1. Wanna know what Freeze is really up to? Find out in this section.
2. Wanna see Freeze get taken down? See that next section.
Squadroom: Major Crimes Unit
Gotham Central
4:53 P.M.
“Enara?”
She was sitting behind her desk, leaning back in her chair. Her hands were folded in her lap, and her eyes were closed, but she was awake, and she heard him. “Don’t bother asking how I am, Anomen. You already know the answer.”
He frowned slightly, though she didn’t see it through her closed eyelids. “All right-”
She opened her eyes and leaned forward in her chair. “Wait. Sorry,” she said, just as he’d begun to turn away. “I… I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
He nodded and gave her a half-smile which he hoped came across as reassuring. “No apologies necessary. I understand.”
Allen and Montoya walked into the room just then, and found that the rest of the unit had already arrived, and were sitting around waiting for the chance to compare notes. “All right… let’s hear it… what do you got?” She nodded towards Detectives Hartley and Azaveda. “Trey?”
The tall and skinny one with the blonde hair and fashionable GQ eyeglasses was Detective Trey Hartley. He pulled a notepad from his shirt pocket and began skimming through what little was written on it. “Didn’t get much from the known associates, I’m afraid. They, uh… don’t speak highly of Fries as an employer.”
His partner, Joshua Azaveda, put in a quip of his own. “Surprising, we know.”
Next up were Anchev and Crowe. The Sergeant took the lead in giving their report. “No reported thefts from the legit diamond businesses, but Nate and Anomen did come up with something interesting.”
Detective Nathaniel Patton nodded his head. “Yeah. Someone hit the Odessa Boys for twenty mil… in ice.”
“That’s word on the street, though, so take it for what it’s worth,” said Anomen.
Burke and Procjnow took over the debriefing after that, the Irish detective taking charge of reporting their findings. “Well, whatever Freeze uses, it’s definitely something custom. We checked a whole bunch of medical suppliers – the kind that sell meat lockers to the National Guard barracks or cooling units for blood banks. They don’t have anything even remotely close to the type of equipment Freeze packs.” Tommy Burke ended his short speech with a confused shrug.
“Twenty mil in diamonds. How many does this guy need to make his gizmos go?” Montoya asked, half-rhetorically.
“Well, interesting that you would ask that, Renee…” Procjnow put in, folding her arms across her chest, “as my partner here got a crash course in the art and science of the deep freeze.”
Burke nodded and ran a hand over his short, dark hair. “Way it works, doesn’t actually take so much energy to freeze something. Keeping it froze, that’s the trick.”
Renee gave an acknowledging nod to that. “All right. So he’s definitely out to freeze something big… an entire building, maybe? Wayne Tower? City Hall? Half the lower East Side?” She shook her head. “We still don’t know where, and we still don’t know when,” she grumbled in growing frustration. “For what it’s worth,” she continued, adding to the shared pool of information, “Cris and I checked out that place by the inn… it’s been abandoned for some time, but it used to sell furnaces, oil heaters, air conditioners, that kinda thing. Wasn’t anything left inside by the time we got there, though…”
Allen had been taking notes down on the chalkboard during the multiple debriefings, and had tried to organize all the available information as best he could. He tapped the chalk against the board to get everyone’s attention. “Ok, everyone… let’s go over it again…”
Enara hadn’t said a word since the debriefings had begun, but she had rolled out her desk chair to where the other detectives were struggling to put two and two together. She was leaned forward in her seat, with her elbows planted on her knees, and her fingers folded over her mouth. Freeze’s voice kept echoing in her head.
“Lesson One!”
“You know… Gotham police… incredibly uneducated lot…”
“… ready for… advanced curriculum…”
She blinked, trying to clear her mind of Freeze’s taunting words, trying to concentrate instead on where he was, what he could be doing, and most importantly, what he hoped to achieve. Her gaze drifted back to her desk, covered in file folders, paper clips, Post-It notes, a Powerpuff Girls desk calendar, pencils, used staples, granola bar wrappers-
Something caught her eye; she stood up, strode briskly to the desk and picked up the object, holding it between suddenly trembling fingers.
“Damn it! That son of a –“
A couple of dozen heads turned in her direction. From the front of the room, Captain Sawyer gave her a wary eye. “Detective Kell?”
“It’s been right in front of us all damn day… the sick bastard practically gave us a hand-written invitation… except we already got the printed version a week ago.” There was a professionally embossed invitation card in her hand, and she held it up for everyone to see. She read from it:
“The President, Faculty, and Graduating Class of Gotham State University Announce the Conferring of the Honorary Degree of Doctorate in the Field of Criminology to Mr. Gorion Greenmantle-”
Renee Montoya looked floored. She reached into her pocket and pulled forth a similarly engraved invitation. Several of the other MCU cops did the same, staring at the cards in mute disbelief. Montoya eventually broke the silence. “Oh, my God… the ceremony…”
Enara was out the squadroom door in a heartbeat. She burst into Akins’ office. “Commissioner, we have to turn on the signal, right now!”
Gotham City’s newest top-cop looked up from the never-ending backlog of work on his desk. He blinked at her in confusion. “What? I thought you-”
“There’re too many lives involved now, sir…” She shook her head grimly. “It’s too big for us.”
-----
The MCU squadroom had gone into full-on crisis mode. At least a dozen of Gotham’s Finest were bustling around inside, throwing on coats, checking weapons, and fumbling for car keys. At the front of the room, Captain Margaret Sawyer was, almost calmly, directing traffic. “C’mon! Let’s move, people!” she said, ushering two more of her charges out the door. “Remember! Undercover!” she called out to the departing personnel. “We don’t want to start a panic!”
Beside her, Lieutenant Probson was on the horn, issuing orders to some of the other MCU members already out in the field. “Use your earpieces… stay on the net,” he was telling them. “But nobody move until we’ve got Q.R.T. in place!” As soon as he’d hung up, Sawyer pointed a finger at him.
“Lieutenant, you supervise the floor until I get there. I’ll talk to Henelly and follow the backup units out.”
He nodded. “Got it.”
The squadroom was empty now, except for one person. She picked up the receiver of a nearby telephone and punched in a few numbers. The person on the other end picked up after the first ring. “Lieutenant Henelly? This is Captain Sawyer in the MCU… get a Quick Reaction Team mobilized and down to Gotham State University… that’s right. We think Freeze is going for the Commencement Ceremony.”
