First book in the Gods Chain tetralogy. In the Scottish village of Mauchline things are not quite normal, as a freak earthquake hits and precipitates a dramatic fall in temperature. Meanwhile, across Europe, in the Vatican City, mystery surrounds an untraceable security breach in the computerised nerve-centre of papal authority. This has ramifications for the suspect intentions of Cardinal Giovanni Dalla Gassa. He has plans for a new Genesis once he is in possession of the links to God that would tip the cosmic and spiritual balance in favour of the holder. The mystery thickens with the involvement of the Freemasons, the Cardinals' henchmen in the Vatican Internal Audit office, a ruthless businessman with mafia connections named Don Luizio Ilario, the disappearance of a senior systems administrator named Michaelangelo, the death of a member of the technical & operations team and the torment of another administrator named Francesca De Rose in the Vatican catacombs. The plot to this story is intricate and complex, akin to a game of chess and of manipulation. Is it the Illuminati who are ultimately moving the pieces? In the meantime, back in Mauchline new and increasingly bizarre events are just starting to unfold.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Nikolaus Baker
Son of a hospital head cook, Nikolaus Baker was born in the rural village of Mauchline. This friendly once mining village is situated in West of Scotland, Ayrshire about thirty miles from Glasgow. Steeped in Scottish History from the Covenanters to the life and works of Robert Burns who also lived in the same village.
Nikolaus was educated at Auchinleck Academy in the early 70's and attended various technical colleges (part time) obtaining various scientific qualifications and later graduated while in full time employment in 1993 with a BA Degree with the Open University.
Nikolaus has had many interests and in his early teens was a keen Scout gaining his Chief Scouts Award. An enthusiastic hill walker and also completed some rock climbs.
When he left school in the 70's, Ayrshire which was an unemployment black-spot and the main employers being coal mining industry and the plastics factory, soon found himself quickly on the dole. His scientific interests merited him for a job in education as a laboratory assistant cleaning at first test tubes and science laboratories. Strangely enough this first job was with his the same academy he had left only months before! This seemed quite funny when his friends would joke with him.
He gained promotion as a lab technician after studying for many scientific qualifications with a special aptitude in Biology and Chemistry. It was while working at Irvine Royal Academy he met a friend who hobby was with microcomputers and Nikolaus became quickly spell bound by this quick moving technology. He enjoyed working in the schools and always found helping the pupils very rewarding.
Moving to find work in Glasgow in mid 80's as a computer technician he was always eager to learn and help both lecturing staff and students with their project work. He moved on again to a higher position of analyst / programmer in the Council. It was at this time he met and married his wife Aileen and they both have two boys and a daughter.
Always one for keeping up with new technology and new challenges he worked with several other large employers before his interests turned towards management. Fatally this was a strategic pitfall for him, finding himself quickly unemployed through no fault of his own. With a small government run company he realised, too late, that he had been only required for the relocation of premises and launch of this company finding out the hard way that ego centric personalities that came into play and it did not matter how good you were at your job or whether you had a family. Out of a job he and his family plummeted straight down and onto the breadline.
This then send Nikolaus into a spiral moving through different jobs in the same line but none provided them with the security they required. Working for a once successful electronic company specialising in printed circuit boards, the spectre of redundancy loomed ever closer and once again with no alternative but to try I.T. management again...
Baker had always been one to stand up and voice his opinion when he believed that things were wrong wherever he found it and he would stand up for the underdog knowing fine well there were some hidden agendas and hit lists. On one such occasion on his first week of employment Baker was advised that he would have to sack an individual! This did not go down well with him, after all, a spade was always a spade with Baker and he too found himself out of a job again. Battling between employer power plays and oversized egos were too much even for him. His wife and family stood by him and braved the storms once again.
Completely disillusioned with the way his world had become and out of a job and as luck would have it, he applied to a small family I.T. Business in Glasgow, securing a position in part of the I.T. Development team in a niche market. He made many friends and had a lot of respect for this small firm. It was a tough job where your position was always on the line but Baker had great respect for an American Manager and they both spoke directly with each on several occasions... The company never took on dead wood and Baker found friendship and much achievement in this company.
One day in the early millennium and out of the blue, Nikolaus was diagnosed with cancer. The company supported him through this difficult time and for which he was very grateful. Mr Baker is also eternally indebted to all those who helped save his life and Nikolaus has made a fully recovered. He thanks his Dr at the local health centre for their help, the surgeon in Ayr Hospital (Ballochmyle suite) who performed the surgery and their nurses, the Radiotherapy Dept, Consultants, nursing and support staff stationed at the Beatson in Glasgow.
As a young man he always liked reading fiction books and in his early twenties attempted to write his first book. He felt he had a good story but it proved much too difficult at that time, although he had the imagination, Nikolaus did not have the experience in life and knowledge. Twenty three years later he had gained all the experience he needed! There is an endless wealth of knowledge on the internet but found also that nothing is better than going to the library to research various topics, cross checking fact from fiction or being in a place and feeling the atmosphere to stimulate the mind. With all the wheeling and dealings and hidden agendas, studying the different colours of human personalities and human emotions, put downs and power plays, Baker was fully equipped to entertain and quite is now quite capable to mess with your mind...
Writing the book to him has been both extremely challenging and at the same time therapeutic. His secret passion of writing a book is one which he has had since a boy and now it would be realised and come to fruition with Godschain.
Godschain is a series of books and the first being 'Genesis' and 'The First Degree'.
What better a background than being born in a place full of history including the enigmatic Freemasons villages and towns to the summary killing times of the Covenanters and religious tensions in Scotland mixed with manipulation of human life by those people of power?
