Chapter 165 The Long Easter (IV)

In the police station in Gotham, Gordon shook his windbreaker, opened the door, and walked quickly into his office. He found Schiller and Batman waiting for him. Gordon said with a headache: "From the feedback from my colleagues, the situation is not optimistic."

He walked to his desk and sat down, saying: "To be honest, your trick is indeed very effective, but the problem is that the loss is too great. The entire underground water system of Gotham has been completely destroyed, and the foundation of the building has also been damaged a lot."

"Of course, we have expected this." Schiller nodded. At this time, Victor came in with a document. Gordon stood up and poured a cup of hot coffee for everyone.

The others walked to the table and sat down, drinking hot coffee and chatting. Only Batman stood alone in the corner of the room.

"The loss is indeed huge, but it is not beyond our expectations." Victor pointed to a few lines on the report and said: "The condensation process from water to ice will produce volume expansion. We thought of this, so the degree of damage to the sewer system is within our estimation."

"Approximately how much?" Gordon took a sip of coffee and asked.

"All of it."

Gordon spat out a mouthful of water and said, "I know the loss is heavy, but now you tell me, Gotham's underground water system is completely broken?"

Batman's voice came from the side: "In fact, it's more serious than that. Not only the underground buildings, but also many of the foundations of Gotham's surface buildings are not resistant to low temperatures. Many buildings have cracked and all need to be rebuilt."

"This loss is too heavy. Didn't you consider this before you made this plan?" Gordon asked in confusion: "Our logistics system has finally taken shape, and now we have to start from scratch."

"We have expected this, but there is a saying that goes, there is no construction without destruction."

Schiller sighed and said, "Detective Gordon, you should also know that although Gotham has improved a little because of the construction of the logistics system, it is far from enough."

"There may be some advantages here, but there is no absolute advantage. We don't have any fist industry, and there is nothing that cannot be replaced by other cities."

"What we have to do now is , artificially adding an advantage to Gotham that no other city in the world can imitate. "

"I understand what you mean, but I don't understand, what does this have to do with the losses caused by freezing Gotham?"

Schiller gave Victor a look, motioning him to explain, and Victor said to Gordon: "I think you should also know that the cryogenic generator that can freeze the entire Gotham in an instant cannot be an ordinary ice maker."

"The reason why the cryogenic generator can achieve this effect is because its "ice" is different."

"Ice? What's different about ice?"

"Have you heard of "super ice"? "

Gordon shook his head, Victor said: "You don't need to know its principle. Anyway, I use a newly developed super ice in the low-temperature generator."

"After contacting water, its crystallization speed exceeds one thousand kilometers per hour, and it can still exist at a high temperature of over 1000 degrees. If it is further improved, I think I may be able to freeze all the oceans on the earth in one day."

Hearing this, Gordon took a breath of cold air. He looked at Victor again. This professor with a scholarly temperament always looks gentle, but what he said is very imposing like the final villain.

"This is not the kind of small ice cubes we usually add to drinks. It is not inferior to metal in hardness and stability. You can actually understand it as a man-made diamond structure, but it is slightly less hard and has the low-temperature characteristics of ice."

"So..." Schiller concluded: "The reconstruction problem you are worried about does exist, but it is not an ordinary reconstruction problem, and it will also bring an unexpected benefit."

"This kind of ice is indeed very difficult to handle, but at the same time, once we use it, the entire Gotham underground will become a huge natural cold storage."

Then Schiller revealed to Gordon all the subsequent Gotham reconstruction plans.

The next reconstruction of Gotham City is not to melt all these ice cubes. In fact, this is also very difficult. The ice cubes made by Victor the Freezer are not ordinary edible ice. This dense ice is extremely hard and requires extremely high temperatures to melt. It is more like a solid material than ice cubes used for cooling.

This ice cube replaces the rock layer under Gotham, which is equivalent to the entire city now sitting on a huge block of dense ice.

Therefore, when rebuilding, there is no need to consider melting the ice, but to directly open a passage in the ice and transform the entire Gotham underground into a huge natural cold storage.

This kind of ice is difficult to handle and the construction progress will be slow, but fortunately it can be used as needed and constructed in steps.

For example, if you want to build a cold storage, you can choose a location, build a house on the ground, and then start digging down. After digging out a room, you can throw the products in to freeze first, and then slowly dig other rooms.

Although the process will be slow and consume a lot of manpower and material resources, once completed, you will have a natural cold storage, which not only has almost no maintenance costs, but also has sufficient space to fully meet the storage needs of bulk commodities.

More importantly, Victor's freezing technology has unparalleled preservation ability. In the comics, he has frozen Batman into an ice cube many times and then chatted with him.

Batman came out of the ice intact. He was able to beat Mr. Freeze. In addition to Batman's own protagonist halo, Victor's excellent preservation ability of freezing technology is also one of the important reasons.

The technology of the Gotham villain genius is so unreasonable, but if it is used for serious matters, it is simply a unique strong productivity.

