I take it you're the ice man from the FBI
Ice man?
That's a little harsh
Actually, I'm the science man from the FBI
I'm Special Agent Rachel Young
I'm assigned to Dr Hood
Well, I'm Detective Cordero, LAPD
This is Dr Nash from the coroner's office
- Hi - Dr Nash How are you doing?
This was our case
till the feds showed up,
told us to wait for you
Why is the FBI so interested?
Uh, you should, uh, put on a mask
No
- I don't think so - Funny, I wouldn't
have pegged you as the "live dangerously" type
There's nothing dangerous about it
An airborne pathogen couldn't
have frozen her like this
- Why not? - It's thermodynamically impossible
Uh, airborne molecules
they're too small
They don't have anything close
to the heat capacity
to cause this kind of damage to a human being
Well, then, what did?
I mean, there are no wounds,
no puncture marks on the body, no bruising,
lesions, injection marks
No indication of physical trauma whatsoever
Who was she, Detective?
Marlena Gower
Marketing student at Malibu State
She spent most of last night
at a house about 100 yards from here
Left near dawn
Was a big party
A few noise complaints from the neighbors,
but no reports of screams or signs of a struggle
39 degrees Fahrenheit
7 degrees above freezing
Her body shows no signs of sub-thermal exposure
And it appears like she's not warming up, either
Detective, can you tell me
how a seemingly healthy college student
in the prime of life freezes to death on the beach
on one of the hottest days of the year?
No
Doctor?
No
Neither can I
Which is why the FBI is interested
Anything unusual on Marlena's body,
maybe in her purse?
We found a near-empty bottle of champagne
pricey stuff
a bottle of prescription tranquilizers
and some odd text messages on her cell
Odd in what way? Well, they
were pretty cryptic, asking her
if she had reconsidered something
Have you traced them?
To a prepaid cell
We're trying to track it down right now
She wrote back some pretty nasty responses,
so whatever it was about, she didn't like it
And you checked her cell record?
There were 3 other
"Have you reconsidered?" text messages
First one came in 5 days ago
Could be connected to the death
I asked Dr Nash to run a metabolic panel,
also to check the stomach contents,
see if there was anything unusual
in that champagne she had
Please call us with the results
Will do
Thank you
Also, we should check out
the house she visited last night,
see if there's anything there to give us a clue as to how
she ended up like this
Or why
Yeah, she was here
Too bad she was a real hottie
Came with a bunch of coeds from Malibu State
Real party girls, if you know what I mean
And I'm sure they were all over 18, right?
All my parties are legal
Hey
What are you doing, man?
Just checking out your AC unit here
Yeah, well, it's up to code and state of the art
You use it very often?
Now and then doesn't get
over 90 in Malibu that often
It did yesterday
Yeah, well, I had it on for a few hours in the afternoon
Turned it off as soon as the sun went down
Okay, thank you very much
Someone slipped our victim a Freon Mickey?
They don't use Freon in air conditioners anymore
Damages the ozone layer
Any sign of tampering on the unit?
No
So we can rule out death by air conditioner
She was taking
prescription medication
Maybe we should go talk to her doctor
She was taking
benzodiazepine for anxiety
Understandable, of course
Why, was she having trouble at school or with a boyfriend?
She had bigger problems
- I assumed you knew - Knew what?
She was diagnosed last month with severe aplastic anemia
Unfortunately, we couldn't find it
in time to begin effective treatment
She was terminal?
I'm afraid so
Could the illness have contributed
to her freezing to death?
It's a very rare
blood disease with a lot of horrible symptoms,
but fatal hypothermia isn't one of them
It's amazing
You can actually see the heart beating
And now we know what color to paint the nursery
I've always loved the color blue
We'll name him after you
I just wish I could give him more than a name
Maybe you can
Honey, I made that appointment for us at the Foundation
I think you should at least consider it
We still have some time left before
It's, uh, been over 24 hours
and the extremities are finally starting to thaw
Her body is just a, uh, few degrees below ambient
Autolysis has begun
The body has started to digest itself
It's always such a
brutally efficient process to watch
Yeah
Life is a miracle, but, uh,
death, in its own terrible way,
is no less beautiful
She was only 21
Oh
Well, her death is tragic, no question,
but, uh
I did this autopsy on a guy last month
who had been hooked up to a heart-lung machine
for, uh, 12 years because his family
just couldn't accept the fact that he was brain-dead
The way our culture tries
to deny death, uh, hide from it
I just think that's tragic, too
You got a tissue sample?
