Jay followed Victor Fries as they walked, trying to recall stories he'd read in the past. He only remembered someone running around the streets shooting a freeze gun, but he couldn't recall the name at all.
This guy… was he Mr. Freeze? Why doesn't he look anything like the Terminator?
They passed through a heavy quarantine door into the laboratory. The temperature in the air immediately dropped by seven or eight degrees.
"Holy crap… is your equipment leaking?"
"No, it's to reduce the load on the cryogenic chamber." Fries' voice echoed in the empty lab, filled with an almost reverent tenderness. "Nora is inside…"
Jay looked around. The lab was filled with precise instruments flashing indicator lights and coiled thick cables. Together, they emitted a low hum, providing life energy to the massive cylindrical chamber made of metal and reinforced glass in the center.
Through the thick glass, he saw Nora Fries.
"My go…"
Jay let out a long breath.
Due to his profession, he often saw frozen corpses in the morgue freezers.
Cyanotic skin, stiff limbs, eyelashes, hair, and eyes covered in white frost.
If one suddenly sat up during a forensic autopsy—oh boy, that would be a horror movie for sure.
But Nora Fries was different. She lay quietly inside, like a Sleeping Beauty cursed by magic in a fairy tale. Her face was serene, even beautiful, and her golden hair seemed ready to rise and fall gently with her breath at any moment.
On a monitor nearby, a faint but steady green line was slowly pulsating, displaying a body temperature near absolute zero and extremely slow metabolic data.
"It's practically lifelike… wait, she's… still alive?" Jay asked in disbelief. "I'm uneducated, don't lie to me!"
"Of course!" Fries' emotions suddenly spiked. He almost threw himself onto the cryogenic chamber, gazing obsessively at his wife inside.
"Look! Her vital signs are stable, cellular necrosis has completely stopped! My theory was correct! Cryogenic dormancy can save her life!"
"FUCK, I really envy you smart brains. I can't even fix a microwave, and you guys are already freezing living people." Jay leaned on the chamber lid for a while, speaking admiringly. "I have to say, this is truly a miracle, Doctor. But I have a question…"
He looked at Fries, then confirmed by glancing at Nora again. "You said she has a terminal illness, right? Will freezing her cure the disease?"
"I will find a way! As long as Nora is alive, I will find a way!" Fries turned his head, glaring viciously at Jay. "Don't think you can take her away with these clichés!"
"That wasn't my intention." Jay sighed. "But how long will you research? Do you have any leads? What about your funding?
Research, production… and maintaining this…" He pointed to the humming machines around them. "…'Life Suspension System.' How much money does it need? The previous investors have pulled out. Where will your next funding come from?"
"The method… I'm still researching… combining cryobiology and gene therapy…"
The fanaticism slowly faded from Fries' face as a series of cold, realistic questions pierced him like ice picks.
"Money… I'll figure something out…" He murmured incoherently, his eyes darting away. "I can borrow… I can sell everything…"
"Come on, Doctor. Although I don't understand technology, I think this stuff must cost a fortune. After all, a good refrigerator costs two or three thousand bucks."
Jay curled his lip and shook his head. "Forget loan sharks; even if you rob a bank, you might not get enough. Besides, your Nora wouldn't want to see you become a criminal because of her."
"You're right… but… but…" Fries looked despondently at the Sleeping Beauty in the ice coffin, then suddenly became emotional again. "No matter what, I will never let anyone take her away."
"I know, I know…" Jay patted Fries on the shoulder with a hint of disdain. "Don't always just yell when you're helpless. Where did your smarts go? I actually thought of a way. Do you want to hear it?"
"Please… please tell me, Officer." Fries grabbed Jay's hand. "Tell me, what if it works?"
"Look, you successfully froze Nora and extended her life because you love her and don't want her to die, right?" He saw Fries nod blankly. "Almost everyone in this world doesn't want to die, especially those rich people. And your technology is unique.
Do you think those nobles, tycoons, and plutocrats, when suffering from terminal illnesses or nearing death, would be willing to spend hundreds of millions or billions to freeze themselves? Just for a sliver of hope to be revived in the future when technology advances?"
"Doctor, think about it. How many tycoons in Gotham have terminal illnesses but too much money to spend? In the whole US? The whole world?" He spread his hands and laughed."This makes money much faster than robbing banks."
Fries' eyes widened abruptly. Jay's words were like a key, opening a door he had never considered.
He had always seen himself as a desperate scientist, never thinking of… commercializing his research results.
"This… this is too… too…" He instinctively wanted to refuse, feeling it tarnished his pure love for Nora.
"Too what? Just build a few more units. One client's 'preservation fee' would be enough to maintain Nora for ten years or more. Those rich people would even line up to thank you." Jay shivered, shoving his hands deep into his uniform sleeves.
