Chasing The Dawn (Luke Temple - Book 2) (Luke Temple Series) by James Flynn Page A

finally hauled herself over the top, Brun took Chung Su’s hand and helped her to her feet. He was smiling and his grey hair was now a little dishevelled. “Apologies Miss Chung, I thought it might be nice to show you some areas other visitors don’t get to see.”
    Chung Su looked around. What is this place? A giant pane of glass ran along the length of an entire wall to her right, through it she could see out into Hall C; dotted around the rest of the space were computer stations and electrical desks. It reminded her of an air traffic control tower. There were a lot of technicians glued to their screens, and faced with an array of new workers her heart beat faster and a little dab of sweat ran across her brow. She hoped the professor thought it was because of the climb; again she let her eyes scan over their faces … they are not here. Brun ignored them all and walked Chung Su over to the glass. The view was impressive; they had ascended about three storeys, and still were not at ceiling height.
    “We are 1,400 metres below the surface here, Miss Chung … give or take a few feet, and I know I don’t need to tell you what we are looking at – this is the heartbeat of OPERA, you are looking at our two babies down there.” He gestured at the detector supermodules. “The famous twins.” Brun sighed as he spoke. “I do wish they had not been made famous so soon of course, but such is life.”
    She pressed her hand on the glass, the neutrino … she could not quite believe where she was stood. She forgot her mission, the dark cloud that hung over her, and let herself be lost in a lifelong dream. She was stood at the heart of her entire world. Her heart fluttered as she thought of Professor Vittorio … I so wish he was here. The sobering thought of her trip came flooding back.
    “I am sorry about Professor Vittorio …” Chung Su felt clumsy saying it.
    Brun continued staring out over Hall C. “Thank you.”
    She felt his desire to move on, so she let her excitement take over. “The calibration … how is the … the …” Chung Su had a thousand questions she wanted to ask, questions formed over many years, but she couldn’t find the words.
    Brun didn’t hurry her. “It is ok Miss Chung, there will be time for questions. I understand your work has taken you down similar paths.”
    Chung Su stiffened . What does he mean?
    “Please don’t be alarmed,” Brun smiled. “I am a fan of your work.” He noticed her still-frozen face. “I am afraid the physics community is a small one, your work on muon neutrinos in relation to the curvature of space is a most interesting theory.”
    Chung Su relaxed, Brun had meant an old paper she had worked on some years ago based around a theory of neutrino oscillation. Neutrinos did not just come in one single type, there were three variations: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos. She had been working towards proving the number of oscillations per light year for a neutrino. Professor Brun likes my work? She couldn’t fight the smile that crept across her face. “Thank you, Professor. It is an old paper now, but one I continue to work on. I would hope that one day the work you are doing here will help me prove my theory.”
    “The strength of an idea can only be judged by the reverberations it causes across the universe. Do you know who said that, Miss Chung?”
    She shook her head.
    “Professor Vittorio.”
    “I am sorry about Professor Vittorio,” she said again with sincerity. “I thought him a truly great man.”
    Brun nodded. His eyes were filled with pain.
    “They seem very busy,” Chung Su observed, gesturing towards the technicians, hoping to change the subject.
    “They are … we are due another beam in five days.”
    Chung Su shot a look out at the hall, had she heard right?
    “Another beam?”
    Brun sighed. “Yes, CERN are sending us another beam at 7 p.m. on Saturday. It is the first one in a couple of years, we are due to run a range