Yeah, I got a liver section
right over here
Thank you
No frostbite
But that's impossible
I mean, she was frozen, wasn't she?
Well, that's
the interesting thing
She was frozen, but
but not with ice crystals
Were there any chemical compounds
in the blood work you couldn't identify?
Well, the tox panel was clean
There were a few lines in, uh,
the spectral analysis that I didn't recognize,
but of course, that in itself isn't unusual
Well, I'm gonna need at least 100cc's of her blood,
tissue samples from her major organs,
and a real lab
Rachel, can you find me one?
Oh, yeah, not bad
Not bad at all
Can I help you?
Yeah, I'd like to borrow your facility, please
I beg your pardon?
Uh, Dr Hood and I are here to discover
exactly what killed Marlena Gower,
a 21-year-old student from your school, and to ascertain
whether or not it poses a risk to national security
Now, I can't legally compel your cooperation
or the use of your lab, so I'm asking you
to compel yourself
to do the right thing
I have good days
and bad days
I'm set to start chemo treatments next week
I'm doing everything that the doctors tell me
I'm glad to hear you're following their advice
We at the Forever Forward Foundation want
to see you live a long and productive life
Look, I know that time isn't on my side,
but I don't intend to go out a moment before I have to
We just found out it's gonna
be a boy
I may not be around when he's born
but maybe, with your help,
when he's grown up,
I could be back and spend some time with him,
Talk to him
That would certainly be our hope as well
But
I have an ethical obligation
to be crystal-clear on this point with both of you
We can't make any guarantees
It could be decades
before a cure is found for your illness, Edward,
even longer before the technology
is available to successfully
revive you
Maybe you'll be able to meet our son
and our grandson
Now, I'm using
a fluorite substrate instead of glass
Why?
Glass blocks infrared
Very good
And we need infrared data
to get a complete organic profile
And fluorite is transparent to infrared
You care to assist?
Sure
Run this sample, please
- Mm-hmm - Thank you
Is that an ice pack?
Did you hurt yourself? You got a spare one
of those I could borrow for a second, please?
Mmm Sure Here you go
Thank you
This is an example of an endothermic reaction
Squeeze it;
Water mixes with the ammonium nitrite;
It gets colder than ice
Exactly
I have a lot of experience with ice packs
See, most reactions,
they release heat
An endothermic reactions does the opposite
It absorbs it
Thanks, Dr Hood
Bye now
See you around
So, you think Marlena Gower
was dosed with ammonium nitrite?
No, because it would've left behind ice crystals
But it's something similar
It's a pair of compounds
that absorb heat when they react
Just got to work out which compounds
So, who would have a reason to create something like this?
Well, sometimes people need to ship, um,
transplant organs from one state to another
Refrigeration's a way of keeping them viable, but if ice crystals
form inside the cells, it can cause a lot of damage
If you could find a way of preserving organs
without freezing them, you could save a lot of lives
Or take them
Where's Mr Science?
He's at the lab
You two, um, strictly business, right?
- Of course Why? - Oh, just checking
Tell you the truth,
I wouldn't mind brushing up on my biology with him
Janitor found him about a half hour ago
Name's John Robbins
Big-time entertainment lawyer
Coroner's on the way
Unnaturally low body temperature
No apparent signs of trauma
Same text message
Little less
cold and stiff than the other victim
But just as dead
We'll take excellent care of you,
Mr Grekowski,
when the time comes
My wife convinced me
If there's even a one-in-a-million chance
I could see my son someday, I'm gonna take it
I'll, uh,
I'll bring you the check tonight
I think you've made the right decision
for yourself, and for your family
Thank you
The trunk is still somewhat rigid,
but the rest of him is
nearly back to room temperature
And still no puncture wounds
It took Marlena Gower close to a day to thaw out
This man's been dead for less than 8 hours
If this is due to a chemical reaction,
the hormonal differences
between men and women could affect its rate
He's also older than the previous victim
He was getting the same text messages she was,
asking if he'd "reconsidered," but with no indication
- of what he was supposed to reconsider - The text message
on the second victim's phone gave us probable cause
to geo-locate the caller's location,
but so far nothing
Whoever made those calls knows their telecom tradecraft
What does that mean?
It means they compartmentalized the device
Never use it for anything but those calls
And probably remove the SIM card and battery
when they're done sending the text
These spectrographs from our victim's blood samples
represent half a dozen different compounds
We've got to identify
the one that caused her to freeze to death
So, we have to work backwards, right?
