Business Picked up. (IC)

[TheAbsurdist]

10:32 PM, December 28th Near his townhouse, 100' in the air.

The explosion shook the expensive neighborhood, rattling windows, shaking cars, and making people come awake. Bright enough to make someone believe a new star appeared. Asad was sent careening away, into the park proper, and hitting the ground, hard. Leaving a furrow in the sod and dirt like he was digging a trench. For a moment, just a moment before it happened, Asad had looked forward to finally calling close to this long, arduous and horrible day.

That tentative hope died in the middle of the explosion.

[TheAbsurdist]

12 Hours earlier, is his workout room at his Parkside townhouse.

"I just think that it would ease some concerns if you-" Came Anastasia's van Cleef's irritated tone, her face blown up on an enormous display that dominated a wall.

"If I what? Saw a shrink? Honestly, tabloids would eat me alive, let alone what legitimate business news would do!" Amir's words interjected, coming out in puffs are did the crunches on his inverted board. Keeping track in his head as time went on. "And not many psychiatrists specialize in the mental stress that comes with getting held and tortured by a mad scientist!" He snorted in mirth. Truth be told this was how he often got his conferencing done when he wasn't in office, with that large screen in his workout room. Multitasking was essential when a billionaire..

Ana was exasperated, but that was nothing new when she dealt with her boss. He was impossible at the best of times, and despite how open he seemed to be, she could barely pin him down with his lies. She often times imagined herself shooting him in the head, it was better than any stress squeeze ball. "Amir, this is not about you, or your towering ego."

With another grunt before he shifted and rolled out off the board, and onto the ground, assuming the lion pose. Stretching out his stomach to prevent cramping. Not that he expected that to happen, but it was habit since before his prodigious powers activated. "Really? Last I checked I was trending on Twitter. I imagine at least half of it is about me, as my ego is one of the man-made objects you can see from space." Ana made an indelicate sound in response to that and Amir's response came without skipping a beat, "My ears, my poor delicate mind! I believe you will scar me worse..." There was a pregnant pause as he looked up at the screen, at her. "Worse than seeing how many gigawatts I could take."

She sighed, a small, short sound. She knew she would not make any headway on this matter. He had resorted to verbal flim flam, and he had a willingness to play with it longer than she had a patience to follow up on it. "Fine, how about that former pop star that is half your age?"

"What can I say? My charm has an expiration date maybe?. You seem immune, but that has always been the case. Though your mother thought I was charming." A smirk on his face as he stood then, and glanced at her.

"My mother also cried when Billy Mays died." She snorted derisively, and shook her head, before she pulled a cigarillo up and lighting it in an annoyed fashion. "Just don't do anything embarrassing, unless you plan on increasing your PR budget for the fifth straight fiscal year..."

Laughing as he turned his back to the screen and moved to get a bottle of water from the fridge. "Ha... funny Ana. Funny. At least I do not make the interns void themselves in fear." Opening the bottle threw the towel around his shoulders and turned around to see a face that wasn't Ana. Shrouded in shadows, it was a fully masked face that was only dimly able to be differentiated from the darkness behind it.

"Good day Mr. al-Misri. You don't know me. I know you. Or, at least, your reputation. I come to you with a small challenge. Would you be interested in proving that you are the hero you portray yourself to be on television?" The voice coming out in a down-tuned rasp.

[TheAbsurdist]

To Amir's credit he calmly swallowed his mouthful of water and then put the cap back on the bottle. "Mm. I see, and-"

"Ms. van Cleef is fine, I have simply interrupted the transmission. She is, largely, innocent. Except for the occasional dalliances with her subordinates. But that is unimportant. Unlike you, Amir 'the Bronze Lion' al-Misri. This is not something you can negotiate on. If you fail lives could well be lost." Under the distortion effects on the voice it was still unemotional, cold.

"I fail to see how this a test for me-" Starting to speak, but he was cut off before he could even finish the thought.

"There is a bus that will be crossing as bridge going towards South Freedom. There will be a problem at the halfway mark. I would daresay it is going to careen off the span and into the river below. There will be no survivors. I would recommend you take your communicator and then find which bridge and which bus it will happen to. Their survival is now determined by your efforts. You have, at most, 10 minutes." And then the feed went dead, and he left Amir staring at the blank screen. The he dropped the water bottle and dashed to pick up his Commlink, before racing to the stairwell up to the rooftop.