Chasing The Dawn (Luke Temple - Book 2) (Luke Temple Series) (49 page)

He is here …

Luke felt the weight of the man on top of him, and a warm sensation ran over his body.
Am I hit?
The room was dark. He didn’t feel any pain, but Luke had been shot before, adrenaline and shock are very effective painkillers.

The door snapped open and before the armed man could fire Luke put two bullets from the Glock through his skull. The light from the tunnel lit the scene; the man lying on him had blood running from a single gunshot wound to his back, and he had pissed himself. Luke rolled him off and picked up the Uzi, checked the action and moved back to the doorway. He pulled the dead soldier inside the room and closed the door. Darkness. Time was running seriously low.

Interpret, adapt, act.

Darkness. Luke could hear his own heartbeat in his temples over the siren. He had the sense to know that this may be one mission he may not execute and survive. He thought of his failure, that the world would now be held to ransom by radicalism. He had long since stopped using the term
terrorist
.

In the darkness he felt his pulse rise, the familiar anger and hurt trying to break its cage. Thoughts tumbled through his mind, and every journey ended with the image of Sarah. If he was going to die, then so be it.

He pressed against the door, footsteps were running up and down, then he heard something that raised the hairs on the back of his neck; a man was barking orders in Arabic, Italian and English.

Beltrano…

He came charging past, followed by several boot-steps. Luke resisted the urge to show himself
. Don’t do it, Luke, the only priority is the objective.
Then in the distance there came a high-pitched crackling noise; it sounded like fire-crackers being let off. The electrical components were being destroyed by the device he had thrown in the orange-lit room.

6.45 p.m.

Luke had to move. He had to get to the heart of the lab. There were fifteen minutes before the neutrino beam was being sent from CERN to the Gran Sasso Institute. He played everything around in his head, assessing and predicting.

He reached back into the bag and pulled out the second sleek black electromagnetic device. He pre-set the timer to fifteen seconds. He knew that he would not have time to lay the charge; in the current scenario it may be critical to use it at speed. All he needed to do was press the red button and the countdown would begin.

The room was now a hive of activity; technicians were running from control panel to control panel, panicked looks etched across their faces. They were jostling and pushing the armed guards as the latter got in the way. The man pointing the gun at Chung Su now looked very nervous.

Moments ago, the control panels had gone crazy. Beeps and flashes lit up the dials, then technicians had burst in and turned it into a scene of organised chaos. Chung Su glanced at the time that was displayed at the top right of the screen: 6.47 p.m. The men on the screen were sat silently, a look of bafflement on each of their faces. The Iranian laboratory now had groups of scientists huddled around screens.

Out of the chaos Vittorio came wading through. He was shouting and demanding answers. He went from panel to panel, pushing others out of the way. She watched his frustration grow.
It’s going wrong
. The fact that there was a nuclear bomb under her feet gave rise to dread. It was not dread for herself, but for the thousands of people that it would kill should such a reaction leak into the soil. L’Aquila, the Gran Sasso range and Teramo would all become uninhabitable overnight; the whole Abruzzi region could become a barren land that would be contaminated for hundreds of years.

“What is happening?” Chung Su shouted above the noise.

Vittorio turned to look at her as if he had not even known she was in the room. His face went from distress to rage. “You … it’s you,” he bellowed. Chung Su didn’t understand. “You knew he was coming … he is ruining everything!” Vittorio looked crazed. “Why are you jeopardising it? You know the world needs this! You know!” Vittorio looked deep into her eyes. “Kill her.”

The guard was young; he was scared, but he raised the Uzi up shakily and Chung Su instinctively closed her eyes. Her body jumped as the gunshot went off.

There were several voices coming from the room, it sounded like chaos. He didn’t have time to assess the situation; he caught snippets of various languages.

The coolants aren’t responding ...

Check whether it is an internal spike …

It’s stating it’s magnetic …

That’s impossible …

Then came a voice that zeroed him in.
What is happening?

Chung Su …

Luke loosened the handle, and then kicked the door wide open. Training was like muscle memory and without thought he raised the Glock and put a bullet into the man who was stood with an Uzi pointed directly at Chung Su. The man staggered and then Luke put another bullet a millimetre from the first, which knocked him down hard. Then, for the briefest of moments, Luke caught a glimpse of the man now stood in front of him.

