"What are you getting at?"
Mr. Hands leaned forward when he said it, and that was the first time Mr. Hands had done anything like that all evening.
I leaned back in my chair, taking my time about it, because relaxed body language communicates things that words cannot, and I needed to communicate confidence considerably more than I actually felt it.
"DAFs are operators Pantheon wants rid of…" I said, with a chuckle I was mostly sure sounded natural, "But they've already invested too much into them to simply let them go. So instead they get offered a deal… Do this one mission, don't bother reporting back afterward, and you're free to do whatever you'd like for the rest of your life. Terms and conditions applied, of course."
The silence that followed felt electric.
His tea remained untouched, and his voice held back for long enough that I was reasonably confident the calculation had reached where I wanted it to.
"You're bluffing," he said finally.
