L10-3 Counterattack

Inside the headquarters of the Pandemic Task Force, doctors called in from hospitals around Tokyo that were besieged with phone calls.

"No, as I told you, the symptoms you described are not consistent with those of the virus. Please have it checked out at your local hospital. Yes ma'am. Calm down, it's all right."

"Even the measles and chicken pox are being mistaken for the symptoms of the virus."

"What directions should we give to the hospitals turning away children with high fevers?"

Kujo, having just arrived, gave out precise directives to the helpless doctors. "If the patient has a fever over 102 degrees and does not develop a rash on the face, arms, or legs two hours after onset, the patient has not been infected with the virus. Tell them that."

Information about suspicious individuals came in at a steady stream from checkpoints set up across the country. Though charged with overseeing the operations of the task force, Kujo examined the stacks of reports in search of something. 'At 0:37, male, 20s, and female child sighted at Internet cafe in Saitama City..." Kujo read aloud. "1:23, apprehended male, 20s, and female child who fled the scene after questioning in Hasuda City...2:55, individual threatened to infect policeman at checkpoint at Shiraoka, fled the scene on bicycle..."

Kujo snuck out of the room with her cell phone and headed up to the roof of the building. After making sure no one else was around, she called Yoshizawa at the Blue Ship hideout. "We received a report that sounds like them. They're headed north out of Saitama City. Probably on bicycle at this speed."

"On the run on a bicycle. Sounds like they're getting desperate. North out of Saitama City...just as we expected."

"Yes, they appear to be heading for Sendai. The girl must know that Nikaido was friendly with Professor Kishikawa at Tohoku University. He's probably the only one they can ask to produce the antidote. We should grab them before they reach the checkpoint at Kuki City. Leave only the minimum number of members to watch over Nikaido's lab and home, and send the rest to Kuki City."

''Understood."

Kujo hung up and returned to the headquarters. As she continued to expedite the calls that came in quick succession, she worked out several contingencies in the back of her mind. There were three possible scenarios: one in which they pinpoint Maki's GPS and grab L and Maki before the checkpoint; another in which L and Maki are apprehended at the checkpoint and taken to a hospital; and another in which they safely reach Professor Kishikawa at Tohoku University. Kujo had already made the necessary preparations for all three possibilities. They had already tightened the screws on Kishikawa so he would cooperate.

But something stuck in Kujo's mind. Telling herself that she was just being overly anxious, Kujo resumed checking the new reports coming in.

— 0:30, male, 20s, and male child fled Internet cafe in Adachi Ward .—

After studying this report for a moment, she rifled through the stacks for the first report she'd seen and compared them. "Male child...the possibility that Maki is disguised...a decoy?" Kujo mumbled just as her cell phone vibrated.

She hurried to the roof again and hit the talk button. Yoshizawa shouted, "We've been had!" on the other end.

"What happened?"

"We tracked the GPS we thought was L and Maki, but when we caught up with them, it wasn't them. It was some random kid traveling the country by bicycle. He didn't know where he got stuck with the transmitter."

Kujo ended the call, clucked her tongue, and headed for the underground garage.

"If it was a decoy, was it designed to throw us off their scent? Maybe Suruga and L are moving separately...and with different goals?" she said to herself. Kujo's car peeled out of the garage and ran every traffic light as it sped down the dark night road.

"Ryuzaki's probably saying how everything's going as planned about now. Never mind that," Suruga muttered as he hid in the bushes outside the Blue Ship hideout and wiped the sweat trickling down his face. "Is this what they call global warming? Kujo's ideal world must be one cool place to live."

Although Suruga was used to warm weather, he'd grown tired of the muggy, windless, and mosquito-filled nights in Japan. "Damn! I could've taken these bastards down in a minute with a partner or two. But I guess I can only blame myself for that."

Suruga couldn't very well inform the Bureau that he had failed to recover the Death Note from L, much less confess that it had been stolen away by a third party. And now that he'd been taken off the assignment, he could no longer ask for the Bureau's help. At the moment, he was moving separately from L and Maki. Suruga was on his own, but he still spoke aloud.

"The truck ought to start rolling soon."

Suruga had parked the truck he'd stolen just up the hill—without pulling the emergency brake. Wheel chocks made of ice were set in front of the tires. The ice barely lasted ten minutes on top of the scorching asphalt, which still retained the heat from the midday sun. When the chocks melted, the truck began to lurch forward. The truck gained speed and barreled down the hill, stopping only when it crashed into a utility pole and knocked it down. Suddenly the area went dark.

Suruga had already confirmed that the building that Blue Ship was using as a hideout was not equipped with an emergency generator.

"Mission start: 03:21."

Suruga entered through the front of the building and ran up the stairs, hitting the emergency alarm as he passed it.

"I'm coming in!"

Using the Russian military-issue night vision goggles he'd procured from a black market shop, he allowed one panicked member to blow past him, then he bowed before entering the room.

While Blue Ship might have been regarded as a terrorist group, its members were nothing more than amateurs. With the sudden darkness and emergency alarm, they froze in panic. And because most of the members had cleared out thanks to L's plan, there was no one to give orders.

"It might be a trap. Guard the Death Note!" Suruga shouted to incite further confusion. When the enemy's chain of command was confused, exploit it by making the enemy work for you—that was a fundamental plan of attack. "Is the notebook safe?" Suruga shouted again. Moving quickly, he took up a position in a corner of the room to observe the action.

"It's right here!" one thug answered from another corner of the room. He waved a briefcase over his head.

Without a word Suruga crept up next to him. Covering the man's mouth and nose, Suruga slammed him against the wall and kicked him in the solar plexus. The man groaned in pain, the noise drowned out by the alarm.

