The police had agreed to release their leader, but the hijackers weren't planning to let the hostages go. Hidden inside their ski bags were explosives. Their plan was to blow up the bus along with the hostages and any clues, erasing everything.
As for themselves, they intended to swap clothes with the hostages so the police would think they'd also died in the blast.
Conan was thinking hard. He was sure his movements shouldn't have been noticed by the hijackers in front, but reality proved otherwise. The robbers reacted the moment he tried to make a call. That meant one of the three people sitting in the back row was secretly passing information to them.
The sick-looking man, the old man with a hearing aid, and the woman chewing gum. It had to be one of them—but which?
"Hey, when you save your boss, how much do you think you'll actually get?" Just as Conan was puzzling over it, he heard Liu A'dou's voice again. Conan nearly fell over. 'Seriously? This guy still hasn't realized we've been kidnapped?'
Conan was speechless. Liu A'dou not only wasn't afraid, he seemed determined to provoke death itself.
The hijackers ignored him, but Liu A'dou kept going. "I mean, have you even thought about the economy lately? Times are tough. Money's worth less every day. And if I recall right, the guy you're rescuing is the mastermind behind that recent jewel heist, right? They robbed a jewelry store, stole gems worth 300 million yen at market price. But on the black market, those jewels won't fetch more than 100 million yen, probably less. Have you even thought about how much money you'll actually get in the end?"
"Bastard! What crap are you spewing?" The hijackers froze. Their boss had told them it was only 50 million yen. How did it suddenly become 100 million? They had to get answers.
None of them except the captured leader actually knew gems. That was why they had to free him—he alone knew both the real value and the stash location.
"You guys clearly don't understand the market." Liu A'dou smirked, looking perfectly at ease. He'd only worry if he ran into pros. With amateurs, he could bluff all day. Gems were his specialty.
The passengers watched in awe as Liu A'dou lectured the hijackers without breaking a sweat. Conan, though, was suspicious. 'What's his angle? What's he really trying to do?'
"Right now the yen-to-dollar exchange rate is 1 to 102. One dollar equals 102 yen. So 100 million yen is only about 1 million dollars. And the rate's dropping, which means fewer dollars for your yen. A million split three ways is just 333,000 dollars each. No, wait—let's be real. You're just muscle. Your boss will take half. That leaves you three with 500,000 dollars, so about 166,000 dollars each.
"Now, let me put that into perspective. Last year, the average household assets in Japan were 43.88 million yen, which included average savings of 13 million yen. That means unless you've got at least 430,000 dollars, you're still considered poor by Japanese standards."
Liu A'dou's rapid-fire breakdown left the hijackers dazed.
What had looked like a fortune suddenly sounded pathetic. If anything, robbing seemed to make them poorer.
In yen, it sounded like millions. In dollars, it was only a few hundred thousand. Worse still, there weren't three of them—there were four. If the boss really took half, the remaining three would be left with about 160,000 dollars each, far below the 430,000-dollar average household benchmark.
Way too little. Far less than they'd dreamed of. The crushing disappointment hit hard. They had risked their lives in a jewel heist hoping to get rich overnight, never having to work again. But now reality stared them in the face: they weren't striking it rich at all. Reality was cruel.
Truth be told, Liu A'dou was just too good at bluffing. The average household assets he cited in Japan mostly referred to houses, which weren't liquid at all. And the so-called "average savings" was misleading—rich families' money wasn't exactly being evenly distributed to the poor. In reality, this batch of hijackers had still struck a huge windfall. Of course, it wasn't quite the instant fortune they had dreamed of.
At around 130,000 dollars, that was a lot of money for this era. But the hijackers had no real concept of value, and under Liu A'dou's smooth talk they started to believe the money wasn't worth much at all.
'No point anymore… what's the point?' Some of them even began to feel like life wasn't worth living.
Shocking, really—this was the year 2000. Sure, the internet had started to spread in Japan, but most households still didn't own a computer. People didn't have access to such detailed statistics. Listening to Liu A'dou's speech, even the hostages began to feel pity for the robbers.
'Who the hell is this guy?' Conan couldn't accept that any normal student would know so much.
Liu A'dou stood up. One of the hijackers pointed his gun. "What are you trying to do?"
"I just want to give you a little advice on how to get rich," Liu A'dou said calmly. "Selling those jewels for 100 million yen is already a lot. It's just…" His eyes slid toward the three people sitting in the back row. "It's just that you've got too many people splitting it. If you had one less partner, that'd mean an extra share for each of you, wouldn't it?"
"…" Conan's heart skipped so hard it felt like his blood vessels would burst. 'This guy is terrifying. He's sowing discord. He's trying to make them turn on each other.'
And he was right. Fewer people meant bigger shares.
In an instant, the air in the bus turned heavy. The hijackers' eyes changed. Two of the men exchanged a glance, then both looked at their comrade in the back.
Conan realized immediately. The woman chewing gum was their inside partner. She clearly understood what those looks meant—one less partner meant more money for them.
The two hijackers wanted to kill her. "Don't come any closer! I've got the detonator in my hand!" she shouted, panicked. She was terrified they might really kill her. At the same time, another thought flashed through her mind—if she blew them up instead, she'd get their shares all to herself.
A second ago they were partners. Now they were ready to tear each other apart.
'This guy is too dangerous.' Conan stared at Liu A'dou, lounging casually like he was just watching a play. Deep down, Conan marked him as an extremely dangerous person who could never be underestimated.
Bomb?? The hostages stiffened in fear.
Bang! Bang! Two shots rang out as the hijackers fired into the ceiling. "Shut up, all of you! We'll settle this when we meet the boss," the calmer one growled.
But it was too late. The identities of the insiders were exposed, and the existence of the bomb was out in the open. Everyone now knew the robbers intended to silence them all.
Jodie's sharp eyes lingered on Liu A'dou. 'This kid's got skills. But what's he going to do next?'
At the back of the bus, Akai Shuichi also studied Liu A'dou with interest. And Vermouth, still disguised as Dr. Araide, fixed her gaze on him as well.
'Fascinating. Even the Black Organization doesn't have a member who can talk like this. Coming here to investigate the FBI wasn't a waste of time after all,' Vermouth thought.
The hijackers began their plan to escape. They ordered Akai Shuichi and the fake Dr. Araide to put on their jackets and impersonate them. When the bomb went off, the "hijackers" would die alongside the hostages, and the police would never pursue the real culprits.