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Someone was setting him up to fail, I realised. I just couldn't fathom why they would.
"Now, see here, Evans," he started, sitting forward and aiming a finger at me.
"Time travellers experience Prophetic Dreams," I said, shutting him down. "Those dreams affect their future and are, we believe, courtesy of Time itself. Should those dreams not come to fruition, or be ... denied in some fashion, then the time traveller will experience Prophetic Dream Realisation withdrawal. The Prime Minister is aware of this. In fact, he opened the wing of a highly secure and top-secret facility for those affected by PDR withdrawal. I was there. I saw him do it. Right before I helped assist several of my colleges and friends into that wing because they had lost the object of their Prophetic Dream."
"Lost the object?" Anderson said and his voice was subdued. It could even be construed as shaky.
He hadn't flown with us yet, but that didn't mean he hadn't had the dreams. Because Time knew he'd fly, eventually; Time knew all. And anyway, it was likely the object of Anderson's Prophetic Dream was a time traveller already, and the origin of the PDR itself.
"Yes, object," I said. "Every Prophetic Dream revolves around someone we travel through Time with; the object of the Dream. Should that someone die — or disappear for some reason — then the Prophetic Dream cannot be realised. That causes problems for those who have dreamt the Prophetic Dream, hence they suffer Prophetic Dream Realisation withdrawal."
Anderson let a long breath of air out, his face pale. He'd dreamed, I was sure of it now. But of whom had he dreamed?
"You said 'disappear for some reason' as opposed to dying, I suppose. What did you mean?"
"There are more ways than one to leave this world," I told him. My eyes met Rafe's. I wasn't sure if Anderson knew about Multiverse Interpolation. Maybe he thought Orion 2b was our Orion. God knows what he made of Alternate Bryan. I didn't know the answer to any of that and I sure as bloody hell wasn't going to say more unless I was backed into a corner and had no choice but to.
"Shall we fly?" I asked.
There was one thing to say about our Mr Anderson; he was not so easily distracted. I'd shaken his worldview. I'd hurled rocks the size of small houses at his confidence. And yet the man would not be deterred.
"So, Dr Crawford had one of these Prophetic Dreams and that's why he kept this Orion a secret?"
I wanted to bash my head against the console.
"Yes," I said, succinctly.
"And why the Vehicle is biometrically locked to only him, you and your Intern?"
"Yes," I repeated.
"But you don't know what that dream is?"
"I know some of it," I hedged.
"What part? Tell me!"
"RATS will not survive if Clive Crawford does not run it."
Silence met my words for what felt like a very long time. Longer than the statement warranted, anyway.
"Could he have been lying?" Anderson finally said.
"I don't believe he was."
"But he could have been," Anderson insisted.
"It's a possibility, but I know Clive Crawford, and I know the circumstances that had him divulging his dream to me. He was not lying."
"Dr Evans, I applaud you for your loyalty to a man out of time. But the bottom line is, he kept a secret for over a decade from you; an operational secret. The man could very well have been hiding more from you than just this Orion."
He was right, of course. And I hated that he was right. He saw that emotion on my face — I couldn't hide it — and chuckled smugly to himself.
"I pity you, Evans. I pity your idealistic outlook on life. Your unfailing support of those around you. You're a good man, I'd wager. But not necessarily a wise one. The wise man in this situation would not have trusted a word Crawford said. And maybe if he had not trusted Crawford, he might have avoided the mismanagement of RATS coming to the attention of us."
"Would that be the attention of you personally, Mr Anderson, or the Prime Minister? A man who has clearly withheld information from you, possibly even set you up to take the fall for something."
"Don't be absurd! I have worked with the Prime Minister for years."
