Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Crystal - By Deacon Blues

   Five - Revelations

   The sun came streaming into the room through the slats of the shades.  I
blinked at the bright light, then sat up slowly.  The events of last night
came back to me in a series of short flashes.  A second later, I looked
over to see Crystal lying near me, curled up in a compact ball.  She was
softly breathing, her face a mask of serenity.  I slid from the bed and
padded out on cat's feet.  I walked across the hall to my `old' room and
looked inside.  The bed was still riddled with bullet holes and there was
an alarming amount of blood on it.  I felt my bandaged ears and neck.  The
coagulant must have worked well, as they were still dry.

   I turned form that reminder of shame, pain, and doubt, and back toward
my office.  My feet quiet on the hardwood.  I entered and sat at the desk.
The computer showed it had decoded two files from the encrypted data.  They
had odd alpha-numeric names like 1ad33sa7, or the like.  Both were quite
large, one being almost fifty megs, and the other about thirty-five.  I
opened the first, figuring it was a movie, I allowed my movie viewer to try
to open it.

   I was correct.  It was a motion picture.  It looked like old eight
millimeter film converted to digital format later.  The scene showed a man
in a lab coat in what looked for all the world like a kitschy old 30's mad
scientists lab.  He was showing a simplified view of a DNA strand, or
something like it to some other men, men in long jackets with lots of
epaulets and high collars.  On the collars were the twin lightning bolts of
the `SS,' the elite terror storm troopers of the Nazi's.

   Ok, I thought, old propaganda footage.  Interesting, but hardly worth
encrypting.  The man guided this small group of soldiers down a long
hallway then into a room.  Inside the room were a dozen or so girls.  Young
girls, adolescents.  They were uniformly slim, athletic, and beautiful. 
The girls all wore equally blank expressions as the men inspected their
nude bodies, looking for traces of blemish or fault.  The Nazi's even
probed into their cavities, never eliciting so much as a grimace from the
girls.  Some text in German appeared on the screen for a dozen frames,
replaced by the girls standing in the room alone.  A man walked in, huge
and muscular.  His dong hung nearly to his knee.  He picked a girl at
random and she stepped forward, spun around and got onto her hands and
knees.  The man's erection swelled to a massive size as he squatted behind
her.  He entered her, spreading her small slit wide with his girth.  She
finally had an expression, pain and pleasure at the same time.  He drove
the long pole into her over and over, thoroughly fucking the preteen. 
Finally, he seemed to spasm and then pulled his still hard cock out of her.
I could hear the pop even with no sound on the movie.  The girl's twat was
distended and open.  Come came gushing out from her hole and she sat
upright on her knees.  When the pouring come had slowed to a dribble, she
stood and took her position back in the small formation.  Another girl was
selected, and the same occurred, then again.  Three girls were taken in
rapid succession, without ceremony or even real eroticism, unless one
counts simple massive penetration erotic.  Some more German text appeared
for a moment.  Then the video ended.

   Ok, what the fuck was that?  World War Two kiddie porn?  I opened the
second file.  It was another movie.  Like the first, it was apparently shot
in eight millimeter and transferred.  It showed a girl that looked
remarkably like Crystal in the water, outpacing other swimmers by a wide
margin.  She swam like my angel, bulleting through the water like a
dolphin. If anything, this girl was better than Crystal, I had to admit. 
It showed from above while she navigated around obstacles and tight places
at speed.  She then swam to the bottom of the pool and remained there,
without air for almost ten minutes, according to the little clock
superimposed on the corner of the screen.  I thought she was dead, but then
she came to life, eyes shooting open and then rocketing across the entire
length of the pool before surfacing for a gulp of air.  Still more German
text flashed on the screen, followed by another segment showing the male
from the last movie.  He was lifting what appeared to be two hundred kilo
weights, with one arm!  After a dozen reps like that, he tossed the weights
away and sat in a press.  He lifted a stunning six hundred kilos with his
massively muscled legs.  Next it flashed to him on a mock battlefield.  He
was in German combat gear now.  He walked through the fake village,
shooting targets and smashing or stabbing nearby targets.  He was quite
efficient, I had to admit, and seemed to never miss a shot.

