"We meet again, Sister."
"Sister?"
Mary frowned as she looked at Toru, who walked into the hotel room swaggering as if he were returning to his own home.
Toru took off the baseball cap on his head, sat down not far from Mary, and said to Masumi, "Can you get me a bottle of cola?"
"Okay."
Masumi nodded lightly. "Please wait a moment."
With that, she walked to the refrigerator in the living room and took out a can of cold cola.
Toru thanked her, took the cola, opened it, took a big gulp, and smiled at Mary. "Isn't that your own codename?"
"By arranging and combining the English words for sister and territory, you got the simplified abbreviation MI6, using it to hint at your identity."
"Honestly, it's really boring. Most people wouldn't think in that direction."
Toru shrugged. "Your codename is more like shooting the arrow first and then drawing the target."
Mary looked at Masumi.
She really had played that word game. Just as Toru said, it was meant to hint at her identity.
But Mary had only told her daughter Masumi about this. How did Toru know?
Masumi spread her hands, showing that she did not know either. She had not had much contact with Toru.
"Are you monitoring me?"
Mary narrowed her eyes. This was the only reason she could think of.
It was already June, and the weather was starting to get hot.
Toru smiled. "Ms. Mary, in your current state, you're not worth monitoring."
"No matter how outstanding an MI6 agent you are, without the support of your organization, it's the same as crippling yourself."
"On top of that, with your current body, your combat ability is almost nonexistent. With how weak you are now, I don't need to monitor you at all."
"Other than Shuichi, who is indeed a little troublesome to deal with, the identities of your other children have already been exposed. You should know very well that once a family member's identity is exposed, their threat is already greatly reduced."
Mary was a little annoyed. "I admit that my current strength is very weak, and even when I was young and at my peak, I was far inferior to you."
Mary had seen those videos of Toru.
Whether it was his close combat against the Filipinos or his fight against those armed Colombians, she had imagined herself in his place and could only admit that the gap in martial ability between herself and Toru was far too great.
That was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to Toru. He must have hidden even more things that he did not want people to see.
She had already been inferior to him at her peak, not to mention in her old body before shrinking, or now in this child's body. In front of Toru, she was basically harmless.
Even in terms of agent experience, she might not be better than Toru. Toru's past record was also astonishing.
The only thing she might be better than Toru at was the network of connections she had built around the world over more than thirty years. In that regard, Toru could not compare, because he was truly still young.
"I can cooperate with you, cough cough..."
Mary covered her mouth with her hand and coughed weakly a few times.
"Cooperate with me? Sister, since you said cooperate, then you should understand that cooperation is built on equality. What price can you offer to cooperate with me now?"
Mary did not mind Toru's teasing nickname. Since he liked calling her Sister, then let him.
Mary was not young, and she would not get emotionally shaken or angered like a real young girl over just a few words.
"Let me state my demands first."
"My demands are very simple."
"First, I want to eliminate the organization that shrank me."
"Second, you said that the developer of this drug is my niece, and I need her to continue the research and find an antidote."
After hesitating for a moment, she mocked herself, "...No, whether there is an antidote or not doesn't matter anymore. Even if I recover my original body, I would just be an old woman, no different from now, and perhaps my current state is even better."
"Third, I need to find out where my husband is. There is a high probability that he is already dead, but I need to know exactly how he died and who killed him. Otherwise, I won't be able to rest easy."
"Based on my past investigation, his death is highly likely connected to that Black Organization, so this demand is actually the same as the first."
"Fourth, my two sons are already grown and have their own lives, but my daughter has just started high school, and because of my identity, she is very likely to be put in danger. I need you to protect her."
As soon as Mary finished speaking, Masumi said unhappily, "Mom, what are you saying? I can protect myself just fine."
Mary glared at her and said in a low voice, "Masumi, shut up. You haven't experienced the life of a real agent. With your amateur skills, if MI6 really sets its sights on you, you won't survive at all."
