But as he was writing, Haut said, ‘You recall you asked me about a capacity to see things without regard for time? The visions, the downloads, are both backwards and forward in time. In the 1977 original vision I saw my Indigenous forefather place that flintstone in the ground about five hundred years before. The rest of the vision was into the future.’

‘These “downloads” are from where?’

‘From God.’

Cavalier nodded as if Haut had just told him nothing more than an interesting fact about the weather. This was in response to Haut’s matter-of-fact enunciation of such unbelievable concepts: first the visions themselves, and second that they’d come from a higher being, his god. Cavalier frowned while wrestling with the claim Haut could see backwards and forwards in time.

‘So you are talking here about a situation where there is no time dimension as we know it?’ Cavalier mulled. ‘Like a time machine?’

‘I’ll have the technology for that,’ Haut said. ‘I can already conceptualise and build it. But there’s the water-as-fuel technology that I’d prefer to create first.’

Haut looked to Donnelly for a reaction.

‘Better not to mention the “beam me up, Scotty” stuff just yet,’ he said with a grin. ‘But you can use your imagination for where Al and I are headed.’

‘I’d rather use your imagination,’ Cavalier said.

Donnelly glanced at Haut before replying, ‘This is top secret,’ he said, his expression more serious. ‘I believe Al can reverse engineer the things the government is interested in.’

‘Such as?’

‘How UFOs operate.’ He paused and added, ‘When I sell my current oil business, I am prepared to back Al with at least a one-billion-dollar funding.’

22 THE BURNING

22

THE BURNING

Cavalier questioned Haut for two more hours and then returned to his downtown Hobart hotel, the Old Woolstore, for a swim and gym workout before dining with him. Haut explained that Donnelly had returned to Melbourne, where he had other business.

‘You heard William vow to put a billion into my operations,’ Haut said. ‘This should lead to my major inventions coming to fruition.’

After the meal, Haut drove to his parents’ house and picked up Mac, who squeezed into the back of the Roadster and wagged his tail when Cavalier patted him.

‘I’m pleased he remembers me,’ Cavalier said.

‘Oh, he recalls everything. He knows your character.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘You remember I said I’d burn down the bikies’ drug factory?’

Cavalier was not sure if Haut was joking or not. Haut threw him the black hood with eye slits that he had asked him to wear when they were in pursuit of the men who had fired into Haut’s tent.

‘Best you put that on when we get there,’ Haut said. ‘We don’t want the mild-mannered reporter from the Daily Planet being spotted as an accomplice in an act of arson.’

‘This is not a smart move, Al. Think it through.’