Murder Broods
folder
+. to F › Detective Conan/Case Closed
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
14
Views:
2,583
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Currently Reading:
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Category:
+. to F › Detective Conan/Case Closed
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
14
Views:
2,583
Reviews:
1
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own CaseClosed/Detective Conan Manga/Anime, Gosho Aoyama does. This is a not for profit, fan-derived work of fiction
Fortune Brews
Murder Broods:
Chapter 4: Fortune Brews
The light shining through the windows, Conan paced the floor at Agasa’s house; he’d text Jodie after the explosives were dismantled, informing her about the last message: f0rTNT0 that had been carved on each of the bombs in the apartment complex. He paced waiting for Jodie’s answer while the TV News channel played in the background.
He glanced at the TV coverage of the case, then at his cell; his attention distracted by his thoughts he almost missed the newscaster reveal new information about the bomb that detonated before the other three explosives were discovered.
‘….seems a smaller bomb ignited the gas-tank of a parked vehicle….a Porsche….’
Haibara walked in the room as Conan turned to the TV; she gasped at the screen and listened to the newscaster as Conan increased the volume.
“Kudo…it couldn’t be….” Conan shushed Haibara until the newscaster moved to info on the other explosives -- leaving out the code found on each bomb.
“…I’m sure it is….that Porsche was Gin’s….”
“But why? How could this….the syndicate’s too thorough to be caught off guard…Gin especially….”
“If that explosive was like the other three planted in that apartment complex, it was a small detonator planted near something flammable. Each apartment targeted had a large gas pipe inside the walls and the explosive was planted near them -- close enough to ignite the gas if they were detonated.”
“Then the culprit used the Porsche’s gas tank like he used the gas pipes….but…even that wouldn’t guarantee….”
“The culprit used another trick to guarantee it, to make sure his target was in place….” Conan narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist. “That was too dangerous….if those other bombs exploded….that apartment complex would’ve been demolished and everyone inside….this…..This hacker’s vendetta will….”
“….So this….” Haibara glanced back at the TV, now on mute. “This is a challenge to the Syndicate….if it could succeed it might be worth it….but the Syndicate, especially Gin, will see this hacker dead.”
Conan glared at Haibara. “It doesn’t matter if the hacker could succeed, he crossed the line planting those bombs…endangering innocent people in his vendetta.”
The doorbell rang before Haibara could reply; she returned to the basement before Agasa answered the door, saying that if it was Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta to tell them she wasn’t feeling well.
“You shouldn’t shut yourself in because of Hakami….” Conan sighed as Haibara closed the basement door and locked it, effectively ignoring him.
“Oh, Cool Kid!” Jodie’s voice traveled from the entrance, and Conan whipped around his surprise increased by the stranger entering with her. “I received your message. Things have gotten serious.”
“What are you doing here? If a member of the Syndicate sees you….”
“It’s no problem, the Syndicate pulled all of it’s members in this city away from their assignments to focus on the hacker/bomber. Kir’s informed me of the uproar this recent incident caused; plus the ingenious way the hacker tracked the Syndicate members.” Jodie stood in front of the muted TV, motioning the stranger with her to follow into the living room.
“ ‘Tracked’? Gin would’ve seen through any tracking method….”
“He did see through it…the only reason he survived that explosion. According to Kir’s information, Gin spotted a crow flying around with a tracker and microphone around it’s leg.”
“What? A crow? The hacker used a crow?” Conan’s eyes widened as he absorbed this information; he shook his head in disbelief, but then half-grinned at the idea.
“The hacker used a few crows in this ingenious method, but now that Gin knows it’s useless.” Jodie sat on the couch with the table in front and placed an envelope on the top. “I didn’t come just for that, though. This is Troy, a retired CIA agent who’s returned to the field recently.” She introduced the stranger, who bowed in greeting to Conan.
His short black hair streaked with grey, Troy sat as well and took the envelope on the table, spreading its contents over the wooden top.
“These are photos from a series of bombings that started around two years ago in the States, lasting about a year. The code ‘f0rTNT0’ was found on or near all of the explosives, something undisclosed to the public.”
