Plush, hanging lights, glittery, ornate gowns, garish jewelries, black suits, and waiters pacing from end to end, was the description of what one would see within the upper floor of the globe of science building where the ceremony held. The splendor of the building was more breathtaking when viewed from outside. From outside, it looked like a shiny, golden ball, with half it's size dug to the ground, or you could call it a dim setting sun. The building was filled with a solemn piece of classical music, which played amidst the buzzy chatters of men and women of intellectual class, with their sartorial grandeur, giving the entire hall a classy touch.
The scientists stood close to the door of the hall, with wine glasses in their hands, conversing and jeering at overly showy dresses some women wore to the ceremony.
They looked towards the extreme and saw Alban standing with his father, alongside Mr. Basil, Meinrad, Jake, and a few others. It looked like Alban's father needed everyone in the ceremony to meet his handsome, grown son. They saw a lady in a black, sequined dress, which glittered with a brilliant lustre, touching Alban's face and giggling, and they assumed her to be his mother, but had traces of doubts.
While they kept on with the chit-chats, Alban sighted them from where he stood and rose up his hands, waving vigorously, and the rest turned to see them. Olivia felt cold run down her spine when she saw the beaming face of Mr. Basil, beckoning on them. She couldn't tell what image fared along her eyes in a split second. They all gradually left where they stood and walked towards where they were called.
"Never knew this young man came around," Dr. Dedeon said, patting Ali's shoulder. "Now this ceremony would be a bit more interesting." He laughed.
"And the accent," Meinrad added, and they all laughed.
Ali snorted. "Ah quickie made it to the ceremony when ah heard spooky footsteps along the hallways of the hostel where ah stayed."
They laughed again, thinking it was one of his jokes.
"Now my perception about physicists have changed," the lady said. "I used to think they were all work and no play, always speaking in subtle terms."
"This isn't the control building ma lady," Ali replied. "We adjust to places we find ourselves. In ceremonies we try not to buzz ya minds with scientific terms, we allow the wines do the buzzing."
"This guy isn't serious." Dr. Dedeon laughed hard.
"I'm Alicia." She held out her hand towards Ali.
"Oh...an I'm Ali." He took her hand and kissed it.
"Hope you all are having a good time hmm?" Mr. Basil said, staring at Olivia. "Now I see...you don't look bad at all." He referred to Olivia, who was dressed in a flowing, yellow gown and black dolly shoes. It was obvious she took neither the dress code nor the ceremony to heart.
All she came for was the God particles, in order to leave Switzerland as soon as possible. The way she dressed was mild and balmy; no lustre, no sequin. The simplicity was analogous to an airplane made of just hull; no wing and no tail. Alicia kept staring at her with tinges of discomfort; she was so à la mode conscious that anyone who wasn't in the trends seemed to her like a fashion outlaw. The men were all dressed in black suits, but Camillas's suit was grey, with a black bow tie. Jake's suit fit him so well that Olivia couldn't help but take periodic glances. She never expected annoying Jake to look so good. Meinrad, on the other hand, put up a demeanor that showed he didn't just come for the God particles, he needed a woman, as well. Reason he stood so close to Alicia, introducing his crew members to her before they could do the introductions themselves, he wasn't comfortable with the hand kissing.
"I guess you guys haven't been told Alban here would be giving us a musical presentation," Dr. Dedeon said, proudly, holding Alban by the shoulder.
"Oh, wow, really?" Olivia, Ali, and Camillas said, with false, surprise expressions. They knew Alban wouldn't fail to play his piano, and that was the period that would mark the beginning of the treasure hunt. They just put up expressions of bewilderment, while checking their wrist watches, stylishly, to know what time it was.
Alban would present an hour later. While they discussed further, the trio, who would go for the treasure, impatiently awaited the count-down, which would lead Alban to the platform to go do his thing. They began to find the further meet and greets boring and soul-weakening. They couldn't keep up with the false smiles and forced humor. Ali and Camillas left the circle afterwards, leaving Olivia and Alban behind, so as to keep them good company. They cunningly walked out of the hall and stood beside the building, faintly hearing the classical music which played; the Ave Maria. The cold which lingered around where they stood was seeping, and they tugged the lapels of their suits, to keep the cold out, to an extent. Ali turned to Camillas.
"I'm repentant, or ah would have shared a blunt with ya." He chuckled.
"I rather drink a cup of coffee lava," said Camillas. Ali laughed, flinging his head to and fro.
