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market channel and the car magazine sites away. Uncovering a virtual panel of voice links, he jabbed hard with his index finger and produced a deep thump from his flexi desk. “Drexel, do you have some time?”
    After a few seconds, Drexel’s avatar appeared near the spreadsheet. He glanced at both men quickly before taking a dimensional glance at the displayed work.
    “I do apologize,” Drexel said. “I was detained with some follow-up meetings. Aleph-Beta, one of our more interesting accounts.”
    Armando nodded in slow agreement. “No need to apologize. Well, as mentioned in the weekly review, we’re looking at Sumeet’s numbers on Xin-Ulam. I thought you might like to share your opinion.”
    Drexel nodded as he perused the graphs. “Yes, I have been monitoring this deal over the past two days,” Drexel commented.
    “You have?” Sumeet asked.
    Drexel glanced at Sumeet for a brief moment, and then looked over to Armando. “I always make a point of monitoring various works in progress. After reading over your summary on Tuesday, I was impressed with the concept that Sumeet and Ivan are exploiting.”
    Sumeet smiled and stared at Armando, hoping to detect some iota of recognition. After all, praise from a Sentient was a good omen within the company. But Drexel’s appreciation was something different. A favorable word from Drexel was career changing, and Sumeet’s mind now hyperventilated with anticipation.
    Drexel studied the figures while nodding his head thoughtfully and Sumeet struggled to remain calm. Come on, this has to be the one! He felt impelled to stimulate the conversation in some manner, but restrained himself as Drexel finally summed up his thoughts.
    “Yes, quite interesting, but the new version still is unconvincing. We in the council unanimously agreed not to pursue this.”
    And with that, it all came to a halt as though Sumeet had been splashed with cold water. Not again! Sumeet’s exhilaration, which had been euphoric if brief, now turned against him like a tidal wave. It had all been for nothing! His emotions went into a tailspin as he realized the Xin-Ulam deal was dead. Tossed out. Just like all the others had been. Glancing at Armando, Sumeet pulled over a chair, preferring to sit down to hear the rest of what he expected would be a thoroughly impassable barrage of logical and deeply thought out criticisms.
    Grimacing, Armando could feel Sumeet’s pain. “Are you sure there’s nothing we can do here?” he asked. “Sumeet worked like a complete and utter slave on this. I thought that this might have more merit than the others.”
    “Yes, it does,” Drexel said, while nodding toward the graphs. “But please don’t take this on any personal level. Eighty seven point two percent of all transactions never make it to Phase Two. This is even truer for those with limited experience.”
    Was that an insult? At this point, Sumeet couldn’t tell.
    Dejectedly, he asked, “I suppose you have ruled out reducing the offer price? I mean, we can raise the internal returns if there is some problem beating your threshold.”
    Drexel looked back at Sumeet and floated over toward Armando. “No, I’m afraid that won’t help. The problem is more fundamental. It has to do with the expected incompatibility between operational lines of business.”
    Sumeet crossed his legs and leaned toward the wall where Drexel spoke. “Really, we saw quite a bit of synergy in that area. In fact we extracted data from all the public material lists, and did a detailed simulation on both existing and projected new lines. The correlations were amazing, higher turnover in all cases. I mean, barring unforeseen market implosion. I can pull out our supporting docs if you like.”
    Everyone’s attention suddenly focused on the door as it slid open. Divit, the team’s support crawler, walked in using three of its four legs with spider-like precision to gander in while holding a small tray with coffee. In what seemed like