“These….” Conan’s eyes widened at each photograph he saw, the similarities between them and the recent case pushing doubt of a connection away. “This is the same code and the same handwriting. These cases….”
“More than the bombing cases are connected…I heard from Jodie that other codes were left by the hacker and that she gave them to you to decode.” Troy addressed Conan and waited for the young detective to finish studying the photos before continuing.
Conan noticed the gold ring on the ring finger of the man’s right hand when Troy fiddled with his ear. Troy brought his left hand to view in answer -- the ring finger of that hand had been severed in half.
“An accident ten years ago made me unable to wear a ring on my left ring finger. Now, what have you learned from the previous codes?”
“Well, the first code is: +r09-mrdrwng or +r09-murderwing after adding vowels to make English words out of the letters. While the second code is Tr0DWNFLL||CM3NXT9r0, which becomes Tr0DOWNFALL||COM3NEXT9r0.…”
“You haven’t cracked it completely yet, I see….these codes and the one on the bombs are the same.” Troy leaned forward and wrote all three codes on a sheet of paper; writing each carefully and exact. “f0rTNT0...the most obvious message in this one is the TNT to mean explosives….next would be the f0r which looks like the word ‘for’ or ‘four’…since in each incident in the States four bombs were planted, it’s clear this short code reveals how many bombs there were total….I worked on the previous cases in the states so I know this code.”
“That means….” Conan took the paper, editing the first two codes further. “The hacker used zeros to represent some of the o’s in the code. Using this the first code becomes +ro9-murderwing, and the second becomes TroDOWNFALL||COM3NEXT9ro.” Conan smirked at the newly edited codes, admiring the complexity put into them. “Those zeros mean something as numbers in the code as well -- otherwise all the o’s in the second code would be zeros.”
“That’s true….the other numbers probably represent letters as well in these codes.” Jodie muttered as she followed the editing. “And the only numbers used in the three codes are 0, 3, and 9.”
“There’s another number hiding in the first code: 6” Conan grinned while Jodie and Troy gazed lost at the first code. “It’s highly likely that the hacker knows Japanese as well as English….look at the first part….+ro9...9 can be pronounced ‘ku’ in Japanese. Put ‘ro’ in front and you get ‘roku’ or 6 in Japanese.”
“You’re right, Cool Kid. Then if this applies to the second code 9ro would become Kuro….”
“Yes, the perfect connection to the first code’s ‘murderwing’ part -- ‘murder’ in English can refer to a flock of crows, right? Your mention of the hacker using crows reminded me of that. The hacker used the word ‘wing’ to emphasize that meaning.” Conan paused, writing this down with an intrigued, excited expression. “Kuro means black in Japanese, as well as sounding like ‘crow’ to someone who speaks English if pronounced a certain way.”
Jodie and Troy watched Conan rewriting the codes - Jodie impressed while Troy remained expressionless and massaged his left ring-finger where it had been severed. He stopped and put his hand in his pocket when Conan turned to him; he saw the glint in the young detective’s eye.
“What is it?”
“Your name Troy is spelled T, R, O, Y, correct?” Conan smirked when Troy drew back, though a split-second later the man simply replied yes, not flinching when Conan pushed the paper into their clear view:
+r09-mrdrwng = +roku-murderwing
Tr0DWNFLL||CM3NXT9r0 = Tro DOWNFALL||COMENEXT kuro
F0rTNT0 = forTNTo
“Your name is in the second code: T r o, the letter y is left out since it can be a vowel in English. The hacker knows who you are by name…but you already know that, don’t you? You drew back when I asked how to spell your name, so you knew why I asked.”
Jodie looked from Conan to Troy, her eyes widening as she read over the codes again.
“Troy, do you know who the culprit…?”
“No, I headed the investigation of the cases in the States; this hacker/bomber would know me from that. I see your point though, the culprit may very well be someone who knows of me as more than an investigator - or is perhaps someone who wants to challenge me.” Troy’s matter-of-fact tone rolled the words off his tongue easily, his composure unbroken even as Conan eyed him suspiciously.