Figure out the set of all possible reactions
that could make them
Yeah, but there's literally hundreds
of possibilities
Just got the final autopsy report
for our latest victim John Robbins
He was terminal, too
Hemochromatosis
That's a fatally high level of iron in the blood
The answer is here
I just
I just can't see it
You'll figure it out, sir
You're brilliant
Thanks for the vote of confidence,
Janet, but I keep telling you
please stop calling me "sir"
It's Jacob
Okay, well, we know what the reaction makes,
but we don't know what makes the reaction
Maybe I'm thinking of this the wrong way
I'm assuming that
these 2 or 3 different compounds
were going together to make the reaction
That's how chemistry usually happens
Yeah
But what if
the fragments we've identified
are all
part of the same molecule?
But how would that work? What would it react with?
With itself
It's like the Ouroboros from the Egyptian methodology
the snake that swallows its own tail
Eventually, it consumes itself
But if this is a self-reacting molecule,
there would still have to be some kind of catalyst
to get the reaction started
Potassium?
It's a catalyst in lots of organic reactions
and there's plenty of it in human cells in mineral form
- There's only one way to be sure - We have to synthesize the molecule
Rachel, you hungry?
Not particularly
I need a hamburger
Okay
I'll see what I can find at the cafeteria
How do you want it?
Raw
One raw hamburger
So that's our killer, huh?
Well, if we're lucky,
and my organic chemistry isn't too rusty
Here's a perfectly raw hamburger
Now watch
This'll just take a a few moments
for the potassium in the meat
to trigger the process
Do you want me to go back to the cafeteria for some fries?
Where's your team spirit?
Have a some patience, please
It's 39 degrees
Same temperature as the first victim
Frozen solid
But what about John Robbins?
If the same compound killed him, why didn't he end up frozen?
His terminal hemochromatosis too much iron in the blood
Iron reverses the process
Janet, could you get the iron sulfate for me, please?
Watch this
You see, Robbins had just enough iron in his blood
to prevent the process from completing
But not enough to keep him alive
Unfortunately for him, no
And now we're back to normal temperature
Okay, you said the chemical would be developed
to preserve organs for transplant, right?
Absolutely To that market,
it's gonna be worth its weight in gold
So, it would definitely be worth patenting
Janet, there's no Internet on this computer
Is there a T3 connection anywhere in the building?
Our professor's computer
Or if you'd like
a little privacy, I have WiFi in my dorm room
No Your professor's computer will be fine
Application No 8293024
An endothermic chemical process
for the purpose of tissue preservation
It's the same as the molecule we just synthesized
The patent was filed by
Adastra Pharmaceuticals
Biomedical firm in El Segundo
Now we know where the murder weapon came from
Agent Young, Dr Hood, I hope this is important
You pulled me out of a stockholders meeting
I need to get back as soon as possible
Oh, I'm very sorry, Dr Ramesh
Were you telling your stockholders
about Trimethyl-cryazine?
Cryazine is still in development,
not nearly ready to bring to the public
What's your interest in it?
My interest is, I, uh, synthesized it in a lab
And we believe it's being used to murder people
I have no idea what you're talking about
Cryazine is manufactured to preserve organs
At this stage, the FDA has only approved
of limited clinical trials on kidneys and livers
Who's conducting your clinical trials?
I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say
You know, 2 people have already died
because of your research
I hardly believe
anyone associated
with this company is responsible
Anyone familiar with the chemical is a possible suspect,
including you, Doctor
If Cryazine
is successful, it could save thousands of lives
An investigation could compromise our research,
scare off our investors
Well, we wouldn't want anyone getting cold feet
We're simply asking
for your cooperation
Tell us who your partner is
on the clinical side, and we'll be discreet
And
I'm sure your stockholders
will be relieved when you go back to your meeting
and tell them you avoided a federal subpoena
The Forever Forward Foundation
Here at the Forever Forward Foundation,
the idea of immortality
is no longer a fantasy
Dr Gregory, there's someone to see you
from the FBI
At 320 degrees below zero,
liquid nitrogen can preserve them indefinitely
A doctor is always present to certify time of death
It's best that our clients spend their last moments here,
so we can begin the process as quickly as possible
So how many floating heads do you have here?
We prefer the term de-animated neural suspension
Each cylinder contains 4 clients
There are 10 cylinders in this storage unit and 5
more units just like this one
You do the math
You promise these people that someday
when there is a cure for cancer or whatever else killed them,
you'll just thaw them out?
It was good enough for Walt Disney
And then what?
You put their heads on wheels?
In the future,
it will be possible
to clone yourself a young and healthy body
Why bother preserving the old one?
Plus, it's cheaper to just freeze the heads, right?
