Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 7 - Chapter 2.3

 The agent’s two faces

“Still, what’s a secret base doing here?” I asked Charlie, although my eyes stayed on the monitors. They showed Siesta and Nagisa, who’d gone off to play on the equipment. The detective had said she wanted to have some fun while she was here. I’m not saying which detective it was.

“Nobody would ever think to look for it here. That’s the whole point,” Charlie responded. She was cleaning up the worktable. “The enemy would never expect to find a hideout under a theme park, you know?”

“‘Enemy’? Who exactly are you fighting?”

“Well, that’s a good question. I don’t get as many opportunities to use this place these days.”

The way she phrased that made it sound as if she’d used lots of camouflaged hideouts in her work as an agent, way back when. Now she was using this one to do maintenance on Siesta’s gun, which Siesta hadn’t used for a while.

“Wasn’t this sort of thing usually Stephen’s job, though?”

Stephen Bluefield, the Inventor, was the one who’d originally made Siesta’s musket. I’d assumed maintaining it would be his job as well.

“I hear he’s gone missing. He was a doctor to begin with, though; he might just be focusing on medical work somewhere.”

…Ah. In that case, maybe Bruno hadn’t managed to get in contact with him, either.

“So Ma’am is going to be the Ace Detective again,” Charlie murmured, her hands falling still. Since Siesta had asked Charlie to work on her gun, she must have explained why it was necessary… Actually, even if Siesta hadn’t said anything, the agent would know about a situation like that.

“Just as a temporary proxy, but yeah.” That was what Noel had promised, at least. “Are you attending the Ritual of Sacred Return, too, Charlie?”

Naturally, the agent’s name had been on the guest list. I’d assumed Charlie would make up her mind without any input from me, but since we’d run into each other, it wouldn’t hurt to discuss it.

“A long time ago…” Instead of answering my question, Charlie began to tell an old story. “As an agent, I was given an assignment to protect a girl in a disputed area. Her parents were both high-ranking military officers. They were likely targets for the enemy, so they wanted me to keep their daughter safe.”

Charlie had never talked much about her work. She probably had a duty to keep things confidential, of course, but she also seemed to be holding back for her own reasons.

“For three weeks after that, that girl and I lived in a war zone by ourselves, evading attacks.”

If Charlie felt the need to tell me about this, it was probably going somewhere. I listened quietly.

“We huddled together in a simple dugout, listening to the sound of artillery fire. Our food ran low, so we shared water and crackers with each other and desperately talked about our dreams. We kept our eyes fixed on the future, and we survived.”

“That was your ‘normal,’ wasn’t it, Charlie?” I wasn’t sympathizing with her—sympathy would have meant irresponsibly denying the way she’d chosen to live. It was the last thing I should do.

“What do you think the hardest part of our escape was?”

I tried to visualize her situation. The incessant gunfire, the hunger, the sanitation issues, the mortal danger… No, Charlie would have prioritized her young charge’s life over her own.

“The hardest part was that the day after we started living that way, I was informed that the girl’s parents had died in combat. For the next three weeks, I kept that fact hidden from her.”

That answer would only make sense to those who’d stood on a real battlefield. Charlie had lied because the girl needed hope if she was going to survive. She couldn’t take that away.

“Finally, there was a cease-fire. I evacuated the girl to the embassy, and once we were there, I told her the truth. —She cried and called me a liar.”

Charlie had kept her voice cool up until this point, but I could see the uncertainty growing in her emerald eyes.

You weren’t wrong. But I knew that sort of superficial comfort was useless. I couldn’t sympathize, much less share her feelings. All I could do was listen.

“Sorry for rambling on like this.” Charlie seemed to be feeling chilly now; she shrugged into her jacket. “It’s just that, sometimes, the fact that those kinds of situations were routine to me scares me. I’m weak, aren’t I?” she murmured.

“All people are,” I told her, and she forced a smile.

If she’d gone out of her way to tell me this, she probably wasn’t sure yet. She didn’t know whether she had the courage to live through any more days like that. If she attended the Ritual of Sacred Return, would it force her to deal with disasters again?

“But you all are going anyway, right?”

“Yeah. Both detectives say we are, so that’s that.”

“If you said you didn’t want to, I bet they’d stay home for you.”

“Why would I say that?” I laughed the suggestion off.

Charlie gave me a long, pointed look. “You’re worried about them, aren’t you?”

I didn’t answer. I was watching Siesta and Nagisa on the monitors. They were laughing as they rode the merry-go-round in that dark, deserted amusement park.

“I can tell. I know what you’re thinking.”

That made me turn around.

“When you really loathe somebody, you know exactly what makes them tick.” Charlie gave me her biggest, brightest smile.

Geez. Had there ever been a more irritating grin?

“Lying to somebody you can’t stand is pretty pointless, isn’t it?”

In other words, since there was no love lost between us anyway, Charlie was saying I should tell her what I really thought.

“Yeah, I’m worried,” I murmured, gazing at the monitors again. “They really seem to be enjoying themselves, and…frankly, the thought that they might end up in danger again scares me so much I can’t sleep. Really, it makes me wish they were there, sleeping next to me.”

“Okay, that’s creepy.”

“Don’t just cut me down like that.” I cleared my throat, then tried again. “But I am uneasy. If we don’t attend the Ritual of Sacred Return, though, they’ll always be shackled to the Tuners. —The story won’t be able to come to an end.”

That meant we didn’t have a choice. Not everyone gets the right to choose. We had to keep moving forward, believing that the path we walked would lead us to the credits we were hoping for.

“I see. That’s all I’ve got to say, then,” Charlie told me. “I guess I’ll go play, too,” she added, starting to leave the hideout.

“Just so you know, I didn’t tell you what I really thought because I hate you or anything,” I called after her. Nor had it been because she didn’t matter. “I told you because we’re comrades.”

Charlie’s eyes widened slightly. “I see.” That was all she said as she turned away.

In the moment she turned, I caught a glimpse of her profile. I thought I saw a vaguely happy smile there, but it had to have been my imagination. Right?