Zhang Yi leaned against the balcony glass, gun in hand. From his vantage he could retreat inside in a heartbeat, but caution had become second nature. The ten-centimetre gap between balconies and the slick stainless railings meant a single misstep — or a sudden push — could send him tumbling twenty-four floors. Trust was a luxury he no longer afforded.
"Tie their hands behind their backs with those ropes," he ordered. "And bring me Chen Zhenghao's gun."
Starved and trembling, Zhou Ke'er moved under his glare. She tied the unconscious men, fumbling from exhaustion, and dragged Chen Zhenghao's pistol free. When she handed it over, Zhang Yi pointed it at her and coldly instructed, "Remove the magazine and throw it here."
"How do I know you won't betray me?" she asked.
"You don't," he said. "You only have choices: trust me, or die." She pulled the magazine free — three rounds clinked out — and tossed it across the sill.
Zhang Yi stowed the firearm in his spatial locker, then filled a water pipe and aimed. He sprayed steaming water at the prone figures on the adjacent balcony.
The result was brutal and immediate. The thousand-degree difference between indoor warmth and the outside's -70°C froze the water the instant it met flesh and fabric. The scalding spray stung, then hardened into ice that clung like armour. The men screamed as steam met sleet; their shouts turned to convulsions, then to a stunned silence as rime began to sheath them. In minutes they were immobile — purple, rigid — and finally a single block of frozen bodies.
When the work was done, Zhang Yi cut the flow to conserve water and stepped back inside. He locked the window and changed out of his cold suit. "You passed," he told Zhou Ke'er.
She stumbled into the warm apartment like a woman reborn. Zhang Yi unlocked the layers of security via his app, the heavy door groaning as it opened. The thirty-degree room swallowed her — heat at last. She peeled off six layers of clothing without concern for modesty, numb with relief, and let the warmth reclaim her frozen limbs.