I think there's a reason, there's cogent effort involved.

[Nothing to do with fate, of course, and maybe not anything to do with the government. Eddie had heard their keepers in their conversations, and their careful words -- such very cautious, precise words, weren't they?

Someone had the bright idea to engage the multiverse, however. Someone had an agenda.]

I don't work well in team efforts. [His way of acknowledging that yes, he was interested. In the ideas.] But I do on individual levels -- I wouldn't mind establishing informational partnerships with you. What I discover, I can pass along. Between us, neither needs to play nice. We just have to play smart.

[He was always an elitist like that.]