GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (36 page)

‘
Si
,
I know he only drop
ped
me an
e-mail
—
nothing else!’

‘Did he?’ the woman focused in.

‘Er,
s
i
,
before he left last week
.
T
o say goodbye?’
Francesca had made a mistake and quickly tried to cover it up
.

‘We might like to see this
e-mail
next.’
Schiavone licked her lips once more.

‘Ladies, ladies
,
come on please
.
L
et
’
s not get too hot under the collar
.
I
t’s a marvellous day outside and it’s been a long morning
—
let
’
s not spoil it. I think we need a spot of lunch
,
Agent Schiavone.
I have to apologise for my colleague,
Francesca, it’s just
a simple misunderstanding
,
’ he said politely to Francesca while staring with a little disapproval towards Agent Schiavone.
She had overstepped the mark.

The female agent apologised in a sympathetic
tone,
her mouth curving upwards a little at the same time.
Francesca’s life
meant nothing to her.
Then both agents stood up and looked towards the exit.

‘
Arrivederci
, Miss DeRose,
or
can I call you Francesca
?’ Agent Zito excused himself politely.
‘M
aybe I can speak with you a little later this afternoon?’
Giving her a mildly warm smile
which made
a few lines around his forehead and jaw noticeable
, he turned.
‘We will see ourselves out. Speak with you
a
little

l
ater’.

Francesca watched as they walked up the middle isle
,
through the door and past the commissionaire.
They did not
exit the building, however,
and instead entered the elevator.

My
G
od
,
I mentioned the
e-mail
...
they will definitely inspect the mail logs now
.
Shit!
She caught me out!
What
a
re they all about? Totally out of order
!
I’m going to speak with Anatolio about their outrageous behaviour
.
She stewed silently for a minute.
Surely there must be more to this
...
I need to keep one step ahead of them and find out just what
Michaelangelo
is mixed up in.
It only is a question of time
!
Francesca felt low
,
knowing that things were going from bad to worse.
She had lied
to
VIA
!

Pope was her pet name for Michaelangelo
.
It was always funny because
the man
was not religious in any sort of a way
—
he was a complete atheist
,
and he just liked to take the piss out of the Vatican at any and every turn
. Francesca could see
why
, considering
how she
had been
treated today
.
There was never any justice in the world.
I hope that tart walks in front of a car or something.
Although
she does have a good taste in perfume for someone with too many male hormones.
Gucci Rush—it’s
my favourite
.
Francesca smiled
,
attempting
to
mak
e
light of what
had
happened
.

Francesca worked through her lunch
,
knowing there was now a race against time before the two Gestapo agents would be back.
There
was
no doubt
in Francesca’s mind that the
VIA
agents
were deadly serious.
Francesca
did
want to keep her job and help Pope get out of trouble
,
but where would this all end up?
She thought that
things
needed to be put
into perspective
—

it
was not as if anyone had died!

**********

There were about
150
to
200
employees inside the building
at the time,
which meant that there were quite a few cars parked
securely
not far away.
Outside the Vatican wall a
s
ilver Alpha Romero was discreetly parked
in a side street
outside and
its
occupant
sat still,
observing
the people
as they went about their business.
The change of guards was at
nine
in the morning and
at
five
in the a
fternoon, and then another watch
occurred around one in the morning
.
The
observer
watched the tourists mix and meander aimlessly all day approach
ing
the
Swiss
guards
men at the gate entrance
occasionally to take photographs, usually to the Swiss army soldiers
’
amusement.

**********

A little later
,
Francesca
had
com
e
up with nothing but more questions.
She headed towards the powder room
,
passing Mario
on her way
.
The man
greeted her as she passed him, his portly belly wobbl
ing
like a jelly
. He was
spending
much
more time behind
the
desk
here at the Vatican
than
at
his previous job
,
walking the Rome beat.

Massimo came back into the office just after lunch and created a few new user accounts on the system
.

Bless you all
,
you simple and
naive
employees.
Grace is to Massimo the master who has created you.
You’ll soon regret it this time
next month
—
you will see that God can get blood out of a stone
...
they don’t know nothing yet
,
Massimo
thought
,
amusing himself with cynicism
.

The Vatican computer system was a complex
of
all kinds of
computer
objects representing users, containers, printers and servers
,
to name but a few.
This was the way things were organised and collated logically together in the Vatican network.
It was amazing that there are other administrators in different geological locations
that were
still part of the same
directory
tree.
This was
made
possible by using
a
quick
,
wide
-
area data network and satellite links. This
network
gave the Vatican flexibility in its design
—the
directory tree structure was scalable and could easily expand all over the world
,
into Europe, South America and a few other locations in the USA.
God worked in mysterious ways!
The wide-area network
was an ideal system for the Catholic Church.

This system is normally secure, even though this guy Apostol is kicking about.
The account did have administrator privileges
,
so he could have done much more damage
...
.

Apostol may even have been a “test admin” user for
Michaelangelo
, who knows? Surely Francesca had thought of
that, though
? If the rumour is right and he has been caught up in the Casino
and
ow
es
money to the Sicilians
,
then he is in fucking big trouble!
That would explain why he has tak
e
n a low profile
.
Massimo conjectured and
then grew tired of
think
ing
of other possibilities
.
T
urning round to look at Gabriella
, he spoke
.