from one of the watchtowers.

Suddenly, a shape moved on one of the walls. It was a man, bent low, darting along to where a rope had been tied to the metal railing. He glanced over the edge. The rope dangled all the way down the outer prison wall to the ground - and freedom! He tugged on the rope to make sure it was securely fastened. He checked the searchlight. It was still trained on the other side of the building. Then, he hoisted himself over the rail and began climbing down.

His face was old and weathered, his hands rough, but his body was lean and strong. He reached the ground within a minute. As he had been promised, a neat bundle of clothing was waiting for him on the ground along with a handful of dollars. He peeled off his convict uniform and quickly dressed in his new clothes. Now, he looked like any other workman, going off to an early morning shift at a factory.

He wasted no time and sprinted towards the dark trees. They had told him a car would be parked at the end of a track. But, when he reached the spot, it was deserted. What had gone wrong? Had he broken out too early?

He shrugged, rubbed the ugly scar on his face, and took a deep breath to steady his nerves. Too bad, he told himself. He couldn't wait around, knowing that a guard might discover his empty cell at any moment. With his pulse racing, he began to hurry down the track.

When the alarm was raised, he wanted to be a long way away...

[WBoon]

Genta loved early mornings. The air was cooler, everything was peace and quiet. And because he loved fishing, especially for eels, he could think of no better way to start the day.

Over breakfast, his mum had warned him about the dangerous criminal who had escaped from the jail the day before. The man's face was on the front page of the morning newspaper. Genta shuddered at the sight of the crook's hideous scar.

"You must be very careful, Genta," she reminded him. "I don't like you going out alone so early."

But Genta pretended to be relaxed about it, his bulky head laid against his palms wrapped behind in the same fashion as Conan. "Mum, I'm a detective, and we know that crooks who bust out of jail always run as far away as they can. He won't be hanging around here. He's probably in another country by now!"

Genta sauntered along through the empty streets, whistling softly to himself. He lived in a big block of apartments beside the old canal. The canal fed into the river and there, under the bridge, was his recent favorite fishing spot. Other people laughed at him when he said that fish were hungrier early in the morning. Let them laugh! Genta knew better. He had caught some monster fish while the rest of the world was asleep!

But this morning was different.

He almost dropped his rod in shock when he saw the old man sleeping under the bridge. How annoying! Nobody ever came down here at this time of day. Genta squinted at the snoring man. He looked like a factory worker. The early morning sunlight had not reached under the bridge yet, so Genta propped his rod against a wall by the bridge and crept forward for a closer look.

The old man had not shaved and his face was covered with stubble. And then Genta's jaw dropped. The man's stubble was thick, but not thick enough to conceal the long, ugly scar that ran down one side of his face. For a long moment, Genta stared at the man's face in disbelief. Was he really the escaped prisoner? If he was, what was he doing under the bridge?

Genta made a quick decision. He would have to ring the League! He knew Conan would be awake, but what about the others? Mitsuhiko would be snoring his head off, and the girls would still be fast asleep. He couldn't imagine Ai Haibara getting up early in the school holidays!

Genta edged away from the man. He pulled his old mobile phone from his jeans, and hoped the battery was still working. He punched in Conan's number and waited.

"C-C-Conan! I've found him!" he whispered when Conan answered.

"Found who?" asked Conan.

"The man who escaped from jail!" Genta reported.

There was a startled gasp on the line. "Are you sure?"

"Well, he has a scar on his face," Genta told him. "And he looks just like the man I saw in the paper this morning."

"Where are you?" Conan demanded urgently.

"Under the bridge, where I always go fishing this couple of weeks," Genta said.

"Good work, Genta. But be careful - he's supposed to be dangerous," Conan warned him. "I'll be there in two minutes. Okay?"

But there was no reply.

"Genta, Genta!" shouted Conan. "Are you okay?!"

Genta could not answer - a huge, rough hand had been clamped over his mouth, his mobile phone slipped from his fingers and bounced on the stones by the edge of the river.

"Who were you calling, kid?" a menacing voice breathed in his ear.

Genta tried to shake himself free, though it was easy with his body already shaking with panic. "My friend... C-C-Conan..."

The old man dragged Genta under the bridge and spun him round. Genta raised his palms up in defense, then slowly turned his head round, staring at the man's cruel face in horror.

"Do you know who I am?" growled the criminal, his scar twitching as he spoke.

Genta shook his head nervously, swallowing a scream.

"You're lying," hissed the old man. "You know I've escaped from jail, don't you?"

Genta shuddered with terror. "Y-y-yes..."

The old man nodded. "I thought so."

Suddenly, he released Genta and sat down.

"My name's Khor," he said, running a hand over his weary eyes. "You see, I didn't really want to escape. I had only another year to serve and then I would've got out a free man."

Genta forgot his fear. Khor no longer looked dangerous. He was an old man who needed help, an old man with a mysterious secret.

"Then why didn't you wait?" Genta asked him.

"Because I was told to escape," Khor explained. "I got a note telling me what to do. Then my cell door was left unlocked. And when I got to the wall, a rope was there, and these clothes, and some money. Someone was supposed to pick me up, but they didn't, so I just ran. I got a bus to the city and decided to hide under this bridge. I had nowhere else to go..."

"But why did someone want to get you out of jail?" Genta wondered aloud. "Why did they go to all that trouble?"

"Because they want something from me!" Sweat rolled down Khor's face, his haunted eyes darted from side to side. "I'm in someone's debt, and that means I have to pay them back, or else... well, that'll be the end of me."

Genta thought about it, and then pulled a card from his pocket.

"My friends and I are detectives," he explained. "Maybe we could find out what's going on, so you won't get into more trouble."

Khor's eyebrows shot up when he read the card. "Do you think your friend Edogawa Conan can really help me?"

"Tch! Not just Conan!" Genta grunted arrogantly. "All of us will be able to solve this case in no time!"

"Really, Genta?" a voice said behind, sounding quite annoyed.

Genta turned around, grinning, awkwardly rubbing his head with squinted eyes. "Heh heh, well... We are a team, Conan! You can't always take all the credit yourself, you know?!"

Conan gave little concern towards Genta's comments, staring at him sheepishly for a second, before peeping behind him towards the man. However, before he got a good look at the infamous Khor, at that moment, a long, black car with dark, tinted windows swept toward the bridge. One of the windows was open. A hand appeared, holding a gun.

Khor threw both kids to the ground. "They've found me!" he yelled.

The two of them heard a loud pop. Seconds later, a bullet shaved a chip of concrete from the bridge. The car sped away. When they looked up, Khor was gone, too. Conan quickly struggled to hit feet, helping the much heavier Genta with slight difficulty.

"Are you okay?" Conan grabbed Genta's arm.

"Yeah," Genta nodded, looking around anxiously. "Did you see where Khor went?"

Conan shook his head. "He sped away as soon as I recovered from that tackle. And that car..."

"The windows were black, like they were painted or something..." Genta observed, his hand rubbing his chin in a thoughtful manner.

"They are tinted windows. They could see the outside from within the car, but their appearances are blocked out from our sight."

"Oh, like in the movies!"

"Yeah, except this isn't a movie," Conan commented with a faint smile.

Then, Genta told Conan what Khor had said about his escape.

"Do you think he was telling the truth?" Genta wanted to know.

"Yes," Conan replied. "And he was scared of them. Really scared. He said they would kill him if he didn't do what they wanted..."

"Oh, and I also gave him our card, in case he needs our help," Genta added, remembering about the moment before Conan's abrupt arrival.

Conan's eyes lit up. "Great thinking, Genta! If he calls, we can solve the case quickly." He frowned. "But I still don't understand why someone would want to bust him out..." Then, a light of realization struck him. "I've got it! They want him to commit a crime for them."

"But what kind of crime?" Genta scratched his nearly bald head.

"I'm going to call a meeting at the headquarters. Haibara has files on all these criminals, she can tell us more about Khor." Then, Conan looked around. "I think we'd better get out of here. That black car might come back."

As they leave, Conan smiled with more delight than he ever had for a while. "Genta, it looks like we have our first real mystery in months!"

[akai-kun]

Yo, not bad.

Really, I like it!

Let's see what you're up to in the next chapters...

Thx and keep it up!

[WBoon]

No, thank you, akai-kun. I'm glad you like it.
~~

An hour later, the League crowded into Class 1-B. Haibara had been the first to arrive. Dressed in a plain white tee-shirt and jeans, she was sorting through her files.

"Khor is very famous," she announced.