Do you know a Marlena Gower,
or a John Robbins?
They have contracts with us
What do those contracts run, exactly?
$80,000
Our service isn't cheap
But they both have money
Robbins is a successful lawyer,
and I believe, Ms Gower has a trust fund
Do you know they're dead?
When? How?
A couple of days ago
Well, they have to be brought here immediately
The longer we wait,
the lower their chances are for reanimation
Are you aware of a substance called Trimethyl-cryazine?
How do you know about it?
It killed them both Do you use it here?
For clinical trials only
We encourage our neural suspension clients
to donate all of their harvestable organs for research
If Cryazine proves effective,
it could be a huge step forward
See, our biggest challenge is preventing cellular damage
caused by freezing brain tissue
Do you have the chemical on the premises?
Oh, yes
There are only
9 bottles
There should be,
uh 15
Who else has access to this cabinet?
Our lead researcher, uh,
2 technicians,
uh, security guards
We'll need all their names so we can run a background check
I'll also need to see a list of your clients
Just the ones who aren't dead Yet
So, you do have a contract
with the Forever Forward Foundation for
de-animated neural suspension?
Actually, I'm calling to see
if you've received a threat of any kind recently,
possibly a text message
from an unknown sender asking you to reconsider?
Okay
Well, if you do receive such a message,
please contact us immediately
Thank you
Still waiting
to hear back from a couple of clients,
but no one else got an unusual text
Not yet
Rachel Young here
Something came up on one of the employees
at the frozen head shop
Security guard named Joey Lux
He used to be a cop
Retired?
He was forced to resign
One too many police brutality complaints
and a corruption charge to go with it
Sounds like a real upstanding citizen
I have a search warrant, and I'm
texting you his address I'll see you there
Okay
That was Cordero with a possible lead
We could use one
By the way, she likes you
What?
Police Open up
Don't move LAPD
What the hell?
We have a few questions to ask you, Mr Lux
You worked security at the Foundation
when they started testing a new tissue-preserving chemical
So?
So, several bottles of the chemical are missing
Stolen
And 2 people are dead because of it
- Who's next, Joey? - I don't know what the hell you're talking about
We're talking about the fact that you're one
of the few people who had access to the chemical
And a couple of your coworkers saw you
snooping around the room where the chemical is kept
after your shift had ended
And you think that makes me a killer?
Well, standards for promotion
to detective have seriously dropped since I left the force
We canvassed the neighborhoods
where the 2 victims were killed
We found a syringe with traces of the compound in it
and your fingerprint
You care to explain that?
Hey, kiss my ass, Detective
I was a cop, remember?
If you'd found a syringe with my prints on it,
we wouldn't be talking
Are we done?
We're done
For now
But don't leave town
Rachel?
What?
Not a syringe
A gun
I don't follow
Detective Cordero just tried to trick him into
confessing by suggesting that we had found a syringe
Well, there are no
puncture marks on any of the victims' bodies
No bullet holes, either
I don't mean that kind of gun
Jet injector gun
Uses a powerful jet of liquid instead of a needle
to penetrate the skin
No puncture marks
We need to subpoena
all medical suppliers of jet injector guns
and get names of any individuals or companies
in Southern California
who've made purchases in the last 12 months
What is it?
Uh uh, it's nothing
I just keep getting
the same junk mail text message
Uh, it's so annoying
Do you think there's really a chance
the people in those cylinders
those heads
can ever be revived?
Well, the science is debatable
and the ethics are questionable, but sure,
there's a chance
Just as there's a chance a snowstorm
could bury the East Coast on the 4th of July
- I'm serious - So am I
It happened
1816
It was a combination of
low-magnetic activity from the sun,
ash clouds and sulfur aerosols
from a volcanic eruption the year before,
but it it created a a summer of snow and rain
across the entire Northern Hemisphere
So, if there is a chance,
it's probably worth taking it I mean,
considering the alternative
Sooner or later, Rachel everyone dies
I mean, you can fight it
My wife did
But in the end, um
in the end, I think it's how you face your death that counts
I don't know about you,
but I wouldn't like to face mine
as a frozen head on a Popsicle stick
Cordero
This is Rachel
We'll be right there
That ex-cop, Lux
they just found him dead in his apartment
Frozen solid
Nothing says guilty
like killing yourself with the murder weapon
I'm not so sure
Drinking this compound's not a very efficient way
of absorbing it into the bloodstream
The stomach acids would break it down
before it had a chance to reach the rest of the body
One thing we do know for sure
Our prime suspect just became our latest victim
Anything good?
