Race to the Top (IC)

[Thevshi]

Chicago, Illinois
95th Floor of the John Hancock Building
Wednesday November 5, 2014, 11:45 AM

Situated on the Ninety-fifth floor of the John Hancock building, the Signature Room offered some of the most breathtaking views of Chicago, all in elegant dining rooms spaced around the entire floor. It was a rare day that the restaurant was not filled with a mixed crowd of tourists and business people from the city. Today was certainly not the exception, and there was hardly an empty table in the restaurant.

Deborah Magson sat at a table near the windows looking out over Lake Michigan. She was a slightly heavyset woman in her early thirties, dressed in a navy blue suit. She had curly, shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes and was currently waiting for another to arrive for lunch. It had been some three months since the incident during the Fourth Annual Inspiration Celebration in Freedom City, when a group of supervillains called the Zodiac had attacked the event, apparently at the behest of the event’s chief sponsor and organizer, Andrew Topple, CEO of Topple Enterprises.

Since then, Topple had been arrested and indicted on several charges. Of course, he had been able to hire excellent legal counsel, and was currently free on bail while things progressed, somewhat slowly, towards a possible trial. Topple was doing his best to stay out of the public eye currently, and his business certainly had suffered some setbacks in the wake of the scandal. Deborah was a potential witness at the trial, but did her best to just continue focusing on her work running Steamwhistle Limited, an online whistleblower website. She was in Chicago on business related with her company, and had been a bit surprised when she had been contacted about this lunch meeting. But, she had been more than happy to agree, and thus was currently drinking a glass of water while she waited for Amir al-Misri to arrive.

[TheAbsurdist]

Ohhhhh this meeting.  He dreaded and was elated on it.  The whole Topple debacle, while making for interesting headlines, that he had to have his media outlets behave themselves on.  But to their sadness.  After all it was rare a name of someone lined up so perfectly, right?  In any case, he wanted to talk to her, because he support it, especially being in one of the more morally grey industries that existed out there.  Certainly he made sure there was an ethical standard in what his companies did, as his guiding principle of maintainable growth had helped keep Summit atop of things, even when everything else failed.

 

Given that this was Chicago, and at this height windows should never be opened.  Because... well it was windy out there.  Not just because it was Chicago.  So he rode the elevator.  In a nice pair of slacks, and sports coat, with a fashionably faded t-shirt under it.  When it stopped he stepped out, chafing a little in the containment suit he was wearing under his clothes these days.  It was better than the alternative.

 

He Indicated to the host that he was here for someone, and then he walked towards the table with Ms. Magson, pulling it from the table and offering her a small, smile, "Happy to see you under better circumstances, Ms. Magson.  Well, less screaming circumstances."

[Thevshi]

Deborah returned Amir’s smile as he arrived. "Good morning Mr. al-Misri, it is very good to see you again as well." She replied in a friendly, honest tone. "I do hope this time we will not find ourselves interrupted by supervillains looking for a fight. Something I expect you are a bit more used to however."

She sat aside the menu that she had been looking through, focusing on Amir instead as he took his seat. "So, I have actually been expecting that we would be talking more ever since the incident at Topple's little event. Although probably best that it was not right away, given the circumstances."

"So, I expect you are interested in what it was that I had brought to Topple's attention late last year."
 

[TheAbsurdist]

Amir inclined his head towards her before taking a seat across from her, and he smiled rakishly.  He oozed charm, and was good looking.  Still in a situation like this he was possibly one of the more dangerous people on the planet.  Not his powers, but because in a situation like this he was disarming, he seemed more like a movie star than the head of one of the largest multinationals on the planet.

 

He laughed a little, and picked up the menu, not opening it.  "Oh, well, that is an issue.  It gets to be any charity event, or gala, or anything, just about freaks out, and things go wrong.  Fires.  Panic.  Ruined suits.  My getting to know several layers of law enforcement on a first name basis.  I am thinking of starting a softball team.  Should build inter-departmental bonding."

 

That winning smile was there, and then he looked to the sighed then.  "Ahhh, alas for that, but yes, I was wanting to know why he selected you.  Though, admittedly, given what happened, it was funny as hell."

[Thevshi]

Deborah gave a small laugh at Amir’s mention of starting up a softball team to get various levels of law enforcement to better work together. But then her face became more serious as they turned to the real issue at hand. "Well, in some ways, I was probably responsible for the mess at the event. I mean, I certainly was not involved in helping Topple hire those supervillains, but I was the one that set him on the trail of what would become the Equalizer armor."

"See, it started when my company was working with a whistleblower from Heavy Metal Mining in West Virginia. Topple had recently purchased a number of holdings the troubled company had been selling, and we had a meeting with Topple about the whistleblower's claims. According to that whistleblower, Heavy Metal Mining had been supporting a tech using supervillain that had recently been captured, and now the company was thing to cover up its involvement."

"Topple thanked us for bringing him the information, promising that he was going to investigate the holdings he had recently purchased and report any illegal conduct that he uncovered. A few months passed, then the whistleblower I was working with suddenly did not want to go further with his claims. I can't prove it, but I think Topple paid him off to be quiet. That was just a couple months before Inspiration Celebration, when Topple sent me an invitation and shows up with this new suit of power armor on his new bodyguard."

[TheAbsurdist]

He laughed a little, a short, sharp sound, as he shook his head then.  Amir saw the issue, and while he wasn't going to fault her for what happened, her naivete was... nice.  "So, you accidentally set him on the path, or at least pointed him at information he was going to use.  And then he was stupid enough to try and double cross the people he hired to pull off the job.  Mm, so you have come forward with this information to the authorities?"

