GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (69 page)

Guiel
l
etta
, a little
dazed, attempted to get up, when suddenly a vicious blow landed squarely on her face!
Francesca had run full pelt at Gu
i
elletta’s vul
n
erable body
,
picking up a keyboard from her own desk on the way
and
swinging it
a
round fast, smacking the woman flat onto her cheekbone!

Key pieces and bits of broke
n plastic
flew
off through the air! Guielletta reeled backwards in excruciating pain!

Half standing and half falling
,
the killer staggered back in agony and
fell
onto another set of star
-
arranged desks behind her!
The woman’s face instantly began
to
swell
.
Holding onto the edge of the desk behind her
,
she steadied herself for support on the star desk arrangement.

Guielletta
’s
head was spinning and she was in severe pain.
She could see that Francesca was closing fast
the gap
between them
.
This was it!
The girl charg
ed
like a wild animal at
Guielletta as
the woman readied
herself for
the
final blow from Francesca’s makeshift and effective weapon
.

Francesca could judge the space between them
—
she saw that her own luck had finally run out
,
because the distance between them
,
al
though short, was still far too far away!
S
he would not make it
before Guielletta launched a counter-attack.

The systems administrator closed her eyes with a mixture of helpless rage and th
e
awful realization of failure and imminent execution.

Guielleta’s
head
was
smashed and bloody, bruised and split-lipped
.
The woman
aimed her pistol with outstretched arm straight at Francesca’s head, pulling the trigger and
defining
her next victim
...
.

‘
Rescinded
,
you bitch!
’

Francesca opened her eyes
,
expecting to feel the impact and pain
of a gunshot, but
instead only
saw
Guielletta’s
body physically lift up and off the ground
,
s
pringing away
as if it had been
catapult
ed
!

Suddenly movement was
all
around her,
and Francesca
could not comprehen
d
anything through her frozen mind
.
The vision of Guielletta’s body violently and suddenly lifting and flying high into the air was beyond comprehension!

Then came the short sounds of a repeat
ed
pop
-
pop
-
popping noise
and Guielletta’s
organs
burst with
soft sounds of hissing hot flesh as tissue
burst from
blood
-spattered
bullet holes.
Blood gushed out from her body
.
A split second later
,
there came the sounds of the first short rattle of a mechanized sound
—
suppressed automatic machine gun fire
.
Rat-a-tat-tat!

It would only take a three second burst from an automatic submachine gun to empty a full magazine, as an accurate strafe of deadly bullets went whizzing past!
Missing Francesca by
a few
accurate inches,
the bullets
impact
ed
the airborne woman holding the gun
.

Guielletta’s body land
ed
heavily
on
the other end of the office desk
,
tumbling through
bullet
-
holed computer screens
and torn sheets of paper
, her arms and legs sprawling out widely over the tops
until she
finally rest
ed
perfectly
a
top the star
-
arranged desk
cluster
.
Although it a
ppear
ed
to
Francesca that the scene had
happen
ed
in slow
, aching detail,
in true reality it was over and finished in only a few seconds.

As
Guielletta’s
body landed on the desk, her
flesh quiver
ed
like jelly
.
Her head slowly turn
ed
to stare at Francesca
—s
he was dead.

Then came the shouts of male voices from behind
Francesca
as
she crumpled to the floor, stunned
...
Francesca was in a complete and bloody mess.
The sounds
many
of approaching feet
overwhelmed her
.

I
-
I’m still alive? I cannot believe it
....
She
inspect
ed
herself with shock and disbelief
,
searching for a wound
.
Traumatised
,
Francesca began stammering to herself quietly,
beyond
wrecked, slumping down on her chair to stare at the dead and mutilated body of
her annoying and psychotic co-worker
...
.

Then she heard shouting from men all around in the room,
although she felt
distant f
r
om
it all
.
H
er senses
began to
clos
e
down
as her body implemented a force quit
.
The noise

became
much louder now as three or four Swiss guardsmen in
camouflaged
uniforms
trained
automatic submachine guns on the dead woman, checking her
vitals
while another
crew
attended to the critically
-
wounded man on the floor.
Francesca
seemed almost forgotten in the melee
, although this
could not have been f
a
rther from the truth
.
A
gentle hand lifted her face upwards and through her blurred
and misted vision
she saw
...
a
m I dreaming?

It was the warm voice
she’d longed for
, penetrating her shattered mind, melting the ice
—
she felt
the
soft and kind touch of a man.
Lifting her up and cradling the girl in his muscular arms
,
h
e held
Francesca
close to his chest, protecting her.
She was safe!

‘Francesca, I was so worried about you
...
.
’
She
looked up carefully at the man as she stared deeply into his starry green eyes.
She t
ighten
ed
her hold around his strong neck
with pleasure.
I
t was Ciriaco!
He had saved her life!

Lost for words
,
Francesca could only cry softly onto his shoulder
,
whispering
,

‘Ciriaco
...
thank
G
od it is you
...
.
’ Completely exhausted
,
the girl drifted into the mercy of a deep sleep.

             
Colonnello Ciriaco Esposito, the Pope’s personal bodyguard, placed his stainless steel Beretta 92Fs Inox on the wrecked computer table beside him and supported Francesca by her waist. He waved some of the ambulance crew over to attend

to her as he struggled with this new discovery.

             
His investigation would continue, but it had taken a new twist. He surveyed the mayhem, reaffirming his first assumption.