The God Particle

by Daniel Danser

  ‘Aye, you look as though you need fattening up, and I know just the place,’ Jed replied, linking arms with them both to lead them out of the airport.

  CHAPTER 33

  On the way to Brookhaven, they made a brief pit stop at a 24-hour diner cum watering hole named Stars ‘N’ Bars where, Tom and Serena had been reliably informed, they served the best Jambalaya this side of the Mississippi, not to mention the best Mojito outside of Mexico. Cherie, their waitress, wearing a little too much foundation and lipstick for her age, seemed to know Jed well. From their flirtatious banter, it was obvious to Tom that his old friend had spent more than a few nights sampling the delights on offer, which probably included Cherie.

  Jed himself was no oil painting. Now in his mid-fifties the once tall, broad-shouldered, lithe frame had turned flabby thanks to years of over-indulgence. The broken nose he’d received as a young firebrand in his native city of Glasgow hadn’t quite set right, giving him the appearance of an ex-boxer. His unfashionably long, strawberry-blond hair, tied back in a ponytail, was starting to recede and turn grey.

  But there was something about him that seemed to attract the opposite sex. Perhaps it was the rebel in him, still evident behind his watery blue eyes, or his free spirit which, mistakenly, drove women to think that they could be the one to tame him. Many had tried, all had failed.

  Tom couldn’t recall a day he’d seen Jed wearing anything other than his battered brown leather bomber jacket, jeans and sneakers, regardless of occasion or the weather outside. Today was no exception.

  They had first met when Tom came to Brookhaven to conduct research for his doctorate and Jed was head of the physics department. Despite the age difference, they had bonded immediately, mainly due to Jed’s youthful outlook on life rather than any maturity on Tom’s part. For over two years they were inseparable, both socially and academically, and it was in no small part thanks to Jed, and despite the alcohol-fuelled nights, that Tom graduated summa cum laude, the highest distinction achievable at MIT.

  ‘Remember that time in Tijuana, when I saved ya sorry arse?’ Jed was about to recant one of his favourite anecdotes, one that Tom had heard a thousand times and never failed to embarrass him.

  ‘Jed, I don’t think we’ve got time for this,’ he replied. ‘We’d better get going.’

  ‘What’s the rush? Trying to save the world?’

  Tom caught Serena’s eye. ‘As a matter of fact…’

  ‘Aye, well, that can wait, laddie.’ He cut Tom off mid-sentence before turning to Serena. ‘Ya see, wee Tom here had just bought this clapped-out Beetle, so we decided to go on a road trip over the border into Mexico.’

  ‘There was nothing wrong with that car,’ Tom interrupted indignantly and resigned himself to the fact that he’d have to hear the story one more time.

  ‘Aye, apart from the three times it broke down on the way there and four on the way back. Anyways, we eventually get over the border. On our way to Tijuana, we spot these two young lasses hitchhiking. Well, being the gents that we are, we stop and give them a lift. Turns out they live there. When we get to the town, they want to show their appreciation and offer to buy us a drink in the local cantina. Being parched from the dusty road, we kindly accept their offer. To cut a long story short, after several large cervezas, poor Tom here is feeling a little the worse for wear and asks the bartender if they have any rooms available so he can sleep it off. Luckily, they had two left so I take one and Tom has the other.’

  Tom gave Serena an embarrassed smile and raised his eyes skywards, as there was no hope of stopping Jed now.

  ‘By this stage,’ continued Jed, ‘the poor wee lamb can hardly walk, so one of the girls helps him up the stairs. She must have been tired herself because she didn’t come back down, leaving me in the bar to entertain the other young lady – out of politeness, of course. After about an hour or so, me and the gal are getting on famously, hitting the tequila, when suddenly in barges this middle-aged, fat, sweaty bloke carrying a shotgun and dashes upstairs. He kicks open the door to Tom’s room and disappears inside.’

  ‘Oh no!’ said Serena, obviously enjoying the story.

