The God Particle (27 page)

It was just after two in the morning when the Sherriff’s
posse arrived to search the tunnels. Tom explained to them what had just taken
place. With a successful beam dump and system shut-down, a Coroner was called
who pronounced Deiter dead at the scene – a surprise to no one, given the
horrific injuries. What was left of his decapitated body was taken away and
deposited at the County morgue.

Tom had made use of the extra man-power to search for the
override panel that Deiter had tripped, to deactivate the thermal shields. By 4
am, the officers had found the breaker, reset it and then decamped to their
homes for a well-deserved rest, leaving Jed and Tom alone in the control room
to restart the collider.

The effects of the adrenalin rush that Tom had experienced
during the fight were wearing off, leaving him tired and drained. What was
more, he could feel the site of every punch and kick where Deiter had struck
his body over the last twenty-four hours. He had patched himself up as best he
could using a first aid box and a mirror in the washroom, but his face looked
as though it had gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. The cut above his eye would
need re-stitching; however, for the time being, it would have to make do with a
temporary dressing held in place with sticking plasters.

‘Ya look like shite. Are ya sure ya can carry on?’ Jed
asked, troubled by his friend’s appearance.

‘I’m fine,’ replied Tom. ‘Besides, I don’t think I’ve got
much choice. Somebody has to make sure you don’t overlook anything this time.’
Tom was referring to Jed’s oversight at not checking whether the thermal
shields were activated the last time they ran the collider.

‘Bollocks!’ was Jed’s only response.

‘Now boys, play nicely!’

They both turned in their chairs at the sound of Serena’s
voice.

‘Serena, what are you doing here? Have they discharged you?’
Tom got up to give her his seat.

‘Not exactly,’ she replied. ‘I discharged myself. I
overheard the nurses talking about the fugitive who had murdered their doctor –
they said he’d been cornered here. Apparently, there’d been a shootout and he’d
been killed. So I came to see if you two were alright and if you needed any
help. And, by the look of your face, Tom, it’s a good job I did.’

‘You could have just phoned,’ Tom said reproachfully,
concerned for her well-being.

‘And would you have told me the truth?’ Serena gave him a
knowing look.

‘Well… probably not,’ Tom had to admit.

‘So, now I’m here, what do you want me to do?’ The
determination in her voice put an end to any thoughts Tom may have had about
persuading her to go back to the hospital.

Acquiescing, Tom grabbed a spare chair and pulled it up to
join the other two. ‘Okay, Jed and I will operate the collider, while you
monitor any changes in direction or speed of magnetic north. We’re looking for
a decrease in acceleration.’ He pointed to the last column of figures displayed
in the table on the laptop. ‘If you see an increase, let us know immediately
and we’ll shut the system down.’

‘Then what do we do?’ Serena asked.

‘Pray and head for higher ground. Ideally where there are no
volcanoes,’ he smiled ruefully. ‘But I’m sure
that
won’t be necessary,’
he added optimistically, in an attempt to bolster everybody’s spirits, but
neither of his two colleagues were convinced.

***

Four hours into the collider’s operation and they were
gradually joined by a stream of technicians just starting their day. Word was
going around the complex about what they were trying to achieve, drawing a
small crowd that formed in a semi-circle behind the three seated individuals.
Within the hour the room was packed, spilling out into the corridors, the
latecomers being informed of any changes by the people who could see the
gigantic image on the wall, projected from Serena’s laptop. Jed had had to set
up the connection in response to the ‘How’s it going?’ question invariably
asked by new arrivals.

The simple answer was that it wasn’t going anywhere. The
collider was running at its maximum capacity within the safety parameters
dictated by the thermal shields, but it didn’t seem to be having an effect on
the geomagnetic field, which was still accelerating in a southerly direction.

‘Jed, we need more power,’ Tom instructed.

‘I’m giving it all she’s got, Captain,’ Jed replied in a
strong, virtually indecipherable Scottish accent.

‘Sorry?’ Tom said, a little taken aback.

‘Ah, you’re obviously not a Trekkie,’ Jed responded, rather
embarrassed.

‘Trekkie?’

‘
Star Trek
,’ Jed clarified.

‘Sorry, I’ve never watched it.’

