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

of tests.’ He turned to face the room. “It is quite extraordinary, when we get so close to our test this literally becomes our home. These men and women give up their lives above ground and actually move in below the earth. They eat, sleep, breathe the experiment, there is so much to get ready, everything must be calibrated and working, we only get the one chance …” Brun caught a lump in his throat. Glancing at Miss Chung he regained himself and gave a wink.
    The beam he was referring to was a concentrated beam of neutrinos, dispatched from CERN in Switzerland. They were sent hurtling toward the Gran Sasso Laboratory by a giant machine called the Super Proton Synchrotron, which was seven kilometres in circumference, and which produced and fired out beams of protons. These protons, after certain interventions, finally spread neutrinos outward toward the facility through the rock. Chung Su felt tingles run down her spine. To be so close to such an event was mesmerising. She looked down at the floor of Hall C, then around at the technicians in the room. It was odd – she didn’t think there were many people working considering a projection was occurring in four days, but she was too excited to really care.
    “Professor … may I? I understand it is very controlled, but could I …?”
    “Could you be present for the detection?” he finished her sentence.
    All Chung Su could do was nod; she felt like a schoolgirl asking a teacher.
    Brun did not answer immediately, he rubbed the tips of his fingers together, then looked around the room. After a long pause he said, “Oh I think you will be welcome, Miss Chung …”
    Chung Su would have been overjoyed at the news she could be present, if it hadn’t been for the anguish in Brun’s eyes. She held his gaze, until he broke it and adopted a jovial tone. “Now, we must move on. We have so much to show you and such little time. Follow me.”
    Chung Su hurried through the desks, before she stopped dead in her tracks. Stood at the far end of the room were two newly arrived men who looked just like the men from the red car. A second look showed her that they were not the same men but there were striking similarities. Jet black hair, dark skin, and eyes that were like black holes.
    They are not technicians …
    Standing casually enough, something about their posture and demeanor didn’t fit with their surroundings. One of them looked straight at her.
    “Miss Chung, come on … as you know, I like speed,” Brun urged.
    Both men were now looking at her. One gave a friendly enough smile and they walked off to separate stations.
    Stop being so paranoid … you are a scared fool. Silly girl.
    She shimmied past a busy technician playing the control desk like a Steinway, and ventured out after Brun, trying to work out where her countrymen could be.

14.
    The day had passed by at a painfully slow pace and to make everything more excruciating there had been absolutely nothing of merit to note. As the day had worn on Luke had seen a lone man appear over to his left scaling the tree-dotted bank that lead to the summit where Luke’s observation post lay. The man had been dressed in ragged clothing and had taken a long time to claw his way up. At one stage Luke had thought the man would discover him, but as he breached the ridge it became clear that he was heavily intoxicated. He probably couldn’t even see the floor in front of him let alone pick out the car and its occupant.
    The night was a lot colder than previous evenings and Luke now sat with gloves, hat and coat on and the obligatory crack in the window. The time was 7.40 p.m. and since Brun had entered that morning there had been no sign of him, his rust bucket still sat in the same space. Patience was not an issue for Luke, the endless waiting, watching, observing, processing, that was all easy to manage. The toughest part of surveillance was the silence. No matter how hard he focused, how aware he stayed it never fully kept