GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (42 page)

‘Ok
,
then let
’
s restart
you,
’ he
said to
Mathew as if
the server
was a person
.
He
typed the command at the console
.
B
ouncing you now
,
Mat, come back up boy.

Time passed by and
,
an hour later, the
s
erver
had
decided not to come back up immediately
.
This meant that Massimo had to repeat the same
start-up
process many times and
,
just when he was going to give up
,
the
s
erver came back online!
Massimo was eventually able
log
in and checked the
s
erver
’s
status.

All right! Mathew
has
finally
joined the
other
disciples.
Smashing! Job done,
now
what next
?
S
i
, well
,
Fran is not here yet
.
.
..
Massimo was now at a loose end and contemplated killing a little time until Fran arrived.
Checking his watch and his patience,
he saw that
it was about now about five o’clock!

F
uck
,
where is she
?
The man
thought, really wanting to get out of the catacombs before dark.
...
W
hat about this broken data port on the switch
,
then? I’ll just attach my laptop and have a look at
its system status.
It seems to be ok just now, except
...
that the port seems down and not connected?
It is attached to the cable which is going beneath that duct door.
Odd
...
I
’
ll just bring up this crap port
.

Massimo Rossi used a secure telnet session and logged in as administrator to the data switch showing VATGPLG02 as its description.
Expertly
,
the technician typ
ed
on his console window commands to make the switch work again.
Interface fa1/0 followed
with
“shutdown” and “no shutdown”.
The port on the bottom data switch burst into life again
!
Green
LEDs
began to flicker frantically as data mov
ed madly
across the computer network
.

W
ell done!
I
might
not need to change the switch after all
.
That’s
so
cool
—
I can go home now!
The man was satisfied that the data switch was working fine again and that he could leave without replacing it.
However
,
something else was still bothering him
.

Where is that grey cable going? And is that power?

There were two cables covered in dust and difficult to see lying under the thick layer of
floor
dust.
A data cable and a power cable
...
.
For Massimo
,
th
e
s
e
cables were
an impasse
that ate
away at
him.
He needed to know where
they were
going
,
so
he
decided to move the
s
erver carefully out of the way.
This allowed him clear access to the small duct door.

The floor around
the door
was completely covered
in dust. T
he young man stared at the mysterious cables with bewilderment. One was attached at one end to the data switch
,
and then trailed down and disappeared
beneath
the duct door next to him.
H
is large
,
iron key fitted perfectly
in the small,
internal metal lock, and
then he pulled open the door.
Unlike the outer door entrance, this one glided easily out to meet him. Not even a squeak
was heard
.

It was dark and
,
in the dimness
,
he saw the cable stretching along and disappearing inwards far into the tunnel.
Once the door was opened, the tunnel
did not look much like a duct
.
Massimo’s curiosity
got
the better of him and
he
decided to find out where
the cables
went.

Nothing else for it
...
.

Waiting only for a brief moment
to
put on his head lamp and switch it on
,
Massimo resembl
ed
more a coal miner than a technician.
T
orch
blazing
full power,
he
cut through the dark tunnel
with
his narrow beam
.
Massimo gauged the size of the passage to be just below head height at the top of the arch
,
observing the white surrounding walls
to be
about five f
ee
t wide.
Further up
,
the passage ben
t sharply left
. The ground was uneven with a crumbly dry surface
,
unlike the flat
,
dry
-
bricked stone floor
of
the
main
passage way.
The air inside was desiccated
,
still and lifeless.
There was also an odd smell
...
perhaps the memory
of rot or decay
...
.

Massimo’s eyes
follow
ed
the thin grey cable as it twisted up the partially illuminated passage
.
H
e followed it like a bloodhound, swivelling his head left and right
,
lifting
his gaze
upwards and down in a
smooth
motion.
The sandy arched ceiling was low and close
in
around him.

Darkness
pressed
just beyond his beam and
Massimo
adjust
ed
its brightness
to see the walls
.
The
t
echnician
’
s mouth was dry like the environment
,
and he began
to
feel on edge
going deeper inside
the passage
as his light cast weird shadows off the uneven surfaces.
The technician soon reached the bend and extended his neck to see more
...
he
could
just barely
see
a
round the shadowy passageway
...
.

There was
something in the gloom
—a
box or
piece of
equipment
sat there...
maybe an old computer and a stool
?

Shit
,
this is so crazy
.
N
othing should be here.
What the fuck
...
? W
ho would be stupid enough to put a computer in here
?
I was not told about this
.
Trying to make sense of
the computer, Massimo’s mind raced
.

Anything is possible
,
I suppose, especially working for the VAT
.
It
might
have been here for years
and
was
forgotten about
...maybe it’s been
chugging away for ages.