Chapter 846

After the gunfire, for several minutes, the entire building was like a disturbed hornet's nest.

In the over a hundred years since the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters building was completed, for the first time there appeared a "security state with no highest commander"!

This state lasted for a full ten minutes.

During those ten minutes, someone called the National Police Agency, someone called the Cabinet Secretariat, someone called a retired senior leader at home having dinner to ask, "Has this kind of situation ever happened before?"

No one could give an answer. Because it had indeed never happened before—never had a gunman been able to pass through the security check of the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters building, walk into the large conference room where senior officials hold regular meetings at Sakuradamon, and point the gun barrel at the Superintendent General's forehead!

The Emergency Response Headquarters was quickly established in the multimedia center at Sakuradamon, with Section Chief Sugishita Ukyo serving as department head, Young Lady Minami serving as deputy department head, and hundreds of suited men immediately gathered, with even many police who had just left work being urgently recalled.

Currently, the two highest-ranking individuals in the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters building are one sitting at this end of the table and one sitting at that end.

Superintendent Sugishita Ukyo, Special Mission Section Chief Superintendent Uesugi Minami.

"We must regroup our forces!" Young Lady Minami gritted her teeth and said: "Also, immediately report the situation! Okada, you immediately notify the Cabinet! Hikawa, you immediately notify the National Police Agency!"

"Yes!"

The gravity of the situation surged in waves over the following minutes like a tide.

The call from the National Police Agency came first.

The voice on the other end of the phone was Director of the Commissioner's Secretariat Onoda Kimiaki.

His voice was steady, but unnaturally so: "What, everyone has been taken hostage! What on earth is going on with the security at Sakuradamon?"

"Private Mosaic!" The counselor in charge of security, holding the phone, bowed and apologized.

"What is your plan now? Exactly what is going on? What are the hijackers' demands? Who exactly is he? What is his purpose?" Onoda Kimiaki's questions came one after another.

"Private Mosaic!" The counselor could only continue apologizing: "Still in planning, still in planning!"

"Tsk! Information blockade. On the media side, not a single word must leak. Before the situation is resolved, no information may be leaked." Onoda Kimiaki said impatiently: "Also, let Ukyo take the call!"

Sugishita Ukyo took the handset, and Onoda Kimiaki's voice came from the earpiece, carrying a kind of official,

unquestionable, yet simultaneously slightly trembling on certain syllables strange texture.

The order "block information" itself is not problematic. Controlling information outflow before the situation is clear is standard procedure, but the phrasing "not a single word must leak" is inappropriate.

When a person says "not a single word must leak," they are often concerned not with the situation itself, but with the impact of the situation's exposure on themselves.

Sugishita Ukyo noticed this detail, responded with a blank expression, and hung up the phone.

The call from the Cabinet came afterward, first to the National Police Agency, which then transferred the call to the Emergency Response Headquarters.

The call from the Cabinet Secretariat had a voice more steady than Onoda Kimiaki's, faster speech, and more precise wording.

"Resolve as quickly as possible. Prioritize negotiation. Hostage safety first. Do not provoke the hijackers. Do not cause casualties. Do not escalate the situation."

Three "do nots," one "prioritize."

The Cabinet's meaning is clear—at all costs avoid escalation. The hostages include the Superintendent General,

Deputy Superintendent, and various department heads; if any one of them is injured, it is the Cabinet's responsibility.

If all are injured, the Cabinet must collectively bow!

If someone dies, the Cabinet must collectively resign!

The Cabinet passed this pressure to the National Police Agency, which passed it to the Emergency Response Headquarters.

At the end of this pressure transmission chain are Sugishita Ukyo and Minami at the two ends of the makeshift table in the command center, with white paper spread before them and steel pens in hand.

Above them there is no one else; they are the last line of defense.

At this moment Minami was already in utter disarray, she gritted her teeth, her usual confident and imposing presence as the Face of the Metropolitan Police Department unable to utter a single word, her mind immediately devised several plans, but none could guarantee the hostages' safety, she is skilled in negotiation, but she does not know what this guy actually wants to do, and the other side emphasized they came to end the Japanese Police, if she carelessly provokes this guy, the other side will indiscriminately kill all the high-ranking officials, or randomly kill eleven, her and her father's glorious résumé will end here!

Whether the other side can end the Japanese Police Minami does not know, but ending her and her father's prospects is easy as pie!

At this moment, Uesugi Muneyuki entered.

