[… Got it.]

[Was that all?]

[What sort of case should I be presenting, or would that be cheating the test?]

[That would be cheating.]

"Apparently I am to state my case to leave this room if we want to be able to do that, knowing what she's looking for would be cheating, and she wasn't going to let me even do that except I can telepathy conversations to other people as necessary."

"...state your case? Why?"

"Because people are probably going to try rushing to go fetch people out of – whatever happened – and so that's why they locked the doors."

"Couldn't they have just locked the door outside?"

"I – was going to suggest reasons they couldn't have but should probably just ask her –"

He does so.

[I'll let you answer your own question again.]

[What purpose does that serve?]

[Well, if you come up with a different answer than mine then I'll know to be even more paranoid in the future.]

[… Because you think we will all team up and manage to overpower you and hence escape?]

[Oh no, we can overpower all of you easily.]

[… You expect us to, what, sneak around and break through the outer door?]

[Not particularly, but it's a possibility.]

[And it's enough of a possibility you locked us in individual rooms?]

[Nope.]

[I'm not sure of your reasoning then.]

[It costs time and resources to keep an eye on all of you, time and resources which I do have but do not want to spend.]

[… And making a good case that we'd not be inconvenient is enough for you to decide we're not much of a risk?]

[Yes.]

"She doesn't want to spend extra effort policing us, apparently, and locking us away is a good way to reduce that."

"...I suppose that makes sense."

"And a manual check presumably constitutes low enough effort for enough gain she's willing to let us out. So. Arguments for why we're safe?"