   Great.  Nelson encrypted a couple of Nazi `Aryan mastery' films.  Was
the guy a white supremacist?  That wasn't worth getting all worked up over.
And definitely not worth encrypting videos over.  I reopened the first file
and found the first burst of German text, and froze it.  I wrote down the
words, despite their incomprehensibility to me.  I then moved to the other
text screen and did the same, then repeated to the text on the second film.

   Conveniently enough, pretty good translation algorithm are out there
now, and I tossed the words form the first text onto one of them.  It came
back as: "Chimera Nereids before breeding session." That was odd, but I
pressed on.  The second came back as: "Three Nereids ready for
insemination, for the Fatherland!" Now, that one was weird, it looked more
to me like they had already been thoroughly inseminated, to the extreme. 
The final text returned: "Nereid: Swimming ability demonstration and
Kreigling: Combat effectiveness test."
Ok, what was a Nereid?  Or a Chimera?  Or for that matter a Kreigling? I
checked Webster's and found Nereid, a water nymph or spirit.  Chimera, a
creature possessing the features of many animals.  Kreigling, from kreig,
or to fight, -ling indicating a diminutive familiar form, so `Little
Warrior." Now we were finally making sense.  Not.  What was this crap?  I
checked the decryption program's progress on the third file, seventy
percent.  Maybe another mysterious film would shed some light onto the odd

files.

   I stood up, my neck was aching from the wound Crystal had given me with
the handgun.  My mind flashed to the old choppy footage of the German
soldier who didn't miss, then to Crystal taking shots that could easily
have hit me, but managing to only graze me.  Then to her swimming technique
and the girl on the movie's swimming style.  My God.  Crystal was one of
them!  She was a German Nereid?  And her mother?  Had Jennifer been an
Olympic-class swimmer, too?  I'd never been swimming with her, so I
couldn't say.  Crystal had made me promise not to ask her any more
questions.  Now I had a ton piling up behind the dam.  If she ever gave me
leave to ask, by God, she was going to be swamped.  Was my angel's behavior
tied to being a, whatever, Nereid?  Water spirit described her aptly, for
certain, and those other girls had certainly been able to pass as her
sisters.  Would Crystal have been as blank-faced and sallow if she had been
institutionally raised rather than brought up in a loving home?

   I sighed, knowing that answers weren't forthcoming from my daughter, and
left the computer to decode files.  I went back to `our' room and laid down
again, next to my angel.  She snuggled to me as she felt me next to her. 
Her eyes opened a little and she smiled very sweetly.  "Good morning,
da...er...Nathan." She said.

   I smiled back at her.  "You might try honey, or hon, or darling, or
sweetheart." I suggested, sliding an arm under her and pulling her tight to
my side.  She rested her head on my shoulder and put one knee atop my
stomach.  I felt her little hand move over my chest, then down my belly.

   "I can't believe I'm finally beside you, honey." She said.  Her hand
rubbing over my half-hard cock.  It jumped at the contact, but she moved
away, back up my belly and to my neck.  She slid the hand up to my face,
and turned me toward her, and kissed me, just a brushing of the lips, a
`good morning' kiss.  The jolt was still there, not quite as shocking, but
definitely as effective.  "I know this is hard on you, Nathan." Crystal
said as our lips parted.  "But I must have it this way." She buried her
face into my neck and kissed just above the wound.  She then started to
kiss her way down my chest.

   As her soft kissed crossed over my belly I grabbed her head and asked.
"Do you really like doing that so much?"

   She gave me a cat's grin and nodded quickly, giggling.  "I do, indeed."
She declared, her hand now gripping my pole.  "Are you complaining?" She
asked, a twinkle in her beautiful, but predatory eyes.