"Infamous, you mean," Conan corrected her lazily.

Haibara shifted her eyes to Conan instantly, shooting him a look that made him shudder with fear. "Whatever..." The little muscle in her cheek twitched on her beauty spot. It recently did that when she was angry. "Khor is known as The Man with the Golden Fingers, because he's a safecracker. He can break open any safe that was ever made."

"Good, we've solved the mystery." Genta stretched his ob arms sleepily, resting his grey top and white khaki pants against a chair. "Somebody got him out so he can crack a safe for them."

Beside him, Mitsuhiko, in a green halter-top and white pants, rolled his eyes. "Do you know how many safes there are in this city? There must be thousands," he argued. "We still don't know where he's going to strike."

"Why don't you ring up and ask him?" Genta teased him.

"Don't be so mean," Mitsuhiko pouted. "I was just commenting, that's all.

"You said that even Khor doesn't know what the job will be, no?" Haibara reminded them. "Yet, for some reason, he's very scared."

Conan had been taking notes. He got to his feet and paced up and down. "Well, whoever's behind all this drives a big, black car with tinted windows. So it has to be an important criminal."

Haibara had been staring out the window as usual. Suddenly, she frowned. "Genta, the black car you saw... Did it look like the one outside in the car park?"

Genta, now wide awake, ran to the window and peered out. His face drained out of color. "They've found us!"

"They must've followed you from the bridge!" Ayumi, in her pink blouse and jet black skirt, cried, her slender fingers brushing hair from her forehead.

"They've just made their first mistake," shouted Conan, watching the mysterious black car as it circled outside. "Let's go and find out who they are."

"But they've got guns!" shrieked Ayumi. "I don't want to get shot..."

"They won't dare try anything like that," Conan argued. "There are too many people around, and the car park is jammed. They won't be able to get away this time. We've got them cornered!"

He opened the door a crack and slipped outside. The others followed, Ayumi closely shadowing Conan. "Be careful," she whispered.

Conan charged across to the long, black car with Genta at his heels. Mitsuhiko and Haibara circled around to the other side. Ayumi crept up behind it, keeping to the cover of a delivery van.

Suddenly, Conan gave a cry of alarm. "It's empty!"

Everyone rushed in quickly and peered through the tinted windows. Genta tried to open the driver's door, but it was locked.

"They can't have gone far," Conan tell the others. "Why don't we spread out and look for suspicious people?"

Genta arched an eyebrow. "What do suspicious people look like?"

"They look suspicious, of course," Mitsuhiko blurted out, then shook his head.

"I knew that!" Genta retorted, not admitting his confusion as always.

"Just watch for anyone who might be a dangerous crook," suggested Haibara, smiling, trying to make peace.

The kids split up and checked the car park, looking in all the vans, trucks and cars. People seemed to be going about their normal business. It was just another ordinary morning.

"Let's go back to the class and watch the car from there," Ayumi suggested. She hated all the petrol fumes in the car park.

But when Conan slid open the door, he froze. Ayumi, following behind, stared in horror. While they had been out in the car park, someone had paid a visit to the class.

"It's been ransacked!" shrieked Mitsuhiko. "Look at all the files!"

The box files had been ripped apart. Haibara's crime library was scattered all over the floor. The photos on the wall had been torn to shreds.

"What a mess," sighed Haibara.

Ayumi gripped her hand. "I'll help you clean up," she consoled her friend. "It won't take us long..."

Haibara smiled at her in recognition of her friendship. "Thanks."

Minutes later, they made a startling discovery.

"Everything's a mess, but only my files about Khor are missing..." Haibara was on her knees, sorting through the jumbled mass of paper.

"And my notebook is gone," noted Conan, searching the mess on the table.

Genta slammed his hand against the wall. "I think they know we're onto them. They're trying to sabotage us!"

"Or maybe they're warning us to drop the case," Haibara told him grimly.

Suddenly, the roar of a powerful engine sent them running to the door - too late to stop the long, black car as it sped from the car park.

"Hey, did anyone get its registration number?" demanded Mitsuhiko.

They looked at each other in horror. "Well, I think there was an eight in it," Genta recalled.

"Some detectives we are," said Mitsuhiko glumly. "We didn't even write down the car's number."

Haibara gave him a careless shrug. "I'll bet it had false plates, so it doesn't really matter."

Genta slumped into a chair. "What are we going to do now?"

Conan tapped his fingers on the stand. "I think we should talk to the police now."

He unlocked the classroom front door that's right across the staff room. Miss Kobayashi was waving goodbye to a student. She was a very caring teacher and was likened by many of her students.

Soon, she learned about Khor and what had happened upon forcing Conan out for the truth, right after she had gained a glimpse of the mess in the classroom.

"Kids, do you know what you've done?" she asked, her face pale with shock. "You've put yourselves and all your classmates in danger. I think this detective business has gone too far!"

"But, Miss Kobayashi, we are performing a public service here!" Mitsuhiko protested. "The people need us!"

"You've got to tell the police about that man you saw," she snapped. "It's the law. You can't handle this all by yourself."

"But that snoring Kogorou did it all the time," Genta argued.

"That was different," their form teacher answered sharply. "And it's Sleeping Kogorou! Besides, he was a policeman."

She opened her purse and Conan caught a glimpse of the old photo that the teacher always carried with her. It was a shot of Mouri Kogorou's behind as he walked away, waving to the camera, taken just a few months ago after he was interviewed by the media. Conan didn't know whether to throw up or sympathize his teacher's ignorance towards Kogorou's true self, wondering if she had gained a crush on the man who's the father of his girlfriend, Mouri Ran. If she was to marry him, she would become Conan's... The very twisted thought frightened him to no end. Miss Kobayashi was very pretty, he knew, but whenever a man asked her out, she always refused, raising the possibility of his theory being true.

She pulled out her address book and flipped through the pages.

"Mouri-tantei has a very good friend called Megure-keibu." She dialed a number on her cell. "I'll get him to come over."

Megure Juzo arrived to the school in less than ten minutes. The inspector had friendly but plump face to go along with the rest of his round, bloated body, and his hair was never seen, as it was always covered by his orange-brown fedora-shaped hat adorned with a black stripe at the bottom of the crown. He looked around the wrecked classroom and took a seat at one of the desks.

"I can see you're following in Mouri-kun's footsteps, Conan-kun," he began, while thinking about what a crazy crack Kogorou was to involve a Primary School kid in such activities, "but you can't do police work by yourself. You should have reported your discovery of Khor immediately."

"But we didn't have the time, Megure-keibu," Conan said, calling Juzo in the very same fashion he had in the past in his adult size. "That black car came along and someone tried to shoot us."

Megure-keibu held up his hand. "I understand, but from now on, you have to work together with us. If you're right, and if Khor was telling the truth, we could be dealing with some very dangerous people." He paused and looked at the young detectives. "For too dangerous for my liking!"

[WBoon]

When Megure-keibu had gone, Genta made a decision.

"Yosh, this is still our case," he announced. "And we can still work on it, so long as we share our discoveries with the police."

"But didn't Keibu say the crooks are very dangerous?" asked Ayumi, who was helping Haibara and Conan clean up the crime files.

"All crooks are dangerous," Mitsuhiko shrugged. "So this time we make sure we tell the police everything first."

"But there's nothing else to tell them," Ayumi pointed out.

"That's because we haven't done our detective work," Conan joined the conversation. "We have to find out why Khor is so important to the crooks. What kind of robbery are they planning?"

Haibara dug the telephone directory from beneath a pile of papers and began writing a list of all the banks. Then, Mitsuhiko listed all the jewelry stores and gold shops.

But Conan shook his head. "I think we're only looking at the obvious targets."

"What do you mean?" asked Ayumi, who loved the way Conan's mind worked.

"If the gang just wanted a safecracker, they could've hired anyone." Conan paced up and down. "There must be plenty of them. The question is, why did they have to bust Khor out of jail?"

"Because the job is very special?" Ayumi suggested. "And Khor is the only person who could do it?"

Ptch. The light of realization struck through Conan's mind. "Exactly! They had to have Khor because he's the best. He's called The Man with the Golden Fingers because he can open any safe. Unless something was missing, you wouldn't even know he'd opened your safe."

Mitsuhiko frowned. "But something would have to be missing," he said. "I mean, why else would you open a safe unless you wanted to take something out?"

"That's the whole point," said Haibara. "What if somebody wanted Khor to put something into the safe?"

"Huh? That doesn't make sense," grumbled Genta.

