* * * * *
"So, let me get this straight," said Myron Meriwether, during the drive back to Langley: "The Catholic Church has secretly been using Christianized werewolves, to hunt other monsters, for centuries. Your mother was one such werewolf. And, she was affiliated with what used to be a Portuguese branch of the Knights Templars?!* "
Juanita Cierva half-smiled and nodded.
"Both of her parents were laymen medical missionaries with the Order of the Holy Ghost. And, following their deaths during the influenza pandemic of 1918, she was raised at a boarding school-orphanage (near Silves, Portugal) run by Third Order Dominican nuns. Or, at least, that is who she initially believed them to be! Because, the Dominican Order has long been used as a front by the Hounds of God."
"And, they're the ones who turned her into a werewolf?"
This question was asked by Pepe Garcia, who had been listening to what had happened back at the Five Forks Motel while he was hidden in the hollow handle of the fake Hsia Jie-ji. As his normal outfit (a G.I. Joe set of army fatigues, shrunken down to his size by careful squirts of Solution 62) would not have fit in there with him, he had been forced to crawl in, stark naked. With only the peanut-sized homing device preserving his waist-level modesty!
Yet, now, he was fully-clothed again, and sitting on the station wagon dashboard, atop a white terry-cloth towel from the motel.
"Correction," Juanita replied: "She _volunteered_ to become one, after she was told the true origin of the pandemic. An ancient Greek demoness, accidentally released from her icy prison, by the Titanic, in 1912!"
"But, it was in Mexico, during World War II, that your father first met your mother," Pepe persisted.
She nodded, again.
"When the Luftwaffe began bombing London, in July of 1940, the Belgian government-in-exile became worried about a certain religious item that they had brought with them, from Brussels, two months earlier. So, they resolved to send that item to the Apostolic Delegation, in Mexico City, for safe-keeping. And, they sent it via Portugal because, while officially neutral, she was still technically a British ally under the Treaty of 1386."
Juanita's mother (who had not yet taken her final vows as a Good Sister of the Benandanti) was appointed to serve as the religious item's courier. And, sure enough; the Gestapo tried to steal it from her (during her midnight arrival) less than half a mile from the delegation's front door.
"They might have succeeded, too, because their Lugers turned out to be loaded with silver bullets! But, Papa intervened on her behalf, at the last minute. And, the rest is what you might call...family history."
"And, just what was this religious item, might I ask?" Myron now inquired (eyes still on the road, of course).
Juanita could not help grinning.
"The stone-cutting hammer of St. Reinold of Cologne."
* * * * *
SOMEWHERE IN THE PENTAGON
(THE VERY NEXT DAY)
The package had come in the mail. Circular in shape; wrapped in brown paper; and with a return address that turned out to be genuine. Although, General Robert H. Phillips had to confess he had never before heard of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe (Attys-at-Law) of Fargo, North Dakota.
Needless to say, his security staff had tried to X-ray it. But, the metallic canister beneath the brown wrapping paper turned out to be made of lead! So, the bomb squad had been forced to open it, first. Fortunately, all the circular canister contained was a reel of videotape...
...and a note saying "Play me."
"Obviously, a Lewis Carroll fan," the general muttered.
Even so, he ordered a videotape player and TV monitor to be brought in.
Five minutes later, his eyebrows arched in bemused surprise at seeing his long-dead father appear on the TV screen.
tbc
Giantess World
Chapter End Notes:
* "Portuguese...Templars:" a reference to the RCC's Order of Christ.
Saint Reinold of Cologne: the patron saint of stone masons. Said to have been murdered by jealous fellow masons, who then dumped his body into a nearby river. Only for that body to have been discovered/recovered through divine revelation.
Saint Reinold of Cologne: the patron saint of stone masons. Said to have been murdered by jealous fellow masons, who then dumped his body into a nearby river. Only for that body to have been discovered/recovered through divine revelation.