‘There’s something more to this guy….My gut tells me he knows the culprit…and if he does….’
“Can you figure out anything else, Cool Kid? Besides the fact the culprit’s targeting the Syndicate and that he knows Troy here.”
“Yes….”
0
The sun blazed down through the window on Gin, his coat and shirt off while a Syndicate doctor bandaged his right arm. The explosion had torn a chunk of flesh from his upper arm as well as burned the side of his abdomen. The burn wasn’t much, just reddened skin that stung, a few tiny blisters forming; the wound on his arm proved worse, needing stitches and a tight bandage to hold the wound together.
“I’ll kill that bastard.” He growled, pulling on his shirt and coat after the doctor finished; without another word he left the room, barely registering the pain from his wounds.
“You’re really something, Gin.” Vermouth approached him as he stalked down the hall, he didn’t even glance at her. “No one could tell you’re injured by how you’re walking. Your anger is apparent though.”
“Shut up, Vermouth.” Gin turned to her, his icy glare silencing her for a moment.
“ A few minutes ago Absinthe reported in a code that was found on the bombs.” Vermouth handed Gin her cell-phone with the text open. The code f0rTNT0 glared at Gin from the lighted screen.
“…Fortunato….” Gin muttered, his eyes transfixed on the screen widened and then narrowed a fraction. His left hand tightened around the cell-phone, his glare fixed on the text until Vermouth moved closer. He clapped the cell-phone shut and glared at the wall behind Vermouth, not focused on it or her.
“Gin? What is it? What….”
“It’s been ten years…yet someone wants to…heh.” Gin gave Vermouth back her cell-phone, ignoring her questions as he closed his eyes in thought. They snapped back open. “Those other codes….” He grabbed the notepad from his inner pocket, the first two codes written down on it along with his attempts to decode them. His eyes lingered over the beginning of the second code - the T r o; he ground his teeth together, his lips pursed.
“Gin, what have you figured out? Do you know who….”
“There’s something I need to check out, Vermouth. While I do that, find out everything you can about a CIA agent named Troy Craig.” Gin hurried down the hall before Vermouth could respond, her words dying in her throat as she watched him leave.
A/N: End Chapter
Chapter 4: Fortune Brews
The light shining through the windows, Conan paced the floor at Agasa’s house; he’d text Jodie after the explosives were dismantled, informing her about the last message: f0rTNT0 that had been carved on each of the bombs in the apartment complex. He paced waiting for Jodie’s answer while the TV News channel played in the background.
He glanced at the TV coverage of the case, then at his cell; his attention distracted by his thoughts he almost missed the newscaster reveal new information about the bomb that detonated before the other three explosives were discovered.
‘….seems a smaller bomb ignited the gas-tank of a parked vehicle….a Porsche….’
Haibara walked in the room as Conan turned to the TV; she gasped at the screen and listened to the newscaster as Conan increased the volume.
“Kudo…it couldn’t be….” Conan shushed Haibara until the newscaster moved to info on the other explosives -- leaving out the code found on each bomb.
“…I’m sure it is….that Porsche was Gin’s….”
“But why? How could this….the syndicate’s too thorough to be caught off guard…Gin especially….”
“If that explosive was like the other three planted in that apartment complex, it was a small detonator planted near something flammable. Each apartment targeted had a large gas pipe inside the walls and the explosive was planted near them -- close enough to ignite the gas if they were detonated.”
“Then the culprit used the Porsche’s gas tank like he used the gas pipes….but…even that wouldn’t guarantee….”
“The culprit used another trick to guarantee it, to make sure his target was in place….” Conan narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist. “That was too dangerous….if those other bombs exploded….that apartment complex would’ve been demolished and everyone inside….this…..This hacker’s vendetta will….”
“….So this….” Haibara glanced back at the TV, now on mute. “This is a challenge to the Syndicate….if it could succeed it might be worth it….but the Syndicate, especially Gin, will see this hacker dead.”
