GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (37 page)

‘Hey Gabriella
,
I have to go downstairs and fix some faulty equipment, me and my bosom pal, Fran.
She is supposed to be coming with me.’

H
e
emphasised the word “bosom” because he
liked to annoy Gabriella just for the hell of it
.
The young man
was attracted to
all the girls in the office
,
but
he knew that with his slim frame and nerdy looks he was unlikely to
catch an admiring glance from any of them
.

The girls did not mind Massimo too much, feeling sorry for him,
rather—
he was quite a lonely boy
,
good at his job and sometimes could be quite funny.
Mass only needed a little understanding and sometimes
required them to have a
thick skin.
They girls knew when to put him in his place if he got a little out of hand
, of course
.

‘When she comes back, let her know where I am.
I’ll do what I can myself
,
but I will need a hand to position the new switch into the cabinet downstairs in LGB2.’

‘Have you filled in a change control form
,
Massimo?’
Gabriella
asked rhetorically.
She
knew that he had not
done so, although i
t was standard practice in the Vatican
for
IT people to fill a form with any special instructions and back-out procedures
when changing anything on the network
.
This
documentation
would help other people know what was going on
with the project
if anything bad or unexpected should occur
and provided a
backup plan or work around.
F
ocus would come directly to Gabriella’s front door at any point of failure
—
she would then fan out appropriate resources to compensate any short
-
comings
,
keeping the helpdesk informed.

‘No, it’ll be fine.
They’ll not be a problem
—
I can fill the form in later.’
S
he need
s
to lighten
up
,
Mass thought
as he
unlock
ed
a short metal cupboard and pull
ed
out a bunch of cables of various sizes and lengths.
He dumped this hotch potch in a pile on the floor
,
giving him
self
room to see inside
.
T
aking out a spare keyboard
and
placing it next to Gabriella’s desk
,
and
he fished out
a tool kit, a spare comms switch and a head lamp.

‘Hey Mass, I hope you don’t expect to leave that rubbish down here next to me
, y
ou messy pup!
’
Gabriella quizzed the technician.

‘Stop gabbing on, Gabby,’
he
dismiss
ed
her comment
with
his usual
blasé.

‘Oh you look so big, so tough
,
Massy my dear
,
’ Paulina jibed a little.
They all laughed loudly as
the
others in the office looked suspiciously at the
three-some,
jealous of their good hearted banter.
Massimo looked
a
round at the contractors.

‘Well
,
what’s wrong with you lot now?
Better watch
yourselves
or I might disable all your accounts again,’
he
rais
ed
his voice
and
then laughed
heartily.
‘
P
ermanently
!
’

T
he contractors
,
who could not stand Massimo
to begin with
because he always spoke out loudly against them
, grumbled at his joke, not understanding that
i
t was only a game
.
Massimo
made
light of recent events in the office
to overcome
their continual moaning and whispering of reb
uk
e.

‘I should be downstairs for about an hour.
L
et Fran know where I am.’

‘I will
tell
her
,
handsome
.
O
h
,
by the way, remember that both Paulina and I will be leaving early this afternoon
, at
about
three thirty.
Fran should be back by then
, though
.’ Massimo
nodded, and then
headed away along the
a
isle past the contractors.

‘
A domaini
, ladies,
arrivederci
.’

‘
Arrivederci
Massimo,’ they replied
.

‘
W
hat a man
,
’ Gabriella said
,
shaking her head a little at Paulina in jest
.
‘A hero, what can I say
?
’

Massimo passed the
VIA
agents on their way into the office
without
acknowledging their passing
.
H
e descended the stairs outside the office towards the so
-
called Dungeons
that lay
far
beneath
the echoing sounds of the crashing crystal fountain
.

**********

Francesca looked at herself in the mirror of the Ladies room.
I look a real mess. What a start to
the
day so far and it
’
s
only half
done.
Resigning herself
to
another interrogation
, a much
worse
one, she groaned
.
She had lied!
Yes Pope had sent her an
e-mail
,
but not last week!
Her response
had been a panic reaction.
They would insist
o
n scrutinizing her account, the mail logs, his
e-mail
account
...they
would
see that she
had
deleted the
message he’d
sent last night
.
That would be seen at least
as
a breach of discipline and
would
maybe
cause her to
lose her job
.
It was much worse
that
Michaelangelo
had warned her not to speak to the police or
VIA
!
Why
didn’t he trust them
?

This is insane!!!
Why should I be worrying so?
But that blonde!
I’ll end up smacking that bitch in the face.

Francesca inspected her complexion in the mirror,
her
face changing to a pinkish red tone
.
O
o
ps
,
a little more makeup I think
,
she said
as she brushed on some more.
At least there is something to look forward to
...
Ciriaco is treating me later to a coffee tonight and maybe it will lead to something else, who knows? I can’t wait to get out of here!

The young woman’s
heart raced at the thought of a passionate embrace as
she
pencilled in a little additional eyeliner
,
extenuating her beautiful
,
large brown eyes and natural
ly
long lashes.
Fixing her hair
,
Francesca smiled at herself
as she
pull
ed
the long red corkscrew curls
away
from her face
and back into a pony tail
.
Francesca looked
at herself
with renewed confidence.