Chapter Nine

Chapter 9

Give me Liberty, or Give me Death

Akemi's POV

*I know the robbery actually took place way before Shinichi turned into Conan, but I'm putting it here to make it easier. Otherwise, Shiho's emotions wouldn't make sense, right?*

I silently closed the door behind me. I could still hear my sister crying at what she must consider my betrayal. I leaned against the door, and remembered her words again. "Didn't you hear Gin? He's planning your death scene!" He face contorted with dread and fear. "What? What?" Now it was just plain anger, and she was crying, screaming the words at me, accusing me. "Please, for me?" Her voice was now merely a whisper, pleading. She closed her blue eyes, and tears ran down her face.

I had left my little sister like that. Crying, sobbing, begging… I felt terrible. But it was all for her. If I could steal that money, then she could be free. Shiho deserved to live life to the fullest, not like a bird trapped in a cage, in a room where it could see the sky, with the knowledge that it couldn't fly into the open air. The boss had told me to come back if I changed my mind, or come back if my decision stayed the same. He would tell me where the robbery would take place, and assign me assistants. We would plan how to break in, steal what we needed to, and escape from the police. All would have to be planned perfectly; after all, any kind of failure meant death.

It wasn't long before I reached the boss's room. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. "Come in." The voice was icy cold and mechanic, frightening, and not very human. The chair in which he sat was turned to the back of the room as usual. Only the highest officials ever saw his face, or even knew his code name. The rest of us just called him 'The Boss'.

"I'm going through with it." I spoke confidently, no weakness in front of the boss. "Tell me where and when, and I'll get started."

"You know that if you fail, your sister will also be punished, right, Akemi?" He was also sadistic, asking questions that were meant to cause pain, instead of answering. And he never referred to anyone as their code name either.

"Yes, I understand that. Which is why I won't fail." I meant it, and I swore on my life that I would not fail. That I would succeed, and save my sister. It was my duty, that my parents had secretly entrusted onto me. They had died here in the Organization, and I wasn't about to let Shiho do the same, whether it was sooner or later. If she was to die, she was to die free.

"I have your assistants." I heard the snapping of fingers, and two men entered the room. "Your job is to rob the Teito bank of one billion yen. It will be an armed robbery, both cash and gold will be acceptable for me. It will take place in one week."

"Have you secured us a getaway car?" I asked carefully.

"This man right here has one." The smaller, stocky man stepped forward. "While he is part of the Black Organization, he works as a chauffeur. He will not be robbing the bank with you, he'll be waiting for you a little bit off. It is your job to escape to where he is waiting."

"My car is a limousine, if you do your job right, no one will suspect the thieves would escape in such a noticeable car. But, if the mission in any way fails, I'm driving right off, no question asked."

"I understand." I looked into his eyes; he was obviously hiding something, but what? There was fear, and maybe a slight feeling of guilt. Something's off here.

"I will be assisting your robbery," The taller, muscular man spoke. "Boss, if you don't mind, may we leave to discuss and finalize the plans? That way, you won't have to listen to our pointless chatter."

"By all means," the boss answered in a tone that was quite obviously a farewell.

We all left the room, and headed for the department dedicated to robberies and related crimes. I unlocked my office room, and let the others in. "Would you two like some coffee or tea?" I offered.

"Ah yes," the chauffeur answered. "Coffee with milk and sugar please."

"I'll take the tea." The other man was quieter, and had a strange scary presence.

"Give me one moment." I backed out of my office, and went to the coffee machine, where some other members of the Organization were discussing my sister's recent success with the poison.

"Those police are so clueless," one chuckled. "That Sherry's a genius, there isn't even a way to confirm a cause of death with that poison."

"Now that we know it works, we'll be able to use it much more often, and then there will many, many more unsolvable crimes."

"Hey you!" One of them called to me. "Tell your sis congrats from us!"

"No problem." I turned back the machine and prepared the coffee and tea. I chose coffee for myself, it always got me thinking, and I would need all the help that I could get here.

Upon reentering my office, I found them already discussing the plan. "We'll need one 'ordinary citizen' among the two of us." It was the man who was to directly assist me in robbing the bank. "And maybe even the help of Vermouth. You know, in the disguise category?"

"Vermouth?" If there was someone who scared me even more than the boss, it was his favorite, the female actress Sharon Vineyard, code name Vermouth. Master of disguise, she was also a cold-blooded killer, and there was even a rumor going around that she never aged. But, her help would be very useful. "You idea is that we where the disguises, and once the police lose sight of us during the getaway, we remove them and blend in with the crowd, right?"

"Exactly," he sneered. "We just have to figure out how to get away. Should we each take a hostage and threaten to shoot if we're chased, and let them go once we're sure the police aren't hot on our trail, or something different?"

"We'll do the hostage plan." My gears in my brain were starting to shift into place. Thieving was where I was brilliant, a genius. I'd never been caught. But that was hardly something to brag about, nobody here had ever been caught. Failure means death. One of the many mottos in this Organization. If you fail suicide, or someone else will take care of that job for you.

"Hand me a blueprint of the bank," I gestured toward the papers they were holding. "I need to start seriously planning."

In three days, we had already devised a nearly foolproof robbery plan. When we turned it into the boss, he approved of it. "You can start at anytime. The exact date planned before is not necessary."

"Then, would we able to go the day after tomorrow?" I asked. "We'll scout the bank tomorrow, and have Vermouth work on disguising us that night."

"I'll tell her." His tone was dismissive once again. As we turned around to leave, he said two more words. "Good luck." But the words had no sincerity in them. They sounded like a death sentence.

Would I leave the robbery alive? It was a question for the future. Either way, I would just have to protect my sister. And hopefully, if I died, I would get a goodbye.