Conan glared at Haibara. “It doesn’t matter if the hacker could succeed, he crossed the line planting those bombs…endangering innocent people in his vendetta.”
The doorbell rang before Haibara could reply; she returned to the basement before Agasa answered the door, saying that if it was Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta to tell them she wasn’t feeling well.
“You shouldn’t shut yourself in because of Hakami….” Conan sighed as Haibara closed the basement door and locked it, effectively ignoring him.
“Oh, Cool Kid!” Jodie’s voice traveled from the entrance, and Conan whipped around his surprise increased by the stranger entering with her. “I received your message. Things have gotten serious.”
“What are you doing here? If a member of the Syndicate sees you….”
“It’s no problem, the Syndicate pulled all of it’s members in this city away from their assignments to focus on the hacker/bomber. Kir’s informed me of the uproar this recent incident caused; plus the ingenious way the hacker tracked the Syndicate members.” Jodie stood in front of the muted TV, motioning the stranger with her to follow into the living room.
“ ‘Tracked’? Gin would’ve seen through any tracking method….”
“He did see through it…the only reason he survived that explosion. According to Kir’s information, Gin spotted a crow flying around with a tracker and microphone around it’s leg.”
“What? A crow? The hacker used a crow?” Conan’s eyes widened as he absorbed this information; he shook his head in disbelief, but then half-grinned at the idea.
“The hacker used a few crows in this ingenious method, but now that Gin knows it’s useless.” Jodie sat on the couch with the table in front and placed an envelope on the top. “I didn’t come just for that, though. This is Troy, a retired CIA agent who’s returned to the field recently.” She introduced the stranger, who bowed in greeting to Conan.
His short black hair streaked with grey, Troy sat as well and took the envelope on the table, spreading its contents over the wooden top.
“These are photos from a series of bombings that started around two years ago in the States, lasting about a year. The code ‘f0rTNT0’ was found on or near all of the explosives, something undisclosed to the public.”
“These….” Conan’s eyes widened at each photograph he saw, the similarities between them and the recent case pushing doubt of a connection away. “This is the same code and the same handwriting. These cases….”
“More than the bombing cases are connected…I heard from Jodie that other codes were left by the hacker and that she gave them to you to decode.” Troy addressed Conan and waited for the young detective to finish studying the photos before continuing.
Conan noticed the gold ring on the ring finger of the man’s right hand when Troy fiddled with his ear. Troy brought his left hand to view in answer -- the ring finger of that hand had been severed in half.
“An accident ten years ago made me unable to wear a ring on my left ring finger. Now, what have you learned from the previous codes?”
“Well, the first code is: +r09-mrdrwng or +r09-murderwing after adding vowels to make English words out of the letters. While the second code is Tr0DWNFLL||CM3NXT9r0, which becomes Tr0DOWNFALL||COM3NEXT9r0.…”
“You haven’t cracked it completely yet, I see….these codes and the one on the bombs are the same.” Troy leaned forward and wrote all three codes on a sheet of paper; writing each carefully and exact. “f0rTNT0...the most obvious message in this one is the TNT to mean explosives….next would be the f0r which looks like the word ‘for’ or ‘four’…since in each incident in the States four bombs were planted, it’s clear this short code reveals how many bombs there were total….I worked on the previous cases in the states so I know this code.”
“That means….” Conan took the paper, editing the first two codes further. “The hacker used zeros to represent some of the o’s in the code. Using this the first code becomes +ro9-murderwing, and the second becomes TroDOWNFALL||COM3NEXT9ro.” Conan smirked at the newly edited codes, admiring the complexity put into them. “Those zeros mean something as numbers in the code as well -- otherwise all the o’s in the second code would be zeros.”
“That’s true….the other numbers probably represent letters as well in these codes.” Jodie muttered as she followed the editing. “And the only numbers used in the three codes are 0, 3, and 9.”
“There’s another number hiding in the first code: 6” Conan grinned while Jodie and Troy gazed lost at the first code. “It’s highly likely that the hacker knows Japanese as well as English….look at the first part….+ro9...9 can be pronounced ‘ku’ in Japanese. Put ‘ro’ in front and you get ‘roku’ or 6 in Japanese.”