Ayumi snapped her fingers. "Yes it does! What if the crooks wanted to steal something valuable and replace it with a fake?"

Conan nodded. "Or what if they wanted to make a copy of something in the safe, and then put it back without anyone knowing?"

Haibara leaned against the wall, her face thoughtful. "If that's so, then it makes our job a lot harder. Before we can find out where the safe is, we have to work out why someone wants Khor to open it."

A silence fell in the room as everyone thought about Haibara's remark. The tinkling of a mobile phone broke the spell. Ayumi reached into her pocket and answered the call.

"But, Mum," she protested, "we're very busy..." Her eyes rolled as she listened to the angry babble from her phone. "Okay, Mum," she groaned, and cut the call.

She turned to the others with a weak smile. "I'm wanted at home," she explained. "I'll call you later to see if you've solved the mystery..."

Ayumi strolled through the car park, her temper simmering. Why did her mother have to call her when things were getting exciting? It was so embarrassing to be ordered around like a child, especially when Conan-kun was there!

Her apartment block was in the next street. She walked along, her mind still back in the classroom. They had solved lots of cases before, but not for a while. Nowadays, most of their jobs occurred at school. Missing wallets, lost pens, and so on. They were all easy mysteries. But now, when something tougher had come along, her mother wanted her to help with the cleaning!

If Ayumi had been more alert, she might have noticed the two men following her, darting from one shop doorway to the next. Suddenly, as she drew level with an alley, heavy hands gripped her petite body. She was pushed into the shadows and a thick cloth was bundled over her head, then torso, and finally her whole self.

Ayumi tried to struggle, but her arms were pinned to her sides as her body was swung up by someone. When she screamed, somebody shook her roughly.

"Be quiet!" a harsh voice commanded, muffled by the material wrapped around her body. "You're coming with us!"

Her heart was beating wildly. Fear rose in her throat. Tears rolled from her eyes. "Who are you?" she whimpered.

She heard a metal door slide open and she was dumped onto a cold, hard surface. Ayumi guessed she was in some type of van. The metal door slid shut behind her. Moments later, an engine coughed into life and the vehicle began to move.

She screamed again, but the sound was lost in the folds of cloth. Something jabbed her head.

"Don't give us any trouble," warned the harsh voice. "We just want to have a little chat."

The van weaved from side to side. She could hear other cars blasting their horns.

She had no way of knowing how long the drive lasted. Snatches of traffic sounds drifted into the van, and the fumes made her feel dizzy. At least, the van bumped over rough ground and the engine was turned off. The door slid open and she was carried outside.

For one strange moment, she thought she heard a wild animal. It sounded like an elephant. But that was impossible, she thought. And then, it was gone.

When she was removed from the cloth, Ayumi found herself in a hot, dark room. Somebody was standing behind her. She couldn't see any faces, but she could hear the sound of breathing.

"Now, girl, who are you?" the harsh voice wanted to know.

"Let me go!" she screamed. She tried to turn, but heavy hands clamped her arms.

"Just answer my questions," said a second voice. Whoever it was spoke with an accent. His voice was deep and smooth, but its calmness somehow made him sound even more menacing. "When you've told me what I want to know, you'll be free to go on your way. Now, what is your name?"

"A-A-Ayumi," she stuttered, swallowing nervously. "What do you want with me?"

The sinister voice had a mocking ring. "The question is, my dear, what do you want with my friend, Khor?"

"I've never heard of him," blurted out Ayumi.

The voice moved away. "If you're not going to talk to me, I'll leave you locked up here in the dark. Just tell me what you're doing with Khor!"

"If he was really your friend, you'd know!" she snapped.

The man was growing impatient. "Where's Khor hiding? Did he talk about the tiger?"

"Why did you wreck our classroom?!" countered Ayumi, her temper flaring.

There was silence for a moment. "What classroom?" the man asked her. "What are you talking about?"

Ayumi stamped her foot. "You're the people with the black car! You should know!"

The sinister voice moved even closer. It rose to an urgent pitch. "What black car? Tell me the truth or you'll never see your friends again!"

Ayumi shuddered. Her tear ducts were leaking once again. "The men in the black car tried to kill Khor and my friends, Genta and Conan. And then they came to our classroom at our school."

In the darkness, her hand had found her mobile phone in her pocket. Her fingers busily tapped out a message while she was talking.

"We know all about you," she told her captor. "We told the police."

She heard the man's muttered curse behind her. Her fingers worked feverishly to send the message.

"The police are involved, are they?" the mysterious man growled. "Well, that makes things different. Where is Khor?!" he demanded. "Did the Black Hands get him?"

Ayumi desperately fumbled with her phone. She had to keep the man talking until she had sent the message!

"Who are the Black Hands?" she asked. "Are they the bad guys in the black car?"

The man said nothing. Suddenly, he gripped her right arm. "What are you doing?!" he shouted.

He wrenched her hand from her pocket. Her mobile phone clattered on the floor.

"Were you trying to call someone?!" he demanded.

"No! I wasn't!" screamed Ayumi, her tears finally bursting out. "It's too dark to see anything in here!"

A shadowy hand scooped up her phone. "I don't trust you, girl. I'm leaving you here to think about things," her unseen captor threatened. "And when I come back, I want the truth!"

[WBoon]

It was early afternoon when Haibara and Mitsuhiko left Genta and Conan to finish cleaning up their headquarters. Haibara had invited Mitsuhiko home for lunch, after she saw that he had nervously tagged along when she told the others she was to leave. Together, they strolled through the sun-drenched streets to Agasa-sensei's apartment block.

"Agasa won't be home for hours," she told Mitsuhiko as she opened the front door. "It's so lonely being here by myself."

The moment they sat down on the sofa, a gray, furry shape flew across the room and dived into Haibara's lap.

"Kuching gets bored, too," Haibara smiled as she stroked the pet stray cat she recently attained from the streets.

"How is your mum?" Mitsuhiko asked. "You never really talked much about her before."

Haibara glanced to the faraway corner of the room. Her smile had remained there as she ponder about her answer.

"That's because she died. I'm an orphan, that's why I'm living under Agasa-sensei's care."

Mitsuhiko gasped, feeling horrible about his question. "I'm sorry! I didn't-"

"It's alright." Haibara turned towards Mitsuhiko, smiling cheerfully. "Guess it's time I become more open to you guys, no?"

Mitsuhiko blushed awkwardly, elated about this little visit to his classmate's home.

"Come and help me cook something," she continued, placing her hand on Mitsuhiko's shoulder. "I'm starving."

They went into the kitchen where Mitsuhiko found packets of instant noodles. "I've been thinking about our mystery," he said, helping Haibara fill a saucepan with water. "Do you think Khor told Genta the truth? Or do you think he just escaped from jail by himself?"

Haibara tipped the noodles into the saucepan and started stirring. "I think he was being honest. Otherwise, why would those people try to shoot him?"

"Maybe they didn't like him coming back." Mitsuhiko reached for two bowls. "I mean, I've seen movies where someone breaks out of jail and comes back to get revenge on somebody, or to find some money they've hidden away. Maybe we're just wasting our time with Khor."

Haibara looked up from the steaming noodles. "Don't worry, Conan-kun will know what to do," she grinned.

Mitsuhiko arched an eyebrow. "Conan's solved many cases by himself, but he doesn't know everything."

"True, but his inquisitiveness and sense of logic is above that of others, making him a very effective sleuth," Haibara told him, as she turned off the stove.

"Nonsense!" said Mitsuhiko sharply. "You're much better as a sleuth... person than he is."

Haibara smiled back, amused yet comforted.
~~

Meanwhile, back at the headquarters, Genta and Conan were enjoying the meal that Miss Kobayashi had brought back from the takeaway shop.

Genta kept looking at his watch. "I can't believe it," he sighed, frowning. "Ayumi hasn't called me since she left."

"She went back to help her mother," Conan shrugged. "She's probably too busy."

"It doesn't matter what she's doing, she always calls me," Genta boasted.

'Hah... What will Mitsuhiko say about that...?' Conan mocked him in his mind.

Suddenly, Genta's mobile phone made a weird, chiming noise. "I spoke too soon," he grinned. "I'll bet that's Ayumi."

He flicked open his slim phone and stared at the screen. A moment later, he jumped to his feet.

"What's happened?" asked Conan, chewing on a chunk of chicken.

"It's a message from Ayumi..." The color had drained from Genta's face. "S-s-she's..."

