L16 Kujo

The next afternoon, the security system picked up the presence of a petite woman at the entrance.

"Oh, it's Dr. Kujo!" said Maki, scampering to the monitor.

"Who's that?" asked L. He did not take his eyes off the monitor, as he drowned the bean dessert from Asakusa's Umemura in black syrup.

"She works at my father's research lab. She also tutors me and helps with my homework. Let her in."

"Hello? She's a beauty, isn't she? Though not so much beautiful as pretty..." Suruga said, leaning forward at the sight of the woman in the monitor.

"Hey, don't try anything funny! Dr. Kujo is very shy, so you'll scare her. Besides, she's probably older than you," Maki said.

"Really? Over thirty? Sure doesn't look it."

For a moment L observed Kujo looking troubled by the strict security, then turned on the microphone.

"Dr. Kujo, the security system is turned on. I am going to acti vate the voice guidance program. Please follow the instructions to undergo the fingerprint and retinal scans, and the metal detector scan. Your belongings will also be subjected to scans by X-ray."

Kujo gave a slight nod in the monitor.

This is a change from when I first got here. Even though Suruga felt discomfited by the strict security check imposed on Kujo as compared to his own entrance, he convinced himself that the change in procedure might be attributed to his successful infiltration.

"Dr. Kujo!" Maki ran to her when she entered the room.

"Maki, I'm so glad you're safe."

With the tension drained out of her upon seeing a familiar face, Maki broke down sobbing in Kujo's arms. Kujo stroked the girl's head again and again.

The doctor bowed toward L and Suruga and said. "Thank you for looking after Maki. My name is Kujo. I'm an assistant at Professor Nikaido's laboratory. The professor and Maki have been very kind and treated me like family."

"Pleased to meet you, Dr. Kujo, I'm Ryuzaki. How did you find this place?" L introduced himself perfunctorily, in a monotone, as if ignoring her polite introduction.

Kujo's face grew clouded by the questioning tone. "Ah...I found Professor Nikaido's cell phone in the lab. His phone acts as a GPS device for Maki's cell phone-"

"A child abduction prevention device. Understandable considering the professor's research dealt with dangerous viruses. There's no telling when the family could be in danger." Suruga cut in on the conversation and held out a hand. "The name's Suruga, FBI Los Angeles Bureau. A pleasure to meet you."

Kujo's delicate hand fit neatly inside Suruga's. Despite being troubled by Suruga's grip on her hand, she asked timidly, "Um...excuse me, Mr. Suruga. What is FBI?"

"Huh? You don't know the FBI. Oh..." Suruga deflated visibly.

"Even I know who the FBI are, Dr. Kujo. They're in all the Ameri- can spy movies," Maki said with a giggle.

Kujo blushed and bowed repeatedly toward Suruga. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid I don't know much." Then she turned to the child. "Maki, where is the professor?"

Maki fell silent, her cheerful mood now gone. L informed Kujo of Professor Nikaido's murder and how Maki had managed to escape and come here.

"No! Is it true?" Kujo's face became ashen as she shook her head. She looked at the girl's downcast face and held her tightly. "Maki, how difficult this must have been for you. You were very brave." Tears rolled down Kujo's face as she patted the child's back. A sympa- thetic Suruga hastily turned his back and sniffled. But when he saw L observing the two of them soberly, as if such emotions were alien to him, Suruga felt embarrassed. I guess he isn't known as a kinky bizarre murder-loving detective who never gets involved unless there are more than ten bodies for nothing. Suruga recalled the FBI's profile on L and was oddly impressed.

Wiping away her tears, Kujo faced L and asked, "Mr. Ryuzaki. I realize this may be an imposition, but would it be possible for me to stay here with Maki just until I can be sure that she's no longer in danger? Now that the professor is gone, I have to be the one to protect her." Though she seemed reserved, there was a steeliness in her eyes of someone who had something precious to protect.

"That would be fine. This building has room enough to accom modate over twenty guests. Please use any room you like," L said. "But so long as we have yet to learn who is after Maki, she will not leave this building. And you will refrain from going out as much as possible."

"I understand."

"Dr. Kujo, take the room next to mine. Come on, I'll show you!"

After Maki led Kujo by the arm out of the room, Suruga whis- pered in L's ear, "Hey, Ryuzaki. She's a little naïve, but beautiful. Things are going to be more exciting around here, eh?"

L looked lost, as if he'd been asked his opinion about some pro- found impressionist painting. "Beautiful...? Such things, I don't know about."

After dinner Maki went into Kujo's room and was telling the doctor everything that had happened since yesterday. L was play- ing himself in chess as usual, with a Rikishi monaka from Ryogoku sticking out of his mouth. Suruga, alone and with nothing to do, wandered over to the sofa.

"Ryuzaki, how much fun is it playing alone? I can play you, if you'd like. I'm pretty- Suruga stopped mid-sentence. L. was moving the pieces differently than by the established rules. "Hey, Ryuzaki. Maybe you've got the game mixed up with shogi because you're in Japan. You're not allowed to use the pieces you captured as your own in chess."

Turning a deaf ear, L moved a knight to and fro in enemy terri- tory. Suruga peered over from behind the sofa and realized I wasn't looking at the chessboard at all. He followed L's gaze to a monitor hidden by his feet. Pictured onscreen was surveillance video of Kujo's room. He had been watching Kujo talking to Maki.

"You pretended not to be interested, but you've been checking her out on the surveillance camera. You perverted-"

"I" the sandwich fell from his mouth- "don't believe Dr. Kujo has come here with the purpose of protecting Maki, but for another purpose," L interrupted.

"You don't think she's involved with the group that attacked Maki and Professor Nikaido, do you? That's impossible." Suruga shook his head, recalling Kujo's naïve manner.