Often in battle the briefest of moments can be the difference between life and death, and Luke had hesitated. A blow struck him hard in the top right of his skull, sending him off-balance. His gun hit the corner of an instrument desk, sending it sprawling across the floor. As he turned, he saw a man fumbling to draw his Uzi out of his holster. Luke recovered and threw a punch, but the man saw him coming and sidestepped, bringing his elbow hard down on the back of Luke’s skull. Luke hit the deck as a pain shot down his spine. The man abandoned his weapon and tried to press home his advantage. Wrapping a strong arm around Luke’s throat he locked it in place with his other. Luke felt the pressure; it caused his eyes to water and his throat to burn. He scrambled to get his fingers under the man’s arm to try and dislodge the grip, but it was locked on like a vice. He felt his feet bang against a hard object. He guessed it was either the wall or the door, it didn’t matter which. He braced his feet and with all the strength left in his body he pushed back, flipping his head backwards as he went. He felt the soft crunch of tissue and knew he had connected with the man’s face. There was the slightest slip in grip and that’s all Luke needed. He threw his head back again and heard the man grunt; then in a sharp movement he jammed both of his palms upwards against the man’s arm and slipped his shoulders down … he was free.

Luke scrambled to his feet. The attacker had also recovered. He was a big man, broad-shouldered and mean-looking. He had a cut on his cheek from Luke’s headbutt and his hand started again for his Uzi. Luke covered the distance fast and this time the man was too slow. Luke landed a kick square into his chest, sending the man flailing backwards, crunching his back into the corner of an instrument desk. Luke took his chance. He dropped to his knees and smashed a fist hard down into the man’s throat, feeling the depression of the larynx. The man’s eyes widened as he gasped for air. Luke smashed his fist down again and he was dead.

As Luke appeared above a console a bullet whistled past his left ear, and he dropped back to the floor. He knew from the shot tone that it was his own Glock that had been fired, but he hadn’t seen the assailant. Luke rolled around to the other side of the instrument. He flicked the Uzi to full automatic, then took his bag off his shoulder and threw it into the air … another shot went off, missing and ploughing into the wall. That was all Luke needed; he assessed the trajectory and was up firing in milliseconds. A line of bullets spread from the chest cavity upwards, ripping apart the face and skull. Clouds of blood spat in all directions.

Luke looked at what was left of the body …
Vittorio.

Things then slowed. The only noise was coming from Chung Su. Luke raised the gun and scanned the technicians who were all staring in horror.
Vittorio had been alive?
His mind couldn’t process the information or the ramifications. His hand tightened around the Uzi, and the piercing screams from Chung Su started to form in his ears, the same word hammered over and over.

“No … no … no!” Chung Su screamed the words.

Luke refocused. He turned his head to look at her and noted the determination in her eyes. Her arms and legs were tied to the chair.

“Luke, they are innocent!” She turned her attention to the technicians. “Run … go. You need to go, get out, the laboratory, the whole place. Run, go.”

The technicians looked at Luke; they all gazed at the Uzi. Luke lowered the gun. “You heard her … go!”

They did not need to be told twice. They clambered over each other to get out of the room. Luke turned to Chung Su. “You ok?”

Chung Su didn’t respond. Instead, she babbled at a rapid pace. “Brun knew … he knew. Vittorio …” Chung Su looked over to the mauled body of the professor, fighting a burst of nausea that rose in her stomach. “This isn’t it … this isn’t it … them …” She used her eyes to indicate the screen.

Luke turned to see the split-screen on the wall. On one side uniformed men were pointing and shouting amongst themselves, standing and walking in and out of shot. On the other side a vast technical hub stood frozen. All eyes were staring right at him. Luke raised the Uzi and let off a burst of bullets, shattering the screen and turning it black. He then turned back to Chung Su and took out the knife, cutting her legs and arms free.

Chung Su was in a daze. “We have to go … the whole place is going to explode.”

Luke couldn’t make sense of what she was saying. “Chung Su, what is Vittorio doing here?”