He held out the phone so that Conan could read the brief text message:

Helpp kidnapd nr elep

Genta panicked with sweat flooding his curvy head. "It says she's being kidnapped, right, Conan?!"

Conan stared at the words on the screen. "It looks like she sent it in a hurry. Help... kidnapped near... what's elep mean?"

"Is it short for something?" Genta asked him. "Maybe it's the name of a place or a shop?"

"Or it's a word she didn't have time to finish, perhaps?" Conan wondered. "Maybe someone stopped her from sending the rest."

"The only word I know that starts with e-l-e-p is elephant," said Genta.

Then, Conan snapped his fingers. "Of course! If she's been kidnapped, chances are she was blindfolded. But somehow she heard an elephant and it was the only clue she could give us to where she's being held!"

"Elephants are kept in the zoo," said Genta. "Do you think Ayumi was kidnapped in the zoo or something?"

Conan scratched his jaw. "The zoo is on the other side of the city, so chances are her kidnappers might have taken her there," he pointed. "But it doesn't make sense. The zoo is full of people on the school holidays. Someone would have seen a girl being kidnapped, wouldn't they?"

"Well, maybe Ayumi is in a house near the zoo, somewhere she could hear an elephant."

Conan tried calling her, but her phone was switched off. Then, he punched in more numbers. "I'll ring her mum, that's the first thing to do. Let's find out where she's still missing."

"Taku," groaned Genta, slumping back in his chair. "First, they wreck our headquarters, then they kidnap Ayumi. Conan, what are we going to do?"

Conan held up a hand for silence. He clutched his phone tightly. "Oh, hi, it's Edogawa Conan here. Could I speak to Ayumi, please-" As he listened to her angry mother, his face fell. "Yeah, that's it; she's still here with us," he explained politely. "Sorry for making you worried, Yoshida-san, she'll arrive home soon."

He listened to another furious outburst, then cut the call. He sat down beside Genta and closed his phone. "Ayumi didn't go home. Her mum hasn't seen her."

"But how could anyone kidnap Ayumi?" Genta wondered furiously, stamping a desk with his fist. "Wouldn't someone have seen her being taken away?!"

"You heard what Megure-keibu said," Conan reminded Genta grimly. "We're dealing with dangerous people. We're detectives. We have to expect danger." He then tapped his pencil on the table while he spoke. "Someone is trying to find out what we know about Khor. It's got to be the people who planned his escape. They didn't find anything in our classroom, so that's why they kidnapped Ayumi..."

"So they could question her!" Genta's face brightened. "Once they find out we don't know anything either, I'm sure they'll let her go... won't they?" Suddenly, he gripped Conan's arm. "What about Mitsuhiko and Haibara? Do you think they've been kidnapped, too?"

Conan shuddered with fear. "I'd almost forgotten about them..." He punched in numbers on his phone. Seconds later, he was talking to Haibara. When he told her about Ayumi, he could hear her worried tone through her voice. "You'd better stay with Mitsuhiko at Agasa's place," Conan told her. "Don't go out alone. As soon as we have news, I'll call you."

He rang off and turned to Genta. "We've got to stay together. The crooks wouldn't dare try kidnapping the two of us at a time."

"Conan, I think you should call Megure-keibu," insisted Genta nervously.

"We can't," Conan argued. "That'd put Ayumi in more danger. The police would start a huge search and the crooks might try to get rid of her."

"But we can't just do nothing," snapped Genta.

"We've got to wait and play our hunches," Conan told him. He checked his watched. "Ayumi might try to call us at anytime. If we haven't heard from her by later tonight, then I'll ring the police."

When the hours passed and no call came, Genta decided to go home. But as he left headquarters, he had the strangest feeling that the night would bring even more surprises...

[WBoon]

Long shadows cloaked the streets as Genta hailed a taxi. He had watched for anyone following him, but saw no one suspicious. He lived in the next district, in a brand new terrace house surrounded by a walled garden. Upon arrival, he unlocked the front door and stepped inside. The dying afternoon light spilled through the windows and across the marble floor. As he had expected, the house was empty. A note was propped against an elegant vase on a hall table.

Genta-kun, your mother and I will be working late tonight.

Genta shrugged and went up to his room. He was getting quite used to coming home to an empty house, to the loneliness of making his own meals. He paused on the way up the stairs and picked up the Kamen Yaiba comic book that his father had bought for him this morning from his father's study. He took it up his own room and sprawled on the bed. Lots of his friends would love to live in a house like this, Genta knew. But, secretly, he envied them and their ordinary lives of having their families around them.

Ayumi was still on his mind as he flipped through the graphic novel. He had known her for five years, and while she had done some crazy things for a girl, he knew she wouldn't send him a message that she had been kidnapped just for fun. Underneath it all, she was a sensible girl.

He kept thinking about that message. What did an elephant, or elephants, have to do with her disappearance? It didn't make sense. Maybe she was being held prisoner near the zoo. But the zoo was a big place, he thought, and the animals couldn't really be heard outside. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he remembered his own visits to the zoo. His mum had taken him there when he was a kid. Nowadays, she's too busy helping out with his father's new found business.

The animals in the zoo had not made any noise at all. They had no reason to. They were safe in their cages, were fed regularly, and had nothing to complain about. 'Just like me,' he thought amusingly.

So where else could you find elephants in a city? He turned the page and there it was! The answer was staring him in the face... a big advertisement announcing the last three nights to see the Bengal Circus.

A circus! 'That's where she was!'

Genta tore the ad from the paper and raced downstairs. He hailed a taxi and read the address to the driver. The circus was located on the other side of the city. The evening traffic was heavy and it took an hour before Genta caught sight of the big top looming high above a vast field of small tents, trailers, caravans, and cages. The performance was due to start soon and people streamed through the gates.

Genta told the driver to stop further down the street. He wasn't going to take any chances. Across the road from the circus was a neighborhood park. Genta paid the driver and darted into the cover of the trees. He kept to the shadows of the park, working his way back towards the circus gate. The crowd had thinned and music had started playing in the big top. He could see figures walking around, leading animals into the big top. Two clowns strolled from a trailer and waved to a man on a horse. Somewhere in the distance, a lion roared. A moment later, he an elephant trumpeting.

His skin tingled. His hunch had been right. Ayumi was somewhere in the circus!

He crouched behind a huge tree, staring into the circus compound. It was enormous and Ayumi could be anywhere. How could he find her alone? He needed Conan and Mitsuhiko to help him. He reached for his Junior Detective League badge walkie talkie, but froze. A long, black car was cruising along the street. It pulled up a few meters from where he was hiding. A man got out and walked towards him. He gave a soft whistle.

Suddenly, a shadowy figure emerged from behind a nearby tree and walked out to meet him. Genta caught his breath. If he had used his walkie talkie, the man hiding in the park would have heard him! Genta crouched even lower, watching the two men. Their voices carried in the night air.

"There's been no sign of Khor?" asked the man who had just arrived.

"Nothing," said the man who had been hiding in the trees. "I saw them take that little girl inside. My guess is Benny must be questioning her to find out what she knows."

"We had better call anokata," said his companion.

They headed for the car, leaving Genta, puzzled, in the shadows. Suddenly, everything seemed more complicated. It wasn't the men in the black car who had kidnapped Ayumi. It was somebody else, somebody called Benny, who worked in the circus. When both men drove off in the black car, Genta made a quick decision. Ayumi was somewhere in the circus, and he was determined to find her. He sprinted across the road, through the gate, and dived into the shadows beside a trailer. When he was sure he had not been seen, he crept further into the circus.

He edged past a tent, careful not to trip over the ropes and pegs. Some men were standing in a pool of light beside a cage. He circled round silently, ducking behind the bulk of another tent.

"Hello, where do you think you're going?"

Genta spun round at the sound of the girl's voice. Her face was suspended just above the ground in the darkness. Her bare feet seemed to be growing out of her ears. Then, her face moved, rolling from side to side, until it was upside down, laughing at him.

Genta choked back a shout of horror. His flesh was crawling with fear.

"Well, you haven't answered me." The girl grinned and poked out her tongue. She looked to be his age.

Then, she moved into the light, and Genta could see that she was walking on her hands while her legs were wrapped around her head. She resembled a weird kind of human ball. Suddenly, she sprang to her feet and stood beside him. She was glad in a black leotard. Her short-cropped hair framed a beautiful face.

"Did I shock you?" she asked. "I'm Josie, and I'm going to be a contortionist one day, just like Mum and Dad." Her dark eyes flashed. "You're very handsome."

