Code No. 1412

The Phantom Thief was sailing through the air as if unbothered by all that went on down below.

As for how he flew, Gordon easily identified the device he used, how could he not?

It was a hang glider. The end was even equipped with a propeller for better flight.

　　 Most noticeably, just like Kaito Kid's costume, the hang gilder's wings were also pure white, as if to let everyone see him better. This is obvious mockery of the GCPD's skills.

'Wait a minute, the wind today is very weak, and it isn't enough to support a long gliding session. In that direction is…Splendid River! Kaito Kid, you might be pretty good for a thief, but you appeared miscalculated the weather when considering your means of escape.'

　　 Gordon's eyes were filled with renewed resolve, and he turned to his taskforce, "Everyone, head to Splendid River quick, Kaito Kid is going to land there!"

　　 "Aaron, you are injured, just wait here for the ambulance. Meanwhile, you can help with the evacuation of the crowd."

　　 "Okay, sir… I'll try. By the way, were you going to say a while ago?"

　　 Gordon: "..."

"It's nothing."

　　 Gordon led most of the police out of the exhibition hall to pursue the Phantom Thief. Only three or five police officers remained to maintain order and evict the people.

　　 In fact, there was no need to maintain order since no one was hurt in at all except for Aaron.

　　 At this point, the audience at the exhibition has completely recovered from the flashbang.

　　 "Hold on, didn't he mention that he will be giving us a gift, saying something about this being our first meeting or something? How is a flashbang a gift?!", a young girl suddenly complained in disappointment.

　　 "No way, you actually trusted what that thief said? My guess is that he only mentioned the gift to trick us into closing our eyes."

　　A boy who seemed to be the girl's boyfriend appeared shocked at his girlfriend's naivety. He turned to face the girl and attempted to grab her head to signal that they should leave now.

　　 However, his hand suddenly stopped in midair, as if it had been petrified.

　　 "Toby, what's the matter?"

　　 "You…on your head…"

　　 The girl saw his facial expression and was tensed up in apprehension from whatever could be on her head, she carefully stretched her hand to her head and touched a long, thin object!

　　 She quickly yanked it off and was about the hurl it far away when she caught a glimpse of it. The two of them suddenly widened their eyes in astonishment.

　　 It is a rose! A rose somehow got on her head!

　　There was also note attached to the rose: "Beautiful lady, this rose is my gift to you. I hope you will like it, and I sincerely hope that you can come to watch my performance in the future. Phantom Kid."

　　 The girl read the note word for word, with a growing expression of excitement on her face, and nodded vigorously to absolutely no one after reading it as if to indicate that she would attend the next "performance".

　　 At the same time, any woman who had closed her eyes found a red rose clipped onto her hair, while men found a blue rose pinned on their chest. The content on the attached note was identical.

　　 "This is amazing! How did he do it?"

　　 "I don't know, everyone is asking the same question!"

　　 "Kaito Kid is so cool; I think I'm falling for him!"

　　 The little girls were swarmed with romantic ideas. They were all impressed by Kaito Kid's performance and have become his very first fans.

　　 After a while, people began to shuffle out the hall with joy evident on their faces. As for the stolen Adam's Star? No one really cared about that! It's not like they came there for that in the first place.

　　 "Why hasn't an ambulance come yet?", Aaron who was limping on one leg asked the remaining police officers.

　　 "Hey, sir, I think you'd better not move.", a young guy advised.

　　 "I think that there is something weird about what just happened…", Aaron turned a deaf ear to the boy's advice, and murmured instead.

　　 "What do you mean, sir?", another police officer also asked.

　　 "Do you remember, from the moment of the explosion and the power failure until Kid's appearance, no more than 10 seconds had passed..."

　　 Everyone nodded.

　　 "Ten seconds?! The unbreakable bulletproof glass that protects Adam's Star is one of the latest products of Wayne Enterprise. It is impossible to break into it without professional cutting tools or, at the very least, blasting it. To imagine someone cracking this thick glass in under ten seconds, is quite frankly impossible!"

