At 3:21 PM, Sato Miwako finally recovered the last bomb.
It had taken nearly an hour and a half to retrieve all six bombs planted between the rails.
"Huff..."
Sitting in the driver’s seat of her beloved car, Sato let out a long breath of relief.
She glanced at the ti displayed on her phone.
"There are nearly 40 minutes left until 4 PM. That should be enough to deal with these bombs."
Looking at the rectangular explosives, each about the size of a brick, Sato Miwako finally felt the tension ease.
Had these bombs been activated on the tracks, and without a hint from the bomber, the resulting chaos would’ve been unthinkable.
As a police officer, she knew never to place her hopes in criminals. Who knows when a lunatic like that might suddenly snap and cause havoc?
It’s always best to keep hope in your own hands.
While catching her breath, Sato Miwako called Ren. The call connected quickly.
"All six bombs have been recovered."
"Good. Since they were recovered before the official launch, they can be safely sent for dismantling. As long as they aren’t triggered, there won’t be complications. But once they’re activated, disarming them becos a lot harder."
That was exactly the reassurance Miwako needed to hear.
"But those six bombs are only a quarter of the explosives that were stolen. There are still three-quarters unaccounted for. One quarter of them is at Teiji Moriya’s residence, and he still has the detonator. If he isn’t captured in ti, and he gets the chance to trigger the bombs in his ho, the officers sent to arrest him might end up in heaven."
"This lunatic..."
Sato had no energy left to curse him anymore.
"He’s already scripted his grand finale and placed himself in the flas. But that still doesn’t change the fact that he’s just a criminal."
"Then Officer Sato, I’ll be counting on you to keep working hard."
"Wait, what about the remaining half of the explosives?"
Sato urgently needed to know what ca next.
"Well~ I think Officer Sato should first report the explosives to Inspector gure. Thirty minutes isn’t a lot of ti. I still hope you can continue acting alone for now. So matters require coordination from Inspector gure and others. At the very least, Moriya must not be allowed to realize his bombs were found too soon."
"Otherwise, if a psychopath like that learns his plan has failed, won’t he just detonate the bombs out of spite?"
Probably... Miwako’s expression twitched slightly. She had a feeling that soone who went to such lengths to stage a dramatic ending wouldn’t tolerate deviation from his script.
If soone like that learned that all his plans had been foiled, the worst outco would be an imdiate detonation.
Miwako took a deep breath.
"So that’s why you had act alone?"
"Exactly. The location of the next bomb is especially sensitive. Who knows if that psychopath has a backup detonator? That’s why, for now, it’s best to just play along."
"...Understood."
Miwako realized it was best to go along with the flow for now—at least until they could deceive the bomber and keep him from doing anything drastic.
"I’ll report to Inspector gure first, then contact you again after I’ve handled the explosives."
After hanging up, Sato took another deep breath and dialed Inspector gure.
This ti, the call took a while to connect.
"Inspector gure, I’ve recovered six custom bombs placed on the tracks of the Toudou Loop Line."
"!!!"
On the other end, Inspector gure slamd his desk and shot up from his seat.
"The bomber planted bombs on the Todou Loop Line!?"
The entire conference room went silent after gure’s outburst.
Sitting beside him, Matsumoto Kiyonaga glanced at the other officers and said,
"gure, put it on speaker."
"Got it."
gure snapped out of his daze and quickly turned on the speaker.
"Officer Sato, is what you just said true?"
"Yes. I’ve already dismantled all six bombs. None of them were activated. I’m now on my way back to the tropolitan Police Departnt."
"All dismantled? Are you sure there were only six?"
"Yes. I’m certain there were only six. Also, I’ve confird the identity of the bomber. These unused explosives were likely intended as a taunt to the police. I believe he planned to leak information about them to the dia as a provocation."
The faces of the officers in the room darkened.
If even one of those bombs on the Loop Line had gone off, the tropolitan Police Departnt would have suffered a devastating embarrassnt.
"Wait, Officer Sato, you said you confird the bomber’s identity?"
Matsumoto Kiyonaga couldn’t hold back his surprise.
Until now, the bomber’s identity had been a complete mystery. How had Sato identified him? And on top of that, she’d gone alone to disarm six bombs hidden in the middle of the tracks?
"Yes. The bomber is Teiji Moriya."
The ntion of that na stirred an uproar in the room.
They all knew who Teiji Moriya was—a rising star in the world of architecture, often in the public eye lately.
"Officer Sato, where did you get that information?"
Matsumoto voiced the question everyone had in mind.
"It ca from my informant. I was suspicious at first, so I went alone to check. Once I confird the first bomb was real, I trusted the intel and began recovering the rest along the loop."
What kind of informant is that good...? Matsumoto Kiyonaga had a million question marks in his mind. Since when were informants this reliable?
Not only did this one know the exact location of all six bombs, but even correctly identified the bomber?
Just as he was about to ask more, Superintendent Hakuba, seated in the first chair, subtly shook his head. Matsumoto instinctively stopped himself.
After a pause, Matsumoto continued asking:
"Did your informant say anything about the other explosives?"
"Yes. It’s confird that one quarter of the explosives is hidden in Moriya Teiji’s ho, and he has a detonator that can trigger them at any ti."
"As for the remaining half, my informant said we need to keep Moriya Teiji distracted first, since the location is especially sensitive."
Everyone in the room was sharp enough to understand what that ant the mont they heard it. This was a way to give credit to Officer Sato Miwako.
(To be continued.)
***
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