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

by James Flynn

  She didn’t answer.

  The man turned his head and levelled his eyes at her, she shivered.

  “This is not a game, time is not a luxury we have. There are two options: the first is you share with me what you know, and maybe I can help both of us get what we want; the second is that you stay silent and I pass you back to the men who want you dead.”

  Chung Su felt her lip wobble, she fought the emotion. She would not let her country down by becoming upset.

  “Talk.” He spoke gently.

  “I don’t know anything.” Chung Su pulled her legs tight to her chest.

  Luke shifted his body to face her and shook his head. “Let’s start with what you do know.”

  Chung Su wanted to tell him that she had been ordered to undertake the mission and that it was not her choice. She almost laughed at the absurdity of the word mission. She had not even got close.

  “Focus, Miss Chung. What are you doing in Teramo?” Luke asked.

  “I was invited by CERN and the National Laboratory to be a special guest at the gala yesterday evening.” She choked at having her lifetime dream shattered.

  “But that is not all you are here for is it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why else were you here? And don’t waste time lying, people don’t try to kill you if you are just here to indulge in scientific chit chat.”

  Chung Su began to panic. “I came here because I was invited, I have no idea what any of this is about.”

  “I think you do.” Luke let the pistol drop into view. “Who were the two men who tried to kill you?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, I have never seen them before.”

  Luke stood up and walked over to the window, the time was approaching 3.30 p.m. and the winter sun was deep into its decline. It would soon disappear behind the Gran Sasso.

  “You are no good to me if you lie, and if you are no good to me then I have no need for you, that means you are on your own. Good luck.”

  Chung Su felt her options running out. She did not want to give information to the stranger but she also knew he was right. He protected her the previous evening. There was little doubt that without him she would be dead.

  “I am going to give you one more chance, Miss Chung. I shall make it easier. I saw you recognise the two men, so I know that wasn’t the first time you had seen them. Who are they?”

  Lying back on her makeshift bed Chung Su hesitated, then finally said, “I did recognise them. I think they have been following me since I arrived here. But I do not know why, or who they are.”

  Luke could tell she was telling the truth; he scrutinised her breathing and tone of voice. “Have they been the only people you have noticed following you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Professor Brun tell you anything about what he was going to talk about last night?”

  The question caught Chung Su off-guard. “Errr, I don’t …”

  “I know you have had discussions with Professor Brun since you have been here. I need to know what you talked about.”

  “We just … err … we talked about our work, which is what I was here for.”

  “Our work? What is your work?”

  Chung Su’s face flushed. “I am a physicist undertaking research in the same area as Professor Brun, particle physics and sub-atomic reactions; our work crosses over on many levels.”

  Luke didn’t need details. “And did you discuss what the professor was going to say at the gala?”

  I only wish we had, thought Chung Su. For the first time she replayed Brun’s words. Her breath caught in her throat, at the sheer gravity of what he had claimed. We were so far behind. She suddenly felt trapped in the bare room, wanting only to find Brun and question him. How have they given it life? If such a thing were true then it was staggering, a true paradigm shift … it can’t be true.

  “Miss Chung.” Luke brought her back. “Did you discuss what the professor was going to say at the gala?”

  “No, well not exactly.”

  “Go on.”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. The professor did talk to me about progressions he had made in his work. I had also read the recent release of information from CERN in regards to Professor Brun’s and …” she hesitated, “well, Professor Brun’s studies.”

  “The studies that we now know were falsely portrayed as recent, you mean.” Luke rested against the wall.

  Do I tell him the truth? The weight of the secret she was keeping now weighed heavier than ever. She was alone and frightened, nothing made sense and she wondered if she could pour everything out to the stranger sat opposite. Would it bring relief? The truth. The truth that she had spent the past five years of her life replicating Vittorio and Brun’s neutrino observation experiments, and the truth that she and her team were only just at the point of calibrating machinery. The realisation that they were so far behind embarrassed her. She knew she could not tell anyone about her country’s experiments … for the good of the nation and its people. If she told she could be jeopardising the very men she had come to find.

  “Focus, Miss Chung. What do you know of Professor Vittorio?”

  Chung Su could now see the direction the questioning was heading. She was scared that her inexperience would betray her, she wanted to deflect. “Who are you? Why did you save me?”

  “Vittorio, what do you know about him?” Luke persisted.

  “I know what everyone else knows, he is a great scientist, who does great work.”

  “And that he is missing.”

  “Yes, we all know this. But I do not know anything about that, I swear.”

  “Professor Vittorio is missing, and it seems very few people know where he is.” Luke stared at her, even though dishevelled she was striking.

  “Is that what all this is about?” she asked.

  “You tell me, Miss Chung. All I know is Professor Vittorio is missing, and two people are trying to kill a North Korean scientist who is apparently just visiting for a very secretive scientific gala.”

  Chung Su didn’t answer; she didn’t have anything to add.

  Luke knew the best way to get honesty from a subject was to talk about what they felt comfortable with. “How big is the discovery that Brun talked about tonight?”