‘Feck me, you call yourself a man of science and you’ve
never seen
Star Trek
!’ Jed tut-tutted whilst shaking his head.

‘…and the power?’ Tom prompted.

‘If I increase the power, the system will reach critical
temperature sooner and will shut down prematurely,’ Jed explained.

‘It might be worth the risk. A short, intense blast of
electromagnetic radiation might have more of an effect than a sustained weaker
field.’

‘Aye, Aye Captain,’ replied Jed. ‘Switching to warp speed.’

‘More
Star Trek
?’ Tom ventured.

Jed just smiled and turned back to the control panel, keying
in a new set of instructions which increased the speed of the beams circulating
the collider. He flicked to a new screen that showed a corresponding rise in
the core temperature. He split the screen and had the two sets of figures
running side by side. He raised the power further. An increase in beam velocity
was followed by an incremental rise in temperature.

‘At this speed, I reckon we’ve got fifteen minutes before
the failsafe kicks in and the system shuts down,’ Jed advised.

‘Any change in the field’s acceleration?’ Tom asked Serena.

‘No, it’s still the same.’

‘Can you increase the power anymore?’

‘Marginally, but the running time will be reduced,’ Jed
replied.

‘Do it!’ Tom directed.

As Jed returned his attention to the control panel, Tom
looked up at the image from the laptop projected onto the wall in front of him,
willing the red line to slow down.

‘Five minutes to shut-down,’ Jed announced.

The red line seemed stationary, but the scrolling numeric
values indicated otherwise. It was still accelerating.

‘Four minutes,’ Jed continued.

Still no change.

‘Three minutes.’

Tom studied the acceleration figures in the last column of
the table.
Had he discerned a slight variance?

‘Two minutes.’

Yes, it was definitely there.
He stood up to get a
better view;
his focus never wavered, shutting out everything around him
apart from the scrolling figures on the wall.

‘One minute.’

The values were diminishing. It still meant the field was
accelerating, but not by as much.

‘Thirty seconds.’

The figures continued to fall towards zero. Someone at the
back of the room shouted out that it was stopping; he was silenced by a hundred
pairs of eyes turning in his direction, willing him to be quiet, as if his
outburst would change the outcome.

‘Ten seconds.’

And then the first green value appeared on the screen,
signifying that the field was actually slowing down, followed by another and
then another.

‘Beam dump initiated.’

Tom stood staring at the wall in front of him, transfixed by
the scrolling green numbers. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Had it
worked? Had they really managed to slow the geomagnetic field down?

The spontaneous cheer from the crowd filling his ears seemed
to be all the confirmation he needed, as the room erupted in a jubilant uproar,
bringing him back to his senses. Serena was ecstatic by his side, jumping up
and down with a huge grin on her face. She flung her arms around his neck and
continued her jig. Jed, not prone to outbursts of emotion, was similarly
animated; he had grabbed the nearest person to him, an elderly woman with thick
glasses and a tight bob, and was swinging her off her feet. She seemed to be
enjoying it. He put her down and went over to Tom, slapping him on the back.

‘You did it, wee man. You bloody well did it!’

‘
We
did it,’ Tom corrected. ‘
We
did it.’

‘When did the doctors say he’ll be allowed to go home?’

Tom and Serena were standing on one side of Ajay’s bed.
Frederick, looking suddenly older than his years, was on the other. The patient
had lost interest in the conversation and had tuned into a comedy programme on
the TV.

‘In a few more days,’ Frederick replied. ‘The bullet lodged
in his rib cage. He was lucky it was a ricochet and didn’t have the full force
to penetrate his lungs. Otherwise, we may be looking at a different scenario.’

It had been two weeks since Tom, Jed and Serena had fired up
the collider at Brookhaven, effectively stopping magnetic north’s transition
south. It had localised just off the coast of Greenland, which meant that most
of Northern Europe would have to navigate using a compass pointing to magnetic
west, whilst those in Canada had magnetic east as a guide. The rest of the
world would just have to rely on Satellite Navigation and GPS for their
bearings, which was no great hardship to anybody apart from a few million boy
scouts.

The natural disasters had all but petered out. There were a
few rumblings from some active volcanoes, but nothing that would make the
headlines.