　　 "Not to mention that he didn't even break the protective glass but instead, he took the gem, as it appeared out of thin air in his hand. And after that, in another ten seconds, he went around to about 1,000 people gave them flowers, pinned on them and on the top of their heads…"

　　 "Now, tell me, how the hell did you think this happened?" Aaron exploded with an aggressive tone.

　　 The officers looked at each other as if they were looking for someone who could answer this question.

　　 "Listen, I don't believe that Phantom Kid can perform any actual magic. He is a probably a clever magician who tricked us with obscure illusions…" Aaron explained, "But the most suspicious part is the bulletproof glass cover."

　　He went closer to the glass cover little by little, leaned down, and looked through the almost transparent cover. There was literally nothing inside.

　　 Aaron then reached out and knocked on the glass cover, a crisp sound emerged, and his face changed. As he began to knock around the glass' surface, his face started changing into something darker.

　　 "Aaron doesn't seem to be as grumpy right now as he normally is…"

　　 The guy who had just advised Aaron not to move looked at his collegue strangely and said, "Huh, If I remember right you joined about two years ago so you wouldn't remember. Before you joined everyone knew that Aaron was Gordon's comrade as they had both served at the same time. However, ten years ago Aaron was actually the senior police inspector. He usually comes across as grumpy, but he is actually shrewd."

　　 "Hmm, I see…"

　　 While Aaron was knocking on the glass cover, several people stood there just watching as if in a daze. After a while, Aaron stopped and announced with a solemn expression: "Sure enough, the glass cover was replaced!"

　　 Aaron picked up the bulletproof glass cover with both hands and lifted the cover from the booth effortlessly. This meant that the Phantom Thief could easily open the glass cover and steal the gem.

　　 "Damn it, when did he change it?"

　　 "No, the most important question is that since he could change the glass cover, why not just steal the gem rather than wait until now?"

　　 "Who knows, maybe he just wants to humiliate the police."

　　 The mystery has been solved but generated as many questions as it answered.

Over on Gordon's side, near the Splendid River, just as he expected, the weather tonight was not suitable for long gliding. The closer Kid got to the Splendid River, the further he descended to the ground, until he dropped and fell right into the river.

　　 A huge amount of the police force in the area were docked on both sides of the Splendid River. A rescue team had already descended to the river, where it was difficult for Kaito Kid to escapes with his wings.

　　As the rescue got underway, Gordon murmured "Did Kid, after all that planning… make such a lowly mistake?"

　　 "Commissioner, we caught the Phantom Thief! He seems to have passed out!", a rescue team member shouted, while they were dragging the human body to the shore. Gordon looked intently and observed it was indeed the white suit of the thief.

　　 "Commissioner, you should come over and take a look at Kaito Kid!", another one shouted, but compared to the cheerful shout before, this shout carried with it confusion and a bit of horror.

　　 Gordon frowned and ran over to see Kaito Kid's face, which was for some reason causing his subordinates terror.

　　 "Wait, what? Aaron! How could you be here?", the familiar words tumbled out of Gordon's mouth, but Aaron, who was in a coma, couldn't exactly answer him right now.

　　 "Commissioner, he is merely in a coma, his life is not in danger…"

　　 "This is bad! Everyone, get back to the exhibition hall!", if this is Aaron then who is the Aaron who fell on the ground after being shot?

　　 Gordon sped back to the exhibition hall as fast as he could go but he found no one but the police he left behind.

　　 "Where did Aaron go?"

　　 "Chief, he just got in an ambulance and left. He was in pretty bad shape, but you should have heard the detective theories he that was firing-."

　　 "Was he alone?"

　　 "…Yes, Aaron wanted us to stay here. He said that you would be back soon, so we decided that we should wait for your instructions."

"Damn it, what in the world happened! Could Aaron have really betrayed me after all our years working together?" Gordon pinched his forehead; the earlier headache coming back at full blast and happened to glance at the removed bulletproof glass cover and, suddenly, he understood everything.

　　 "Put out a search warrant immediately for Kaito Kid!"

　　 "Code number…1412!"