   "Uh.  No." I said as if that were a extremely silly question.

   Her kisses wend on down my belly then up the shaft of my now completely
hard dick.  When her soft hot lips reached the tip they parted, and her
head plummeted downward.  I felt the back of her throat hit the head of my
organ, sending a jolt of ecstasy up my spine.  She started giving it
suction, and sliding back up, then dropped down in a dead fall each stroke.
I now knew what a cow felt like on the milking machine.  Like said cow on a
machine, after a minute or so of these quite aggressive moves, I was
pumping come like I was going to give a gallon.  Crystal made small moaning
noises as she swallowed it.  Not a drop escaped her lips and mouth.  She
kept sucking and bobbing until my rod was completely limp.  Finally she let
it drop onto my belly, and sat up.

   She looked at me with her eyes now even brighter.  "You want something
for breakfast?  I've already eaten." She said, eyeing my spent organ as she
did so, then smiled up at me with an expression of innocence.

   I rolled my eyes and out of bed.  "Okay, my precious lecher.  Lets go
find some real food." I went across the hall and dug in my dresser for a
pair of boxers, I slid them on as she came out of `our' room.

   Her face assumed a look of petulant anger.  "You're dressing?" She said,
putting her hands on her hips in a show of disapproval.

   I regarded my pretty lover for a moment.  "If I don't," I replied, "I
won't get anything done today." I paused, regarding her lithe body, gentle
curves, and tousled hair.  "Same goes for you, at least some panties,
please."

   She mocked stamping her foot, but was grinning.  "I was hoping the only
thing that would get done today was me." She said as she turned toward her
old room.  She emerged a moment later, with a pair of the little silk
panties in her hand and proceeded toward the stairs.  I was right behind
her, and couldn't complain of the view in the least.  As I rummaged in the
cabinets for something to eat, she slipped on the skimpy panties, a red
pair.

   She looked out the window of the dining nook and remarked.  "I want to
go skinny dipping later with you." She turned to me.  "I've never gotten to
swim nude, I want to know what it will feel like."

   I nodded assent.  And continued rummaging until I had unearthed a box of
Frosted Flakes.  The image of the old footage of a girl like Crystal,
cutting through the water like a knife flashed in my mind.  "Did mom ever
talk to you about swimming?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

   She was sitting down with a bowl of the flakes and the jug of milk. 
"Some, the couple of times she took me to the pool." She said as she poured
the milk.  After finishing a half dozen mouthfuls, she added.  "She said
she loved to swim, too, but that she gave it up." Crystal was apparently
quite hungry, as by the time I was sitting, she was on her second bowl,
despite her claims of having `already eaten.'

   I sat and started chewing on my own sugary flakes, and watched her
watching out the window at the light glimmering off the water's surface. 
"You really love the water don't you?" I asked.

   "Yes," Crystal affirmed, "it's like flying, dad, it's...well...it's
magic." She grinned and broke eye contact with the flickering wavelets. 
She smiled at me.  "I wish you could swim with me all the time."

   "Me too, honey." I said, nodding.  "And I will today." I grinned.

   I pointed my spoon at the upstairs.  "We'll have to get a new bed for my
old room." I said around a mouthful of cereal.

   Crystal nodded, and smiled sourly.  "Sorry about that, but you were
being very unreasonable, I wanted to shock you back to some sense."

   I chuckled a little.  "You almost literally scared the shit out of me."
I answered.

   Her face got very serious and dark.  Her eyes glinted like greened
steel. "Then you know how I felt when I woke up to see you with that damn
gun in your mouth.  I wanted to kill you."

   I finished my last bite and rose from the table.  "I'm sorry, angel.  It
won't happen again." I bent down and kissed her forehead.  "I've made the
choice now, and I'll abide by it." As I put the bowl in the sink.  "Even if
I don't know why the normal rules don't apply to us here." I concluded and
looked dubiously at the sink.  "Someone has some dishes they promised to
wash." I muttered.