Flying back into Geneva, Tom and Serena had expected a
welcoming committee consisting of Interpol, the local police and even the Swiss
Army; but, as they passed through customs into the arrivals hall, the only
person waiting for them was Frederick. He had explained, on the way to the
hospital to see Ajay, that Gervaux and Lavelle had cornered Deiter’s henchmen, who
had then given themselves up without a fight. What was more, once they had
started to talk they couldn’t shut them up; they spilled the beans on all
Deiter’s activities. By the end of their confessions, they had implicated their
boss in the death of Professor Morantz, the explosion that killed the
maintenance workers and the attempted murder of Frederick, Ajay, Serena and
Tom.

Liaising with Sherriff Watkins, in Suffolk County, Gervaux
had concluded the case, dropping all charges pertaining to everyone apart from
Dr Deiter Weiss and his mercenaries.

‘So, the Inspector believed Deiter’s thugs when they told
him that he was responsible for everything?’ Tom asked.

Frederick gave him a sly look. ‘I’d already had a word with
the Police Commissioner.’

‘You know him well?’ Tom queried.

Frederick gave a short laugh. ‘Let’s just say SHIVA has many
fingers in many pies, to borrow one of your expressions.’

Tom knew not to push the topic any further, so changed the
subject. ‘So what are you going to do now, Frederick?’

‘That all really depends on you, Tom. What are
your
plans?’
the older man countered.

‘As of an hour ago, the only plans I was making were to stay
out of prison, so I haven’t really had much of a chance to think about it. But
I will say that I have been offered a position at Brookhaven – Charles’s old
job.’

‘Do you think you’ll take it?’ Frederick pushed.

‘Probably,’ Tom conceded. ‘I don’t think the Swiss air is
all that good for me.’

Tom could see Frederick looking at Serena. He realised he’d
been a bit tactless, as he hadn’t discussed any of this with her. He didn’t see
the point if he was going to spend the next thirty years in a Swiss gaol. He
turned to her now.

‘I will, of course, need someone to manage all the
statistical data that we generate from any new projects I instigate.’

‘Ha!’ she said in mock indignation. ‘Make it a directorship
and I may just think about it.’

Their banter was interrupted by Ajay, who had sat bolt
upright and appeared to be having a fit.

‘Sh… Sh… Sh…,’ was all he could manage.

They followed his eyes to the TV screen to see a news
bulletin breaking. The reporter was broadcasting live from Yellowstone National
Park. In the background was what looked like a huge domed mountain, several
hundred feet high and at least a mile in diameter. As the footage switched to
an aerial view from a circling helicopter, the top of it exploded, throwing
millions of tonnes of rock and ash into the air, in an incandescent display of
force. The picture went black, transmission lost.

‘Sh… Shiva,’ Ajay finally managed to say.

The End

Born in Yorkshire in 1961, Daniel spent his formative years
with his head buried squarely in a book. His appetite for literature was
insatiable; by the time he was a teenager he had read an entire library of
books, from ‘the classics’ to popular fiction, but his preferred genre was
action and adventure, citing Frederick Forsyth, Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum
amongst his favourite authors.

It was inevitable that he would take his passion into
adulthood and, in 1979, went to Manchester University, graduating with a first
class honours degree in English Literature. After a short spell as a journalist
at the Manchester Evening News, he recognised the commercial potential of the
newly emerging computer industry and joined IBM, where, his forward-thinking
creativity was put to good use, developing some of the computer platforms that
are still recognise as the industry standard, today.

Daniel left IBM in 1995 to
set up his own company. Carving a career as an internet entrepreneur left
little time for him to pursue his dream of writing his own novel, although, his
passion for reading never waned and was rarely seen without the latest
best-selling novel in his hand.

Daniel now works as a freelance writer and, with the
encouragement of his family, has finally found the time to put pen to paper.
His first novel, inspired by a business trip to Geneva, where he overheard two
technicians from the nearby CERN institute discussing the Hadron Collider,
delves into a sinister world where humanity has reached a tipping point of
developing technology so profound, that it can destroy the human race.

His exciting thriller
 
The God Particle
 
has been published by Aventura and is
available from major online ebookstores.

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