Chasing The Dawn (Luke Temple - Book 2) (Luke Temple Series) (12 page)

Brun rested both palms on the table and took a couple of deep breaths. Not a single sound came from the room. This small unlikely speaker held everyone’s attention, some mouths were open, others were frowning, all were waiting for the speech to start up again. After a moment Brun lifted his head and continued.
As is abundantly clear I am not quite as good as my colleague at this … please forgive me if this is a slow process … good job you are all scientists.

The comment roused a low collective laugh from the crowd. Brun let his eyes wander, clipping Luke, Beltrano and Chung Su as he again went back to his notes.
Although the circumstances are horrid I am no less privileged to be stood here in front of you, privileged not only to be part of such a wonderful group of minds, but privileged to now, hopefully, add to the quest. Our studies have reached a critical point, a terrifically exciting point, one that has not escaped the attention of the world. It seems newspapers and the media do still want a good old-fashioned story about us boring scientists.
This caused another ripple of laughter.
I think it best to let you watch a pre-prepared video and get my babbling self out of the way. Play the video.

Brun sat back down, the lights in the hall dimmed. At first there was nothing but a blue screen, then an image flashed up from the projector, the camera walking everyone down an industrial-looking corridor with large piping running in and out of the walls.

Luke glanced back at Chung Su; she was engrossed in the video. Next to her, Beltrano did not seem as lost in what he was watching.

The video started up with a commentary, the spritely voice of Professor Vittorio talked everyone through what they were seeing. The images meant nothing to Luke, the screen was flashing between what looked like a warehouse with men in work helmets and jackets, to diagrams, to 3D digital models. He caught the odd word,
CERN, 450 miles, neutrino, oscillations.
He was sharp enough to appreciate that the room was being shown and told how Vittorio and Brun had reached their findings. Quite unexpectedly, hushed conversations began around the tables, incessant whispers.

The video continued, guiding its audience through the work of large machines. Luke had to admit it was quite fascinating to see such large cumbersome-looking things being used to discover such intricate and unfathomable particles. He had naturally assumed the machinery would be delicate and refined. On the screen a man burst into the hall carrying a sheet of paper, screaming and shouting. Gauging by the over-the-top reaction this was a re-enactment scene supposedly showing the moment of discovery; it was poorly acted but did the job.

The image flashed to a row of numbers, then via some computer graphics the numbers formed a graph. This caused the whispering to intensify. One graph after another flashed across the screen. The final image was a lone shot of Professor Vittorio facing the camera. His words hung in the air. “If this was any other experiment then the number of tests and findings would have been classified as a Formative Scientific Discovery … this is real.”

A pang of familiarity spread through Luke at the sight of Vittorio on the screen
. What is it?
The screen went blank before he could find an answer, it had all lasted ten minutes. The lights were raised and Brun walked back to his position.

How does one follow that? I fear words are not enough. We tested over a hundred different calibrations, for each of those calibrations we tested 15,000 discharges from CERN. We feel that is extensive in anybody’s book. Each time in this beautiful, simple, unfussy masterpiece the neutrinos travelled to the Gran Sasso Laboratory faster than the speed of light. The whole team at OPERA believe the results to be accurate; we have submitted the findings to the
Journal of High Energy Physics
and also posted to the Arxiv repository. The neutrinos arrived sixty-billionths of a second faster than light. You all search for tiny beginnings … we give you the smallest beginnings of a new world.

Luke had expected a rapturous applause, people standing and cheering, but it never came. Strangely, the atmosphere in the room seemed to alter – it did not rise but in fact dipped, it was a tangible sinking. Luke glanced round at Beltrano and Chung Su. She was taking in the people around her and their reactions. Beltrano’s gaze was fixed on Brun, the slightest of smirks on his face. A few whispers started up again. Brun ignored them and continued in a robotic manner, as if regurgitating.

