Charlie sits back down - purposeful to keep from being abrupt and therefore slightly awkward. "Right." And here's the reason why he's better at being courted - business like this shouldn't be hard, but he's never played it much from this end of things. Independent contractor is, in a lot of ways, an easier gig than this.

"Look, we know you've got no reason to trust us any farther than you can throw us. But if we're going to do what needs to be done - what both of us, I think, want -, then it'd be better for all of us if we started working together instead of pissing upwind of one another. Which means we need information from you; we're willing to negotiate something in return for it."

Straight shot, painfully to the point.