1
The cigarette in Adams mouth drooped as the heavens opened and he was instantly soaked to the bone. Big drops of rain bounced onto him and the floor around him.
Lightening flashed nearby followed by a large clap of thunder.
Adam sighed as he threw the cigarette to the ground, waiting for the guard to open the entrance. The guard was slow and hobbled closer clutching his side.
Not very good security Adam thought but the clanking of jewellery and the clip clop of high heels made him cringe.
"That you Donna" he called and reluctantly turned around. He already knew the answer.
Walking up to him was his ex-girlfriend, she too was soaked and her long tanned legs gleamed with the rain water. Her very short red skirt looked more like a belt than anything else and her tight white top hardly held in her huge boobs. They were the reason Adam was attracted to her in the first place back when he was a local celebrity and footballer, back when times were good and money flowed like champagne.
Now though Adam was bankrupt all thanks to a broken ankle from a dirty tackle and a mortgage he couldn’t really afford to pay. It didn’t help that he had spent the rest of his cash on booze, holidays and women. But Adam was always proud that he never tried drugs unlike some of his team mates.
After the injury he had fallen onto a comfortable sports journalism job but the magazine had gone bust. He needed the money to help pay for a small, scruffy flat and so it was that he was now here in the pissing rain waiting for an old sod of a guard to open the laboratory building door where he was to interview some professor for his first assignment on TECH magazine – a science geek publication he had no idea about.
What made things worse was that Donna, his ex-girlfriend had followed him here. She was still not over him and for the last month had followed him all over and text him constantly, asking him to take her back. He did like her but to him she was just another fling, there for a quick shag. But she didn’t see that as Adam realised she was a bit slow in the head. She wanted and thought she was in a proper relationship with him.
Adam sighed as Donna reached him before the elderly security guard reached the doors.
“I’m pissed wet through now. My makeup all over”, Donna exclaimed.
Adam turned to her and saw her dark eyeliner was now running down her tanned face. Her long blonde hair was a mess and stuck to her head. She looked like a drowned rat.
“Donna why are you here. You need to stop following me I’m on a work assignment. You best go home”.
“I thought you was coming to meet another woman”, answered Donna with a breaking upset voice.
“But we aren’t even together anymore”, exclaimed Adam. He was frustrated with the whole situation. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Just then the guard opened the windowed doors for them. They quickly dashed into the warmth of the marbled reception area.
“Sorry about the wait young ones”, wheezed the old grey haired guard coughing.
“I’m not as quick as I used to be and these doors aren’t working well. They should be automatic”, he continued as he looked the visitors up and down giving a nervous look at Donna. She didn’t look dressed for an interview..
“I’m here to interview Professor Spencer. I’m Adam Winter from Tech magazine and....”
Adam looked at Donna “This is my . . assistant”.
“Very well sir I will let him know your here”. Said the old guard as he slowly walked back to his reception desk and rang someone up.
“You can stay for the interview but afterwards you need to go home”, said Adam to a tearful Donna.
She nodded in reply. He wanted her to leave now but couldn’t bring himself to send her home in the pouring rain. He looked out of the window as the rain pelted down hard onto the floor. Lightening flashed again but this time was closer. He shook his dark coat to dry off the excess water. It was a good coat as his dark blue shirt underneath was dry.
Adam felt uncomfortable in shirt and trousers as he was used to wearing football shorts and top or hanging around in loose fitting tracksuits but he needed to make an impression for the interview as it was an important assignment for the magazine and it was typical that the journalist who was meant to be here, Terry, had broken his leg playing games on his X Box Kinect.
After a silent and awkward few minutes of waiting an electronic door at the far end of the reception area slid open and in walked a curvy brunette, her glasses were low on her nose. Her white lab coat fitted her well. She walked up to Adam and Donna.
“Professor Spencer?” asked Adam with a smile.
He had already forgotten Donna was there. This geek in front of him was gorgeous.
“No. I’m Kathleen, the Professor’s lead assistant in the experiment. I will take you to him. Follow me”. She replied snappily pushing her glasses back up her nose.
She walked to the reception grabbing two security passes for the visitors and led them through the sliding door which Adam noted was keypad protected.
Kathleen walked the visitors down a long silver corridor, Adam watched her buttocks rise and fall as she walked, a grin appearing on his face. The clip clop of Donnas heals brought him back to the situation and he glanced over to see her giving him a mucky look. She had started to wipe her face with a tissue. Adam thought she looked prettier without all the slap she piled on each morning.
They stopped at the end of the corridor at a pair of double doors, Kathleen swung round to them.
“Before we go in it is imperative that you touch nothing. The equipment inside is fragile and costs more than you’ll earn in your lifetime”.
She led them through the double doors into a big white room. There were about seven lab assistants in there. A couple were at computer consoles and were pointing at screens shaking their heads, they never even noticed the new arrivals.
There was a cable from one of the consoles leading to a small square white machine on a steel table in the centre of the laboratory. The machine was quite thick but the size of a laptop. It had buttons and a few levers on the top and a small screen with flashing blue neon numbers. On one side of the machine was a turret, this was where the laser would be fired from.
