GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (26 page)

There were also old network charts showing old cable runs,
although
where the old cable runs ended up
,
Francesca would never know
.
I
n fact
,
no one
at
T&O even cared
. The cable runs were
“old stuff”
, irrelevant
and
therefore
uninteresting.
Too many external telecommunication companies had been involved in pulling and running cables in every direction over the years, leaving old ones hanging all over the city, but surprisingly, it all still worked.
A constant background noise of air conditioning
, along with the fans of the
communications and computer equipment
,
made
the room
a place
in which
Francesca
did not want to s
t
ay
for very
long.

Francesca
k
new her way about the comms room and amongst the large mass of cable spaghetti.
She could use her sense of touch
on
this mass of twisted cables to
find
their termination
point
, feeling inch by inch to the exact patch point and number that would trail to even his Holiness’s Benedict’s office. Occasionally she might
read it
wrong
,
which
at worst
would cause a little confusion for an end user
.
But such
i
s life!

Whoosh! The air blowers from square grills in the ceiling above her blasted strong cool air down just before Francesca as
she walked, her face narrowed a little at the bad timing. Her hair wafted about madly in the air.

Bloody hell!
I’m h
ere on my own up here with no one around
.
W
hat a
great
start to a night
’
s work! Those blowers
a
re loud and a nuisance
,
but
it’s better than letting
the
s
ervers go into
a
melt now,
isn’t it
?

A sarcas
tic little voice
crept into her mind.
The room temperature was a little
o
n the warm side
,
overall.

It looks like the air conditioning should be inspected by Estates
,
if not
the
health and safety
division
; I’ll let Estates know about it tomorrow
....

The room was windowless and the lighting artificial
,
as was the stale air which circulated
through
.
In
case of
the remote chance
of
a fire in the
rarely-visited
room
,
the air conditioners would automatically switch off when the smoke detectors sensed any hint of
smoke
and
,
because the room had no water sprinkler system, there were large fixed green installation cylinders on the wall at each corner of the room. These hefty green extinguishers would rush Halon gas into the sealed room and
thus
smother any flames within a few minutes
.
The detectors also set off a
s
iren in the corridor
,
and
caused
an alert
to
flash at the front office.
Th
e
s
e safeguards
would
ensure
the equipment
remained
free from water in the case of
an
electrical fire,
where
contact with water
could
cause things to become worse.
However
,
Francesca believed
the gas had
more to do with saving the equipment and money than anything else!
This
f
ire safety equipment was never popular with the team and
most other organisations, excepting
the
m
ilitary
, refused to use it
.

The system had never been fully tested
, for one thing
.
One of the installations
was
straight across from the door entrance and near the “duct”
,
almost blocking its metal access point.
The duct was a small door leading into the internals of the building, where no doubt “management” in their esteemed wisdom
had at one time
stuck additional comms cabinets and switches, power and electronic gear.
It could be a real nightmare trying to work in the dimmed light
;
these conditions were typical and always a bone of contention with anyone who
found herself
need
ing
to work in those atrocious conditions.

Francesca passed rows of equipment with little flashing green, orange and red lights
,
displaying a myriad of activity
that reminded her of
a heavenly constellation representing the Old City
. Rome was
old and ancient in body, but behind
its
walls and tunnels
,
a complex network of communications technology hidden from view among the warren of ducts and small rooms scattered around the city buildings kept the Papal machine moving in the modern age.

The administrator approached
the three
d
isciples,
which sat
at the back of the large room twenty metres away from her at the far wall, feverishly working away.
S
he approached them with confidence.

‘Well
,
I hope you’ve all said your
p
rayers
,
because one of you guys
is
about to get the
b
oot!
’ she joked.
‘Just whine away,
eh? That’s the spirit
—
no backchat
!
’
Her
loud voice
gave her a sense of
comfort
in the room filled with electronics
.

The
d
isciples were responsible for the total organisation of files and documents for all people employed
by the Vatican,
a
s well as
required access to printing and pathways to other systems
,
like Finance
,
and
the
databases
that
were Jonathan’s area
s
of expertise.

Mark, John and L
uk
e seemed outwardly quiet
,
but Francesca knew that L
uk
e
had been
complaining and she would have to power cycle
him, which
required her to follow
a complex set of steps
to ensure that she
switch
ed
the server
off and on in a safe manner.

Francesca sat d
own at the console desk
and
logged in.
She
had checked the alert remotely before coming up. Focusing her mind
on the task at hand,
she made a last check before typing the command
“Down server”
.
This
command
began an unstoppable sequence of events
that
would result in
a full
system halt.
She breathed easily as Luke revealed there had been no errors.

