Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 14

            Adam waved. "Dr. Wild?"

            "Quite, quite. I presume you're Dr. Dove … and the lady?"

            "Yeah, that's me and the lady is Dr. Linda Garcia.  We're both from Schill University as you may know. I believe George Freedman called you?"

Either his lab coat was too big or Percy was too small, or some nerdy combination of the two.  His hands barely protruded from the starchy white cuffs and his face was half-hidden by the collar. It reminded Adam of the oversized winter coats his parents forced him to wear.

Don't worry dear, you'll grow into it.

Percy pushed up his glasses with his free hand, suggesting that even the eyewear was too large. Despite a diminutive frame, his voice was surprisingly deep and carried with it a tone of authority. "Yes, yes. Good to meet you.  Hop in and I'll take you to my lab."

Three-across seating in a golf cart made for a distinctly perilous ride, especially as Percy enjoyed making sharp turns at every intersection.  Along the way he pointed out that they were headed to the RCIBI lab, short for Radiotracer Chemistry and Instrumentation for Biological Imaging. He explained that the RCIBI was where most of the innovative instrumentation was developed. It was in that lab that Adam hoped the medallion would reveal its secrets. They scooted past several multi-story buildings, some with metallic spheres alongside reminiscent of water towers. Brookhaven was a city.

Percy pointed out some of the notable landmarks. "We're passing a few of the physics facilities here. Those round towers hold liquefied gases, mostly helium and nitrogen. Many of our efforts at the moment are to complete the RHIC, that is, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. It's a roughly circular track about two and a half miles long wherein heavy atoms will be accelerated to near light speed and crashed into each other."

Linda asked, "To what purpose?"

"To see what matter is made of, of course." At the next turn in the road Percy could not hide a trace of disdain in his voice. "The RHIC will be ready later this year. In fact, it's really a prototype for something much bigger being built in Switzerland."

"The LHC?" asked Linda.

Adam looked at Linda with wildly growing respect, while Percy mouth went agape.

He stuttered a reply. "Quite, quite. The Large Hadron Collider. It'll be about seventeen miles in diameter." He collected himself enough to sit up straight, then added, "We've got teams here working on some of the magnets and detectors the LHC will use."

The golf cart came to jolting halt alongside a white-washed two-story cinder block structure whose square windows were sunk into a plain concrete façade. When they got out of the cart, they followed Percy's diminutive five foot frame to the building's entrance. 

Adam asked, "How does your work fit in with all this collider stuff?"