GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (68 page)

Francesca l
ook
ed
up at Jonathan
,
who was shouting
to
his assistant
as she spoke
on the other phone.

‘I think this girl needs a complete rest, she has been through far too much
.
W
hat do you think Guielletta
,
r
escind?’

Jonathan nipped
Francesca’s
cut face as he dabbed some more antiseptic ointment onto her wound.
‘Call Internal Audit
,
Guielletta, they should know about any rescinding issues
,
as well as the
p
olice
.
’
He
look
ed
at Francesca, ‘This won’t take a moment.
Keeps us all in their good Bible books
...
’
the man laughed
,
though not with real jest
,
unaware of
the woman’s
growing unease as she listened to each word on the voice on the cell-phone.

‘Ouch!’ the cut hurt!
Clearly th
e woman’s
was not Pope’s voice on the phone.
She was trying to listen to the stupid man
’
s rhetoric,
but
at the same time he was making it difficult to concentrate
...
.

There was some kind of an interference, an echo on Francesca’s phone
.
L
ooking up
she set
her
cell-phone’s
visibility to
“
on
”
hoping
that she
would
see the person at the other end.
This
required
the other person
to have
the same vision technology.
Michaelangelo
’s phone did
!

Oh
...
j
ust a picture of an ear,
crap!
She swore as the cell-phone seemed to pull away from the person
’
s ear
—
she
wondered
if
the person
had suddenly heard a beep and became aware of her contact
....
A red light indicator flashed
,
on indicating “live feed”
.
Vision was set to on in
BOTH directions!

A long instant passed, a split second it really was,
and then Francesca’s
unseen intuitive thought
was justified
as familiar eyes were displayed inside the tiny cell-phone screen.
It was not
Michaelangelo
!
The
eyes
were f
e
mal
e and looked sideways
...
towards Francesca!

At that moment
,
Francesca turned her head to her right and
tried to
stretch
around
Jonathan
’s
body
.
H
e was still
standing above her and in the way!
Staring past the man and across the room, she was irritated by
his
im
m
obility
.
Jonathan seemed unaware of these new developments and
worked on
dabbing
more
ointment onto her face.

It was
Guielletta! Horror!
I
t was Guielletta’s voice on the other end of the cell-phone.
I
t was her voice! Her eyes!

Guielletta had
realised
it
a few seconds before
,
and she too was staring directly at Francesca
.

‘
Si,
she knows too much and I will rescind her right now
,
’ her clinical tone came through the phone.
Guielletta immediately opened her drawer and pulled out a double action
Tanfoglio Force 99
c
arry
semi-automatic
,
aiming it directly at Francesca!

Jonathan must be in on it
,
as well!
I never mentioned where the mystery computer was locate
d
—
he spoke about going downstairs first! He also got it wrong with the dead guy upstairs, why would it not be poor Mass?
I knew there was something wrong!
Shit!
My
G
od, she is going to kill me!

Francesca moved like quicksilver
,
tugg
ing
Jonathan with both hands
.
H
e stumbled off bala
n
ce as
she
brought
him in front
of her
and
two bullets smacked into his shoulder blades!
He fell
towards
Francesca
and slumped to the floor
.

             
‘Out
of
the way
,
you fool!’ Guielletta called as the man fell to the red stained carpet, blood shooting out like a hose from both open wounds!

Francesca was a natural and gifted survivor.
Jonathan shouted out in pain and fell.
This gave the administrator
the
valuable seconds she needed to jump off her chair and scramble around on the floor to the far end of the desk
—
out of immediate
sight
.
The office desks were arranged in
a
star group of four.
This would protect her for a minute
,
at least.
Then another bullet passed over her head!

             
‘Fuck me, not again
!
M
y luck is sure to run out this time!’ Francesca
hissed, knowing
the girl was walking over at this moment to finish her off
. She
desperately look
ed
around on the floor
for inspiration
.
Was there any way
she could get
out and stay alive? Searching below the tables
,
she could see the woman
’
s ankles walking over
.

Guielletta now stood above the bloody man
.
S
tudying Jonathan,
she spoke
calmly
to his torment
,
‘Poor bugger
,
Jon, it’s turned out to be a real mess in here.
I’ll “rescind” this cow for you and think of something to say about all this later
—
it will not be too much of a problem.
A cover up will be easy inside the Vatican with the help of
VIA
There is no one around just now.
I’ll kill the clean
ing
woman later.’

The man looked up in agony
.
‘I need help
,
Gu
i
elletta
,
’ he groaned in a low
,
pained voice
to
his partner in crime
,
pleading for her help
.
After looking into her blank eyes,
he realised that
she was a real psycho!
Guielletta cared nothing for him
—
her
mind
was
transfixed on her kill
.
S
he
strode
past the wounded man without a
further thought
.
The 92mm shorter barrel Force 99 pistol point
ed
towards Francesca’s hiding place
...
.

             
Under the desk came a noise
and
Guieletta
looked down.
At that moment
,
Francesca appeared from behind the desk
,
swinging a long cable
and
throwing it at the woman!

Heavy and
s
er
r
ated,
the cable was attached to
an old centronics metal plug
.
W
ith great speed it struck Guielletta on her temple
,
causing
the woman
to lose
her
balance and
fall
ungraciously over Jonathan!
Collapsing on her back, she instantly scrambl
ed
to regain her superiority.