"And you're very pretty," Genta blurted out, smiling, while a gland of crystal drool flowed from his mouth.

"What's your name?" she wanted to know.

"Kojima Genta," he told her, deciding at once he had to trust her. He handed her his card. "I'm looking for someone called Benny."

The smile vanished from Josie's face. "The wild animal trainer?" she shivered. "Do you know him? What do you want with him?"

Genta chose his words carefully. "I'm trying to find a friend of mine, and I think Benny could help."

Josie stepped closer and touched his arm. "Let me warn you about Benny," she whispered. "He's very cruel and nobody really trusts him. But if you want me to show you his van, I will." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I'd like to help someone as nice as you." Then, she giggled. "You look so shocked, Genta. I'm a circus girl, and we circus people are always bolder than ordinary people."

Genta blushed with elation, inadvertently letting out a slight chuckle. He had never really any girl in particular displaying interest over him before, so it was quite a thrill for him indeed.

He followed the circus girl across the field until they reached a row of cages. Inside them, lions paced up and down restlessly.

Josie pointed to a red trailer that was parked beside them. "That's Benny's." She studied his face. "But you can't go in there. Benny would kill you!"

[WBoon]

While Genta was investigating the circus, Conan had been nervously pacing up and down in his bedroom. Something stopped him from calling Megure-keibu. He knew that once the police learned that once the police learned that Ayumi had been kidnapped, they would stop him from working on the case.

Maybe Ayumi had not really been kidnapped, he argued with himself. Maybe she had gone into hiding to avoid her mother. Her temper was growing over the past couple of months - puberty, perhaps. Or maybe she had gone to a movie. He kept calling her mobile phone, but it was switched off.

When his girlfriend, or rather, current guardian, Mouri Ran, called him for dinner, he picked up his food.

"Conan-kun, what's the matter?" she asked.

"Nothing, Ran-nee chan..." He looked up and replied, smiling. "I'm just thinking about this cage we're on."

Ran rapped the edge of his bowl with her chopsticks. "If you hear from that escaped criminal again, Conan-kun, you've got to promise me you'll call the police."

"But..." Conan tried to argue, but Ran snapped back immediately.

"I don't want you doing anything silly!"

When Conan returned to his room, sighing with both relief and annoyance, he tried to call Genta to see if he had heard from Ayumi, but he wasn't answering his walkie talkie. Maybe Genta had heard from her. Maybe he had gone to meet her and they had gone home.

No sooner had he climbed into bed than his mobile phone began ringing. He scooped it up before Ran heard it and got curious.

"This is Edogawa Conan," he said.

"We haven't met," said a rough voice. "But my name is Khor. Your friend gave me your number."

"Khor-san...!" Conan sat bolt upright, his fingers tightening around the phone. "Daijoubu?!"

Khor made a snorting noise. "I don't know. People are looking for me everywhere. When can I meet you?"

Conan's mind was reeling. "What about tomorrow at nine o' clock in my classroom?" he suggested. The following day was a weekend, so he did not need to worry about the classroom being used.

However, Khor laughed harshly. "I could be dead by then. No, I want to see you tonight. I know where your classroom is. We'll meet there in an hour."

Before Conan could say anything, Khor rang off. He jumped out of bed. Cold sweat ran down his cheeks. Genta still did not answer, so he called Haibara.

"Have you found Ayumi?" was the first thing she said upon picking up the phone.

"No, but I've just had a phone call from Khor-san," Conan told her. "He wants to meet us at headquarters in an hour's time."

"Kudo-kun, you've got to ring Megure-keibu, too," Haibara insisted. "We can't meet Khor alone. He could be armed."

"But if the police are there, Khor will see them and run," Conan argued. "He'll never trust us again."

Haibara thought about it. "I suppose. I'll go and wake Mitsuhiko, and we'll meet you at headquarters. I couldn't reach Genta, you have any luck?"

"Iie, I don't know where he is," Conan admitted.

"With our situation now, he might be missing, too," Haibara noted grimly.
~~

Genta and Josie had settled down to wait behind a stack of boxes near Benny's trailer. The sounds of the circus show drifted across the field. People screamed, laughed and cheered. A team of men hooked the lion cages behind a tractor and they were hauled off towards the big top.

Minutes later, a huge man with a cruel face stepped down from the red trailer. His scarlet cape swirled majestically. The light from the doorway fell on his gold circus costume. He carried a long whip and Genta caught a glimpse of a large ring hanging from one ear.

"That's him," whispered Josie, her lips brushing Genta's cheek.

The man called Benny looked around to make sure no one was watching. He strode across to a smaller trailer nearby, loosened a bolt and went inside. Moments later, a terrified scream shattered the silence. Genta covered his mouth in shock, but realized the danger Ayumi might be in and jumped to his feet, but Josie pulled him down.

"But my friend is in there!" he protested.

"You mean your girlfriend!" Josie hissed.

Genta was stung by the jealousy in her voice. But before he could answer, Benny stepped out of the small trailer and bolted the door behind him. He headed off to the big top, cracking his whip.

Genta leapt up. "Yosh, now's our chance!"

Josie didn't move. "I'm not going in there. If Benny catches me, he'll kill me." She grabbed Genta's arm. "Is your friend pretty?"

Josie's jealousy was annoying him. He shook himself free. "I've got to get her out of there before something bad happens to her."

"Then do it yourself!" Josie folded her arms. "But just remember, Genta, I'm the one who helped you. You owe me!"

And with that, she vanished into the shadows.
~~

Conan was waiting at headquarters when Haibara and Mitsuhiko arrived.

Mitsuhiko looked around sleepily. "Are you sure he's coming?" he moaned, dropping into a chair. "Why couldn't he wait till the morning? And where's Genta-kun?" He tugged on Conan's shoulder. "He must've gone looking for Ayumi and been kidnapped, too!"

Everyone jumped when they heard a soft tap on the window. Conan reached the door first and flung it open. Khor stumbled inside, his face pale and haunted, his eyes wild with fear.

"You've got to help me," he began, slumping into a chair.

"Khor-san, we'll do everything we can," Conan told him. "But this case is getting very serious. Two of my friends have disappeared, and we have to call the police."

"Not yet," begged Khor. "If the police send me back to jail, there are people inside who will punish me." He dropped his voice. "I've found out who tried to kill me. Have your heard of the Black Hands?"

Everyone looked at him blankly, except Haibara. She nodded and reached for a box file. "They're a gang of criminals."

Conan was jotting down notes. "But if the Black Hands got you out of jail, why are they trying to kill you?"

"That's just it," Khor said wearily. "They had nothing to do with my escape. That was somebody else!"

"Who?" asked Mitsuhiko.

Khor looked round the room and shuddered. "A man they call The Snake..."

Mitsuhiko made a strange swallowing sound, but Haibara frowned. "I don't think I've ever heard of him," she said.

Khor shot her a fearful look. "Not many people have. He's a master criminal. He plans all kinds of crimes, but he gets other people to do them. That's why the police have never caught him."

"Does The Snake know where you are?" Conan asked him.

"He knows everything!" Khor replied in a trembling voice, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I found an old building to hide out in. I thought I'd be safe there. I went to sleep for a few hours, but when I woke up, I found a note stuck on the wall beside me. It said I had to meet him in the morning at midday, down at the docks, at Pier 13."

"Did he tell you why?" Conan demanded.

"It didn't make sense," Khor shook his head. "There were just two words. Operation Tiger."

"It sounds like a codename," Mitsuhiko gasped, then scratched his head. "Unless he wants you to steal a tiger," he said with a laugh.

"I don't know what it means..." Khor leaned forward, a desperate look on his haggard face. "But I don't want to go down there alone. Will you come with me? Can you make sure I leave there alive? Please help me," the old criminal persisted.

"But we aren't the police," Mitsuhiko argued before the others could promise anything. "We don't have guns or anything. And we don't even know what The Snake looks like!"

"Nobody does," Khor told him. "Nobody's ever seen his face. Nobody knows his real name. Nobody even knows where to find him!" Khor staggered to his feet and reached the door. "I'd better go. I've got to find a new place to hide in case somebody followed me here." He stared Conan in the eye. "I'll see you, little tantei-san, at Pier 13 at midday... I'm counting on you!"

And the door closed behind him.

[WBoon]

Genta ran across to the trailer and unlocked the door. It was pitch black inside.

"Ayumi," he called softly. "It's okay, I'm here..."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, something stirred in the darkness. He heard a sob and a scraping sound, like a shoe on metal. The next minute, a figure was rushing towards him.