"This is the only way to save her. Either you guard this pile of machines that will stop running soon and turn into a real ice sculpture with Nora, or you have to find a way to exchange for the capital to survive… It's too cold in here, can we talk outside?"
Only the cold hum of machines remained in the lab.
Victor Fries looked at his lover in the cryogenic chamber, then at the police officer in front of him, and slowly shook his head.
"Thank you, Officer, but that's impossible. No, I'm not stubbornly trying to preserve the purity of science or anything, but…" He gave a bitter laugh. "You aren't a scientific professional; you don't understand the darkness involved.
Excellent scientific and technological achievements never belong to the people who invent them. If this technology truly has such high profit potential, maybe tomorrow it won't belong to me anymore. Even Nora might be taken away as a technical prototype."
He sighed deeply. "But thank you anyway, Officer. Let me walk you out."
The two pushed open the isolation door and walked out the main gate. Anna, who was guarding outside, came up to them.
"Sir!"
"Don't worry, everything is normal." Jay experienced the temperature outside, rubbed his hands, and exhaled. "I never thought I'd feel the warmth of the winter sun in this city."
He sent Anna to write the on-site duty report and pulled Fries aside.
"Actually, the problem you mentioned isn't hard to solve. Just give it to the biggest capital holder in exchange for support and protection before they take your technology away."
"The biggest…?" Fries looked at him confusedly. "You mean… but waiting for their layers of approval…"
"Tsk tsk…"
Jay pinched a business card out of his pocket with two fingers and waved it in front of Fries. Then it was stuffed into Fries' shirt pocket and patted gently.
"Bruce Wayne's business card. Call him directly. Just say Jay Li from the East Precinct told you to find him directly. Remember, you owe me fifty bucks."
He took the report form Anna handed over, had Fries sign it, shouldered the confiscated cryogenic emitter, and walked toward the parking lot.
After a few steps, Jay suddenly remembered something and shouted back at Fries:
"Remember to be polite! If he doesn't help, then I'm out of ideas too!"
…
The East Precinct
The phone was ringing ding-a-ling-a-ling. The contact name displayed a few words: Rich Sucker.
Jay adjusted his mental state and answered the phone with a beaming smile.
"Hi, Mr. Wayne."
"Jay, did you give my card to someone else?"
"Oh, yes, Mr. Wayne. A poor and deeply affectionate scientist. I was moved by his love…" Jay "recited" affectionately. "I even think the Violet Lantern Corps owes him a ring."
"Jay, you can call me Bruce. Also, can you go back to speaking normally?" Bruce Wayne interrupted his melodrama. "You're giving me goosebumps."
"Fine, Master Bruce. I thought my emotions were quite full." Jay stopped the act disinterestedly. "Did that Fries call you?"
"Yes, he was a bit incoherent, talking about his predicament and the business idea you mentioned to him. So I wanted to ask you what's going on?"
"How should I put it? The guy's skills are undeniable, but I think he has some mental issues. You should know the consequences of spraying liquid nitrogen on people. I almost peed my pants back there."
Jay chatted while nodding at Otis, who was sneaking along the edge of the lobby.
"But luckily his demands are simple. As long as the freezer doesn't lose power, and you find a small medical team to help him research his wife's terminal illness, he'll work his ass off for you like an ox.
Besides… terminal cryogenic life extension should have a big market, right?"
"You're thinking too simply. There might be a market, but there will be a pile of legal and ethical issues." Bruce Wayne seemed to laugh with a hint of helplessness. "But it doesn't matter. Keeping his freezer powered is something I can do."
"What are legal and ethical issues? Just announce you've successfully developed this technology, and those people will amend the laws themselves and come begging to you, calling it the 'ultimate humanitarian care.'"
He took the coffee from Anna, took a sip, and waved for her to clock out. "Master Bruce, don't use ideals to solve problems that can be solved with profit."
"Hah? Are you lecturing me now?" Bruce Wayne seemed amusedly angry. "Alright, one more thing. Originally, I thought if this succeeded, you, as the promoter, should share in the profits."
"!!!"
What? Share in the profits?!
Even one-thousandth would be millions a year!
Jay immediately bounced up. "Mr. Bruce, you are too kind. This is all what I should do as a Gotham police officer."
"Is that so? Since you say that, forget it. At most, it will be a sponsorship and charity project fund for the East Precinct in the future. Also…"
Bruce Wayne said with a cold sneer. "With Wayne Enterprises' technology, you know I can see the contact name you added for me on your phone, right?"
"Ah! Ah? Hello? No, listen to my excuse…"
But only the beep-beep-beep of a busy signal came from the phone.
And so, Anna, ready to clock out, watched in horror as her superior slapped his own face violently.
"Why are your hands so itchy!"
"Why are your hands so itchy!"
"Why are your hands so itchy!"
"My money!"
——————
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