Casting her eye downwards to the rubbish bin near her legs,
she realised that there was
something really smelly next to her.

Massimo has been here earlier with a pizza
,
she
thought
, examining the bin while she waited on Luke to finish up.
A
nd what’s that yuck
?
More old food, remnants of his dinner, phew!
He is a mucky pup. I wish he would not eat here
...
what’s that
,
a can of Coke
?
F
ollowing procedures as usual
,
I see!
A spillage in here and we will all be collecting our marching orders. I’ll have to have a qui
e
t word
with him
tomorrow
,
she
decided,
feeling quite exasperated.

The fo
u
rth
d
isciple
,
Mathew
,
was located
down in
lower ground basement area 2
(LGB2)
, below the Administration building
,
also known affectionately as the Dungeon.

Located in
a
separate physical area
in case of
disaster
, Mathew was a
backup node and
s
erver
that could
take over
all Vatican
services as a complete working system.

Francesca could logon to Mathew easily from here
as if
she was sitting in front of it.
She
hated
going
down
to
LGB2
—it was
a horrible place deep in the bowels
of the old building
,
a
cold and dark
room
with very poor lighting
.
B
ut she could see the sense of having the redundancy at a distance and protected by thick walls.

She shivered a little.
It seemed
lonely up here
,
but this was nothing
compared to
the
D
ungeon.
Not tonight
,
though
,
she reminded herself, directing
her thoughts
to
L
uk
e.

L
uk
e was at this moment powering up
. Francesca’s
trained eyes stared closely at the screen, looking for any errors a
s
the data pass
ed
quickly
down
the monitor
before
her.

Modules were being loaded automatically
,
as planned.
The nodes were beginning to speak again to one another
and
they
exchanged
data packets and protocols
among themselves
.
Francesca understood the language
, and
so would be able to interpret any unusual events
.

Let’s
make sure
that they all have joined the
c
luster,
she mused.
Y
ep
,
looking good boys! Now let’s just
see if
that the logical space is ok
. A few taps at the keyboard
gave Francesca
a final check
and she grinned,
satisfied
with
the power up
.

Things just don’t ring true with Michaelangelo
...
.
Francesca
’s
mind drifted a
s she
began to think about his quick exit again.

All the logons were disabled except mine!
Whoever did it
must have known I would be the first to find out who had done this. It can’t
be
the malicious
act of some disgruntled ex employee
...
it’s just not in
Michaelangelo
’s
nature. What about the ghost Apostol?

Si
,
he must have known I would find out.
It must be some kind of a clue, but
a clue to
what?
Where to look, what to look for? That is the secret. Once I
figure it
out
,
I will be a bit closer to finding out what is happening with
Michaelangelo
.
Her mind jumped tracks as she pondered the situation.
T
hose guys from VIA have not shown up yet
.
S
ome help they are
—
the kind you don’t want
,
of course!
A hindrance rather than a help snooping around
,
arrogant with power
...
.
It s
mells like some security breach
,
though
.
I thought my system
was
the securest.
Let’s start again this time on the Unix box.

A thought at the back of her mind
reminded her
that this was not her system and therefore not her responsibility
,
but
her curiosity pulled her into Paulina’s system
,
Noah.

As she worked,
the room
became cold—
icy cold.
The heat of her breath vaporised in front of the screen
and
she shivered. Ignoring this discomfort
, she
work
ed
her fingers furiously until they stiffen
ed
with cold
.
T
he temperature had been dropping rapidly
all along, although she wasn’t
aware. Francesca concentrated purposefully. She stopped periodically to blow into her hands for warmth.

Let me search for the word ‘Apostol’
...
but first I will install my own version of the sugrep OS utility
...
nothing too obvious, it is sure to be hidden.

Francesca spent the next twenty minutes scanning the directories for a clue, any clue
to why everyone’s login had been shut down
,
but
still
found
nothing.

What if I just
look for the word ‘kit’ in the Noah system
...
I better not tell Paulina.

waiting
...
waiting
...
Results

1 file

/usr/include/rpc/bible/KIT_OUT_POSTAI.TAR

Eureka!
Francesca clapped her hands.
Found a Root kit,
s
i!
It’s a hidden directory
,
alright
...t
here seem
s
to be a few a-type files ‘ptyq’ for kidding the netstat file
...
.
W
e’ve been Trojaned
,
as well!