Chapter 4
Chapter 4. Industrial Espionage
The moment Dick saw the S.T.A.R. labs heart repair project, he knew that it was what Sheller was interested in!
Something like that would revolutionize modern medicine! It would save, and even bring back, infinite lives! And most importantly, it would make trillions of dollars in one day!
Dick new he had to take a closer look, and there were only two ways to do that. He could wait until dark and break in, but he would need to wait hours until sunset, and Nightwing was already wanted for breaking and entering, along with countless other crimes.
This left one other option. He looked at their contact information, took down a phone number, and quickly dialed it into his cell.
"S.T.A.R. labs New York, how may I help you?" Came a woman's voice.
Dick cleared his throat.
"Yes, hello. My name is Richard Wolfman."
"What can I do for you Mr. Wolfman?" The woman asked.
"I work for Wayne Biotech," Dick fibbed. "My employer heard about your heart transplant project, and would like to help fund it, but he wants me to get a look at the project first."
After a few seconds, the woman responded.
"I'll try to arrange for you to meet with Dr. Road. How soon can you be here?"
"It should only be about an hour." He informed her.
"I'll see you then, Mr. Wolfman." She said, just before hanging up.
Dick put his phone away and changed into the best suit he had. Along with other emergency disguises, Dick had gotten a Wayne Enterprises nametag with the name Richard Wolfman. He had even goon so far as to have Bruce start a fake employee account on the Wayne Enterprises website, although he doubted it took any effort on his old friend's part. He could even alter the account at any time to say what division and department worked in.
He combed his hair back, and walked down the stairs to catch a taxi. Soon after, he was on the front steps of the scientific wonderland that was S.T.A.R. labs!
Dick walked inside the large waiting room, where security guard waited for him. Luckily, Dick had left his costume and equipment at home, so the brief experience with the x-ray and metal detector went well.
He walked up to the front desk, where a man in a light gray uniform was waiting.
"Hello I'm…"
"You're the one from Wayne Enterprises." The man interrupted.
"I'll tell Dr. Road you're here. Now sit down, and be quiet."
He said to Dick as if he were a bad child. He decided to listen to him and sat for several minutes. Eventually, a surprisingly young looking man walked up to him.
"Mr. Wolfman?"
It took Dick a moment to realize that the man was talking to him.
"Uh… Hello. You must be Dr. Road. Nice to meet you."
"Likewise. Now I'm sure you want to see the technology first hand! Please follow me."
Dick did as he said.
As they walked through a door behind the front desk, the man in the gray uniform gave Dick a look. Dick had experienced a lot of danger, pain, and flat out fear, but something about this guy's stare scared the hell out of him!
Dr. Road finally noticed.
"Wow Dave, for someone who's been whining all day about being too busy, you sure seem to be doing a good job of sitting on your ass and trying to drive away anybody that wants to give us funds!"
This was enough to make Dave turn away and notice the line forming at his desk.
"Don't mind him." Said Road.
"He's just in a bad mood. As you can imagine, we've had people calling in all day asking us for us to see if their loved ones qualify for testing."
"With all due respect Dr., you must have had some idea that would happen if you went public with the project." Dick said in a respectful tone.
"I didn't want to let the word out until we had a working model, but…"
Road looked at Dick, as if trying to figure out if he could trust him. Considering that he thought his guest's name was Wolfman, then that might depend on one's definition of "Trustworthy".
After a few seconds, he finally spoke.
"…There was an incident, about a week ago, involving a missing cadaver."
That caught Dick off guard! Somebody had managed to break into a heavy security place like this, and get out carrying a corpse? Impossible! He had figured out that this place was a fortress the moment he saw it, and it seemed even more airtight from the inside!
"For copyrighting purposes, the marketing and legal departments wanted to go public before our technology could be reverse engineered." He said, sounding uncomfortable.
"Speaking of your technology, I was sent here to see it. Would you mind showing me a sample?" Dick said to change the subject.
Road smiled and pointed at a large metal door, and the two of them walked to it. After Road went through a retinal scan, the doors opened, and the two of them entered the room. Dick had no idea what he was expecting, but this wasn't it!
He was in a morgue!
"The body's need to be very well preserved, otherwise the heart implants would be useless." Road said as he picked up a small plastic object.
"It's similar to a pacemaker, but can be inserted post mortem. We have plans to replace the veins with small tubes and supply the body with artificial blood, for those who's bodies are in worse shape, but we want to make sure that the heart implant works first." He explained. "Our biggest concern however, is the brain."
Dick turned and glared at him.
"Don't tell me you have an artificial brain!" he said.
Road chuckled for a moment, and shook his head.
"No, but we are worried about the effects of brain damage, should we get a cadaver to breath."
"Speaking of cadavers," Dick said. "Where do you get them all?"
"The police have been very helpful, and have given us as many subjects as they could." He said with a smile. "Now I have a question for you! Do you think your employer will be interested in what we have here?"
Dick had completely forgotten about Wayne Biotech! No matter what he said at this point, Bruce was going to hear about it.
He decided it would be better to take his money than his credibility.
"I'll make sure you get paid by the end of the week!"