“You’re right, Cool Kid. Then if this applies to the second code 9ro would become Kuro….”
“Yes, the perfect connection to the first code’s ‘murderwing’ part -- ‘murder’ in English can refer to a flock of crows, right? Your mention of the hacker using crows reminded me of that. The hacker used the word ‘wing’ to emphasize that meaning.” Conan paused, writing this down with an intrigued, excited expression. “Kuro means black in Japanese, as well as sounding like ‘crow’ to someone who speaks English if pronounced a certain way.”
Jodie and Troy watched Conan rewriting the codes - Jodie impressed while Troy remained expressionless and massaged his left ring-finger where it had been severed. He stopped and put his hand in his pocket when Conan turned to him; he saw the glint in the young detective’s eye.
“What is it?”
“Your name Troy is spelled T, R, O, Y, correct?” Conan smirked when Troy drew back, though a split-second later the man simply replied yes, not flinching when Conan pushed the paper into their clear view:
+r09-mrdrwng = +roku-murderwing
Tr0DWNFLL||CM3NXT9r0 = Tro DOWNFALL||COMENEXT kuro
F0rTNT0 = forTNTo
“Your name is in the second code: T r o, the letter y is left out since it can be a vowel in English. The hacker knows who you are by name…but you already know that, don’t you? You drew back when I asked how to spell your name, so you knew why I asked.”
Jodie looked from Conan to Troy, her eyes widening as she read over the codes again.
“Troy, do you know who the culprit…?”
“No, I headed the investigation of the cases in the States; this hacker/bomber would know me from that. I see your point though, the culprit may very well be someone who knows of me as more than an investigator - or is perhaps someone who wants to challenge me.” Troy’s matter-of-fact tone rolled the words off his tongue easily, his composure unbroken even as Conan eyed him suspiciously.
‘There’s something more to this guy….My gut tells me he knows the culprit…and if he does….’
“Can you figure out anything else, Cool Kid? Besides the fact the culprit’s targeting the Syndicate and that he knows Troy here.”
“Yes….”
0
The sun blazed down through the window on Gin, his coat and shirt off while a Syndicate doctor bandaged his right arm. The explosion had torn a chunk of flesh from his upper arm as well as burned the side of his abdomen. The burn wasn’t much, just reddened skin that stung, a few tiny blisters forming; the wound on his arm proved worse, needing stitches and a tight bandage to hold the wound together.
“I’ll kill that bastard.” He growled, pulling on his shirt and coat after the doctor finished; without another word he left the room, barely registering the pain from his wounds.
“You’re really something, Gin.” Vermouth approached him as he stalked down the hall, he didn’t even glance at her. “No one could tell you’re injured by how you’re walking. Your anger is apparent though.”
“Shut up, Vermouth.” Gin turned to her, his icy glare silencing her for a moment.
“ A few minutes ago Absinthe reported in a code that was found on the bombs.” Vermouth handed Gin her cell-phone with the text open. The code f0rTNT0 glared at Gin from the lighted screen.
“…Fortunato….” Gin muttered, his eyes transfixed on the screen widened and then narrowed a fraction. His left hand tightened around the cell-phone, his glare fixed on the text until Vermouth moved closer. He clapped the cell-phone shut and glared at the wall behind Vermouth, not focused on it or her.
“Gin? What is it? What….”
“It’s been ten years…yet someone wants to…heh.” Gin gave Vermouth back her cell-phone, ignoring her questions as he closed his eyes in thought. They snapped back open. “Those other codes….” He grabbed the notepad from his inner pocket, the first two codes written down on it along with his attempts to decode them. His eyes lingered over the beginning of the second code - the T r o; he ground his teeth together, his lips pursed.
“Gin, what have you figured out? Do you know who….”
“There’s something I need to check out, Vermouth. While I do that, find out everything you can about a CIA agent named Troy Craig.” Gin hurried down the hall before Vermouth could respond, her words dying in her throat as she watched him leave.
A/N: End Chapter