Your comment that it's a bright day appears to catch Case slightly off-guard, a blank look greeting it for just the briefest of moments -- almost as though you were talking to someone who didn't speak English as a first language, and who was translating in his head before reacting.  Almost as though you were typing into a laggy computer console whose network connection was just not 100% right.<br/><br/>"Bright!" he agrees with enthusiasm and leans forward in his chair.  There's an expectant look in his eyes and he taps his fingers together again.  The gesture suddenly strikes you as more than odd -- you realize thinking back that you have never seen him do that before.  Case was always confident, poised, never fidgeting -- much more likely to busy himself with calisthenics if he couldn't find something else to do than he was to twiddle his thumbs or tap on a desk.  Before, nothing about him seemed nervous or ill at ease -- today, everything did.<br/><br/>"Calliope," he begins, his voice lowering to a level that signals that this is all going to be in confidence.  "Calliope, you know that we're on the brink of all out corporate war with RO.  We knew it was coming, we planned for it, and now it's here.  But," and here his voice seems grave, "we can't just win this exchange.  Not on the marketing side, and not on the<em>technical</em>side.  We have to make this an all out rout -- no one can doubt after this back and forth that VRS is<em>the</em>name in virtual reality.  In order to do this, we need answers.  The kind of answers that depend on us knowing ourselves.  The kind of answers that mean that we can explain our technology and our message more clearly and more convincingly than they can."  The smile is there on his face, his grave eyes looking at you pointedly.  The corner of his mouth twitches slightly.<br/><br/>"Tell me about our NerveBridge(tm) technology.  Remind me exactly how it works -- we're going to work with marketing and fix this, Calliope.  We're going to chase RO right out of the market!"<br/><br/><hr/><br/>A.  Stalling.  You stall in some way, exploring your memories from the last hour and your mounting suspicions.<br/><br/>B.  Deflection.  You act as though you're continuing the conversation on-point, but avoid his line of questioning and reasoning, opting to attempt to steer him onto another line of thought.<br/><br/>C.  Bluffing.  You act startled, reminding him that even though you have been here a while, you couldn't really go into as much detail about the technology as he would probably like, and suggest you should stick to the marketing message.<br/><br/>D.  Collaboration.  Explain how the technology works, starting from the architectural level and diving deep on NerveBridge(tm) technology.