When the cost of cold chain storage in a city is reduced to the lowest, it is impossible for it to not want to be a logistics operation center, and producers who want to reduce logistics costs will definitely flock to it.

Gordon showed a thoughtful expression, and then he said: "You mean, we don't repair the sewers, but use these ice layers as natural cold storage?"

"There must be sewers, but we can rebuild a sewer system, and these dense ice layers that can exist at room temperature will become the killer of Gotham's development."

"This huge underground cold storage will be able to store cold chain products on the entire East Coast, and Gotham will become a place that cannot be bypassed for cold chain transportation across the country."

Gordon looked at Batman, who was silent for a while, and then said: "According to my calculations, this is indeed possible. Although there are still many technical problems and reconstruction will take a lot of time, once successful, Gotham will become a world-class logistics distribution center."

"It is difficult for other cities to replicate this success. Even if they have Victor's freezing technology, it is difficult to have such a cooperative Owl Court."

"Their artificial rainfall technology is really good, with long duration and heavy rainfall. It is rare to be able to gather enough water to create a stable ice layer in a very short time." Schiller commented.

Gordon almost felt sorry for the Court of Owls. They were sold out and still helped others count money.

"Originally, I was a little interested in the artificial rainfall technology of the Court of Owls." Schiller continued, "After all, you have seen that their technology works well."

"But I thought about it. Even if we can get the technology, we will have to spend a lot of money to realize it. Moreover, the federal government will not agree to flood Gotham in order to build an underground natural cold storage."

"So it's better to let the Court of Owls work for us."

"Now they are doing a good job. They have launched a flood and created the world's largest underground cold storage. They have made outstanding contributions to the future development of Gotham City. I think they can be awarded an Outstanding Contribution Award or something."

"But also There is a problem. Gordon said hesitantly: "I don't want to pour cold water on you, but you just said that this kind of ice is very difficult to deal with. It is a big project and it is probably expensive. And the additional reconstruction of the sewer system also requires money..." Schiller put his hands on the table. He suddenly changed the subject and said to Gordon: "Detective Gordon, have you ever handled a kidnapping case?" "Kidnapping? I encountered it a few times when I was in Chicago, but after coming to Gotham, there are only homicides here, no kidnappings." "Even if it is a kidnapping case, the hostages are dead before the police arrive at the scene, so of course there is no kidnapping." "It doesn't matter, you just need to know The principle is enough. "

"Principle? What do you want to say?"

Schiller took a sip of hot coffee. After the warm current entered his stomach, he sighed with satisfaction and said, "No hurry, let's analyze the current situation first."

"Gotham is in danger of flooding due to continuous heavy rains for several days. We have taken a series of emergency measures. Although the losses are huge, we have saved the lives and property of countless citizens."

"Now, after our investigation, we have concluded that this flood is a man-made conspiracy. A group of terrorists used weather disaster weapons against Gotham, and now..."

Schiller dragged out a tail tone and continued, "The culprit is being frozen in In the huge ice block under Gotham, Detective Gordon, what do you think is the most important part of the kidnapping case? "

Gordon paused and said: "What is it? Persuading the kidnappers? Protecting the hostages?" Gu You

"That's for the police, but now, we are the kidnappers."

Schiller knocked on the table and said in a strong tone: "It's asking for ransom."

"Obviously, now that the hostages are in hand, we can start talking about money, right?"

Gordon opened his mouth wide, he glanced at Schiller, Batman and Victor, and said: "So this is your ultimate goal, using the flood caused by the Court of Owls itself, freezing them all underground, and then... asking for ransom? ? ? ? "

Schiller gestured to Victor, who held the stack of information and said, "The location of the cryogenic generator is carefully designed to ensure that all rooms and passages connected to the ground within the Gotham underground area will be filled with solid ice."

"That is to say, if the trapped people want to leave Gotham underground, there are only two ways."

"Either dig down into the rock layer, dig a tunnel where the cryogenic transmitter cannot reach, and then dig out of Gotham City."

"Or, dig upwards, break through the solid ice layer, and then leave the underground."

"But in fact, they should not have this ability, right?" Gordon heard the implication of Victor's words.

"I'm not arrogant." Victor put down the information and said, "But digging upwards is definitely not feasible. They can't destroy the ice layer I created, and digging downwards..." Schiller continued: "Given the size of Gotham City, it will take at least a year to dig it out." "In the final analysis, these people make a living by conspiracy. In terms of physical strength, they are probably not as good as the thugs who often fight on the streets." "The claws they raised are killers, not excavators. Even if there are ten times the number, it is impossible to dig it out by manpower." "So, we kidnapped the Court of Owls?" Gordon showed a strange expression and said, "I thought they were such a difficult organization to deal with. Now it's good, they are completely trapped." "So..." Gordon paused After a pause, he seemed to be a little uncomfortable with his role. He said, "We are now kidnappers. Should we ask them for ransom?"

Schiller shook his head and said, "This is just a metaphor, detective, you didn't get the point. We are not kidnappers. We are just defending ourselves."

"This group of terrorists called the Court of Owls, yes, they are terrorists."