Jet injectors were ordered
by Camp Pendleton near San Diego
and a diabetes research institute in Pasadena
All of them are accounted for
Another dead end
Hang on a second
I also got a subpoena
for all PayPal transactions involving online purchases
of surplus jet injectors
- over the past 6 months - And?
One was shipped to a Malibu PO box less than a month ago
The user name on the PayPal account
is Glacialis?
Glacialis
That's Latin for "frozen" What's the name on the account?
Eddie?
No, Mrs Grekowski
Yes?
This is special agent Rachel Young
I'm from the FBI
I'm trying to find your husband
I've been calling his cell phone,
but he doesn't pick up
Is something wrong?
He signed a contract
with the Forever Forward Foundation yesterday
I'm afraid he might be in danger
And I'm wondering if he's gotten
any odd text messages recently?
No, just junk mail, but nothing
He's at the Foundation right now dropping off a check
Dr Nash
What is this?
FBI, Mr Grekowski
What are you doing here?
We could ask you the same question,
but we already know the answer
I'm here to certify a death. That's my job
"The way our culture tries to deny death is tragic"
Isn't that what you told us
at the morgue?
I'd be happy to have this discussion
some other time, but right now I have work to do
Whoa, whoa, what the hell is going on here?
Dr Nash is the one who sent you those threatening text messages
I don't understand
There's nothing to understand
This is crazy
Cryonics attacks your whole belief system, doesn't it?
Your world view
I just respect death
I think everybody should
Well, that respect is what's kept you going,
helped you cope with your job
day in, day out
Year after year
Corpse after corpse
You know how much money people like Grekowski here waste
trying to cheat death, what that money
could be used for?
A billion children go to bed
on this planet every night hungry
while hundreds of millions of dollars
are thrown away
on ridiculous dreams of immortality
Joey Lux stole the chemical
for you and provided information on clients
You killed him to keep him from talking
and tried to make it look like suicide
And you came here to kill Mr Grekowski on the premises
A customer frozen to death
at a cryonics lab?
Well, that's big news
Could certainly close down this facility for good,
maybe bring the whole field into disrepute
You're both crazy
You don't have proof of any of this
Well, we know
that you took delivery of a jet injector gun,
the type used to administer cryazine
without leaving any marks
The LAPD's on their way
I wonder what they'll find
when they search your place
More missing bottles of cryazine, maybe?
Don't move
You move
He dies
They were all gonna die anyway
Let's go
Stay here
Drop it, Nash
It's over,
Doctor
Let him go
Step back
Everybody
Move away
I mean it
I will kill him
Don't do it, Nash
One more step
It's over, Lucas
Everybody back away
I'm serious
Come any closer, he dies
Please
I just want to see my son
Nash, listen to him
Oh, no
Rachel,
this man needs an iron infusion now
This is Special Agent Rachel Young
I need an ambulance at Forever Forward Foundation
Third and Rosemead
Temp is 95.7 and falling
Come on, Mr Grekowski
- Stay with me - Is he gonna make it?
If we keep his temperature above 86 degrees, he may have a chance
- Tem is 95.2 - He needs more iron
Eddie, you hear me?
I need you to stay awake for me, Eddie
I need you to stay awake We're almost at the hospital
Now, please, keep your eyes open
Can you see me?
Now, I want you to think about your little boy
I want you to think about your son
Think about how much you want to see your son
Keep your eyes open Can you see me?
Stay awake, we're almost at the hospital
He's right over there
- Oh, hi - Hi
I'm Emily Grekowski
Yes, of course, please sit down
Oh, no, thank you
I just wanted to let you know
that the doctors say my husband's going to be fine
For now
Thanks to you
Uh,
but I don't even know your names
Oh, I'm Jacob Hood
This is Rachel Young
Hi
- Hi - Mrs Grekowski,
a friend of mine works for
Memorial Sloan Kettering
in, uh, Manhattan
He's part of a team
working on a new treatment for your husband's illness
Last I heard they were getting
some positive results
No worry
He's expecting your call
We were going to name him Edward, but
I kind of like the sound of Jacob
Thank you
No, you should, uh,
you should call him, uh, Edward It's a cool name
Thank you so much
What?
Pregnant women, they
they get really emotional
Actually, it's more to do with the buildup
of oxytocin hormones in the bodies
Of course
So, you said
the ethics of cryonics is debatable,
and it's probably crazy
to have your head
lopped off and preserved for future use
Does that
mean you agree with Nash?
You think cryonics should be stopped?
Oh, on the contrary
When, uh, immortality is outlawed
only outlaws will be immortal