   My angel made a sour face and looked at the growing mound.  "I see." She
said unhappily.  "I'll do them after I eat." She then turned to me and
said. "But you have to do the wash."

   I nodded agreement.  And headed out to do just that.  I started
gathering clothes by emptying out the hamper in the hall, then grabbing
loose clothes from around the bedrooms.  As I was picking up panties from
Crystal's room, I found a scrap of paper stuck to the underside of an empty
CD jewel box.  It just said Theodore, and a phone number.  I ransacked my
memory and that number was the number of the Theodore on my team and the
one in the video on Crystal's DVD.  I thought about this a bit, then put it
in the `don't ask' pile.

   I started the wash and headed back to the kitchen.  Crystal had made a
noticeable dent in the pile and was still going strong, up to her elbows in
suds.  I sat and watched her work, admiring her muscular back as her arms
moved, and watching her ass flex and bunch as she shifted her weight from
foot to foot.  Just like her mother, I was getting worked up watching her
do housework.  She looked back over her shoulder.  "I feel your eyes
burning into my butt." She said, her smile flashing from behind her hair.

   I stepped up behind her and bent my knees, bringing my groin to the same
level as her ass.  I pushed forward a bit and pressed my stiffening dick
into the padding of her ass.  "You feel this, too?" I asked.

   She jumped a bit and gasped.  After she picked the cup she had been
washing, she said, with forced casualness.  "Yes, I feel that." She pushed
back now with her butt.  "You plan on using it or just teasing me?"

   I slipped my hands around her body and down her belly, sliding them
under her panties and over her wispy bush.  My right hand was faster and
slid over her moist clit and between her labia.  Crystal moaned softly and
pressed back even harder with her ass.

   Her wet hands went down her sides languidly, and pushed down the
panties, and she let them fall to the floor.  My own hands moved to her
hips, and held her ass tight to me.  I now felt her hands on my boxers,
pushing them down.  I let them slip over my hips and they, too, fell to the
floor.  She moaned again, as my exposed cock pressed into the crease of her
ass.  It laid flat in her butt crack, filling the crevice with meat.  She
clenched the cheeks together, squeezing my organ.  It was my turn to moan
with that feeling.

   My hands lifted her and kept her pressed to me.  She used her hands to
grab the counter, and lift the upper half of her mass.  As my legs
straightened, her feet left the floor.  She moved them back and around,
intertwining them with my legs somewhat.  I felt one of her hands had left
the counter, and was reaching back between her legs and grabbed the shaft
of my dick.  She guided the head to her opening, now spread by the angles
of her legs.  I thrust forward slowly, entering her.  She groaned out in
pleasure as the shaft slowly disappeared into her tight slit.  As I reached
the base of my cock resting against her pussy, I started to pump in and
out, holding her still and her bracing her arms on the counter.

   "Oh, God, daddy...I mean Nathan." She ground out between clenched teeth.
"You feel huge this way." I felt her leg muscles tighten and loosen as I
thrust into her and pulled out.

   I leaned forward, near to her ear and whispered.  "You can call me
daddy, sometimes, if you want, but please, not always." I said, and rammed
my cock into her harder.

   My daughter responded by yelping, then grunting.  "Do it like that,
please, daddy, do it hard." I felt the desire surge in me with her little
girl voice egging me on to fuck her harder.  I pushed into her harder, then
harder still.  Finally, I was pounding her ass and pussy mercilessly,
ramming into her with every ounce of strength that I could muster.  Her
hair flew forward with each impact and she grunted out air.  She was so
light, and so small I could throw her about, and right now, I was ramming
her, using her tiny mass as a ram-stop.  She jolts ran through her body,
but her tight muscles kept her from actually showing quivers as they went.