  ‘Well,’ said Jed, ‘I can’t speak the lingo, but I can tell straight away from the raised voices that this guy’s not too pleased. So I excuse myself from the young lady and go to find out what all the commotion is about. I can hear through the door that Tom and his new friend have found the intrusion a little distressing, to say the least. She’s rambling on in Spanish, he’s wailing like a banshee, while the only word I can make out is Papa. By now I’ve sussed out that Tom may need a little help, so I kick open the door, not realising that the fat bloke’s behind it. He goes sprawling and the shotgun goes off, taking half the ceiling down with it. Well, ya can imagine the look on everybody’s face.’ Jed let out a huge belly laugh and took a sip or two of his drink.

  ‘Anyway, thinking we’ve probably outstayed our welcome, I grab Tom by the arm and yank him out of bed, only to discover he’s stark-bollock naked – excuse ma French. Our boy here had the good sense to take his clothes off before going to sleep, but he’s thrown them all around the room. I grab a couple of items I can see and we run like hell before the fat bloke realises he’s got another shot left in the barrel.

  ‘Halfway back to the crossing, Tom’s in the passenger seat struggling to put on his jeans, only to realise they’re five sizes too small for him. I must have picked the wee lass’s up by mistake! Ya should have seen the looks we got from the immigration officials when we tried to explain our predicament. Can ye imagine what they must have thought: an older man driving a half-naked young boy over the border from Mexico in a beaten-up VW Beetle. I’m surprised they let us back in at all.’

  ‘Did you hear from the girl again?’ Serena asked Tom.

  ‘Just the once,’ he replied meekly. ‘It turned out that she was the Mayor’s daughter. Her father, the one with the shotgun, swore that if he ever saw me again he would “hunt me down like a rabid dog and have me castrated”. I think those were her exact words. Funnily enough, I’ve never had the urge to go to Mexico again.’

  Jed barked out a laugh and slapped Tom on the back. ‘C’mon, wee man, we can’t sit around here gassing all day. I need to get you back to Brookhaven so ya can save the world.’

  CHAPTER 34

  On the short journey to the laboratory, Tom gave Jed a potted version of the events leading up to their arrival.

  ‘Sounds like a right nutter, this Deiter,’ Jed commented when Tom had finished.

  ‘That’s putting it mildly,’ Tom replied.

  ‘So, let me get this straight. You think by using the RHIC as a bloody big magnet we can pull the Earth’s electromagnetic field back into line?’

  ‘Succinctly put, as ever, Jed,’ replied Tom. ‘But no, I don’t think we’ll achieve equilibrium, just a slowing down of the Polar reversal.’

  ‘And if ya cockamamie theory doesn’t work?’

  Tom shook his head slowly. ‘Best case scenario: we ride out the effects of the reversal. Worst case: we bring on another Ice Age.’

  Jed gave a low whistle. ‘Let’s feckin hope it works, then.’

  ***

  They arrived at the security entrance to the complex just as dusk was descending. The purple mist of nightfall enshrouded the definable shapes of the buildings around them. It was cold; the sun setting in a cloudless sky belied the crispness of the evening air. Jed handed over his pass to the gatekeeper, whose breath fogged as he gave it a cursory inspection before giving it back. Tom and Serena presented their passports. The guard checked their ID against the visitors’ log and ticked off their names. The barrier rose, allowing them through.

  Like CERN’s sprawling campus, the site of the RHIC covered the area of a small town, having been built on a former US Army base. It had its own police station, fire department and postal code. Funded primarily by the US Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Laboratory was designed as a multipurpose research institution
covering a number of scientific disciplines from physics to medicine. Over three thousand scientists, engineers and support staff made Brookhaven one of the largest scientific establishments in the world.

  As they drove down the main arterial road, Tom’s memories of the halcyon days of his youth came flooding back. He had lived onsite, where there was a real sense of community connected by a shared purpose: to unravel the mysteries of the Universe, from the Nano to the cosmic scale. Anything was possible and he was going to be the one that pioneered it. As he looked out of the passenger window at the silhouettes of the trees lining the road sweeping by, it saddened him to think that age and, with it, so-called wisdom, had tempered the intrepid explorer within him. He needed to rewind the clock and tap into that indomitable spirit now if he were going to succeed.

