GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (38 page)

She
entered the office
just as
Ciriaco had finished a call
.
S
he walked past
slowly,
smiling a little at him.
He stretched out his arm and held her wrist lightly.

             
‘
Ciao
, Francesca!
Not so fast.’ The young man looked shyly into her eyes
.
‘What’s the story with those creeps with the glasses earlier
?
I
t looked serious
....
’
He
nodd
ed
his head to where
Francesca had
sat earlier
that
morning
with the two agents.
‘More importantly, Café
D
a
bruzzi’s
at seven tonight
; are we
still
ok
?’ he smiled sweetly.

‘
Si, si
,’ Francesca said, her face glowing. ‘
Arrivederci
, I’ll see you later.’ Francesca walked slowly towards the T&O section near the
back
of the office.

Business was in full swing
,
and
so
Francesca
’s
mind began to de
-
mist a little as she quietly informed Paulina Toscano of her good news
.
H
er friend smiled wickedly at her.

‘You are a naughty little girl
,
aren’t you?
That boy could pass as your little brother
—
baby snatcher!
Though
...
he
is
kinda cute
...
maybe I c
ould
get a shot after you finish with him?’ Pauline asked tentatively
,
looking at Francesca with a mixture of good humoured wit and envy.

‘Not a chance
, you
jealous
thing
,’
Francesca
replied
.
‘
H
ave you set up a new system yet?’

‘No
,
not yet,
’ Paulina grumped at Francesca’s power shift.
‘I
t should be ready by tomorrow. I tried to inform the boss
,
but he has slipped away to a meeting and will not be back today, so that gives us a little extra time to play with,’ replied Paulina with that same wicked smile
.
She
laughed a little
and Francesca grinned with her
. ‘Well then
,
back to it girl
,
’
Paulina commanded herself.
S
he turned her focus to the work at hand, installing a new “Confessional
”
b
ox on Noah (II)
.
‘Noah’s Ar
k
will not sink this time!’

‘
Oh
,
before I forget!’ shouted Gabriella
from her desk as Francesca turned away.
‘Massimo is away fixing something downstairs; I thought he had bumped into you.
He said you were going to help him.
Oh and
,
by the way
,
Mr and Mrs Stooge from the
VIA
came back to
...
to
cross-examine you again.
It was around forty minutes ago, they did not hang about
once they realised
you were not in the office.
I don’t think that they will visit again today.
They’re p
robably writing
their
report or some crap thing like that.’

Gabriella spoke with disgust
,
remembering the ill treatment Francesca had been subjected to earlier by the auditors.
Vatican
I
nternal
A
udit
agents
were intensely disliked
by everyone in the Vatican
,
with the exception of the
c
ardinals
for whom they worked
.

             
‘I’m out
of
here
—
going downstairs
ASAP to
catch up with
that
boy Massimo
.
Y
ou don’t know where I am
,
ok
?
’ Francesca felt weary and fed up
with the whole mess
, Gabriella could tell by her dispirited tone
.
‘I hoped to have got rid of them earlier,
but I guess it was
wishful thinking.
Si
,
you are right.
They
are
probably scripting my last rights,
or my
marching orders
,
at this minute.’
Francesca
resign
ed
herself to more questioning and possible disciplinary action.

             
‘Lighting a candle for you
,
more like
,
’ Gabriella added.

             
‘Someone has to take the blame for this and I am sure it will not be Anatolio.’
A
nnoyed by the latest witch hunt, Francesca picked up the hardcopy of the script she
’d
printed earlier
that
display
ed
details of the hacked off Noah (I)
s
erver and put the paper inside her briefcase
-
like tool kit.

Francesca attempted to assemble
together
the gathering complexities of this enigma.
Strapping
the
small briefcase containing her tools, headlamp and various testers and
abandoning
her desk for the
s
erver room, she ran up the stairs to the fifth floor
in order to avoid the busy lifts
.
She needed some private time to think
.

Francesca’s
dedicated workstation for interrogating the network topology was located in the
s
erver room on the fifth floor
, and
would present
to her
an up
-
to
-
date picture of the current network. A piece of equipment
was
identified by its
IP
address
,
like the 212.100.5.60
server
,
which
showed up
as
nothing the last time a search was carried out on the network.
Francesca
continued to juggle the issues in her mind
, and then gasped as she was hit with inspiration
.
She had a new lead!

There might be something obvious in this room
...U
nlikely,
but
somewhere else
...
a
nother location on the vlan
,
I am sure.
This will take a little longer to find,
but
find it I will!

I must have a quick look
before I
join Massimo...
.

Sitting down at her dedicated workstation
,
there were still a few leads to follow, some areas still to quickly pursue at her desk before the
VIA
returned.
S
he used the familiar network tool called “ping” and
pinged
the unknown address again to see if it was switched on and working the 212.100.5.100
address. 212.100.5.100
was possibl
y
a computer address somewhere on the Vatican internal network
rather than
outside
of
the organisation, unless
a
hole had been well and truly punched in the firewall!

No reply, destination unreachable.

Francesca reaffirmed
that the IP was
at least hidden from normal view on the network. It
could
be switched off or unresponsive and hidden to her analyses; it
could
simply be sitting waiting to be switched on and to burst into some kind of secret activity on a single instruction.
Francesca knew she had to find out more
.

Trying
the
telnet and rlogin
proved
ineffective.
The External Firewall
might
give me the answers I seek, but that creep Jonathan is in charge of the firewall and would be immediately
suspicious even on a good day
if I
asked for access to it
. H
e would not
ever lift a finger to
help me
,
anyway.