  “Big? How big? I do not think this English word big is a term that relates. This cannot be talked about with such terms.”

  Luke could sense she wanted to talk, so he let the silence hang.

  She obliged and continued: “When you find something that travels faster than the speed of light it is something truly remarkable, and frightening. We put so much faith in the laws of physics laid down by our predecessors. But if that platform is taken away … well then we must go back and look again at everything. But here … what Brun was suggesting last night is something that goes beyond that, a neutrino … do you know what that is?”

  Luke had a vague idea from Brun but he shook his head to keep the flow. “It is more than just a triumph of nature, it is a triumph of our understanding of the world we live in. The greatest minds of the human race conceived an idea with nothing but pure theoretical physics, and went about proving it. The practical work, the endless testing, testing, testing. The neutrino is yet another example of human brilliance. But none of us were ready for the leap that was claimed last night.” Chung Su was now talking to herself. “What have they done?”

  Luke analysed every twitch of her eyes, every quirk in her tone. There was an exceptional deep personal connection with what she was talking about, not a passion as much as an emotional investment. “You tell me what they have done, Miss Chung.”

  There were so many competing thoughts running through Chung Su’s mind. She replayed Brun’s words. Yin and Yang … balance … we have given the neutrino life. It was all so cryptic, yet her heart felt clear. “I think, no, I surmise, that from what Brun was saying they have found a way of making the neutrino interact with the world around it. You see, t
he neutrino is called the ghost particle because it does not interact with the world around it; billions of neutrinos stream through rock, earth… everything. We long believed it not to have a mass at all.”

  “Then how did they make it interact?” Luke asked.

  Chung Su wished she had the answer, there was so much she wanted to ask. Yin and Yang. The eternal balance, why would he use that term? She shook her head, indicating she had no idea. “I do know that should this be true then it would change the world. Sheer volume alone means there are endless possibilities as to what it could do. It could do so much, imagine an endless supply of particles that could be harnessed, the energy…it could free the world.”

  Hearing Chung Su say the words hit home to Luke that this was no longer an ordinary reconnaissance mission, everything had changed. The violence at the Observatory would be a mere taster. If such a discovery meant something so epic, it could alter the landscape of human existence, and all he could picture was destruction.

  “I think you overestimate the human race’s desire to bring freedom,” Luke continued. “You say none of you were prepared for what Brun had to present, was there anyone else who knew the work they were doing?”

  Chung Su tried to give no sign of her nervousness. “No.”

  The answer was too quick. Luke asked again, “Who else knew, Chung Su?.” He stared directly into her eyes.

  She felt the sweat gathering under her arms. “I … I don’t see how anyone could know, it was such a surprise. We don’t even know what they have really done, you heard Brun, he was not clear”

  “Claiming they have a result was a surprise, which does not mean what they were trying to achieve was a secret.”

  Chung Su’s hands stroked her hair. “I don’t know if anyone knew.” The thought had only really just occurred to her, the confusion had numbed her brain. We were meant to know what they were doing … why did we not get the feedback?

  Luke slotted chunks of information together, a jigsaw from his time in Teramo. The pieces were loose and hazy but he was trained to keep trying permutations and then trying again when they didn’t fit.

  “Here is what I think, the work that Professor Vittorio was carrying out with Brun is the reason he is missing. The discovery of the speed of the neutrino and now this other claimed discovery has taken the world by surprise, which doesn’t mean that nobody knew of the work they were carrying out. It’s quite clear these findings are extremely important to the scientific community and the world as a whole. Important enough to kill for … which begs the question, why would someone want to kill someone who doesn’t know anything about it? Seems odd, don’t you think?” His eyes bored into her.

  “I … but I don’t know anything.” She felt the weakness in her voice; flashes of her grandfather, her family, her institute reeled around inside.

  Luke was feeding Chung Su; he wanted to put pressure on her. He didn’t need her to crack straight away. She was not telling him the full story but he sensed it would come. He knew there were gaps in his theory. Why isn’t Brun dead as well?

  “We leave at 7.30 p.m., I suggest you get some more rest.” Luke didn’t know where to start, but he knew the first priority was to make sure they were safe. Then he would have to start trying to piece everything together.

  With that, Luke exited the room, leaving Chung Su alone. The urge to cry was strong but she refused, studying the secrets of the universe for her entire life had always brought with it a sense of how small she was in the grand plan of things, but sat in a stranger’s house, thousands of miles from home, the violence of the past twenty-four hours and the aching in her bones made Chung Su feel more insignificant than ever.

  31.

  The liquid caught easily, a roar of air and flame surged outwards, the heat was instant. Luke stared at the orange flicker, a bright light in the darkness. Chung Su stood a few paces behind, flames lighting her pale skin as she watched their clothes burn. She had no feelings about the beautiful dress going up in flames, she did not care, but the symbolism of it did not elude her.

  The old man had left the porridge as he said he would, but had not said goodbye. He stayed in his front room and they had let themselves out. Luke took him as a man of his word; he could have killed him but it was unnecessary, even if he did talk it wouldn’t change the situation. Perhaps the only important detail he could have given was the lack of familiarity between Luke and Chung Su.