  They pulled up outside the main building and made their way to the reception area for visitors. There, they had to re-present their passports before being issued with badges that would allow them to proceed through the sliding doors and into the inner sanctum.

  Jed led them down a long corridor, flanked on either side by the closed doors of darkened offices, towards a room at the far end, where they could see light seeping out from under the bottom. It was identified by the brass nameplate screwed onto the wall as the Research Director’s. Jed knocked resoundingly and, without waiting for a response, opened the door and showed his two charges in.

  A well-groomed, stately gentleman was just leveraging himself out of his high-backed leather chair when Tom and Serena entered. He continued with the movement, but accompanied it with a broad smile as he recognised one of the newcomers.

  ‘Tom, good to see you again,’ he exclaimed, covering the distance between them in a few strides.

  The two men shook hands warmly. Tom noticed that the preceding years hadn’t been too kind to Charles. He remembered him as a stalwart man with the vitality and vigour of someone half his age. The weak, almost effeminate, handshake was that of a fragile old man, whose features were gaunt, his eyes dulled and sunken by age. The hairline had receded to his crown and deep furrows ploughed across his forehead, linking the liver spots at his temples. Despite the ravages of time, it was obvious that he still cared about his appearance. The dark blue suit was perfectly tailored to his frame, not something that could easily be achieved off-the-peg. The silk tie with its geometric pattern and pale blue shirt complemented the made-to-measure apparel, perfectly.

  ‘Charles,’ said Tom, ‘I’d like to introduce you to Serena Mayer.’

  ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, my dear.’ The elderly gentleman’s bony fingers reached out to take her hand. ‘Come, please sit down. You must be exhausted after your long journey.’ He led her to one of the two chairs opposite his and beckoned for Tom to take the other.

  Jed, who was still standing in the doorway, shouted across the room. ‘If you don’t need me anymore boss, I’ll get cracking on firing up the beast.’ With that, he left without waiting for an answer.

  ‘Damned fine physicist, bloody awful employee,’ Charles remarked as his office door slammed shut. ‘So, why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me what all this is about,’ he said, turning his attention back to his guests.

  For over an hour Tom told him everything – everything that was, apart from Shiva’s role in trying to stop the Collider discovering the God Particle. For some reason he couldn’t explain, he felt protective over the organisation, as though he’d been let into a confidence that he couldn’t betray. He concluded by summarising what he hoped to achieve by firing up the RHIC.

  Charles listened intently, without interruption, his fingers steepled contemplatively underneath his chin. Once Tom had finished, Charles leant back in his chair, as if to digest the information. After what seemed like an eternity, he broke the silence.

  ‘When you phoned me on your way here, I took the liberty of contacting some colleagues in NASA and pulled in a couple of favours. You know they have a facility here, don’t you?’

  Tom did. ‘Yes, the NASA Space Radiation Lab.’

  Charles addressed Serena, who was looking blank. ‘We have a programme running that can identify the possible risks to astronauts associated with prolonged space travel. To study the effects of space radiation we use beams that can simulate cosmic rays.’

  ‘Sounds dangerous,’ she replied. ‘Remind me not to volunteer as a guinea pig.’

  ‘Quite,’ Charles turned back to Tom. ‘I asked them to run a simple algorithm to track magnetic north against true north, over time. As you’re aware, they’re not the same point – magnetic north tends to move around a bit.’ He adjusted the angle of the laptop on his desk so they could see the image. It showed a global map of the earth dissected by a straight red line with various points marked on it. ‘In 2001, magnetic north was determined by the Geological Survey of Canada to lie near Ellesmere Island in northern Canada. In 2009, whilst still within the Canadian Arctic territory, it was moving toward Russia at between thirty-four and thirty-seven miles per year. Last year, the pole moved just beyond the Canadian Arctic territorial claim.’

