L13-1 Hostage

"Ryuzaki, we've got an alert! Three suspicious cars surrounding the building." Suruga threw off his apron, having returned from grocery shopping, and suddenly he was an FBI agent again.

L, who was hard at work building a tower out of thinly cut slices of Toraya's youkan, tapped on the laptop to bring up a picture of the entrance on the monitor. Though the men who got out of the cars looked like businessmen in suits, it was clear from their awkward movements that they were concealing weapons.

"It's all right," L said. "The security here is impenetrable." L resumed building his tower without any sign of panic. However, the intruders produced an electronic device to break into the entry system and began to disable the security levels one by one. The system-error warning rang throughout the building.

So far, so good. Suruga cautiously watched L's movements while looking panicked on the surface.

The first stage of Kujo's strategy was to break into the Kira Investigation Headquarters by crashing the security system, forcing L to flee the building. In an emergency, he was sure to take the Death Note and antidote data with him. Suruga, who unlike Kujo could go in and out of the building without a security check, had smuggled in the necessary equipment and set it up. By attacking the system

simultaneously from inside and out, they were able to disable the security. Of course, Kujo had told him that the men from the counterterrorism division would be posing as the intruders.

The men busting through the entrance was the last image on the surveillance camera before it went down. The youkan tower, approaching a new height record, toppled over at the same time.

"It appears they have an expert hacker on their side. Maki, Mr. Suruga, we're leaving. There's a customized escape vehicle in the garage. Where is Dr. Kujo?" L said.

"She went home to get a change of clothes."

Hopping off the couch, L grabbed Maki with his right hand and a bag of sweets with the left and ran. But he quickly put on the brakes and rushed back to the middle of the room.

"What are you doing? Hurry!" L pressed the button hidden beneath the table and a sturdy duralumin case emerged from under the table. Weighing the value of the case and the bag of sweets as if on a scale, L gave up the bag reluctantly and ran with the duralumin case in his hands, though he did manage to stick a lollipop in his mouth as he ran.

"Ryuzaki, this is the Kira Investigation Headquarters. Don't you have something better than this?" It was no wonder Suruga was shocked. The vehicle that Ryuzaki hopped into was the bright green crepe truck. L frowned at the criticism.

"This happens to be a sophisticated, new mobile operations room. We will bust our way out, so hang on tight."

The crepe truck burst through the camouflaged exit. Three cars came after them at once, and in a matter of seconds, they were on their tail.

"At this speed, they're going to be on us in no time. Hey, the axle!

The brakes! Drive for godsakes!" Suruga shouted as he smacked his head repeatedly against the low ceiling of the truck.

Just as he had been on the sofa, L was perched on top of the driver's seat with his legs folded against his chest, the steering wheel pinched between the fingers of his right hand and the lollipop clutched in his left. "It's all right," he said. "The traffic conditions, the timing of the traffic lights, road regulations, and the times of train crossings have all been inputted into the computer, so this vehicle will choose our best escape route and speed."

True to L's word, despite creeping along slowly, the truck sailed past a light just before it turned to elude one car, slipped into an alley barely wide enough for the truck to pass to elude a second, and caught just the moment to blow past a slowly descending railroad crossing to shake off all three cars.

After confirming their safety in the mirror and the external camera, L slowed the truck down and tucked it out of sight in the warehouse district.

Maki turned around worriedly from the passenger seat to look at L, who was now sitting in the back of the truck. "Ryuzaki! What about Dr. Kujo? If she gets caught..."

"Surely she's smart enough to know not to go near the building if she senses something wrong." No sooner had L said it than Maki's cell phone rang. Maki's face froze upon seeing the name on the display.

"It's Dr. Kujo, isn't it?" L grabbed the phone to turn the volume up to maximum and gave it back her. Though Maki seemed none too pleased, she hit the talk button.

"Dr. Kujo! Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry, Maki...I'm afraid they got me. Can I talk to Mr. Ryuzaki?"

L took the phone from Maki and held it pinched precariously between his fingers.

"Shall I call you Mr. Ryuzaki? I paid a visit to your home to make a proper introduction, but since you were apparently out, we'll have to do this over the phone." The voice of the man who replaced Kujo on the phone was that of a middle-aged man. Though he spoke politely, there was a note of arrogance in his voice.

"Not at all, I apologize I wasn't in when you called."

A momentary silence. It was like a wordless exchange, despite not knowing what the other looked like, to feel out the other's intentions.

"Now, I do rather appreciate people who are quick to understand.

Mr. Ryuzaki, I'd like us to make a trade—the woman we have here for what the little miss has in her possession. Would you agree to such a transaction?"

"What do you intend to do with it once you have it?"

Suddenly the man's voice took on a sullen tone. "As I said, I rather prefer people who are quick to understand. Your choices are not improved by asking such a question."

"No, it's simply a matter of the potential scale of the damage. If one person's sacrifice can prevent the devastation that a killer virus might cause—"

Both Suruga and Maki turned on L before he could finish.

"Ryuzaki! What are you saying? Are you going to let Dr. Kujo just die? You can't do that!"