  Luke had asked to have some of the elderly man’s clothes, and was now dressed in a thick black jumper with a flannel checked shirt and a thermal vest underneath, all of which were too big for him. For trousers he had a rugged old pair of brown corduroys with a drawstring tie. His Sig Sauer was tucked in its familiar waistband position, and he had also taken a thick-soled pair of walking boots.

  Chung Su looked just as ridiculous, she had on three t-shirts stuffed under a brown turtleneck jumper. For trousers she had opted for plain black. They almost looked like old suit trousers, but they were the closest fitting. On her feet she had also taken an old pair of boots. They were too big for her but after the previous night she cared only that they were warm, and the three pairs of socks helped.

  Luke knew they would not blend in very well once in Teramo but he had to play with what he had been dealt, his primary concern was making sure they both survived the night. He had been relieved when the old man offered up two pairs of gloves and a woolly hat. Luke had given Chung Su the hat and told her to tuck her hair into the turtleneck; it would help trap warmth around her neck. Luke held two red petrol canisters, he had spotted them in the man’s garden and asked if he could take them with some matches. The old man didn’t question it, he just handed them over.

  Luke tossed the canister in his left hand onto the fire, it was empty. The other canister would be taken with them, it was crucial to the next step in the strategy. Luke checked his watch; it was 7.26 p.m. He had remained awake for the past few hours going over available information. It had not really helped. The one face he couldn’t get out of his head was that of the older Carabinieri … why did he not shoot at me?

  Luke turned his face away from the fire, and the lights of Teramo blurred in the haze, a mirage in the darkness. They were south of the town but Luke had decided to enter it from the north; it was the furthest point from the Observatory, and he assumed the most intense form of activity would be focused on the southern edge, with authorities fanning out into the surrounding countryside.

  Without saying a word, Luke started off across the solid ground. Chung Su followed reluctantly behind. He reckoned they would reach an entry point within a couple of hours, three max if Chung Su was still feeling sore.

  “Where are we going?” she whispered against the wind.

  “Teramo,” Luke said over his shoulder.

  The idea of heading back into the town filled her with fear; she wanted to run as far away as possible. Chung Su’s limbs felt like lead, she was physically exhausted, the porridge had been welcome but she needed more rest. Still, she was proud that she hadn’t divulged what her country had asked of her. The man striding ahead had asked her to call him Robert. Her hope soared for a moment. Maybe he knows what has become of my countrymen?

  A specific image of her office within her own laboratory flashed into her mind, the Newton’s cradle she had on a sideboard next to her desk, her tatty old swivel chair, the window overlooking the courtyard where she would sometimes pass hours lost in her own thoughts and theories. She shivered as the wind attacked again from all angles. Brun’s speech at the Gala kept pricking at her mind, wrenching at her stomach. It was a selfish response, she could not believe what he was claiming he and Vittorio had achieved. She had always been of the belief that they were so close to putting her homeland where it belonged on the world stage. How did we not know?

  Pulling her hat down so that it covered her neck and as much of her forehead and face as possible she moved unsteadily behind her mystery stranger, heading into the unknown.

  “
Robert, will it take long?” she asked in vain.

  But Luke didn’t answer, in silence he led them across the alien terrain.

  32.

  “Oh for heaven’s sake Roland, will you look alive? You have been sat in that chair since this morning, barely even moving. It won’t do you any good at all; it certainly won’t help the situation.” Brun did not acknowledge his wife; he just continued to stare out the window, watching the Teramo lights twinkle below. Giving up, she stormed out.

  What have I done? The question was now a mantra. He had sat in the old chair in the living room all day asking it over and over, and still he had no answer. The Observatory seemed like a blur, faces and noise were all he could remember … and gunshots. He shuddered at the whole event. Had he made a major mistake? There was no conscious process to what he had done, it had just happened, a rare time in his life that his heart had taken over his mind. Vittorio must understand … must see why it had to come out.

  A lump caught in his throat at the thought of Professor Vittorio. What have I done?

  Brun stood and walked over to the large bay window, leaning on the window ledge. Only now had he started deciphering the heavy feeling that had clouded his days for the past few years, a feeling that had been ever-present, lurking in the shadows. He had always put it down to late nights and stress, the passion of the work driving him on. But with the unravelling of a dream came clarity. It had never been stress, it had been the comprehension that what he was doing was wrong, but I was working for the greater good, it was a revelation for the whole of mankind.

  He let out a deep sigh, and his breath wobbled with emotion. The police had caught up with him that morning at home. They were particularly keen to know who a mystery man called Robert Reid was; Brun clenched his jaw and closed his eyes. Poor Miss Chung. The man had taken her, the man who had sat in his workshop and threatened him with a gun. The day he had spent with her had been a most enjoyable time; she had allowed him to forget all the stress, all the pain and lose himself in his first love, science. He had told the police nothing about Robert Reid’s visit, he could not. He felt like a drowning man suddenly confronted with his own death who realises all the mistakes he has made but no longer has the power to rectify them.