   "OhGodyesdadfuckmeharder." She yelled in one breath, then took a
shuddering inhale as I pounded faster and harder.  "IloveyouNathan." In the
next exhalation.  Finally she said "I'myours foreverdaddy." then she broke
into incoherent grunting and moaning as she neared climax.  I felt the come
bubbling up in me too, I was pretty drained from the last twenty-four
hours, but I knew there would be a little this time.

   She came with a sudden jolt.  I felt her leg muscles tighten so much
that where they were intertwined with mine, my legs began to hurt from the
pressure, and her arms locked up, causing my impacts to hit even harder. 
Crystal's spine became a steel rod, straightening like a ruler as she
screamed into the cabinet and sink area.  Her cunt clamped down on my cock
like a vise, actually hurting a little, but I was already climaxing.  I
blew my load over several strokes as her vaginal muscles massaged the shaft
between contractions.

   Crystal didn't collapse this time, she slowly relaxed her legs and arms,
and I just as slowly lowered her to the floor.  She got her legs under her,
though they were a bit wobbly.  She had the rag in her hand, still soapy.
She quickly washed my cock and balls, and even the area around them.  The
warm suds felt good, she rubbed the rag between her own legs, too, then got
a new rag and rinsed us with it with clean water.  "There." she said, She
was still panting, but slowly going back to normal.  She tossed both rags
into the basket I had left inside the door.

   I looked at her a bit oddly.  "Your mother used to do that sometimes,
unless we were going to sleep." I said.

   Crystal stood back up, her legs still a bit uneasy.  "Yes, she probably
did." She said, looking at me.  "Or her pheromones would get you like mine
did last night." She looked at my flagging cock.  "Hers would have just
made you sleepy.  But since you were feeling some repressed guilt about
doing it with me, it brought about a lot more, and probably still would."
She grinned a little.  "So, expect washing after for the foreseeable
future."

   I nodded dumbly, but let it go again.  My poor little `don't ask' file
was filling fast.  I bent down and kissed her slowly and deeply, our
tongues dueling in each others mouths.  When we parted she grinned again.
"Now, speaking of washing, I need to finish these." She pointed to the
remaining dishes.  "You," She pointed at me then out the door, "out. 
You're distracting me." my angel said, picking up my boxers with her foot
and kicking them at me.

   I caught them and stepped from the kitchen.  That last bit was so
Jennifer it almost made me cry.  I went into the living room and sat down.
Our relationship had changed now.  Crystal was my equal now, I knew that.
We had raised her well, then I had done the best I could.  Raising her was
over.  She had more to learn, certainly, but who didn't?  But the days of
being only her father were gone.  Now I was her father, friend, lover, and
mate.  I knew she wasn't on birth control, and I wasn't fixed either.  We
were flirting with pregnancy already.  I would have to speak to her about
that.

   Crystal came sauntering out of the kitchen a few minutes later.  She
regarded me warmly with her luminous eyes.  "Are you going to be that randy
all the time?" She asked, smiling.

   I shook my head a little.  "Well, maybe not all the time, but I'll
probably be pretty worked up regularly." I said.  "I'm not a eighteen year
old, though." I pointed out the obvious.  "I can't keep up the pace of the
last twenty-four hours for long."

   She smiled, then sighed.  "Pity." She said.  "Not that my nethers would
mind a bit of a break, either." She pointed out.  "I was a virgin, you
know. And you're not exactly small." She grinned lasciviously.  "Not that
I'll mind `getting used' to you."

   The image of Theo's massive rod flashed in my mind, and some rather
jealous thoughts along with it.  Images of Crystal's tiny body impaled on
it like a spike, trying hard to accommodate the huge cock.  I shook my head
to dispel those images.

   Crystal started going up the stairs.  "Mind if I go over to Marcie's for
a while?" She asked while she climbed.

   "Not at all." I answered.  "You probably don't need permission from me
anymore, angel." I said as she disappeared down the hall.

   Her head popped out again so fast that the hair was still in motion. 
"Why not?" She queried.

   "Well," I said, thinking hard, "I'm not acting as daddy anymore, you
know."

