GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (48 page)

Nothing
...
sur
e
ly not! Oh
L
ord, don’t tell me, he must
just
be unconscious?
It can’t be. Oh
,
h
elp!
The girl was screaming inside!
She
shone the torch directly onto his face with a dreaded
realisation
...
Massimo’s eyes and pupils were open wide and staring at her. He wasn’t hurt
...
he was dead!

Oh shit!
You poor, poor boy, Massimo
—
not you
...
not you
...
.
D
espairing
,
she began to sob and
,
in the darkness
,
the girl gradually
became
aware of the red treacly wetness on her palm
.

Oh my
G
od
,
its blood!
Fixing her eyes on his right temple
, she saw that
it was swollen and
...
and there was a hole
!
His cracked forehead
turned her stomach and she retched on the ground.

‘Oh my God!’ her eyes bulged wide in disbelief as she tried to shout for help
.
Nothing came out from her voice
but
a pitiful squeak, her mouth was completely dry.
The girl
’
s shock caused her to drop
the
headlamp
.
W
ith a mixture of utter revulsion and stunned astonishment
,
fear began to
rule
her.
She immediately stood up, her face contorted
in terror.

‘Oh. Oh
...
oh
...
’
she covered her mouth with her hands,
suppressing the
urge
to scream aloud.
She was still in a state of shock at th
e
cold brutality
of his death
.
Francesca had never seen a dead man before
,
let alone one that had been murdered!
Her
mind
kicked in
like quicksilver as her eyes darted around in the restricted light
.
T
here was no rigour, it must have happened not too long ago
...
she thought.
There
was
one other thing
...
only of one other thing,
on her mind, now.
S
urvival, her own!

Francesca looked around nervously, although she was unable to see well in the dim light.
Something else was bugging her
that she couldn’t quite put her finger on...s
he had subconsciously noted
it
on her short journey
...
.

The foot prints in the dust
—
the small point marks and round dents
!
I never wear pointed toes unless
I’m
going out to a night club!
It must have been another woman
who
killed Massimo!
Who would wear he
e
ls down here?
Nobody.
The other girls
had gone when I checked the office...
they never came down here
,
or
maybe
they never told me?

The air smelled rotten except for another more pleasant smell, a familiar
odour
inside th
e
confined tunnel; she was aware of her own perfume
...
.

Mmm...
m
y perfume?
How nice
to have
in this stuffy place. God
,
how bad is that, what
a trivial thought to have
after such a gruesome discovery?
She shook her head at herself in disappointment.
What an odd
thing
to think of just now, how terrible of me
.
Francesca wished herself away from this place
and
tried to change the way she was thinking
in order
to forget this horror
and leave it behind.

She wondered irreverently if she’d make
her date Ciriaco
.
If only I get out of this place and raise the alarm
,
she brooded. Si,
I love that smell but I never wear it at, not at
...
at work!
She
smell
ed the perfume
again
,
and
it seemed
stronger
.
Francesca’s mind stammered and almost stopped!
Suddenly
her brain
started again
,
becoming more aware with realisation of her immediate peril
.

She jerked at the sound—t
here it was again, a short sound like a crunch or tramping on dried
,
crumbling dirt, she heard it
in the darkness.
W
here
was it coming from?

Crunch
,
crunch
...
pause
...
crunch, crunch, crunch
....
The noise became
a little louder,
seeming to get
closer
, and
then...nothing?
Is it help? No, I don’t think so
...
.
Shit! I’d better get out now! Get away, Francesca
,
get away!

Ready to
sprint
away
,
Francesca
strain
ed
her senses, nose sniffing a little, ears and
eyes adjusting in
the darkness to pin
-
point the killer
.
T
he direction of the intruder was not very clear
,
but one thing was for certain
—she was
closer, much closer
...
Francesca could
sens
e
the scent
, which had grown stronger
.
If
she
ran the wrong way
,
what would she be running into?

Turning her head slowly left
and
then slowly right,
Francesca waited for the
clue, any
clue
that would
give her
a
chance
to
liv
e.
Time was not on her side, she knew this
.
A
few seconds more
would
either allow her to escape or be
come
the next victim
.

Francesca’s heart raced
as she waited.
Not sure, not sure, only seconds in it now,
s
i!
Get out! Get out! Get out!
Francesca
’s
mind screamed silently
...
she
moved instantly
as something whizzed past her head!

Thwipp
...
Thwipp
!
she heard.

Thin
,
white streaks of light pass
ed
by her eye line
, followed by a rush of air a split second after
—
her head turned and followed the lines as they struck and sparked away up and off the far tunnel walls
.

They had come from the direction of the passage round the bend
—
behind her.
Francesca had been there only a moment ago!
The girl felt
more than saw
another piece of stone burst out from the wall next to her
—the explosion of rock struck her right in the side of her face.