With the briefcase in hand, Suruga quietly snuck out of the room and descended the stairs. Upon exiting the building, he removed the night vision goggles and checked his watch. "Mission accomplished: 03:26. Required time: five minutes. Not bad," he said.

"It's not over yet, Mr. Suruga."

Kujo stood in his path, a gun in her hand.

"You don't mean to shoot me in this residential area, now do you? With the accident and blackout, people are already coming outside. The police will start snooping around soon enough. Fortunately, the only thing I've got on me is a notebook. Still going to shoot, Kujo?"

Kujo smiled and lowered the gun. "And I believed you and I would make a good team," Kujo said, without a hint of remorse. She drew closer and smiled at Suruga as if her treachery had already been forgotten.

"You're one to talk after the way you fooled me. You scare me."

"If I scare you so much, perhaps you shouldn't make an enemy of me." Kujo's hand brushed against his. Though it was a sweltering night, the fingers twining around his were cold.

Suruga sensed the snare of her grip closing and brushed her hand aside. "It all comes down to who'd make a scarier enemy—you or L." Suruga waved and turned to go.

"Then brace yourself, Mr. Suruga. Or should I say, Hideaki Sugita," Kujo said in a voice that was frightfully calm.

"How do you know that name?"

"L isn't the only one who knows how to investigate people." Kujo was no longer looking at Suruga. Instead, her eyes were trained on L and Maki, the pair of whom had just arrived. "I'm so sorry, Maki. I never imagined that you would be infected—"

"Tell me, Dr. Kujo. Are you really going to use the virus to destroy the world?" Maki interrupted.

"No. I'm trying to build a new world—"

"By killing people?"

Kujo fell silent. The two, who once trusted each other like family, kept their distance, the gap between them physical as well as emotional.

"I wouldn't be happy living in a peaceful world that was created by sacrificing people's lives," Maki said.

Kujo faltered for a moment, but then began again. "Maki, of course that's the ideal. A world where everyone can laugh and live happily. But that isn't possible now. You should know that after traveling the world with your father."

This time it was Maki's turn to fall silent. She recalled the countless countries and regions she'd been to with her father. Even a child like Maki recognized the conflicts and problems that had befallen the earth, problems the planet could not handle.

"Maki, do you remember what we talked about in the animal husbandry room? The reason you can live a healthy life is because those research animals sacrifice their lives. Sacrifice is a necessary part of any accomplishment."

"And you're satisfied with that? I don't believe that's how you really feel."

Kujo bit her lip and answered quietly, "No, this is how I feel. I only worked with Professor Nikaido to liberate the virus, for the good of the planet.''

Maki stared at Kujo as though she were trying to ascertain her true intentions. She let out a deep sigh. "It looks like I had you all wrong, Dr. Kujo.'' Something between them ended with those words.

"Ryuzaki, Maki, the power will be back on soon. We should go," Suruga said.

L, who had been watching this exchange between Maki and Kujo, finally said, "Dr. Kujo, what you are attempting to do under the pretext of building an ideal society is nothing more than mass murder. If you carry out this plan, I will kill you. You will be—'' L took a step forward—"executed!"

Then he handed the woman a lollipop.

"You look like everything went as expected. Are you telling me that you knew that if we split up, I would try to get the Death Note back?" Suruga asked as the trio walked together through the dark streets of town.

L said nothing but smiled mischievously. Perhaps it was because L respected Suruga's infiltration skills that he'd made such a prediction, which Suruga couldn't feel too badly about.

"Then were you expecting this too?" Suruga took out his cell phone and spoke loud enough for L to hear. "This is Y286."

The man on the other end raised his voice immediately. "What the hell have you been doing, Sugi—Y286? You were supposed to return for debriefing after we took you off the assignment. Then I hear you've been interfering with the recovery team. I assume you recovered the target, since you went renegade on us and are certain to face disciplinary action."

"Yes, the target..." Suruga stared at the Death Note, winked at L, and tossed it to him. "The target...I'm sorry, sir. I couldn't execute the mission."

"What? What are you talking about, Suruga?"

"I can't betray the man who avenged Raye's and Naomi's deaths."

The voice on the end grew irritated. "Suruga, our superiors view L's possession of the Death Note as a serious threat. You'll be dismissed from the Bureau if you continue to collaborate with him. You will be hunted down along with L."

"I understand." Suruga ended the call and smiled.

"Are you all right, Mr. Suruga?" L asked.

"Yeah, we need to worry about Maki first. Besides, working on what will be L's final mission is more exciting. By the way, how did it go?"

"It went well. Our little misdirection was successful in drawing most of the guards away from Professor Nikaido's lab."

Once the power was restored inside the Blue Ship hideout, the members flew into a collective uproar.

"Dr. Kujo, we've got trouble! The Death Note—" Konishi said helplessly.

"I know." Kujo held up a hand and turned on the computer, holding the Chupa Chups L had handed her as a present. She removed the wrapper and found a six-digit number inscribed on the lollipop.

Kujo entered the number in the password window for the encrypted microchip they had obtained from L at the Yellow Box warehouse.

"An audio file this time?" Kujo had a bad feeling as she sighed and clicked the mouse. An upbeat song came out of the speakers.

"That voice...Misa Misa?" Konishi said, peeking over Kujo's shoulder. It was a demo of Misa Amane's new single, which L had somehow managed to acquire.

"L, now you've made me angry" Kujo glared at the Chupa Chups like it was L himself. "Konishi, can you still break into the Kira Investigation building's system?"

"Yes, but with everything deleted from the system, it's useless."

"But you can still tap into their outside line. I need you to put your hacking skills to work."

"Huh? Of course..."

Kujo dropped the Chupa Chups on the ground and crushed it with her foot. Konishi's face froze at sight of this unusual display of anger.

"L, people may call you the world's top detective, but what can you do without the authorities to back you?"