We cut down on all the errors that could have occurred, shortening the length of the bunches and therefore halving their life span. As you would expect this cut error margins considerably. However, to stand and posture about the findings is not why we wanted to present these tremendous results to you all. A great man once told me: “One man’s results are another man’s starting point.” And that is why we show you what we have; we want to open it up to you all as a community. We invite you to delve deep, pick, pull and try and destroy what we have … it is now a theory that is yours to try and disprove. But as far as we are concerned, the laws of physics have just been taken back to a blank page.

With that, Brun took his seat, and a smattering of unenthusiastic applause trickled across the hall. Chung Su was clapping. Luke swivelled to check out the junior Carabinieri, who was playing with something on his tie, not even listening to proceedings.

The room began to pulse with an uncomfortable energy, there was a sense of unrest, people turning in their seats and sharing knowing glances with their colleagues. Luke kept his eyes on Brun; the professor was not looking up from his glass of water, incessantly rotating the glass in his hands, his brow furrowed.

Whispers turned to mumbles and then overt conversation started up; from what Luke could pick up people felt as though they had been cheated – they already knew what Brun had outlined.
This is nothing we didn’t know … I read this, is that it?
I want more than a few pictures and a happy video …

The atmosphere was charged. People began shouting across the room at each other, contemptuous laughs erupted at the more sarcastic comments Suddenly, Brun re-took his position at the centre of the head table. He began to talk over the commotion
. I apologise if we had our moment stolen by newspapers and news channels, but the great reveal aside you all know what this means. That hasn’t changed, we just need to work on our timing.

Brun’s eyes met Luke’s and they held each other’s gaze. Luke could see the pain in the professor’s eyes, a pleading for help, before they glazed then flitted to the ground. Brun took a look to the ceiling then for the briefest of moments his eyes rested on Chung Su.

The room did not quieten down; they went into a full frenzy, scoffing and mocking the professor for such a vacuous presentation. If there was a room not to have turn on you, this was it, some of the greatest theoretical minds on the planet were sat judging.

The professor slowly nodded his head. He scanned the room, people were no longer interested in him, far more concerned with how they could postulate and debate on the sterile birth of such a discovery.

With two loud bangs on the table, Brun brought everyone’s gaze back on him. He looked angered and banged a third time to make sure everyone had fallen silent.. As he looked at the expecting mass his jaw was clenched, the glaze had gone, he looked across all of the faces one by one. Luke sat up in his chair, Chung Su and Beltrano leant forward in theirs … Brun was going to talk.

I stand here as the spokesperson … yet I am the one who does you all the greatest disservice.
Brun seemed to wrestle with what his next words were going to be. He flitted a look at Beltrano, who sat stony-faced. After a long pause, he blew out a loud sigh and resolved himself to continue.
Truth. Standing in front of all of you I appreciate now the courage such devotions require … my dear colleagues I have not been honest with you. What you have seen tonight, all of it, was happening six years ago.

There was a gasp from the crowd. Brun looked over Luke’s shoulder at Beltrano and Chung Su. He took a final sip of water and placed the glass down, resolutely continuing:
Any of you who know him know Professor Vittorio is a man that advocates science as a practical art, so showing inhuman restraint we kept the findings a secret and began work on the real “Universe Changer”, to take a ghost particle and create something completely beautiful, completely new, breeding life from the smallest of simplicities. Vittorio believed in balance, the overwhelming need for the universe to balance itself, Yin and Yang, perfect harmony.

Confused faces flashed left and right, the energy was again picking up.
We examined the neutrino in every way possible, we were studying the speed of the neutrinos and from this seismic shift in how we viewed the universe Vittorio and I opened our minds to any possibility … the neutrino must be part of the harmony of the universe … balance.

Brun stopped himself, unsure how to continue. There was a pregnant silence, some of the greatest minds on the planet were whirring and processing, Brun found a way to continue.
These studies led us down many paths, the vast majority of which were dead ends. Like our colleagues before us, Bahcall, Davies, and the master of them all, Fermi, we were working off pure neutrino theory. I would like to say that we laid out a simple theory and proved it. That, I’m afraid, would be a lie; what we found was purely accidental, although many would argue that in our world nothing is accidental if you are looking hard enough. Vittorio felt it was the universe’s way of showing us the way. I am sure all of you are very confused.