“He was alive … the whole time … him and Beltrano … it was them, the whole time. We have to get out … it’s going to explode.”

“What do you mean explode?” Luke grabbed her.

“Beltrano and Vittorio … this whole facility is rigged to explode once the experiment is cleared and verified.” Chung Su was breathless.

“Chung Su, that link …” he pointed at the screen. “Was that a link to Iran?”

She stared at him, then nodded.

“What for?” he asked.

“They are feeding the data back. They did it, Luke, they have created a particle from neutrinos that could power the world for eternity, Vittorio showed me, it’s real.”

“A particle that can power the world?” He was trying to focus.

Chung Su nodded. “They have a particle that emits pure energy at incredible volumes. And they can create it from neutrinos.”

“An unlimited energy source?” Luke spoke to himself.

“Yes … they did it, Luke. The data is being fed back to a replica laboratory in Iran.” Luke was stunned. He had thought the underground facility was the end game, but it now made sense, why Beltrano had been taking so many overt risks
. They will have what they need after tonight to replicate the experiment on their own soil.
If they had somehow replicated the whole thing without Western sources knowing …
an unlimited energy source
. It would be the end of Western civilisation. Luke looked back to the now-smoking screen. “Is this the only link? We have less than ten minutes before CERN fires the neutrinos. We have to stop it!” He took control.

The talk of CERN seemed to drag Chung Su back. “That was just a visual link, and not the data link …”

“If we destroy all of this can we stop the experiment?” Luke motioned at all the equipment around them.

“No … no, this is just monitoring equipment. It won’t stop anything.”

“Where is Beltrano?”

Chung Su shook her head. “They are brothers … Vittorio and Beltrano.”

Brothers …
Luke felt the weight of everything squeezing the time away.
Brothers.
It became abundantly clear that the deception had been absolute. Vittorio had not disappeared, he had locked himself down here, out of sight. The pangs of familiarity he had been experiencing …
brothers.

“How do we stop it, Chung Su? How?” Luke shouted.

Chung Su fought to regain control over her emotions. There was clarity. Everything had to be stopped. The venomous destruction and pain that had been caused was a small precursor to the suffering at large that would be unleashed. She turned to the door, then back to Luke, speaking with purpose. “Get out. You have to go.”

Luke felt the hairs rise on his neck. “Chung Su, show me how I can stop it … now!”

“No … you must go, I have to do it …” Chung Su did not know where the courage had come from. She felt a twisted sense of responsibility for the destruction that would follow. “I have to set this right … I
have
to.”

The thousands of feet of solid earth and rock that stood above them formed in Luke’s mind. Blowing up the laboratory was an effective way to bury what they had done; no doubt CERN officials would put it down to a horrible accident. And Beltrano would slip away undetected back to Iran.
They have thought of everything.

Luke looked at Chung Su. He knew she would not leave the laboratory on her own, and in truth he needed her. Perhaps they would both die below the earth.

He swung his bag around as he spoke. “You can’t do it alone. Beltrano is still around and he will give his life to make sure we do not disrupt anything, plus there are armed men running around. Do you know how to stop this?”

“I think so, yes … it is simple, if we can disrupt the magnetics then everything else falls apart. Everything revolves around that.”

“And if the lab explodes?” Luke dreaded the answer.

Chung Su shrugged. Luke pulled out the remaining electromagnetic device with its timer set on fifteen seconds. “Take this …”

Chung Su was reluctant.

“Take it!” Luke ordered. “When we get to where we can stop the magnets, just press the red button and place it down. It’s our only hope.”

Chung Su looked at it and nodded.

Luke put his arm on Chung Su’s shoulder and noticed the time: 6.54 p.m.

“Do you know where we need to go?” Luke asked.

“Yes.”

“Then let’s move.” Luke led her by the arm back out into the wailing alarms.

Chung Su led them down the tunnel; they ran alongside each other, the siren rolling in their ears. The doors to the decontamination chamber were open now. Chung Su took them through the small ante-chamber and out into the glorious, industrial-looking central chamber. Luke’s eyes did not know what to take in first, the sheer array of machinery or the frenetic pace of the technicians dotted around the room. The room was beating to the soundtrack of sirens and shouts.