Though he was able to keep a straight face, Audrey's quick calculation impressed Nate. She seemed to be full of various facts and figures, which she further proved by sharing how people ate catfish around the world. He wondered if she was speaking from experience and had actually eaten in Indonesia and Hungary (wherever those places were), or she somehow just knew how many kinds of people ate catfish. Both cuisines sounded good, and if he could remember the country names he might just make a note to see if Reno had any restaurants of that ilk.
As to why he had joined the experiment, that was a more difficult conversational topic. He'd brushed against it with Daphne, but in a more congenial context that had given Nate an excuse to be vague. If he was purposefully vague in the present situation, Audrey would know, without a doubt, he didn't want to tell her something. Nate had a feeling that most people in ExB would be guarded, at least to an extent, but were they hiding that they'd killed another person? To admit his parole officer had told him being in a controlled environment might help keep him from going back into lockup would open the door to questions about his crime. Saying it aloud might get him toughness points, but he was ashamed enough about it that he would sacrifice any reputation those words might help him acquire.
"I had a shitty life," he said at length, toying with the cap on his water bottle. "Like a dead-end job and all that shit. I knew a guy who knows about psychological stuff and he told me about it, so I tried to get in. If I was gonna make money off it, it's the same as working at my old job." Nate paused. "I wasn't sure I was gonna come on until they said I could be in this group. I can fuck with people and take their money, too. I couldn't do that in real life." That was as close to the truth as he dared go. "What about you?"