As Adam watched the machine in the centre of the room, he realised how pissed off he was coming out all this way for a toy box. He saw four assistants in matching lab white coats walking around the table, examining the machine.
A tall thin old man was walking up a couple of steps towards them. Adam thought he looked scruffy as the old man’s thinning long grey hair was flowing about all over the place. The man’s face beamed brightly under the thin glasses and he gave the arrivals a big grin. He held out his thin long hand for Adam to shake.
“Welcome, welcome. You must be the journalist from Tech Magazine. This is so exciting for us all. You will later see a milestone in science being made. A fundamental breakthrough.” He then noticed Donnas wet frame beside Adam and gave her a quick look up and down.
“Good day madam,” he said and kissed Donnas hand eccentrically.
They all followed Professor Spencer down a couple of steps into the main part of the room where the four lab assistants were examining the machine.
Adam moved closer to Donna and whispered sarcastically into her ear, “Well this looks fun!”.
The Professor pointed to the closest of his assistants a stocky bald guy who was leering at Donnas legs.
“This is Max, one of my main assistants in this experiment. How are we doing Max are we nearly ready? Is the second machine now fully operational?”
“Urm,” started Max mesmerised by Donnas beauty, all thoughts of his wife who was waiting for him at home disappeared from his mind.
“Well we are just putting the finishing touches to the second machine to bring up – we should be able to proceed in the next forty minutes or so.”
“Good, good.” replied the Professor turning to Adam and Donna. “I suppose it’s time to explain more about the experiment and answer any questions before we begin?”
“Fine.” Answered Adam as he pulled his writing tablet from his coat inside pocket – luckily it was dry and unharmed from the rain.
Phew thought Adam I wouldn’t have been able to replace it. He switched it on and a Word document and keypad appeared.
Adam couldn’t really remember what the experiment was meant to be about as he wasn’t really interested in being here but the journalist who was meant to be covering this event rang in sick.
“Well,” started Adam in his smooth deep tone, “I guess I should ask what is the experiment is about. What is the background to it.”
Professor Spencer smiled then chuckled to himself, he was like a child in a candy shop. He looked over at Kathleen beside him then clapped his hands together.
“It all started a few years ago with the Large Hadron Collider experiment. You’ve heard of that right? To find a particle involved with the big bang.”
He waited a moment looking for some kind of acknowledgment from the two arrivals. Both looked at him blankly especially the pretty young woman. There was just an awkward silence.
After a few moments he continued.
“Anyway the experiment at first was a success, but because the machines were so big to check over something malfunctioned with the laser. There was a blast and a scientist I was working closely on it with died horribly. His bones were missing from him and his organs were burned on the inside. It was a sad day for me as I had been his best man a few months earlier.”
The Professor stopped talking and looked as if into the distance of his memory. He shuddered and started walking to the other side of the room. Adam with his writing tablet followed along with Max, the bald assistant and a young spotty assistant who was huge and shabbily dressed with a tight white coat on. He was picking wax from his ear as they walked.
“Where was I?” the Professor continued, “ah yes the blast. Readings from the experiment indicated that at the exact moment of the blast a small tear in the fabric of space appeared and disappeared within a second. Unfortunately it was where Bob was standing.
But that is why I have dedicated my time and money to what we have here. This is a smaller advanced version of the collider. Well this and the other laser we will be bringing up shortly.
Once they are both fired at one another with energy faster than light with the same parameters of the original blast we will hopefully open a tear in space, a window to the cosmos.”
Adam yawned and blinked, this white, bright room was hurting his eyes making them tired. I must seem interested and ask questions he thought as he looked at the Professors grinning Cheshire cat smile. His bony cheekbones were jutting out at each side of the his mouth.
“So,” started Adam, “once you’ve opened this window what next?”
“We can look at the beginnings of the universe, start to answer the questions of our origins.
You there what you touching!” he shouted.
He strode over to the machine with Adam and Max close behind. Donna was looking sheepishly up at them as she took her hand away from the machines touch screen interface.
Should have left her outside thought Adam. She’s going to balls up my first assignment, I’ll be looking for another job because of her.
Donna saw the anger crossing both Adams face and the Professors and stepped back.
“I’m sorry..” she began but the professor snapped at her like an old headmaster chiding a naughty girl.
“Do not touch anything you don’t know about it is delicate equipment. You could endanger the whole experiment.” He blasted at her.
The Professor, his assistants Max and Kathleen, the huge spotty assistant and a medium built bearded assistant all closed in around the machine, looking at its touch screen and buttons determining what the blond woman had done.
One of the assistants at one of the consoles started down the steps towards them.
**
Outside the complex, the wind howled loudly and blew litter around the car park. A tabby cat ran from the side of the building to the safety and dryness of under a nearby car as the rain pounded relentlessly to the ground. The large raindrops bounced from surfaces like ping pong balls.
High above the laboratory complex a huge four pronged electricity bolt shot out from the clouds hitting it fiercely.
**
Inside the complex, in the white room the console linked to the machine lit up and gave out a large bang, all the screens flashing.
The Professor and Adam looked around at the cable attached from the console to the machine and saw a white electrical charge ride down it.
As the white charge hit the machine there was a bright flash that lit up the room blinding everyone. When the flash had gone – so had the machine and everyone around it.
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