GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (31 page)

Like clockwork
,
Francesca continued with her morning checks.
To an outsider, she would seem perfectly nonplussed by the situation. And perhaps she was.
Ok
,
all lights on the “green”
...
a few switches on the “yellow”
,
but nothing to worry about
—just
known problems scheduled to be sorted
.
These types of jobs would
normally
be attended to by Francesca, Massimo and
Michaelangelo
.

All the
d
isciples seem fine
. Francesca had many systems to check and many checks within each system and subsystem
in order to make
sure
that
everyone receiv
ed
the IT services required for them to complete their work.
Most people had come to rely on
her support,
but would not understand or even give a
second thought
to
just how difficult a balance it was
for her
to keep things running smoothly
.
Francesca was a smooth operator,
fortunately, and
highly skilled
—a
far
cry
from the robotic
ism of
many Technical Administrators
.
She had
a natural flair
when it came to
the intricacies of Operating Systems.

Analysing her
secondary
console
,
she began pulling up the current network topology.
This was a map
that showed
the
locations and status
es
of all the
s
ervers, computers, printers, switches, users and any other piece of equipment or hardware
connected to the Vatican networks
.
The overall picture
provided
a
three-
dimensional plan of the old Vatican City
,
with various
areas of interest
highlighted appropriately
.

Most buildings were on the green
,
but a few were in different stages of alert
.
These alerts
w
ere
normal,
of course, and
did not
necessarily represent
a big problem. Possibly
, the fuss was
only
about
a printer
going
offline,
or
maybe a network card
was
switched off.
If
the operator drilled down into any part of the map
,
it
would oftentimes
open up a three dimensional window
that connected to
a CCTV
so she
could view the status remotely.

A thought came to her mind.
I must try to give
Michaelangelo
a
nother
call
.
Perhaps
he is accepting calls
now...
.
Francesca looked around the room and pressed his number.
The phone rang three times before going to voic
e-mail
, but at least it didn’t send her to voic
e-mail
automatically.

‘Hello it’s just me
,’ she said, after the tone.
‘A
re you al
l
right
,
Michaelangelo
?
I am very worried about you.
Please let me
know where you are and what is going on. Please.’ she
set
down the phone
,
resign
ing herself
to the bland message.

I must try later
, she thought
,
a bit upset and very disappointed.
T
here must be something seriously wrong
...
I cannot understand why he said nothing to me!
We
were
close
, I thought...
.
Annoyed
,
she looked over at the DBA.

Jonathan’s still having a system failure,
she noticed.
A
bout time.
She giggled a little at his torment.
Now I am
the
bitchy
one
,
although it’s
nothing th
at
big head does not deserve
.
She was
still immensely
enjoying his discomfort when Paulina entered and sat down at her desk. Gabriella arrived at the same time.

‘
Buongiorno
Paulina, Gabriella
,
’
she chimed.
The
girls
reciprocated he
r
greeting and sat down to logon.
Giving them a chance to grab a cup of coffee
and settle in,
Francesca waited
.

‘Are you ok, Fran
?
’ asked Paulina
,
made nervous by
Francesca
’s impatient gaze.
‘What
is
the matter?’

Francesca got up from her desk and
walked over to Paulina, bending over and whispering in her ear
.
She quietly spoke for about five minutes regarding what she had discovered the previous evening.
Paulina’s eyes opened wide as she
learned of the
security breach on Noah.
Paulina was not too happy that Francesca had been snooping around on her system
—
Francesca
’d
had no right to
examine Noah
without
Paulina’s
permission
,
and
her actions were
strictly against company policy.

‘This puts me in a very compromising position,’ Paulina replied
,
speaking quickly and quietly
.
‘Look Francesca, are you trying to get us
all
sacked
—
you for accessing a system with no
prior authority and me for not informing VIA
?
’ Paulina was more than a little annoyed,
she was nearing panic, unsure how to deal with
th
e
embarrassing
situation
.

Francesca was taken aback for a moment as she stood up
.
S
he
had
not
thought
her friend would mind so much. Francesca composed herself and apologised
.

‘I am sorry Paulina. I was only thinking of
Michaelangelo
and finding out the truth
—
I am very worried about him! Things are just not right
, the way he left...t
he whole thing smells
,
and I must get to the bottom
of
it. Please help me?’ she had raised her voice a little
, since
Jonathan
was too busy to even turn his head.

‘
Si
,
then let me have a closer look at this
.
B
ut I will have to report the breach, maybe I can say that I discovered
it, which will
mak
e
it not so bad for both of us
,
’ replied Paulina in a softer voice. Paulina held Francesca in a warm friendly embrace for a moment
,
knowing
t
hat
Francesca
was
frightened for their friend
.
Paulina
then
went into overdrive
,
looking at what Francesca had discovered.

0 0

1 212.100.5.60

1 200.221

1 200.232

2 196.196

2 epostol.ecb.int

2 thyarc(I).com

Francesca girl
,
you are right again
,
Paulina
thought. Si
,
nothing in the log file “syslogd”
,
which is used to record file history
security
and
system maintenance events as expected
—
only the number two entry
shows
that a log file
was
removed.
Si,
the ROOT_KIT_LOG_FILE to dev/ptys
...
very clever indeed
,
but who?