[Ives stops walking and looks from a distance. Neil walks towards The Protagonist and gives him the sections of the Algorithm Ives gave Neil.] [to Neil]
Are you really going back in?
Well, I don’t know any locksmith as good as you.
[to The Protagonist, smiling]
See? It’s me in there again, weaving another past in the fabric of this mission.
[Neil walks away. The Protagonist catches a glimpse of the same trinket that he earlier saw on the rucksack of a blue team corpse on Neil’s rucksack. He realizes Neil is going to die after he inverts, or, chronologically, has died, and that Neil was the one who saved his life during the Kiev Opera siege by shooting a Ukrainian policeman with an inverted round]
Neil, wait!
But can we change things if we do it differently?
“What’s happened’s happened.” Which is an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse to do nothing.
Fate?
Call it what you want.
What do you call it?
[thinks for a moment]
Reality. Now let me go. [proceeds to walk away towards the helicopter and Ives]
Hey, you never did tell me who recruited you, Neil!
[turns towards The Protagonist]
Haven’t you guessed by now? You did! Only not when you thought. You have a future in the past. Years ago for me, years from now for you.
For me, I think this is the end of a beautiful friendship.
But for me it’s just the beginning!
[turns away and starts walking]
We get up to some stuff. You’re gonna love it, you’ll see. This whole operation is a temporal pincer!
[turns to face The Protagonist again]
Yours! You’re only halfway there. I’ll see you at the beginning, friend! [runs towards the helicopter while The Protagonist looks on]