"Genta!" Ayumi cried and leapt into his arms. "You found me!"

"Daijoubu?" he asked her. "They didn't hurt you?"

She was shaking like a leaf. "I was locked up all day! They asked me all sorts of silly questions about Khor, and Black Hands, and a tiger!" She looked around wildly. "Where are we? I couldn't see anything when they brought me here."

"Well, I think you were kidnapped by an animal trainer called Benny," Genta explained. "He brought you here. That's why you heard an elephant." He grabbed her hand and hurried her away from the trailer. "When we got your message about the elephant, we thought you were in the zoo. Then, I had the idea that you might be somewhere in a circus. It was a process of elimination," he said smugly.

Ayumi gazed up at his face in the moonlight. Just when he thought she was finally going to praise him as he have always dreamed of, she said, "Genta, Conan-kun told you all that, didn't he?"

Genta almost fell to his feet. "Wha-? That's not it! I really came across this advertisement of this circus and thought of coming here-"

"Genta, it's not good to lie!" Ayumi lectured. "Just because you are jealous of Conan's intelligence doesn't make it okay for you to steal his glory."

Genta was fuming, so much so that one could almost hear a noise resembling a train's horn.
~~~

While the others watched, Conan rang Inspector Megure. His call was patched through to the policeman's home.

"I'll be right over," Inspector Megure told Conan when he heard about Khor's visit.

Half an hour later, the policeman strode into Conan's headquarters. For a moment, no one recognized him out of his usual clothing. He was wearing a striped shirt and plain gray trousers. He sat down and listened as Conan told him everything that had happened.

"Khor is working for someone called The Snake. He's the one who got him out of jail."

The inspector grunted. "We'd love to get our hands on him. We've been after him for years. Did Khor say what The Snake wanted him to do?"

"He doesn't know," replied Conan.

"Except it's something called Operation Tiger," added Haibara.

"Khor is meeting The Snake at Pier 13 at midday," Conan explained. "He wants us there to keep an eye on him."

"He's very scared of The Snake," Mitsuhiko said. "Khor didn't want to escape, he was bullied into it. He said that if you sent him back to jail, the crooks inside would punish him."

"Wakarimashita*," the inspector nodded. "If he's being truthful, we won't do anything to harm him or put him at risk. Did he tell you who tried to shoot him?"

"A gang called the Black Hands," Haibara answered. "I've got a file on them."

"Then you'll know how dangerous they are," Inspector Megure reminded her. He looked round the classroom. "Isn't something missing? Where's Ayumi-chan and Genta-chan?"

Conan turned red. "Er, yes..." He cleared his throat. "The fact is, we're just waiting for them to report in."

Mitsuhiko rolled his eyes. "What Conan is trying to say is that they've vanished."

"What?" Inspector Megure jumped to his feet angrily. "Conan-kun, why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Mitsuhiko grinned from the side, awaiting for the inspector's tirade.

Haibara saw his smile and rolled her eyes, then tried to calm the inspector down. "Ayumi sent us a message saying she'd been kidnapped. She sent us a clue, something about hearing an elephant. We think Genta has gone to find her." She smiled sweetly. "I'm sure we'll hear from them very soon."

Megure sat down, but he was still simmering. "Conan-kun, I've already told you that you can't do police work by yourself."

"But we've solve countless cases for you, and we've done pretty well so far, haven't we?" Conan protested.

Megure gave him a crooked smile. "Well, there's no denying that, I suppose. So, what do you think we should do next?"

Conan grinned enthusiastically. "We set a trap for The Snake. We'll do what Khor asked us to do - we'll do down to Pier 13 and keep watch. But you and your men will be there. They'll have the place surrounded, but they'll keep out of sight. As soon as The Snake turns up, we've got him."

Inspector Megure nodded and headed for the door. "Okay, that makes good sense. I'll make the necessary arrangements now. But don't take any risks or we'll close in immediately."

Then, he turned at the doorway and looked back coldly.

"And if you haven't heard from your two friends within the next hour, call me!" he added gruffly, jabbing a finger at Conan. "That's a direct order, okay?"
~~~

On the roof of a nearby building, a man clad in black switched off a powerful radio microphone and packed up his equipment. He had to report back immediately on every word he had just heard.
~~~

When Genta and Ayumi were safely in a taxi, Ayumi called Conan on her walkie talkie. Ayumi sat as far from Genta as she could, still angry, staring out the window at the stars above. She quickly told Conan how Genta had found her at the circus... and how he lied about it."

"He didn't - I didn't tell him anything about a circus," Conan pointed.

Ayumi's face flushed red. She gradually turned around to look at an annoyed Genta, whose left eye was kept staring at her with immense rage.

"I TOLD YOU SO!" he yelled.

"Gomennasai**, Genta-kun!" She put both her hands together, bowing her head in sincere apology.

"That explains the elephant you heard," continued Conan. "Well, we've got news for you, too."

He told Ayumi about Khor's visit, the Black Hand gang, the criminal called The Snake, and the mysterious Operation Tiger.

"Wow," said Genta, crawling over to Ayumi's side of the seat. "Ayumi was kidnapped by a man called Benny. He's a wild animal trainer at the circus. He asked her if Khor had said anything about a tiger."

"That's amazing," said Conan. "Everything's coming together." Then, he explained the plans for the stakeout at Pier 13. "You two'd better get some sleep. I think we're going to have a very interesting day..."
~~~

Translations!
*I understand
**I'm sorry

[akai-kun]

Just some days off and then 6 new chapters! That's awesome! Thx a bunch!

You get better and better from chapter to chapter! This is awesome! Thx again.

Keep it up!

[WBoon]

Thanks again, akai-kun for reading my story and for your compliment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even in the bright midday sun, Pier 13 was a lonely, forlorn place. It was in the heart of the old dockside district, once a scene of bustling activity that had long ago been replaced by a modern container port. Derelict wooden wharves rotted in the shadows of abandoned warehouses.

As Conan led his team of investigators through the narrow streets, there was no sign of the police. The crumbling warehouses were massive structures, their doors yawning open, giving glimpses into gloomy interiors where rats scurried undisturbed. An old archway led onto Pier 13, and the timbers creaked beneath their feet. They took cover behind an ancient, rustling crane and gazed out across the harbor. Countless cargo ships rode at anchor while a huge container vessel sliced through the water.

Haibara raised an eyebrow. "Kudo," she whispered, "if The Snake is so clever, would he really come down here to meet Khor?" She stared around the decaying docks suspiciously. "Wouldn't he know he might be walking into a trap?"

"We'll soon find out," Conan replied, pointing.

A shadow had painted itself onto the timber pier. As they watched, it grew larger and longer. Someone was coming.

Khor emerged through the archway. He looked warily from side to side, and walked slowly past them. He stopped for a moment as though sensing danger, then picked his way further along the pier. He was alone.

Khor had almost reached the end of the pier when he suddenly vanished from sight.

"We've lost him!" yelled Mitsuhiko.

Conan leapt up and raced down the pier, followed by the others. All at once, they heard a powerful engine beneath their feet. The next minute, a speedboat swung out from under the pier and streaked across the water. They watched as it picked up speed and vanished among the cargo ships.

A clatter of feet sounded on the old timbers behind them. Inspector Megure and his men crowded around.

"I might have known something like this would happen," Megure muttered.

He led the way forward to where Khor had disappeared. A trapdoor hung open in the pier, and they stared down into the murky water slopping at their feet.

Conan knelt down and examined it. "By the looks of it, this trapdoor was recently installed, maybe just a couple of days ago. It was very cleverly disguised. The hinges are new, not rusty. And it was designed to be opened from below - there's a bolt underneath it. Now we could confirm why The Snake told him to come here."

After he straightened up, Megure placed a hand on his shoulder. "Well, Conan-kun, it looks like you were right. Khor has been nabbed against his will. I don't know whether we'll ever see him again. It was a very well-organized operation, the kind of thing The Snake is very good at."

He lifted his gaze from the oily water to the ships in the harbor. "We've been in radio contact with the water police and the customs authorities, but that speedboat could be anywhere by now. I'd say Khor's been taken out to one of those ships. We'd need a small army to search every one of them."

"But why would they take him to a ship?" Haibara asked.

Inspector Megure shrugged wearily. "Who knows? My guess is The Snake might want him for a job in another country."

'It was possible,' Conan thought. But, secretly, he told himself, 'Iie!'* If the robbery was going to be in another country, why were the Black Hands trailing Khor?

