"Hah? Is today the episode where intellectuals revolt against capitalists?" Jay clapped his hands. "GCPD! Everyone, calm down.
You're standing on the most expensive land in Gotham, earning salaries dozens of times higher than ordinary people. Don't act like a bunch of high junkies making a scene."
He pointed at the researcher holding a tube connected to a metal backpack. "Sir, you'd better put that thing down. Hitting people with a vacuum cleaner isn't a good idea."
"This is no vacuum cleaner. This is my newly completed Cryogenic Emitter. The stream of liquid nitrogen it sprays can instantly turn anything into an ice sculpture. I'm using it to protect my research!"
The researcher shouted in dissatisfaction.
Anna's face changed instantly; she drew her gun and aimed it at him. "Drop the weapon! Immediately! Hands on your head!"
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Everybody calm down."
Jay pressed his hand down, signaling Anna to lower her gun, then shook his head at the researcher. "You just said that thing is dangerous. I advise you to put it down before this gets out of hand."
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, nodded, and placed the object on the ground.
"Alright, talk. Who are you, and why are you arguing?" Jay pointed to the surrounding crowd. "It's turning into the Super Bowl out here."
"Officer, we are Risk Management Executives from Drihter Technology Ventures.
Dr. Victor Fries here has consumed a massive amount of company funds over the past two years with zero results.
The company has decided to terminate funding and reclaim the equipment. Here are the contracts and legal documents." He waved a thick stack of papers.
"When we notified Dr. Fries in advance as per regulations, not only did he refuse to cooperate, but he also verbally abused and even threatened us.
Officer, I hope you can assist us in reclaiming the company's legal assets. The company would be extremely grateful for the police's assistance."
Jay scratched his head at this long string of official speak. He couldn't understand the documents anyway, so he turned to the other party.
At this moment, Victor Fries stared at him coldly, expressing his refusal with exceptional firmness.
"You can't do this. If you cut the power supply and shut down the equipment, Nora will die."
"Then send her to a hospital! Saint's Hospital! Arkham Asylum! Anywhere!" The executive slapped the documents against his palm with a loud thwack. "Instead of keeping her frozen in this… company freezer! Look at this place!"
He looked around the environment with disdain. "Do you think you can achieve any epoch-making results here?"
"Hospitals can't save her! Only I can!" Victor Fries' voice suddenly rose in pitch. "Cryogenic dormancy is the only hope! She doesn't have much time left. I'm so close, just a little more stability…"
"Your 'so close' has eaten our budget for two years! No papers, no results, just a pile of crazy theories and astronomical bills! She hasn't come back to life at all!
I'm saying this for the last time, Fries! Your research is a bottomless pit! The company won't waste another cent on your sci-fi fantasies!" The two executives, faces flushed, shouted in turns.
"Tomorrow! Tomorrow morning we will send people to forcibly shut down all equipment and reclaim company assets. You can either end this farce with dignity yourself, or we will help you find dignity!"
"Farce?" Fries' voice suddenly became extremely dangerous. He bent down and grabbed the emitter. "You think Nora's life is a farce?"
"Everyone shut the f**k up!"
The thunderous shout made both sides momentarily dazed. Jay cleared his throat and stared at them angrily.
"Treating me like air, are you? First question!" He pointed at the haggard Fries. "Who is Nora? And why does she need to sleep in a freezer?"
"Nora is my wife, Officer." Fries was trembling from his fingers to his lips. "She has a form of Progressive Cellular Necrosis. Modern medicine has sentenced her to death, but I can save her! Cryogenic dormancy pauses her physiological processes until I find a cure!
But the prerequisite is," he pointed violently at the two executives, "the power supply maintaining the life support system must absolutely not be interrupted! Once the equipment is shut down and the temperature spirals out of control, she… she will…"
"She will take this backpack off!"
While Fries was shouting emotionally, Jay lunged forward, pinning Fries' hand with one hand and ripping the backpack off his back with the other.
"Great job, Officer," the two executives shouted excitedly. "I thought you were going to side with this lunatic."
"I never said I was on your side." Jay snorted. "His wife is currently alive, and she will die if removed from the cryogenic equipment, correct?"
"This…" The two executives looked at each other. One stepped forward and whispered, "Officer, this is all his wishful thinking! There is no peer review, no clinical data.
Just a madman playing with high voltage and liquid nitrogen in a lab, freezing his wife like an experiment! This is murder—his own murder of his wife!"
"What did you say!"
Fries twisted violently, forcing Jay to apply a bit more pressure to his arm to control him.
"Since you have conflicting opinions, we need a professional medical institution to conduct an assessment. However, before a qualified medical team declares his wife clinically dead…"Jay pointed a finger at the executive.
"According to Gotham City law and State Penal Code, knowingly forcibly terminating the energy supply maintaining the life of an incapacitated patient, resulting in their death, may subject the involved parties to charges of second-degree murder."
"I don't care about that, you can't scare me! What do you cops know about science!"
"Yeah, maybe you don't care about charges. But what about the Board's reputation and the company stock price?" Jay spread his hands toward the crowd.
"Announcing in full public view that you intend to pull the plug on a disabled patient's ventilator—how do you think your boss will treat you?"
"Fine…"
The two executives exchanged a glance, walked aside to whisper for a while, and then returned.
"We will report this to the company and let the legal department handle it. In that case, Dr. Fries, we will see you in court."
They straightened their suit jackets and cashmere shirts, shook hands with Jay, Anna, and even Victor Fries, then turned and got into a pitch-black sedan by the roadside, speeding away.
Jay looked at the emitter on the ground, its indicator lights still blinking, and released his hold on Fries.
"Thank you, Officer… you are very strong." Fries rubbed his arm, his eyes filled with wariness, gratitude, and a lingering trace of madness. "You bought Nora a few days."
"As a dangerous item, we have to temporarily confiscate this." Jay nudged the emitter toward Anna with his foot. "Now, take me inside to see your wife's condition, the hospital's diagnosis, and this 'life support system' you speak of.
I need to know exactly what is going on. If you've frozen a normal person like a Thanksgiving turkey, you're going to have hell to pay!"
——————
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