Brun looked into the distance, his eyes glazing over.
Imagine harnessing the most abundant particle in the known universe, giving it a purpose … we achieved it. We breathed life into the neutrino … how? Yin and Yang.

The entire room was now baffled, Brun had wandered into his own world. People heard what he was saying, and each had their own deciphered version of the meaning, but no one was sure.

Tonight will be my last night on the OPERA project, I hereby resign my position. But as my one parting gift I will be publishing our full findings, no exclusions, no lies. We have used the neutrino to create something truly practical that the world can use … I will detail everything, and prove why we believe we have found the greatest discovery of the past 2,000 years.

With that, Brun took his notes and headed for the exit. At first everybody just watched and said nothing, transfixed by what they had just heard. There was so much to take in not even such brilliant minds could register it. Beltrano remained seated, no expression. Chung Su stood instinctively, wanting to follow Brun, the child inside her sparked with curiosity, but her legs refused to move.

Luke was not listening, his attention had been pulled in another direction, his eyes fixed on the back of the room; out of instinct he gently touched the outline of his Sig Sauer. Two men had just entered, within seconds he placed their faces, it was the two men who had followed Brun and Chung Su in the red Nissan.
Adapt, focus, reassess.

The guests were now stood furiously chatting and debating. Luke kept his breathing steady,
humans are animals by instinct, they can sense agitation and stress
. He needed to move, the angle he was positioned at was too open to exposure. He stood and drifted to the right-hand wall.

His eyes never left the two men; up this close he could see them a lot clearer than through the window of the Nissan. The one closest was around five-foot-ten in height, he sported thick black curly hair down to his ears, his skin was a coffee brown and his build was slight, Luke didn’t like the eyes; they were narrow and black, darting around nervously. The second man had split off and was moving along the far wall. He was around the same height as his compatriot but had a shaved head, and his tanned face was narrow and gaunt. He mouthed something at his colleague, Luke focused on the lips…
they are speaking Farsi.
He stored the information.

They were looking for someone,
Chung Su.
Luke’s brain processed everything in front of him. It was a brazen move to show up and enter such an event, it didn’t make sense.
How did they get in?
The men circled the room. Chung Su was chatting again with the Carabinieri at the table, but Luke saw her notice the man with the shaved head. Her eyes widened slightly and without thinking she recoiled in her chair …
she recognises him, she has seen him before.
Luke knew time was critical, they would spot Chung Su very soon; the fact she was sat down was all that hid her.

He didn’t like the odds, the room was packed with innocent people. He glanced at Brun, the professor was stood with a gaggle of people around him. He looked back at Chung Su, she was now standing and saying something to the Carabinieri, she looked petrified. To Luke’s amazement she didn’t take the officer with her as she grabbed her coat and backed away through the crowd.

Chung Su was Luke’s priority, driven by the instinct that she was a key player. As Chung Su backed terrified through the other guests the man on the far wall spotted her leaving. He waited until she exited then swiftly moved after her.

Are they armed? What are they carrying? Are there more waiting outside?
Luke worked at lightning speed, trying to find a strategy. The second man now noticed his colleague heading back toward the entrance. Luke hugged the wall as he moved behind the pair. Pinned to the wall at head-height as he passed were three sorry-looking balloons. A thought rushed through his mind; he gripped one of the balloons and squeezed tight. The balloon popped with an almighty bang, everyone turned to see what had caused the noise. Luke kept his eyes on the two men’s hands, they went instantly to their waistbands;
they are armed
.

Group 9 trained its operatives so that they could bypass normal thought processes, everything was an instinctual reaction, if the normal decision process and logical rationale of fear could be disrupted then they could act with freedom. In that moment Luke was the embodiment of that training; he burst forward from the wall, taking large steps, driving between the two converging men. He no longer cared about cover; he had to get to Chung Su before they did.