   She looked blank for a moment, then said, "I'll ask anyway, if its all
the same to you, out of respect for my lover, if for no other reason." She
said decisively and went back down the hall.

   Crystal emerged a few minutes later, wearing normal clothes, a pair of
jeans and a tee shirt, and a pair of high-top sneakers.  She looked like my
twelve-year old daughter again.  Her hair was bound in a pony tail and her
wrists were festooned with cheap bracelets.

   "Promise me you'll be okay here alone, Nathan." She said sternly.

   I nodded.  "I promise." I replied.  "Actually, a few hours alone will
probably do me good.  Let me think."

   She headed for me, and kissed me soundly.  "Just don't think yourself
into trouble." She said, kissing me again.  "I can't be without you now, or
ever." And headed for the door.

   I heard her bike rattle out front and knew she had ridden off.  I stood
back up and headed up to the office again.  Sitting down I looked over the
computer's progress, it had finished the third file and was into the
fourth. This file was smaller, just a document or something.  I opened it
finding it was a image file of a clipping from a yellowed newspaper.  The
clipping was in Spanish.  Beneath that was a computer typed translation. 
It said simply:

   "Name Change Approved <5/10/1953>

   Ms.  Sylvie Kurz and her son Wilhelm Kurz received permission of the
courts of Regaldo Precinct to legally change their names to Sarah Harrison
and William Harrison.  The name change was allowed due to claims that the
ex-husband of Ms.  Kurz had been receiving hate mail from political and
business enemies of her ex husband Sigmund Kurz.  The new names will be
recorded and all future business with these individuals will be conducted
accordingly.

   Officials at the court say that name-changes are a relatively common
request..."

   I blinked a few times.  Sarah Harrison was my grandmother's name, and
William was my father.  Why are their names, and how they got them,
according to that story, doing on this DVD.  This was too much to stuff in
the `don't ask' pile, plus I wouldn't have to ask Crystal anything, for
once, it wasn't about her.

   I picked up the phone and dialed my dad's number, out in California,
where he had settled down with mom and my younger, worthless brother,
Harold.  Mom answered the phone and we chattered for about ten minutes
about minor things.  How was I doing?  How was Crystal doing?  I asked the
same after mom and dad, and even Harold.  Mom, of course, defended the
slug, but what else could she do?  I finally got around to asking if I
could speak to dad for a bit.  She handed over the receiver.

   "Hello son." He said happily.  "About time you asked to talk to the old
man."

   I chuckled, "Yeah, but I wish it were about something less serious." I
said, the down note in my voice immediately picked up by one of the parents
who had raised me.

   "Hold on." He said.  I could hear him walking out of the living room. 
"What's it about?" He asked.  "Is something wrong?"

   "No, dad, nothing like that." I said, "But I do need to know something
from you."

   He said.  "Well, shoot.  What do you need to know?"

   I dropped the bomb.  "Why did you and grandma change your names from
Silvie and Wilhelm Kurz to Sarah and William Harrison?"

   There was a very, very long pause.  I could tell he was searching for a
spot to sit.  I let him have his time.  I'm sure just hearing his old name
was traumatic, to hear it from his son was probably shattering.

   After about two minutes he finally spoke up, though his voice was now
very grainy, like he was hurting.  "I won't even ask where you found that
out." He said dryly.  "Nor whether you believe its me and mom or not,
because you know it is, and I do too." He sighed heavily.  "Mom and I were
running from some very dangerous men, son." He explained.  "Your
grandfather was a scientists for the Nazi's, a damn good one." Dad said
with some measure of pride.  "His name was Sigmund Kurz.  After he died, at
the hands of those dangerous men, mom had our names changed and moved to
the United States."

   "Who were those dangerous men, dad?" I asked.  I was getting closer to
things now, the pieces were at least being put on the table for me to
examine.