"They used large-scale weather disaster weapons, threatening the safety of the entire city's citizens and causing such great losses. We should legally and reasonably claim compensation from them, right?"

Gordon glanced at Batman, who remained silent and did not show any surprise at this statement. Obviously, this was what they had planned long ago, and Batman was also one of the insiders.

"By the way, detective, how much damage did the police station suffer?"

"Uh... the police station didn't suffer much damage. This wasn't a gang fight. We just helped evacuate the citizens, and then adjusted the traffic routes of the engineering team..."

"Really? But these terrorists are so vicious, didn't they send assassins to attack you?"

Gordon looked at Schiller and asked tentatively: "Well... did they send? Oh, they did, sent... two teams of assassins?"

"No, no, no, at least one battalion."

Gordon covered his forehead and said, "This is too much!"

"They have been operating in Gotham for several Hundred years, if there is not even such a manpower, how can it be called the largest and oldest terrorist organization in Gotham? "

"Okay, but..."

Schiller raised his voice and said in a rhythmic tone: "The brave soldiers of the Gotham Police Department fought with them all night, and forged Gotham's immortal glory with blood! 3,000 police officers risked their lives. After a night of bloody battle, more than half of them died, and the remaining half were seriously injured. Their greatness is worth remembering..."

"But... the entire Gotham Police Department does not even have 300 people..." Gordon touched his chest, as if he felt a little guilty.

"It's okay, Chief Gordon. We are victims. We have as many as we say."

Schiller suddenly changed the subject and asked, "How are the luxury apartments on Gamo Street?"

"Of course they are good. They are first-class in the outer area of ​​the wealthy area in the south. I was..."

Gordon suddenly seemed to be choked. His face was a little red. He looked at Schiller and said, "I'm not that kind of person. You can't bribe me like this. I'm a policeman with conscience..."

"Conscience should be left to those who need it."

Just then, Mayor Roy rushed in with a walkie-talkie in his hand. His boots were full of mud and water. It was obvious that he had just passed through the street. He said, "Guys! Good news! The casualties are very light..."

Roy said a little incredulously, "The citizens of Gotham The emergency evacuation capability is too strong. We issued a danger notice three hours in advance. Within three hours, almost all citizens evacuated to the safe upper floors. This mobilization capability is not even comparable to that of the Metropolis, right? "

Roy said with a sigh: "In such a big disaster, less than 20 people died. Most of them were drunkards or high-spirited people. Although there were thousands of injured, most of them were not seriously injured and did not even need to be hospitalized. First aid kits were enough. "

"Don't you see how many gang fights happen in Gotham every day." Gordon whispered: "Those who run slowly would have died long ago."

Schiller knocked on the table and said with dissatisfaction: "Mayor Roy, you came at the wrong time. We are discussing the losses of Gotham City. "

"What's wrong? Isn't it a good thing that the loss is small?" Roy asked with his eyes wide open.

"Mayor Roy..." Schiller smiled at Roy and asked, "...Do you know about the kidnapping case?"

Gordon covered his face with his hands.

Ten minutes later, Roy picked up a tissue and blew his nose hard. The table in front of him was already piled with tissues for wiping his nose and tears. He said very sadly: "... This horrific disaster makes me sad! Hundreds of lives have been destroyed, and the great achievements of human civilization have been destroyed!"

"This group of inhuman terrorists! A massacre was carried out in Gotham City. More than 10,000 people died. All hospitals in Gotham are full. There are still countless people who cannot get treatment due to lack of medical care and medicine. God, save us..."

Roy blew his nose hard again, crying and saying: "This is the largest terrorist attack in the history of the Federation! The heroic souls of hundreds of thousands of dead people will nail the name of this terrorist organization to the pillar of shame forever, the Court of Owls!"

Gordon stared at Roy with wide eyes, seemingly not expecting his acting skills to be so outstanding.

"Do you think it's better for me to be sad gradually, or to burst out strongly at the beginning?" Roy grabbed another tissue, wiped his tears and said, "I think the latter should be more impactful."

"That's it. You will open the press conference tomorrow. The reporters have been contacted in advance. The largest newspapers and media on the East Coast will be present. You have about 30 minutes to express these emotions."

Then Schiller patted the table, attracted the attention of several people and said, "Okay, next, let's contact the victim... I mean the culprit."

After that, he looked at Batman and said, "They should have a unique signal transmitter to communicate with the ground monitoring. If you can intercept this part of the signal..."

Before Schiller finished speaking, Batman said, "In fact, I have intercepted it and have locked their location. I can send a communication to them."

Batman looked at Schiller and said, "Do you have anything to say to them?"

Schiller smiled, which made the remaining people a little chilly.

In the dark meeting room in the basement of Gotham, people wearing white bird-shaped masks were still gathered in front of the huge long table, but they had long lost their original calmness.

At this time, a radio placed on the cabinet next to it for communication suddenly emitted a few crackling sounds of electricity. Everyone turned their heads, and when their eyes fell on the radio, a slightly hoarse voice came from it:

"I want to play a game with you."