"I know the way out," snaps Tim, hoping to god that he sounds confident enough to compensate for the fact that he is not, in fact, one hundred percent sure that he does. "Where do you think I was heading when you interrupted me?"

This is getting them nowhere.

"You know there's nothing out here, right?" Change the subject. Swing things back around to the other party. "You're gonna end up pointing that thing at weird shadows, and people aren't gonna take it seriously."

The and they shouldn't hangs heavy, unspoken, a derisive cloud tailing behind.