* * * * *
"So?" began John Aaron Phillips (President Emeritus of the Independent Petroleum Company): "How'd it go?"
Major Robert Phillips scowled at his paternal great-uncle.
"Why do I get the feeling you have the Philadelphia Lodge bugged, or something?"
The older man laughed, semi-ruefully.
"I don't have it bugged! I just know your old man. Stubborn as all get-out...just like his own father. Of course, my brother never called it 'stubborness,' when appraising himself! It was merely 'dogged determination,' instead. Which, I suppose, is a _good_ thing for someone striving to become a world-famous archeologist. But, things have changed since your granfather's day. We have to consider the future. Like it or not, Labia is still out there, somewhere. Still looking for Ovaria's place of imprisonment! And, every day we allow her to keep drawing breath is one more day she's closer to succeeding."
"A nice speech, Uncle John. But, I need the Hsia Jie-ji as payment for the Heikegani-ryu. Without it, Stalin keeps drawing breath...while Ike is one day closer to assassination. And, that could do worse than end the Korean War in Russia's favor! It could lead to nuclear armageddon!!"
"All the more reason why I'm glad I planted a private eye among the museum staff," replied the older man.
"Come again?"
John Aaron Phillips explained how his nephew--Bob's father--had used the post-WWII donation of the dagger-axe, to the American Museum of Natural History, as an elaborate ruse to have the Manhattan Lodge smuggle it out of the country, altogether!
"Not for monetary gain, mind you," the older man hastened to add: "Ash is much too altruistic for that. No, he was merely having it returned to the Eastern Hemisphere. Just like everybody else and their brother has periodically tried to do, for the last eight hundred years! To break the alleged curse on it."
"Are you trying to tell me that Dad had it returned to where Alexander the Great supposedly found it? The ancient ruins of Harapa, in India?"
"Nah! Too many other archeologists are poking around there, these days. Mohenjo-daro, too. So, he had the dagger-axe taken someplace where he was sure it would never be found. Someplace _famous_ for permanent disappearances! Mount Kalkajaka, in Australia."
"And, all this was discovered by one private eye?!" exclaimed Bob Phillips, quite dubiously.
"Over the last nine years, yeah."
The army intelligence officer sipped at his Long Island "iced tea," while he contemplated this admittedly startling information.
"It won't be easy organizing an expedition without the Knights catching on," he mused: "And, even if we accomplish that, there's also the difficulty of hiring local laborers once we get down under. The aborigines of that region consider the mountain to be the sacred home of Kadroo Wanjina.* Daughter of Kunapipi and the Rainbow Serpent!"
The older man nodded: "I know. That's why I've made arrangements with a certain employment agency in Hong Kong. I can get you all the diggers you need...courtesy of the Bear Eagle Tong. Long-time rivals of the Earth Tigers!"
tbc
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
OIL CITY, PENNSYLVANIA
(SEPT. 18, 1952)
(SEPT. 18, 1952)
Chapter End Notes:
* Kadroo Wanjina: while Kunapipi and the Rainbow Serpent are genuine figures of Australian aboriginal mythology, the "daughter" I ascribe to them is purely fictional. A portmanteau of "kadroo" (an alternate Hindu term for "snake") and "wanjina" (a generic term for Australian aboriginal rain spirits).