Our Last Echo

12

Metropolis

They arrived at Bill Centron's mansion, a white-painted house of elegant curves, in two cars because Mark planned to leave when the photoshoot was over while Diana would stay to conduct her interview. That way, Mark could do the digital enhancement work on the photos and have a selection ready for Diana to consider while she wrote her first piece. Diana drove her own car, with Tyler beside her.

Tyler was curious about the young man who had so quickly become one of the most prominent leaders of Metropolis, and was looking forward to meeting him. He knew that Centron's father was a casualty of Scyro's invasion. Since his death, BillCorp had led the efforts to rebuild Metropolis. After the initial government-led efforts to recover survivors and the dead, and to make the damaged buildings safe, several prominent companies including BillCorp and Sutton Enterprises stepped in to organise a more extensive clearance and rebuilding. A recovery fund was established which organised donations of food and other essentials for citizens affected by the disaster, and Bill had donated generously from his personal wealth. BillCorp created jobs for people whose work had disappeared with the buildings and leased space at generous rates to companies displaced by the reconstruction work. It was unclear how much of that had been at Bill Centron's instigation as he hadn't joined the BillCorp board until a few months after the invasion, but he had certainly led the publicity campaign currently running, designed to bring more business and investment to the city.

It was an impressive record for such a young man and it couldn't have been easy for him to have so much responsibility thrust on him when he was only twenty. Tyler knew a little about how that felt.

On the other hand, Diana had very good instincts about people and she saw Centron very differently. She hadn't said she was afraid of him, but she didn't want to do this interview without Tyler being with her. He didn't think he was there as her boyfriend this time. No, she wanted Kovalan close by, and that spoke volumes.

They were met at the door by Bill himself, who welcomed them like old friends. It was a bit over the top, as if he were on the wrong page of a script, and Tyler began to see why Diana was wary of him.

It was Mark who got them on track, placing himself between Diana and Bill to explain how the photoshoot would work. He had a lot of lighting equipment and tripods, but he preferred to work in natural light and get pictures that were real, not posed.

Still, they did some studio shots first with Mark keeping up a constant stream of chatter to keep Bill focussed on him while Tyler and Diana did their best to stay out of the way. When Mark was satisfied, he showed Bill the results on the small viewscreen on the back of the camera.

"I'll do some digital enhancement back at the Planet," he explained. "Nothing major, you don't need it. Just some work on the lighting and contrast, maybe a little airbrushing if we're going to do a full-page print. You'll see."

"That sounds fine," Bill agreed.

"Now, let's get some pictures of the real Bill Centron. What do you do for fun?"

"I don't know. I'm a bit of a nerd, really."

"You look like you keep yourself fit. You work out?"

"Goodness, no. I run a little. Toss a ball around. There's a basketball hoop in the back."

Mark grinned. "That sounds perfect. Why don't we head out there and toss a ball around?"

...Which was how Tyler ended up playing basketball one-on-one against the wealthiest man in Metropolis. Mark danced around them, his camera constantly clicking. Diana watched from the sidelines and laughed every time Tyler dropped the ball or fell over his own feet. Bill was a pretty good player and scored two baskets for each one Tyler managed to sink. For Tyler, the real challenge was making his fumbling about look real.