 Section 9 operatives develop a theory that a hacker known as the Puppeteer is responsible for Siak agents ' forced suicides and Togusa discovers sixteen kidnapped children who were intended carriers of the virus . All the children are listed as the children of Noble Rot Senior Citizens and Section 9 begins to suspect a larger conspiracy when they are part of a larger body of 20 @,@ 000 children . Soon afterwards , the Puppeteer causes the disappearance of the sixteen children and Batou reveals to Togusa that he believes Kusanagi to be the Puppeteer . Section 9 next <unk> a Siak sniper that is targeting the supposed mastermind of Ka Rum 's assassination . After his capture it is revealed the informant and the target are one in the same . The sniper says that the Puppeteer is a mechanism in the Solid State and cannot be killed . 