And why had Benny kidnapped Ayumi?

'Whatever was being planned was going to happen right here!'

When Megure and his men had gone, Conan lowered himself onto the old timbers and peered through the hole.

"What are you looking for?" asked Mitsuhiko.

"Clues," he mumbled, staring at the rubbish floating on the tide below.

Suddenly, he swung himself down through the hole, grasping an old wooden ladder that reached into the water. The ladder groaned under his weight as he clambered down to where a piece of paper floated.

"Conan-kun, be careful!" gasped Ayumi.

Conan reached for the paper and fished it out of the water. As he climbed back, part of the ladder snapped and dropped into the water. Mitsuhiko grabbed his arm quickly and hauled him up through the hole.

Genta took the soggy piece of paper and held it up. "It could be anything," he shrugged. "Aren't harbors always full of old rubbish?"

"True, but this piece of paper looks new," Haibara pointed out. She carefully spread out the paper in the sun and knelt down for a closer look. Suddenly, she took in a short gasp of breath. "It's a map of the harbor."

Mitsuhiko was on his knees beside her. "Haibara-chan's right," he agreed. "And someone's drawn a line on it. Maybe it's the route the speedboat is taking."

The others crowded around the waterlogged map. A line had been drawn connecting Pier 13 to a spot on the far side of the harbor marked by a large X.

Mitsuhiko stroked his chin. "The question is, is that where they came from?" he asked. "Or where they're going?"

"I think it's both!" decided Conan. "They did a straight run across the harbor, then back again. And where that X is, that's where we'll find Khor!"

"I wonder what's over there?" mused Haibara.

Ayumi raised her finger innocently. "I've had an idea! Why don't we hire a boat and go across?"

Genta gave her a sarcastic look. "If you want me to row you across the harbor, forget it! Let's get a cab."

"Genta-kun, I wouldn't want you to do anything for me!" Ayumi shouted, and turned her back on him. "Conan-kun, there's a harbor cruise jetty not far from here. We can hire a motorboat like tourists do. It can take us across and drop us off, then we can have a look around."

Mitsuhiko frowned. "It might be dangerous. What if the crooks see us coming after them?"

"But," Conan inserted, "if we're in a tourist boat, that's what they'll think we are - tourists!" He looked at his investigators. "Let's do it. We've got to save Khor, and I'm sure The Snake won't be expecting company..."
~~~~

More translations!
*No!

[WBoon]

Not going to let this die again!
~~~
As they left the pier for the short walk to the boat hire jetty, Haibara had a sudden thought. She walked ahead of the others and gripped Conan's shoulder.

"Kudo, I've been thinking," she began, "Ayumi told us that she was kidnapped by that man called Benny at the circus. But he's never seen me. While you track that speedboat, why don't I go out to the circus and have another look around?"

"That's a gre..."

"...That's a great idea!" a voice interrupted Conan, causing both to jump and turn around.

Mitsuhiko and the others stood behind, grinning in the cheekiest manner, having to overhear their whispered conversation.

"Taku," Conan remarked, pulling a face of annoyance at the trio.

"Doesn't matter now, I guess," Haibara shrugged away casually, "but only Mitsuhiko could come along."

Mitsuhiko lost his smile and blushed lightly upon hearing her comment.

"Benny has saw Ayumi's face, and for all you know, probably even Genta's, too."

"Ah," Conan agreed. He's still reluctant in involving Mitsuhiko, especially after what had happened to Ayumi, but, as always, few words could be said to change the minds of these junior detectives. "Good luck, guys, but don't take any chances."
~~~

Haibara and Mitsuhiko caught a bus to the circus ground. At first, Mitsuhiko just stared out the window, deep in thought. Then, without warning, he turned to Haibara and shot her a curious look.

"Er..." he nervously inserted, causing Haibara to turn her head gently towards him with a blank look on her face. "there's something I've been wanting to ask you..."

"Nani*?" Haibara replied coldly.

"Well..."

Haibara's tone wasn't helping. Mitsuhiko pushed both of his index fingers against each other repetitively, looking down at them as he pondered for an answer.

"...why did you ask me to come with you?"

A smile broke, almost instantly. She shut her eyes and turned her face to her front, as if in deep thought.

"Because I like you."

Mitsuhiko felt his blood pumping to his head.

"What...?" he inquired, trying to confirm his assumption.

"You're a loyal friend. I like you."

They rode in silence after that, until the bus stopped outside the circus. The huge field of tents and trailers looked deserted. The only people they could see were two men in overalls feeding some horses. Mitsuhiko walked over to them.

"We're looking for Benny," he told them.

One of the men indicated with his head. "Over there, kid, past the big top."

Haibara and Mitsuhiko set out through the maze of trailers and cages. As they passed the big top they saw some cleaners at work inside.

"I'd love to see a real circus," Mitsuhiko said, "but Dad can't afford the tickets."

"I love to see one, too," Haibara agreed, "but Mum never has time to take me."

"What about your dad?" he asked her.

"He's mostly at work with my Mum;" she replied softly, "both had busy jobs."

"Had?" he remarked at her strange choice of words.

"The show doesn't start till tonight," a girl's voice interrupted before Haibara could answer Mitsuhiko. "You'll have to come back then."

They spun round and saw a girl their own age with short-cropped hair.

Mitsuhiko's jaw dropped. She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

"We're just... having a look round," he blurted out.

The girl's eyes flashed. "Snooping, more like it," she accused him. "You'd better go home. I can stay here because I'm part of the circus."

Haibara studied her warily, and remembered Genta's words to them about a girl as they walked to the pier earlier on. "Are you Josie, the girl that Genta met?"

Josie tossed her head angrily. "That lousy Genta. He didn't even thank me for helping him!" She lowered her voice, and a crafty look appeared on her face. "He's so gorgeous, but he's got a silly girlfriend."

"Ayumi isn't silly!" Mitsuhiko defended his friend. "And Genta's known her a lot longer than he's known you. Even if she is her girlfriend, you've no right to come between them."

"But I helped him save her life," Josie smirked. "Why didn't he come back with you today?"

"He couldn't make it," said Haibara.

"No such thing! I'll bet he's taken Ayumi to a movie," Josie snorted.

Haibara tried to change the subject. "Josie, we came here to find out more about Benny."

"He's not here," Josie sneered. "And even if he were, he wouldn't talk to you. He hates strangers prying into his business and he's very dangerous."

"We know Benny's got lions," Haibara persisted. "But does he have any tigers as well?"

Josie shot her a strange look. "What a weird question... of course he has tigers! Benny has four Bengal tigers. That's why it's called the Bengal Circus. And that's why he calls himself Benny. It's short for Bengal."

"But where are they?" Mitsuhiko asked her. "I can only see his lions."

Josie rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything?" she groaned. "You can't keep the big cats together. They get jealous."

'Just like putting you and Ayumi together,' Haibara smiled to herself.

Josie led the way past trailers and tents toward the tiger cages.

"Tigers are very valuable," she explained as they walked. "You can't just buy tigers for a circus. You have to train them from young. And these days, my Dad says it's getting harder and harder for circuses to get animals. He says there are lots of laws against smuggling wild animals."

Haibara's eyes lit up. "Animal smuggling... I wonder if that's what The Snake is doing?" she spoke with a lowered voice.

Josie frowned. "Who's The Snake?"

"A very dangerous criminal," Mitsuhiko told her. "Josie, if Benny wanted to steal a tiger, do you think he could?"

Before Josie could answer, they had turned a corner. A wire fence with a padlocked gate blocked their path. Beyond it were the tiger cages, where three huge, tawny-colored beasts with dark stripes eyed them hungrily.

"That's weird!" She pointed at an empty cage. "There are only three tigers. But Benny has four! One tiger's missing!"
~~~

As usual, Conan was the one who dipped into his pocket for money. The boatman had agreed to take them to the far side of the harbor, but when he named his price, Genta turned pale. But it was no problem for Conan, though he was equally shocked. His weekly allowance was enough to cover the cost.

The motorboat chugged between cargo ships of every shape and size. Sailors waved from the decks, and a tugboat gave them a friendly blast as it slid past. But there was no sign of the speedboat anywhere on the harbor.

As they neared the shore, the boatman checked the map that Conan had fished from the water. He steered the motorboat toward a cluster of warehouses and factories.

"Maybe The Snake has his headquarters over there," suggested Genta.