"Ryuzaki, right now our priority is to save Kujo!"

With the cell phone in his hand, L looked alternately at Suruga and Maki and sighed. The man on the other end stifled a laugh.

"Mr. Ryuzaki, perhaps as their leader you'd like to bring your group to a consensus."

"I understand. Where will the exchange take place?"

"Ten o'clock tonight, Yokohama. We'll be at the Yellow Box warehouse on the south edge of Daikoku Pier. I'm afraid I won't be able to offer you tea there... Ah, but it will all be over in minutes. Oh, and if you notify the police or if they should happen to find out, I'll take that to mean you've made another choice"

"I won't require any tea, but something sweet would be nice. May I speak to Dr. Kujo again?"

"Of course." The man laughed cheerfully, and in the next instant Kujo was back on the phone.

"Dr. Kujo. You managed to get caught rather easily."

"I'm sorry to trouble you," Kujo apologized weakly, but L did not let up.

"By having to rescue you, we're putting the lives of everyone at risk. You of all people should know the danger involved, having worked with Professor Nikaido."

"Ryuzaki, now isn't the time for this! We have to save her!" Maki said.

"She isn't a professional, Ryuzaki. We have no choice. I'll help. We have to save her first," Suruga said.

L let out another sigh.

The crepe truck was parked on a dry riverbed along the Tama River. Insect sounds filled the air, and with summer vacation approaching the sky lit up with fireworks from time to time. L sat peacefully on the roof of the crepe truck.

"I brought coffee."

A tray with two cups popped up from below. The tray of course came with a mound of sugar cubes, Suruga having come to know L's tastes over the past few days.

"Thank you. How many sugars do you take?" asked L, taking the tray from him.

"No, black's fine."

"A tired body needs sugar." Not allowing him to say otherwise, L dropped an equal number of sugar cubes in each cup. By the time Suruga climbed up on the roof, the mound of sugar cubes was gone.

Suruga cautiously took the coffee, and when he tried to stir it with a spoon, the unmelted sugar settled to the bottom and the spoon stood up on its own in the center of the cup. Bracing himself, he brought the cup to his mouth.

"This reminds me of the coffee frappe at this cafe I used to go to when I was undercover in Greece. The sweetness hits you right in the back of the head." He scowled after taking a sip and held his head.

"How is Maki?"

"Inside, sound asleep. She had tears on her face. Her father was murdered and now the woman she trusts was abducted. No matter how strong she may seem, it's too much for a ten-year-old girl to handle."

"You're right."

"What do you think the group's goal is anyway?" Suruga crooked his head sideways. He was well aware, of course, but for the time being, he needed to go along with the charade.

"Seeing how they carelessly allowed a child to escape, they don't appear to be a trained terrorist group. As for what they're plotting with the killer virus—"

"Either using the virus is the goal, or they're thinking of selling it for a profit."

"Mr. Suruga, would you do some intelligence-gathering using the FBI's network? And a background check on Dr. Kujo."

"Sure. But you still suspect Kujo after what's happened?"

L did not answer. He held the coffee cup above his head and caught the sugar dripping from the cup on his tongue.

Suruga leaned forward. "Listen, Ryuzaki. Couldn't you use the Death Note if you absolutely needed to?" he asked as if the thought had just now entered his mind.

"You're asking me—someone who's battled Kira—to use the Death Note?" L responded, his face dead serious.

With nothing more to say, Suruga rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky. "This reminds me of when I was a trainee at the academy. Naomi, Raye, and I—we used to lie on our backs exhausted after a day of training and gaze at the stars just like this."

"They wouldn't have had to die if I had been able to identify Kira sooner."

"Stop it. You risked your life to battle Kira."

L stared at Suruga as he ran a finger across the sweet residue at the bottom of the cup. "Even if the situation were to arise, the Death Note isn't effective unless we know the person's name and face. As long as we don't know the identity of the group that abducted Dr.Kujo, the Death Note is powerless."

He didn't deny that he has the Death Note , which means...Suruga thought, stealing a look at L's face.

Kujo was triumphantly analyzing the system in the Kira Investigation room by now, Suruga figured. Of course, L had deleted everything in the system when he fled the building, so the likelihood of finding the data she was after was slim, in which case the final stage of Kujo's strategy had to be executed.

Suruga moved to quench his thirst, remembering too late that this was no ordinary cup of coffee, and grabbed the back of his head again. Then he checked his watch and said, "Almost time. Better go hit the head." Suruga jumped off the roof and walked toward the public bathroom on the dry riverbed. Once he was out of sight of the truck, he took out his cell phone.

"This is Y286. I've acquired my target."

"How much longer to retrieve it?"

"I'll need more time to confirm its authenticity, but I should have it tonight."

"Understood. Our superiors are getting impatient, but I'll think of something to say to appease them. Were you able to confirm those two issues since we last talked?"

"On the first issue about the eyes of the shinigami—I should be able to confirm that tonight."

"And the second?"

"He's made several references to the existence of more than one L, but no conclusive evidence yet."