Shortly before I boarded my flight at Munich, I checked my cell phone for messages. There were four and Dan Marckus had left three of them. Whatever was on his mind, I knew I was on to something, because, for once, Marckus was chasing me.
  With one eye on the departure gate and another on the clock, I called him back.
  Even over the bustle of movement in the departure hall and the static of a bad line, I could tell something was definitely up. [...]
  "I know what they were trying to do," he said simply. [...]
  My tone softened. "OK, go ahead. I'm listening."
  "They were trying to generate a torsion field."
  "What is a torsion field?"
  "Laternentrager means 'lantern holder.' But it's the second code name that's the giveaway. Chronos. You know what it means, don't you?"
  "Yes, Dan. I know what it means. What is a torsion field? What does it do?"
  "If you generate a torsion field of sufficient magnitude the theory says you can bend the four dimensions of space around the generator. [...] When you bend space, you also bend time." [...]
  "Now, do you understand what they were trying to do?"
  I said nothing. It was Marckus who closed the loop.
  "They were trying to build a fucking time machine," he said.