Ayumi shaded her eyes against the sun and studied the buildings that crowded the shoreline. "But it'll be looking for a needle in a haystack," she said. "He could be anywhere."

"No, he wouldn't!" cried Genta excitedly. "Look! Isn't that the speedboat?"

He pointed to where a speedboat rocked on the tide beside a small jetty.

"We've found The Snake's boat!" Ayumi grinned, and Conan told the boatman to let them off.

The motorboat nosed into the jetty and everyone climbed out. Conan and Genta ran along and peered down into the speedboat.

It was empty.

Conan looked around. For a brief moment, he had the strangest feeling that someone was watching hm. His skin tingled with a spasm of fear.

"The Snake can't be far away," he warned. "Watch out for anything suspicious."

He led the way along the jetty to the road. Traffic surged past. Vans and trucks rumbled by, and some pulled in to make deliveries. People hurried in and out of buildings.

"I think we got here too late," said Ayumi.

But no sooner had they reached the first side street than they saw a familiar long, black car parked outside a doorway.

"The Black Hands are here!" shouted Genta. "They must have followed the speedboat, too..."

[akai-kun]

YAY!

Can't wait for the next! ~

This IS AWESOME!!!!

Thx for writing~

[WBoon]

Thanks for staying loyal, akai-kun.
~~~

"Well, well, well," said the man in black, parting the curtain with a gloved hand and staring down into the street. "Guess who's just arrived?"

Across the room, a brutal man with the shoulders of an ape shook his head.

"Our young friends, Edogawa Conan and his investigators," advised the man in black with a tight smile. "Very interesting."

"How did they find us?" the other man wondered.

"I've no idea, Nifty, but I don't want them causing any more trouble."

The man in black stepped away from the window.

"They've seen the car and they're heading this way. You know what to do, don't you?"

Nifty's grin exposed a row of broken teeth. "Leave it to me, boss."

"Put them in the basement. Before we dispose of them, I want to find out exactly what they know."

When the thug called Nifty had left the room, the man in black pulled a hood over his head and slipped a gun into his pocket.
~~~

"Quick! We have to get out of sight before anyone sees us," called Conan. He sprinted across the street and took cover behind a parked van. The others then followed and crouched beside him.

Ayumi tapped Conan on the shoulder. "We should ring Megure-keibu," she suggested.

"But we haven't got anything to report," Genta inserted.

"Moreover, we haven't found Khor," added Conan.

They stared at the long, black car. It was parked outside a metal door in the side of an old building that overlooked the harbor.

Just then, the metal door opened and a man stepped into the street. He crossed to the car, whistling loudly, and got something out. Then, he returned inside the building and the door closed behind him.

"I don't think they know anyone's watching them," said Genta. "If he knew we were here, he wouldn't have made all that noise."

"And he didn't even lock the door properly," said Ayumi in surprise.

She was right. A crack of light shone along one edge of the metal front door.

Conan edged forward. "Let's go, this is our chance to take a closer look..."

They crossed the street and Conan pushed the door. It swung open soundlessly and they stepped into a grimy hall lit by a single bulb in the ceiling. A flight of stairs led up to the floor above. Another descended onto the basement from where they could hear muffled noises.

Conan held a finger to his lips and began to make his way down the old stone steps. The noises grew louder. Someone was dragging heavy boxes around.

They were halfway down when a beam of bright light swept over them. Ayumi screamed and clutched onto Conan's arm.

"It was a trap!" she cried.

A voice behind them laughed softly. "indeed it was, and you walked right into it."

Conan looked back, but the torchlight dazzled his eyes. All he could see was a black, hooded figure at the top of the stairs.

"Are you The Snake?" Ayumi blurted out.

"Sorry to disappoint you, little girl," smirked the hooded man. "You're a gust of the Black Hands. Now, all of you, keep going down to the basement. We're wasting time."

"Where's Khor?!" Genta called back over his shoulder.

"So many questions," chided the hooded man. "Khor's been taken care of."

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, but hulking thug called Nifty pulled open a heavy wooden door and pushed them through into the basement. The man in the hood followed, the gun in his hand.

"Now, before we say our goodbyes permanently, I need some answers," he said. "Why are you helping Khor?"

Conan stared at the gun. "Because he asked us to," Conan told him. "Because you tried to kill him. Why do you want to get rid of him?"

"That's none of your business," the hooded man said, and gave the gun a menacing jerk. "What did he promise you for helping him? Did he offer you a cut in his share of the money?"

"You're wrong," Ayumi insisted. "Khor-san doesn't want to do any more robberies. He was forced to escape from jail."

The hooded man laughed. "He's played you out, my friends. When we found out that he was meeting The Snake at Pier 13, we got there first. And you're lucky we did. If Khor had handed you over to The Snake as planned, you'd all be floating in the harbor by now."

"That's not true!" Ayumi shouted. "Khor-san would never do that to us!"

Genta folded his arms and eyed the hooded man defiantly. "What about the circus?" he asked. "What do you want with Benny?"

The hooded man took a step towards him and leveled his gun. "How do you know about that?"

"I saw your men there last night," Genta told him calmly. "Two of them."

"You're clever, kid, very clever," the hooded man said. "Well, let me tell you something. Benny wants something The Snake wants. And now I want it, too."

"And what's that?" Genta demanded.

"See, you didn't know very much at all." The hooded man backed away and moved towards the door. "You're not as smart as you thought..."

"Operation Tiger," sounded Conan, much to the hooded man's surprise. His face turned into a more menacing one as he gazed angrily at Conan. "Or, should I say, Operation White Tiger?"

The hooded man laughed out in hysteria. "Nice. VERY NICE, kid. Unfortunately, that means we really will have to leave you here... to die." He smiled especially wickedly upon spitting out that word which stung the ears of the kids as he beckoned Nifty to follow him. "This is a very old building and the basement is carved out of solid rock. That's why mobile phones don't work down here. It's also below sea level and sometimes, the high tide comes in. So, you can make as much noise you you like, no one will ever here you."

The wooden door slammed shut and they heard bolts sliding into place on the other side.

An eerie silence filled the basement, broken only by the muffled sound of the tide washing against the wall outside. An old, cobwebbed light flickered from the ceiling.

Ayumi tried her mobile phone, but there was no signal. "What are we going to do?" she moaned.

Genta tested his phone without success. He paced around the walls. "There's not even a window in here!"

Conan sat down on a broken packing case. "How did the Black Hands know we were going to meet Khor at Pier 13?"

"You wouldn't think that Khor told them, would you, Conan-kun?" Ayumi asked him with a frown.

Conan shok his head. "Iie, he wouldn't. They've been trying to kill him. The only people who knew about Pier 13 were Khor, the police, and us."

"What are you saying?" pressed Ayumi. "The police wouldn't have told the Black Hands!"

"Of course not," said Conan. "So that leaves only one thing. I think the Black Hands have bugged our headquarters."

Genta nodded. "Yeah, that explains why they were one jump ahead of us. They knew everything we were doing. But what about Khor? Do you think he's been double-crossing us...?"

Conan thought about it. "We believed that he needed our help. But maybe he's been working for The Snake all along... Maybe all that stuff about finding a note was a lie. His orders were to get us out of the way. And he kept telling us not to call the police. That's probably because he wanted to get us down to Pier 13 alone."

"And when he fell through that trapdoor on the pier, we thought The Snake had set it up to catch him," Ayumi remarked. "But what if that trapdoor wasn't meant for Khor at all? What if it was really meant for us?"

"Sou ka!* It's just like the hooded man said. They got there first and they used the trapdoor to catch Khor. But the real plan was for The Snake to use it... to catch us!"

He looked around urgently, and sweat beaded his forehead. "We've got to get out of here. And we've got to warn Haibara and Mitsuhiko. If they go back to headquarters, the Black Hands might be waiting for them!"
~~~

Haibara and Mitsuhiko had left the circus and were on the bus back to headquarters.

"Still no answer," noted Haibara, glaring at her mobile phone.

Mitsuhiko massaged his fingers. "They don't even answer me messages! I wonder if they've found Khor? I just hope everything's okay."

"Don't worry, Conan always knows what to do," she grinned faintly, settling back in her seat.

"Wait till he hears about Benny's missing tiger!" Mitsuhiko gave a loud sigh. "Wow, guess that Josie wasn't too bad after all."

Haibara had nothing to say.

[akai-kun]

Interesting. Guess who has just landed a new awesome chapter...

AWESOME!!!
That I call thrilling!
Thx a million for continuing, that is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait for the next, you're great~

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!