The month continues to race past, and your work obligations grant you precious little time to contact friends and family members. Increasingly, those people seem to belong to a former life—the life you lived before assuming your responsibilities as head of MetaHuman. You begin to welcome lunch meetings and dinner appointments away from your office. At least that way it almost seems as if you have a modicum of a social life.
One such occasion comes at the end of the month, when Ahmed Mahadi arrives in Seattle. He is the principal buyer for a major medical products supplier in Asia, as well as a buyer and consultant for several government agencies in that same area. As noncore products, MetaHuman's pharmaceutical range is not restricted by the same legal injunction currently blocking development and sales of the company's existing Enhancements. You're essentially depending on the sales of these smaller, noncore products right now to keep the company alive. Mahadi has asked to meet with you during his trip to the United States, and though he's been somewhat sketchy about the precise areas he wishes to discuss, you know he has the influence to place a large order with MetaHuman, giving the company a very welcome revenue boost.
Leach informs you that Mahadi is a keen golfer. A shame that January weather in Seattle precludes such a sport. Instead, you meet him at a top-end restaurant, The Cupola. He is an amiable Saudi Arabian, with a keen multicultural perspective on various business and political world events. He attributes this last feature to his Australian wife: "I tend to see things through the lens of my Middle-Eastern upbringing," he says with a smile. "She is the one who reminds me that the world is immense, and filled with viewpoints quite different from my own."
The two of you spend an hour engaged in pleasant small talk and enjoying good food. But then, when the subject turns to your work, he looks at you and asks, "Between you and me, away from the ears of journalists: Do you truly feel you are the person to lead this company?"