Although Masumi was a little unhappy with her Mother's low opinion of her, she did not argue back. She just turned her face away and muttered something under her breath.
Mary sighed softly.
As a qualified agent, after shrinking, Mary had tried to investigate the Black Organization through her intelligence network, and at the same time, she had been looking for other victims.
Because of Haibara's special identity, if Toru had not mentioned her, Mary would have had no way of knowing Haibara existed.
During her investigation, Mary had still found traces of Kudo Shinichi, or rather, Conan.
Based on some analysis of Conan's behavior, she had concluded that this child was Kudo Shinichi.
Because of this, she had even considered having her daughter try to approach him.
This was also because Mary had been desperate enough to grasp at anything she could. Now that she had lost her abilities and was constantly in danger, she urgently needed someone to help her.
At first, she had placed this hope on Kudo Shinichi, mainly because she had no other choice. She could not casually tell other people about shrinking, and only when facing other victims did she not need to worry as much.
Even though Mary knew clearly that this kind of hope was useless.
Kudo Shinichi was just a high school detective. Expecting him to deal with the Black Organization was simply a joke.
Mary had even prepared to leave Japan if things went badly.
But Toru had suddenly appeared in Japan, knew about the shrinking drug, had even spoken its name, and the person who created it was right by his side.
This gave Mary endless hope.
Compared to a high school detective, Toru, a CIA officer with outstanding achievements, looked far more reliable no matter how you looked at it.
However, the problem was that she could easily fool Kudo Shinichi into doing things for her, but when facing Toru, her powers of persuasion were useless, and she had to genuinely offer something in return.
But this also matched Mary's philosophy in life.
If you wanted help from a strong person, then you had to pay something. Never expect pity from the strong.
Toru rubbed his chin and said, "To sum it up, Sister, your demands are actually just two. First, eliminate the Organization, and second, protect your daughter?"
"That's right." Mary nodded.
Toru pondered.
This goal was not difficult. As for the first, eliminating the Organization, he would do it even if Mary did not ask.
Protecting Masumi was not difficult either. Masumi was not some helpless child. She could handle most things herself, and would only run into trouble when facing something beyond her ability.
Moreover, Masumi was young and capable. If properly trained, she could even become his right-hand woman.
"All right, Sister, I understand all your demands now. Then tell me, what can you give me?"
Mary said without hesitation, "The connections and resources I have accumulated around the world over the past thirty years."
"Whether you want to buy weapons from arms dealers or find intelligence brokers in underground intelligence networks around the world, I know most of them."
"Even in America, I can find you channels to avoid CIA and FBI surveillance and get a large quantity of weapons."
"In addition, in the name of MI6, I trained a group of people, gave them MI6 identities, and placed them in many places, including inside the CIA."
"Their positions may not be high, but they are all capable and can be used by you."
"Officially, these people belong to MI6, but because they only have a single-line connection with me, they are essentially my private agents."
Toru clicked his tongue when he heard this.
No wonder MI6 had been so anxious after Mary disappeared, to the point of wanting to kill her.
This woman was truly clever. She had used her position to build a private intelligence force outside MI6's control.
No leader would be willing to tolerate that.
It was just that the former Mary had been too powerful, and MI6 had still needed her abilities, so they could only pretend not to see it.
And after Mary's betrayal, MI6 immediately found an excuse to move against her.
This was a truly astonishing political legacy.
It was the enormous power Mary, the queen of agents, had accumulated over a career spanning more than thirty years.
The reason she had been able to avoid the surveillance of intelligence agencies all over the world, hide in Japan, and still know many hidden secrets of the outside world without leaving home, was precisely because she relied on this network of contacts and intelligence channels that belonged to her.
Toru said, "What you're asking for and what you're offering aren't equal. You don't need to hand over so much. This is capital you earned with your life."
Mary said calmly, "If a person is dead, what use are these things?"
"You don't need to worry that I'm plotting anything. I have faith in you, so this is my investment. I believe this investment will bring me even greater returns."
(To be continued.)