Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Jun Yoshida must have fallen asleep at his desk. The knock on the door startled him awake. Even before he could compose himself, Riku Tanaka came rushing inside, drawing Janice Cooper in his wake.
"You must see this," Tanaka said, and slapped a fistful of papers on his desk.
"What? Has there been another neutrino burst?" Jun tilted straighter in his chair, earning a twinge from his aching back. He'd left the main lab below three hours ago to finish some paperwork in his office, which still lay untouched on his desk.
"No... well, yes... not really," Tanaka stammered, clearly agitated, and waved the question aside in exasperation. "Some minor ongoing blips. I've been tracking them, but they don't appear to be important."
Dr. Cooper cut him off. "That's not why we rushed up here, Dr. Yoshida." She turned to Tanaka. "Show him."
Tanaka came around his desk, invading his personal space. He shoved aside the pile of paperwork, replacing it with his own printouts. "We've been monitoring the surge in Iceland. Graphing the results. Look at how the neutrino spikes radiating from that island have grown steadily more frequent."
"You noted that before."
"Yes. I know." Tanaka's face reddened. Clearly he did not like to be interrupted.
Jun allowed himself a flicker of satisfaction. "Then what's this sudden invasion of my office all about?"
Tanaka traced the graph. "Over the past hour, I've been noting how the double beat of the Icelandic signature has been changing. The smaller bursts have been growing stronger, while the taller spikes have been getting weaker."
Dr. Cooper explained, "The changes have been slow. It took hours to recognize what was happening."
Tanaka set two graphs side by side. "This first graph is from four hours ago. The second one was taken within the last half hour."