GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (14 page)

In
both
open and restricted tender procedures
,
all negotiation with candidates or suppliers on fundamental aspects of contracts,
on
variations
that would
likely distort
the
competition, and on prices w
as completely
ruled out
.
T
hat basic principal was
often
overlooked by government bodies
,
which
overlooked
the
fundamental flaw in the morality of private company ownership
of the databases
.

Yes,
“The Crypt”
was a perfect tool!
It was an e
asy
way to navigate the
complex world of e-tender processes, where law suits
waited
around every corner for the poor council officer
s
and central government official
s
whose main responsibilit
ies
w
ere
to feed their famil
ies
and keep a mortgage
.
O
h yes, for
both
central
and
local governments
,
“T
he Crypt
”
was a real money saver
,
or so it appeared.

Don Luzio Ilario had captured a lucrative end of the software market, and his company act
ed
as a middleman
by
providing essential electronic tendering software tools in order to exchange confidential documents.
He’d already fulfilled contracts
for the
warship
R & D Support to Modify a Northrop Grumman AN/APN-241 radar system to develop an Anti Ship Missile (ASM
)
s
imulator and the
IRL-Dublin
apparatus for measuring radiation
. T
he t
itle attributed to the contract by the contracting authority
was:
Upgrade of Italian National Radioactivity in Air Monitoring Network.

The contract
that
Ilario really wanted to keep a lucrative eye on was the
Stingray Intensive Munitions Programme Ltd Insertion
,
which was a
single-source contract for the manufacture of 112 Insensitive Munitions Warhead Systems and
the
integration
of these systems
into the Sting Ray Strategic Defense Department. Codenamed
A400M
, the project
aimed
to provide tactical and strategic mobility to all three
s
ervices. The
Ministry of Defence
required
that the contractor be able to:
operat
e
from airfields and semi-prepared rough landing areas in
extreme climates and all weather conditions by day and night; carry a variety of equipment
,
including vehicles and troops over extended ranges; air drop paratroops and equipment; and unload with
a
minimum of ground handling equipment.

The Strategic
Defense
Review confirmed
that t
he A400M
would
meet th
e
s
e
requirement
s
. It
would
replace the remaining Hercules C-130K fleet. A400M is a collaborative programme involving eight European nations (Germany, France, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, UK and Italy)
and a
total of
180 aircraft
.
The program was, a
ll in all
, considered
“chicken feed”
—
because the UK
Ministry of Defence
fielded thirty billions of pounds sterling to be awarded in contracts alone
.

Don Luzio
wanted this award badly and would see it
achieved
!
Procured through a contract with Airbus Military Italian
,
also owned by Ilario Holdings
,
t
he deadline
was
this Friday and worth billions of
pounds.
A large share
of the contract money
would be transferred to a few
the Don’s
individual Swiss bank accounts
, of course.

Ventisei Software Solutions (VSS)
had just provisioned t
he UAE Armed Forces General
Headquarters’
(GHQ) new electronic tendering portal, enhancing the efficiency, speed and transparency of
the GHQ’s
procurement process and bringing the system on
par
with international standards. A joint press conference
was
attended by the Armed Forces and UAE’s leading IT solutions provider,
ITQAN, who
implemented the project in association with international partner
Ventisei Software Solutions Ltd
of Italy.
ITQAN and its strategic partner, VSS, were entrusted by the UAU Armed Forces to provide a
state-of-the-art IT solution to automate GHQ’s procurement process.
The press conference was held on the sidelines of the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi. The portal
’
s capabilities would
also
be enhanced in the future for use by other directorates of the Armed Forces
.

Power, wealth and ambition were Ilario’s middle names
,
although
far from the world he
’d known as a child,
raised as he was
in
the
Sicilian
village
of
Petralia Soprana,
located
in the Madonie Mountains about 1500 met
r
es
above sea level
. The village was always a step or two behind the modern world. As a young man
, Don Luzio
had firmly gripped th
e
modern age of technology with both hands and us
ed
it easily to his full advantage
—technology
was
like the
tree of knowledge of good and evil
to him; it raised him up above others, and yet...
.

His father, Don hoped, would have been proud of him for all his work.

**********

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman,
yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

—Genesis 3:1

The love of money, it is said, is the root of all evil. And yet some roots grow much deeper than that....

The
c
ardinal lived just outside Rome in the village of Acilia.
He o
wn
ed
a fine villa with peaked central turret
and
a
generous main building
on
two levels
;
it dominated the hill
upon which it sat
.
A sandy coloured building with different shades of light pastel yellows and dull oranges, its w
indows were large and arched and from
this vantage point
the house
looked out
and
downwards through a gorgeous system of valleys and creeks far below.
The landscape was characterized by its natural warm
colours
—
fertile soil and the rich
clearne
ss of water
streams
produced lush vegetation
and a forest
of
o
aks.

L
ying comfortably on his basket lounger
in the shaded veranda
as t
he sun r
o
s
e
early this October morning
,
Cardinal Giovanni
Dalla Gassa
contemplat
ed
in deep solitude
as he looked over the world.
...

The mission is almost complete
,
he thought.
Benedict has not sat in his holy chair for long
—
he is unfamiliar of the immediate office issues within the Vatican and
,
like Pope John Paul
,
he may not be in office for the normal term
...
.

With a silent prayer to God
,
the
c
ardinal viewed the successful transfer of another $300,000,000 into the Vatican purse.
The day was beginning well.
Sipping a tall glass of red wine
, harvested from his own vineyards,
the man felt warm and satisfied.
Placing the slim wineglass on the side table
,
the man began typing again
—
play
ing the keys with the confidence of a
skilled organist.