  He pressed a button on the keyboard and the image changed to a similar map but, on this one, the red line had dog-legged. ‘This is in real time. As of now, magnetic north is hovering somewhere over Greenland, travelling south at a rate of seventeen miles an hour. That means that, within the next thirty days, it will reach the South Pole.’

  Tom and Serena stared at the screen, aghast. It was obvious to them that the directional change could only have been caused by the collider. In the bottom left quadrant of the display was a scrolling table with three columns. Tom read the headings: Time, Speed, Acceleration. The first column measured second intervals, the next, the actual speed of the field, while the third had a series of red numbers in it.

  ‘Does that indicate that the field is accelerating?’ Tom pointed to the last column on the screen.

  ‘Unfortunately, yes. They change to green if the field decelerates. Since I’ve been monitoring it they’ve always been red. When I said that within the next thirty days the field will have reached the South Pole, I should have pointed out that that was at its current speed. If it carries on accelerating the way it has been, there’s no telling how long it will take.’

  ‘Can’t they extrapolate the data?’ Serena queried.

  ‘Yes, but the acceleration isn’t constant,’ replied Charles. ‘It varies by the second. The only thing we can say for certain is that the speed of the magnetic field is increasing, but by how much is anybody’s guess.’

  The phone rang on Charles’s desk. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, apologising to Tom for the interruption, and picked up the receiver. He listened to the voice on the other and then responded. ‘Good, send him straight in,’ he said, before putting the phone back in its cradle. ‘There’s somebody I’d like you to meet.’

  Tom and Serena turned in their chairs to see the door opening and the menacing figure of Deiter strolling in.

  CHAPTER 35

  Tom’s jaw dropped, his face a picture of incredulity as a thousand questions flooded his brain.

  ‘But… but how did you know we were here?’ was all he could say.

  Deiter strode across the room and positioned himself behind Tom and Serena, casually resting his hands on the back of each of their chairs. Serena cowered in her seat at the close proximity of the man who had tried to kill her. Tom was more defiant; he made to stand up, but was forced back down by a firm grip on his shoulder.

  ‘I wouldn’t do anything stupid.’ Deiter inclined his head in the direction of Charles, who had retrieved a handgun from the top drawer of his desk and was now levelling it in their direction, his hand trembling slightly as he aimed it from one to the other.

  ‘To answer your question,’ continued Deiter, ‘I followed you to the airfield and checked your flight plan. You didn’t need to be a genius to work out why you were heading to MacArthur Airport. It’s not exactly a main tourist destination. So I simply command
eered the other jet, and here I am. I phoned Charles when I’d landed, who confirmed that you were on your way.’

  Tom’s face was ashen. He turned to his old mentor. ‘I don’t understand, Charles. Why are you doing this? I explained what happened at CERN. You should be pointing that gun at him, not us.’

  ‘Deiter said that you’d try to blame him,’ replied Charles. ‘So I checked with the Swiss police, who confirmed you’re suspects in a murder enquiry, as well as being wanted for industrial sabotage. Did you really think you could just waltz in here and blow our collider up as well? If it wasn’t for Deiter and the fact that I knew you as a student, I’d have called the police and had you arrested at the gate. But he pleaded with me to give you a chance to explain yourselves. You owe him a debt of gratitude that you’re not in police custody right now, being deported back to Switzerland to face charges – which, if there isn’t a rational explanation for your actions, is exactly where you will be going.’

  Tom’s mind was working overtime. He knew he would only have the one chance to convince Charles of their innocence, and it was obvious that Deiter had the upper hand with regards to the incidents at CERN. He scanned the room for inspiration.

  ‘You have five seconds, then I’m calling the police,’ Charles warned.

  Tom’s eyes rested on a solid brass statuette of an Indian deity on the bookshelf and took a gamble. ‘Deiter’s telling the truth,’ he began. ‘I planted the explosives at CERN, but you have to believe me when I say it was a regrettable accident that those people got killed. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

  ‘Tom, what are you saying?’

  He turned to Serena. Seeing the shocked expression on her face, he tried to sooth her by telling her that they could trust Charles with the truth, but it didn’t appease her agitation.