"You kept the doors open right?" Camillas asked.
"Yea," Ali replied. Camillas took out his phone and checked the time. It was half past ten o'clock. He inserted it back into his pocket.
"And the drones?" Camillas asked.
"Ready," replied Ali.
"All we await is a call from Meinrad, telling us that Alban has climbed the podium to perform," Camillas said.
"Isn't it best we linger around the courtyard of the control building?" Ali asked.
"No no." Camillas shook his head. "How do we explain our reasons for being there, if questioned. We are in the ceremony attire, so we need to hang around the venue, in order not to stir up any suspicion."
"Oh." Ali arched his lips downwards and inserted his hands in his pocket, bobbing his soulders and whoosing, to keep himself warm.
They stayed there for over thirty minutes, keeping themselves busy with discussions, until Camillas's phone rang. He quickly took it out of his pocket, and it was Meinrad calling. Meinrad told him that Alban had climbed the podium, and it was time. After the call, he smiled and put back the phone in his pocket. He turned to Ali.
"It's time," he said.
Ali quickly slid his hand inside his suit and took out a very flat tablet. He put it on and clicked on a certain application, which would be used to activate and control the drones. The drones, four of them, stood on the table inside their room. They were equipped with cameras and W-Z boson detectors, which could detect where the God particles were located. They were in form of wasps, but relatively tiny, in order not to be easily noticed by people.
Ali entered the application and activated the drones. In the room, the wings of the drones began to flutter rapidly, giving waspy buzzes, which filled the room, and within seconds, they took off through the open doors, headed towards the control building, where they detected the W-Z boson radiations.
Ali and Camillas looked into the screen and began to see fleeting images of rooms, atriums, and hall ways. The fleeting images indicated that the drones were super fast. Camillas drew close to him, marveled at the labyrinthial passages the drones passed through, in search of the chamber where the God particles were kept. The drones flew for over ten minutes until they began to go underground.
They flew past the elevator shafts, making it into the collider tunnel. From the tablet, they watched the drones flying within the tunnel which darkened into the distance, until they diverted into a dark corridor, where they couldn't see a single image, only ill-defined apparitions and blinks of green light from the drone cameras.
They flew in a straight line for several seconds until they stopped in front of a steel door, with an electronic gadget beside it. It looked like a device which only allowed one with the right palm print to gain access to the room. It had a rectangular screen, with a glowing, blue light. The drones hovered around the door, unable to go further.
"Co...come see this place," Ali said to Camillas, who was right beside him. They both peered into the screen of the tablet.
"The cryogenic chamber, I guess," Camillas guessed.
"The cryogenic chamber?" Ali looked at him. "How are we supposed to make it into tha place? There is cooler than a refrigerator."
"Or the penthouse maybe" Camillas shrugged. "Or, more correctly, a secret chamber. I mean, a room which is hardly accessible." He shifted his glasses a little and looked more into the screen. "And it looks like that device close to it is one hell of a smart...shit!" Camillas quickly took off his face from the tablet when he saw two people come out of the hall; a man and a woman, holding wine glasses. Ali transferred the tablet to the other hand and stood erect.
They heard the music Alban played inside, and they began to discuss about it; saying they never knew something so mild and soft could come out of Alban's ready-to-punch hands. After a minute, they took a glance at the couple that came out, and they saw them standing at one side, kissing.
"Wa, wa, wa." Ali bobbed his brows up and down, smiling.
"Good a thing they weren't sent to spy on us," said Camillas. "So...where were we?" He rubbed his palms together. Ali took out the tablet once again and woke it up from sleep. They still stared at the gadget beside it.
"Tha device look like something tha could be unlocked with a palm print...tha of Mr. Basil, probably," said Ali, in a tone that doubted it's assertions.
"Olivia!" Camillas exclaimed. "If it could be unlocked by Mr. Basil, then we should go find Olivia."
"An how sure are ya she hangs around him?" Ali asked.
"I'm sure Mr. Basil must have placed his palm on her. Olivia is a bad girl in glasses, she must have made him do it," Camillas said.
"Really? Then we should get going," Ali said, wanting to enter the hall, but Camillas held him.
"We need to blind the cameras in the tunnel," Camillas said, inserting his hand in his suit. He brought out two EMP devices and gave one to Ali.
"Oh, cool." Ali creased his brows, turning the device around. It looked like a black, perfume bottle, with a short pole and a button on it's head.
"Let's go get her," Camillas said and entered the hall, followed by Ali.