Chapter 138: Hydra—Dr. Zola (Bonus chapter for Alliance Leader Qinghe Yue_)

With Sakata stripped of his will to resist, the serial murder case in Osaka was officially declared closed. The fourth victim Sakata had intended to kill—the aunt—finally buckled under the psychological pressure and confessed everything.

Around eight o'clock that evening, Heiji Hattori found an excuse to take Conan with him to a location scribbled on the note Frank had given them.

On the way out, Conan rubbed his chin, feeling that Ran Mouri had been acting rather strangely. Since noon, she had been staring at him, her expression tinged with a melancholy that made her seem like an abandoned, untrusted little animal.

"Hey, Kudo, what are you thinking about?" Hattori called out, then looked up at the unassuming little shop in front of them.

He had an inexplicable premonition that once he stepped inside, his worldview would be severely challenged. Perhaps that was the intuition of a master detective.

Conan, however, was not overthinking it. He had grown thoroughly tired of this small body; nothing would be better than turning back into a high school detective as soon as possible.

Pushing the door open, they found the shop lights fully illuminated, with no attempt to create a mysterious atmosphere. Conan’s eyes scanned the cleared-out space; he saw only two men. The other woman and the young girl were nowhere to be seen.

Vernon tapped the tabletop, signaling for them to sit, and the two chairs nearest to them slid out automatically.

"Ai Haibara, stop thinking about it and come down now," Vernon called toward the second floor.

A moment later, Ai Haibara trotted down the stairs, three steps at a time, clutching a thick stack of draft paper, and took a seat at the table.

"Everyone is here. Let’s introduce ourselves. Ouroboros, Vernon."

"Ouroboros, Frank."

Ai Haibara hesitated for a moment. "Former Black Organization member. Original name: Shiho Miyano. Codename: Sherry. Current name: Ai Haibara."

Conan and Heiji Hattori exchanged glances. So, these people weren't even from the same organization?

"Original name: Shinichi Kudo. Current name: Conan Edogawa. I'm a detective."

"Heiji Hattori, the greatest detective in Kansai."

Vernon nodded. At the very least, no one present was foolish enough to hide their true identity at this stage.

"Ai Haibara, you start. You have more information; we can fill in the gaps based on what you share."

Ai Haibara spread her drafts out, organized her thoughts, and spoke slowly. "The organization’s codenames are primarily based on alcoholic beverages. My role was drug development. The codename for the drug is APTX-4869."

Conan raised his hand to interject, "Is that the drug I was forced to take?"

Ai Haibara answered his question bluntly. "Correct. We took the same drug. Within the organization, it is widely used as a poison because those who ingest it leave no trace of the cause of death; autopsies typically attribute it to heart failure."

Frank tapped the table. "As far as I know, there is more than one such drug. There is no need to invest so much effort into a single poison, let alone mandate its widespread use."

"That's true," Ai Haibara said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "When the organization first approached me with the requirements, they didn't describe it as a poison. Furthermore, through my research and my own personal experience, I discovered that some users undergo physical regression."

"Besides, to be precise, the drug was already in development before I took it over."

At this point, Ai Haibara glanced at her notes and recalled further details. "There was a similar drug in the organization codenamed 'Silver Bullet.' Its creators were my parents, Atsushi and Elena Miyano."

"Atsushi Miyano..." Conan mused for a few seconds. "I’ve heard that name. Dr. Agasa told me he was a scientist of extremely high professional caliber. He also told me that the 'mad scientist' label outsiders used was a complete smear..."

Conan fell silent. Dr. Agasa knew too little; to describe Atsushi Miyano, who had been a project lead within the Black Organization, as "mad" was likely an understatement.

"My parents died in a fire," Ai Haibara said, her voice tinged with sorrow. "I was only a few years old then. Now that I think about it, that fire was bizarre. After the blaze, almost all the data and backup files regarding the 'Silver Bullet' vanished. Strictly speaking, APTX-4869 is just a new drug of the same lineage."

Frank rubbed his chin. This modus operandi was all too familiar. Perhaps those two scientists had discovered something wrong, attempted to resist, and were subsequently "disposed of."

Ai Haibara took a deep breath. "Actually, while I was recalling this, I remembered my parents mentioning someone during a conversation when I was very small. The concept of the 'Silver Bullet' was proposed by that person."

"That person was called Dr. Zola. According to my parents' assessment at the time, he was an absolute genius."

Vernon tapped his fingers on the table twice. It seemed that with magical assistance, memories were indeed quite clear. Beside him, Frank’s expression had shifted.

"Continue about this Dr. Zola," Frank said.

"I don't actually know much. I only remember my father saying that Dr. Zola had also proposed a concept where future humans could upload their consciousness into computers..."

At these words, Frank leaned back against his chair, his face grave.

"Frank, what is it?" Vernon asked.

"Have you read the Ouroboros and international reports regarding the eradication of HYDRA?" Frank countered.

"No, I was too busy at the time to pay attention to that," Vernon replied.

Frank took a deep breath.

"Dr. Zola was hailed as HYDRA's top scientist. During the cleanup, the task force discovered he had already uploaded his consciousness into a computer."

"However, those computers were physically disconnected from the network, so Zola was never able to pull off anything major."

"When the secret base was opened, he immediately seized control of a vast network and launched a counterattack against the task force. In the end, it took Master Heimerdinger to intervene and personally defeat the Zola lurking within the network."

Vernon found it hard to believe. "You mean to tell me these two Zolas are the same person? How?!"

The Clock Tower had spent so much effort to open a channel between multiverses; how could HYDRA have beaten them to it? And if HYDRA truly had that capability, they shouldn't have been so easily neutralized without making a splash.

"I don't know. I hope they aren't the same person, or we're in real trouble," Frank said heavily.

"Are there others like him? And what was Zola's codename?" Vernon continued.

Ai Haibara shook her head. "I don't know. I only remember that my father and mother never seemed to have met the man; they only knew the name from certain documents."

Conan and Heiji Hattori looked at each other in confusion. They could tell that HYDRA was a terrifying criminal organization, but they had no way of grasping just how terrifying.

Ai Haibara, however, felt a sense of dread. After all, anything that could make people like Frank act as if they were facing a mortal enemy was certainly no ordinary threat.