"While she may have appeared to look uncomfortable when she first arrived here, she was alert and checking the security cameras. I am going to keep her under twenty-four hour surveillance. Please don't tell Dr. Kujo or Maki about this."

"Sixty-six seconds to the second floor. Wait six seconds and move to north end of hall. Seventy-five seconds, take cover in fuel storage room. Eighty-one seconds, back out to the hall. Eighty-seven seconds, deactivate lock. Ninety seconds, arrive at destination."

Suruga repeated several dance-like steps while staring down at the stopwatch setting on his watch, then slipped into the server room.

The Kira Investigation Headquarters was monitored via surveil- lance cameras placed all throughout the building. At the moment, L was monitoring ninety locations on three monitors, which were on a ninety second loop that switched to a different camera every three seconds.

After Suruga had figured out the sequential pattern, it had become his late-night routine to sneak into the server room without being detected. In this room alone there were no surveillance cameras. Inside the room were the rows of servers that controlled the Kira Investigation Headquarters. They buzzed quietly, unaware that their primary goal of tracking Kira was finished.

"Man, is the AC cold in here. I guess the only things in here are computers anyway."

Suruga took out his cell phone to check in with the Bureau, but it was at this moment he finally realized he was not alone.

"Good evening, Mr. Suruga."

Kujo smiled at Suruga and turned her attention back to a laptop, without even a hint of shock or guilt over having been found acting in secret.

"What are you doing here, Kujo?"

"I'm trying break into the system, but it's so heavily blocked that this laptop won't do. I'll need a supercomputer to find a way in. If it was impossible to hack into the system from the outside, I was hoping maybe from the inside..." Her demure tone and smile had not changed, which seemed to exaggerate her sudden change all the more.

"So you didn't come here just to protect the girl after all." Suruga drew closer, still unsure of her intentions.

"And you? What business do you have in this camera-free room?" she asked, pointing out his own culpability, to which Suruga nodded in acknowledgement.

"Ryuzaki suspects something's up. He's been monitoring your room."

"I expected as much. The man known as the world's top detective wouldn't be so careless."

Suruga was sure of it now. Kujo was aware of Ryuzaki's identity as well as the purpose behind the building's advanced equipment and security. There was a hint of defiance behind Kujo's eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Suruga asked. "Are you with the group who's after Maki?"

Taking her fingers off the keyboard, Kujo looked up thoughtfully. "Not even Maki knows this." Slowly she spun the chair around to face Suruga and continued, "I'm an undercover agent with the Tokyo Police Department. Public Security Bureau, Third Foreign Affairs Division."

"Third Foreign Affairs Division you mean the counterterrorism division?"

Kujo nodded, at which point Suruga took a moment to study her. The delicately built woman before him and a word as frightening as counterterrorism just did not compute inside Suruga's head. The smile on her prim lips became faintly seductive as she gauged the rate of his comprehension.

Damn, women are scary, Suruga thought, thinking too of Naomi for some reason. Then he felt somewhat peeved that L, who was clearly inexperienced with women, had been better at reading Kujo.

"So your not knowing about the FBI was just an act."

The mischievous smile on her face was answer enough. How could anyone with the police department not know the FBI?

"What is that you're after?"

"After we received information that Professor Nikaido had smuggled a deadly virus into Japan, I was sent to infiltrate his lab posing as a research assistant," she explained without hesitation. "We picked up activity of several terrorist groups who were after the virus, and we believe one of them is responsible for the professor's murder. Since all of the data on the virus and its antidote is missing, I figured the professor might have given it to Maki. As you know, a virus can be mass-produced relatively cheaply and can be carried around in a pocket-a perfect weapon for terrorist organizations. But if there's one flaw in using a virus weapon, it would have to be the 'boomerang' effect-if you were to use the virus in an attack, it might spread and come back to infect you."

"But if you had an effective antidote, that flaw could be neutral- ized. And an ultimate weapon is born."

"Yes, if both the virus and the antidote were to fall into the hands of a terrorist group, the world could be at an end."

"So your aim is to secure the antidote data that Professor Nikaido entrusted to his daughter."

Kujo nodded. "Fortunately, Maki trusts me. But if she were to find out that I'm with the police who'd been sent to infiltrate her father's lab, I don't know what she might do. Not to mention, I've encountered a new problem since coming here."

"A new problem?"

She stared at him as if he should know the answer.

So that's it, Suruga thought. The police department had sent an undercover agent based on the same fears held by the FBI.

"L."

"Yes. Of course, it's my job to prevent the antidote data from falling into the hands of terrorists. But even more than that, we're afraid of L's coming into possession of the data. It would be helpful just to know whether Maki still has the data or if he is already in possession of it. But since he's been listening in on my conversations with Maki...If he would at least eat the meals that I make, I could slip him a pill and do some investigating, but he didn't even touch dinner."

Kujo let out at sigh and stretched a bit in her seat with both fists clenched next to her ears. Such childish mannerisms seemed incon- gruous with her mature countenance, yet they captivated Suruga.

She noticed his eyes on her and stood up hastily, blushing. "Well, I should be getting back now. I'm supposed to be taking a bath." Tucking the laptop under her arm, she, like Suruga, set her watch in stopwatch mode in preparation for the way back. As she passed Suruga on the way out, she stopped as if she'd suddenly remembered something.

"By the way Mr. Suruga, what is it that you're after?"

"The instrument Kira was using to murder his victims. We can't allow the killing weapon to remain in L's possession."

"Then what would you say to a partnership?"

"A partnership? How do you mean?"

She smiled suggestively as her lithe fingers brushed against his arm. "You need Kira's instrument of death and I need the antidote data. Our roles and what we are after may be different, but our goal is essentially the same. Wouldn't it be wise to work together?"