[ There’s no hesitation as Five moves forward to take a seat, without any further explanation to why he’s brought company. There are implications to inviting an assassin to discuss strategy, but that isn’t why Natasha is here. She just lucked out and ran into him when it would have been more cumbersome to chase her away.

If she does add value to this discussion will yet to be seen, and he hasn’t told her everything he’s preparing to discuss. At least he assumes she’s smart enough not to openly contradict him, which he couldn’t say for all of their group. ]

I know that negotiations haven’t been as productive as we would have liked. With the moves against your supporters, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking we’ve reached an impasse.

[ He does actually believe that it can get worse, so he doesn’t need to put on too much of an act to make a point. ]

The odds that they’ll come to a peaceful agreement may seem to be dwindling. I also don’t know that your prospects will be better elsewhere if we give up on Ephes. They aren’t able to see that there’s a bigger threat, unless it’s shown to be different from what they’re already facing.

So my question is, can you really succeed without them?