He shoved open the door of the command center with one hand, instantly drawing the gaze of the over a hundred people present.

Uesugi has arrived!

Although he is a forensic pathologist, although his role is to solve cases, even so, Uesugi Muneyuki's appearance still brought great hope to the people present.

"Don't look at me! Look at the monitors!" Uesugi Muneyuki had already sent Hironaka Mariko to check the situation, he shouted at the crowd: "Look at the monitors! Since this person came from outside, there must definitely be surveillance!"

Oh right! Surveillance! Surveillance!

Uesugi Muneyuki's signature move when approaching a case is to first check DNA and look at surveillance!

Soon, the crowd found the surveillance footage.

The man, when entering through the main gate, smiled at the receptionist; when pressing the floor button in the elevator, his fingers tapped steadily; when stepping out of the elevator, he glanced left and right down the hallway to confirm direction; when pushing open the conference room door, his right hand had already drawn that gun from his pocket.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood before the screen, his finger tapped once on the image: "Pause."

Nango Yui pressed the pause button. The image froze at the moment the man pushed open the conference room door.

His face in the image is not entirely clear, but his outline and build are distinct.

"Rewind, start from the main gate, slow motion."

Nango Yui rewound the image to the main gate entrance.

Uesugi Muneyuki's gaze followed every movement of that man in the image—his stride, his posture, his left and right hand usage habits, the way he held the pen when filling out the visitor registration form at the reception desk.

Upon seeing this, his finger tapped once on the tabletop.

"Stop. Enlarge. Right hand."

The image was enlarged.

The man's right hand held a pen, writing on the visitor registration form.

"He used to be a police officer." The Public Security Police Hojo Toru immediately said, his voice without hesitation, as if stating an axiom requiring no proof: "His way of holding a pen uses the same muscle memory as holding a gun. When he entered the main gate, he did not look left or right, but walked straight to the elevator. He knows where the elevator is, knows where the conference room is, knows that there is a senior-level meeting today at this time. He is someone very familiar with the internal situation at Sakuradamon. Most likely he is a relation, or a retiree."

Sugishita Ukyo stood up from the other end of the table and walked to the screen: "It should be a retiree! Relations would not harbor such deep hatred."

"If it is possible he is a retiree, please immediately gather data, look at his age should not exceed 45

years, then gather the retirement lists of the Metropolitan Police Department from the past 20 years for verification." Uesugi Muneyuki immediately said.

The crowd immediately retrieved the retirees' database, conducting a one-by-one check based on facial features.

The footage quickly swept across the faces of hundreds of departing officers, with Uesugi Minami standing beside Uesugi Muneyuki, her fingers sliding across another area of the screen as she coordinated with him to narrow the search range.

The final location was determined in under five minutes. What appeared on the screen was a name and an entire page of résumé.

Yaegaki Tetsuya. Former Superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Division 1, Metropolitan Police Department.

Resigned seven or eight years ago. The resignation reason field stated "Personal Reasons"—individual circumstances. This is the most common and least informative resignation reason in Japanese workplaces.

A term even vaguer than "personal reasons" would probably be "various matters."

Still a blank.

Everyone at the scene fell into hesitation.

It was a truly, thoroughly blank space.

Uesugi Muneyuki stared at that blank authorization field for several seconds, then shifted his gaze back to Yaegaki Tetsuya's photo.

In the photo, he appeared to be around thirty-five or thirty-six, wearing a uniform, his hair shorter than now, no beard, and his eyes lacked that layer of dark red, like an old wound, of despair.

He looked like an ordinary, dutiful, believing patrol officer superintendent who thought the police could catch bad guys.

Why on earth would he suddenly return to the Metropolitan Police Department?

Why on earth would he want to take all the Metropolitan Police Department's senior officials hostage?

Why on earth would he say, "I am here to end the Japanese Police"?

Uesugi Muneyuki realized he had fallen into an even greater mystery.

He currently knows almost nothing about this guy, not even what the other party actually wants.

Everyone at the scene also fell into a brief silence; Minami Ojou-sama glanced dubiously at the résumé—he had resigned seven or eight years ago—while Sugishita Ukyo struggled to recall the past, having been in the Public Safety Bureau at the time and not familiar with this person.

"Does anyone know this guy named Yaegaki and have had any contact with him?" Okada Masayoshi shouted loudly.

Everyone shook their heads.

At that moment, Uesugi Muneyuki looked up again at the video for a few more glances, and when he saw a certain scene, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Got it!

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