Barbara is Gone

"Barbara's gone, Jim!"

At these words, Gordon looked around frantically. Like Aaron had said Barbara had vanished from the rooftop

'Did she go looking for Kid?' he wondered, 'That's dangerous, I have to stop her!'

However, as soon as he headed out in search of his daughter, the walkie-talkie in his hand crackled to life.

"Report sir, this is Team A. A large number of civilians have gone around the sides of the building, smashed all the windows and invaded the hall. We can't stop them anymore!"

The leader of Group A tried desperately to hold off the rioting tide of people at the main entrance, but could only stop a small portion of the crowd.

He was hopeless, the frightening excitement on the faces of everyone in front of him intimidated the police barrier.

How could there be so many mad fans when this was only the second time that Kaito Kid had ever committed a crime?

In fact, Mathison hadn't had many fans who were truly fanatical about him yet, and the reason for this was entirely the work of Red Magic (Oh REALLY, it wasn't totally obvious last time [I wish they didn't do this]).

The nature of this magic itself can provoke human emotions very easily, plus one of the two magic charms that Mathison had refined yesterday was to make his voice more persuasive and confusing.

After only a few speeches, Mathison had been able to stir up the nerves of excitement in the masses.

But it wasn't really the ability to control emotions. Much like the job of most show hosts, it was more like guiding them, only this was supernaturally empowered by Red Magic.

"Forget it, there is no use in blocking it now that it's done. Lead the team outside now, block all the exits, and open immediate fire as soon as you see Kaito Kid!"

However, that wasn't the only thing that went wrong.

"Team B spotted a figure that looked like Kid, but when they got closer that they found that it was a dummy!"

"Report! Team C has also spotted a dummy of Kid, and there are two of them!"

"Report! Group D…"

The various groups found a lot of Kaito Kid dummies that didn't move but were filled with gas, meaning that the other dummies, which were originally hidden under the carpet, could appear at any moment and attract most of the attention.

Especially after the crowd had rushed inside, countless people would assume the dummies were Kid as soon as they saw them and jump at them crazily.

The real Kid, Mathison, on the other hand, had quietly arrived at the sightseeing hall, dressed in a police uniform.

"Look, there's Kaito Kid! Arrest him now!"

Along the way, whenever he met up with the GCPD police, Mathison would make the first move, pointing at the dummy in the distance and shouting.

At the sight of the iconic white cloak and high-brimmed hat, all the officers rushed forward, completely ignoring the fact that Mathison was a police officer acting alone.

He hadn't just infiltrated the collection a few hours earlier to set up the dummy. He hid instantly inflatable dummies in the pattern of the floor, They were almost impossible to spot before being activated due to their small size.

At this point, Daggett's private collection was in a state of chaos.

*Wee-woo~* *Wee-woo~*

Suddenly, a sharp, rapid alarm sounded.

"It's the infrared alarm system! It's been triggered!"

"That's from downstairs, let's get down there!"

"We've got you now, Kaito Kid!"

Hearing the alarm, the police officers, who were being played into a headache by the countless dummies around, burst into joy and rushed downstairs.

Not only the police, but the civilians who heard the alarm also rushed there.

After all, Kid had said that whoever found him first, would get the gift of a lifetime.

Mathison smirked and pressed the button in his pocket once again and then quietly made his way up to the first floor.

*Wee-woo~* *Wee-woo~*

Another alarm emerged, no, not a single one, but a whole fourteen! The second wave of alarms kept ringing, nonstop, for the next couple of minutes.

"This… alarm was triggered in every collection room?"

The police officers looked at each other in complete confusion. Did the systems malfunction?

"Damn it, Daggett never told us which collection room the Cat's Eye Emerald was placed in, otherwise we could have just focused our troops there!"

Inside the sightseeing hall, Gordon was furious and he slammed his fist heavily into ta wall.

In a state of full tranquility, Mathison moved as fast as lightning, running quickly up to the first floor just as the police were largely concerned with the ground floor.

In turn, he investigated each and every one of the collection rooms and the result was as Mathison had expected.

"Sure enough, the Cat's Eye Emerald is not in any of the fourteen collection rooms at all!"

With a playful smile, Mathison estimated the time of all the policemen who had split into fourteen teams and entered the collection room one by one.

At that moment, once again, he descended unnoticed into the first floor's lobby and pressed another button in his pocket.

In an instant, the collection hall lost its light and was covered with darkness…

"DAMN IT!!"

"Why the hell did the power go out again?!"

Aaron's roar echoed throughout the entire hall collection. This time, the protection of the power distribution room was the police's top priority to ensure that Kaito Kid wouldn't be able to do this again.

But since the power went out, that meant that...

"Barbara was right, Kid actually managed to sneak in here earlier and blended in with us. Only then would he have enough time to set this all up. All he had to do then was arrange a dummy outside to attract the crowd."

'But how did he get in?' Gordon was stumped, 'All the squads are configured in three-man squads or more. They moved in total unity, even for toilet breaks. Where is the weak link of that plan?'

Suddenly Gordon went cold.

There was one – one person who Kid could be…

A person who showed up alone and was given unrestricted access.

A person who no one in the GCPD would question.

A person who revealed all of Kid's tricks one by one to move the police around like puppets.

A person who was currently missing…

'There no way,' Gordon thought in disbelief, 'There no way that that was him'

'Is that even possible?!'

Gordon felt like he was drowning, drowning in a pool of helplessness.

He should've figured it out, how could he have not figured it out!

'The dear commissioner might have figured it out by now~' Mathison who had reverted to his previous disguise thought, 'It's too late though.'.

Suddenly, Gordon became overwhelmingly angry. This wasn't about protecting the city right now. This was personal.

'Kaito Kid, I won't let you get away this time. You've gone too far; trying to mess with my family!'

Right then, Gordon made a vow.

If one hair on Barbara's head was hurt, he would not eat, sleep or drink until he tracked Kid down and make him pay for his crimes!