 

Leaning back, Amir picked up his glass of water and sipped at it.  He was mildly tickled, or at least...  And then he sighed and closed his eyes as the dots came together.  "We need you to talk to the authorities now.  And get you into protective custody."  Amir knew, immediately, that Deborah wasn't the type to accept a pay off.  "Has anyone offered you money to stop you from talking?"  And the wheels of justice always became gummed up when a rich person or entity was involved, and Topple still had money, even if his stocks were being hit hard.

 

Money enough to make sure witnesses were silenced.

[Thevshi]

Deborah seemed slightly taken aback at Amir's comments, but was calm as she responded.  "Well, at the time Topple was the new purchaser of some of the troubled assets, with nothing to suggest he had any involvement in anything that had been going on.  And despite his less than stellar reputation, I figured he deserved a heads up on the potential problems with his new acquisitions."

 

"As for the authorities, of course I have told them this.  But I cannot say for certain how deeply they have looked into it.  And so far there have been no attempts to buy my silence.  Do you think Andy would be that stupid to try that?  He did not have any real heat on him when he paid off the whistleblower, assuming he did, but he certainly is under scrutiny now."

[TheAbsurdist]

Amir stopped, and looked at her, just looked for several long moments.  A faint glow from the containment suit showing through his clothes.  Then he leaned back and frowned, shrugging a little bit.  "I think..."  He looked off to the side, and stared out at Chicago for several long moments.  "I think..."

 

"A little over three years ago, I would say he was mad.  And that it was not possible.  Now?  Now, I think that shutting up someone who can establish a link,,, a timeline, is very much possible.  And entirely probably.  Especially considering he paid off a bunch of mercenaries to fake a robbery against a group that included heroes he drugged, one of who took a thermonuclear blast to the face."  Turning his head back to look at Deborah, and he laughed a little bit.

 

"I think that Topple doesn't even blame himself for that whole fiasco, that he was smarter than the... what?  The Zodiac?  He was smarter than them.  The authorities.  Me.  And several others.  I think he was crazy enough to try and insane plan.  And having you intimidated, attacked, killed, or abducted, is a win win, especially if it can't be connected."

 

His smile faded quickly, evaporating like rain in the desert.  "Power, no matter whether it is the kind that comes from being able to throw trucks, or have a senator on speed dial, changes your perspective.  It makes you feel as though you have... more weight than others.  That your course is more important than others.  And that if your efforts fail, it can't be from what you did, because you are better after all."  Shrugged a little bit then, and he laughed a little.

 

"Mmm, that was dark, wasn't it?  Basically, yes.  Topple is crazy enough, or stupid enough to think that doing such is a wise idea."  

[Thevshi]

Deborah watched Amir closely as he began discussing why he felt that Topple could very well be planning to try to silence her, one way or another. She gave a small nod at his last, mostly rhetorical question about whether his small rant was rather dark. "Yes, it was a bit." She admitted. "But then that is why there needs to be people like me, to help support and protect those that are willing to put themselves at risk to help expose someone that feels similar to Topple, that they can do whatever they want, so long as no one catches them."

She paused a moment, before continuing. "What are you proposing should be done to protect me then?"

[TheAbsurdist]

A frown on his face, as he had dropped most of the Smiling Amir schtick he was know for, even though it was genuine, there was little point to carry on with it.  "At this point, I can call the people I know in law enforcement, and AEGIS, given that things are stalling, and you can connect Topple to that witness, and are a link, I am certain something can happen.  Hopefully, he isn't going to focus on you, but... again, he thought his harebrained scheme to sell his Equalizer armor was a good idea.  So I really can't say that my former assessments of the man matter much anymore."

 

He leaned back a little bit, and watched her resting his hands on the table.  "I understand the need,  Your Bible talks about how it easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than get a rich man into heaven.  It's not just money, but it is a symptom of these things.  Ambition before virtue is a very real thing, and like I said, it clouds a person's vision.  So someone willing to state that those deeds are wrong is admirable.  If painful."

Now he smiled, though it was a little sad.  "But, fortunately, I have a lot of friends, and realistically, I am better at this than Topple, even if I have to talk to talk to someone in the upper echelons of the Dee-oh-jay."

[Thevshi]

For a few moments Deborah seemed like she was going to argue against any sort of protective custody or the like, but then she gave a resigned nod. "Alright, I'll go into protective custody, if for no other reason than I want to be there to see Andy go down for all this."

She then gave a small smile at Amir's comments about the need for people like her and those she helped to get their stories out. "Well, not all ambition is bad. If it were not for ambition, where would we be? Would we have made all the advances we have? I rather doubt it. A bit of ambition can be a good thing, when mixed with other characteristics. Unfortunately some of the most ambitions just seem to be lack some of those others."

[TheAbsurdist]

"Mmm, it's why I am not a philosopher.  I've read my Koran, I've done my Hajj, but I admit that I am not overly a metaphysical person, or I might believe that my power were divinely granted.  Which, is the last thing my PR firm needs to contend with.  Right now they are struggling with, 'No, Mr. al-Misri is not a nuclear threat.' I swear the press wants to go off wild chases into the ether."

 

He smiled back at her, "Believe me, if Topple hadn't gone full crazy.  All the crazy.  Then I wouldn't be saying that protective custody is a good thing.  But... anyway.  I do support that, because a lot of people in the worlds I am in do let their ambition get to hubris.  Which... unfortunately the Hero world has a lot more oversight than the financial world.  So..."  Glancing down to the menu, "What do you recommend?"