   Dad sighed again.  "They were Mossad, the Israeli secret police." He
said.  "They were hunting for war criminals, which dad technically was.  At
first, they found him and were going to just make him admit to his rather
minor crimes then turn him loose." My father sighed.  "But, they found that
he was still conducting experiments, and one of the agents shot him in a
fit of rage."

   I was a bit stunned.  "Why.  Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

   "My mother and I thought we had escaped that past." He said, then sighed
again.  "I guess we were wrong." I heard him sniffing a bit, he was likely
crying.  "After dad was killed, we changed our names and came here to the
US so we could make a new start." I heard his heart breaking, to know one's
dad was a war criminal was bad enough, but to carry that crime on after the
war.  I couldn't imagine.

   "It's not like you had anything to do with it, right?" I said.  There
was a pregnant pause on his end of the line.  "Right dad?" I asked again.
The pause dragged on.  "Oh, my God, dad, what did you do?"

   He inhaled deeply.  "No, I wasn't directly involved." He said.  "But I
managed to get involved with one of his `subjects.' They were young girls,
and very pretty, and very smart." His voice sounded distant.  "She was
lovely, and so sweet." Dad wasn't in the twenty-first century any more, he
was back in the early fifties.  "I was only fourteen at the time, son." He
said, as if to calm some suspicion I might have about his fidelity to my
mom.  "We only managed to slip away once, but once was enough." He chuckled
dryly.  "When dad found out, he went utterly insane, let me tell you.  Said
I ruined his experiment, at least that one girl, `tainted her bloodline,'
is how he put it." His voice grew sad and longing.  "I never was able to
get near them again, dad kept me a long way from them and then the Mossad
raided and took the girls to Buenos Aires.  I never saw her again." He
sounded really sad now, like a part of him was lost then.  "I did love
her." He finally said then was quiet.

   "Jeez, dad." I said.  "It must have been horrible to have your first
love stripped from you like that." I commiserated with him.  My first real
love was stripped from me, too, though after several years.

   He coughed.  "It was worse than that.  Imagine having your first love
called a `cow' then have her stripped from you, then your father killed."
He sobbed.  "No, son, I don't want to revisit those memories anymore.  And
never again." I could almost hear him `soldiering' up.

   "Dad." I said, thinking furiously how to say this.  "I think Jennifer
was one of the descendant of one of the girls."

   "What?" He asked, almost yelling.  "She couldn't have been, son.  They
had a special dietary supplement they had to have, some sort of genetic
broth, father told me before the Mossad got him." He paused again.  "They
would have died in a matter of weeks, including my Andrea." He said,
finally, giving his first love a name.  "No.  They're all gone, beautiful
as they were, they were delicate that way." He sounded distant again. 
"Your Jenny was a terrific woman, Nate, but she wasn't one of the Nereid.
And be thankful of that, son, or Crystal would be, too."

   I didn't want to try to figure this out yet, so I just said.  "Okay,
dad, that's a relief to know." I thought a moment.  "Dad, did grandpa leave
any of his stuff behind?  Anything that I could discover more through."

   He sounded worried when he replied.  "There are a few things up in the
attic.  But, son, they're old genetic breeding texts and stuff.  I'm sure
we've bypassed my father's works by years by now, it's not worth anything
anymore."

   "I understand that." I replied.  "But I would like to know more about
the Nereid, they sound fascinating." I paused a moment.  "Perhaps the world
deserves to know now about your fathers genius, and his dark secrets, too."
I said.  "They really can't hurt you anymore, dad, they're old news, and
you weren't a criminal, you were a victim of it, too."

   I heard him hum, as he did when deliberating in his head.  "You may be
right son.  I'll go into the attic tonight and send you his books
tomorrow." He chuckled.  "I don't have the energy or time to try to do such
research anymore, or the will, I have to say.  It hurts too much even
today." He concluded.

   "And dad." I said, thinking quickly.  "Don't say anything to anyone
about this yet, okay?"

   "Sure son, that'll be easy, no one hardly even remembers." He said
sourly.  "Nature of history, I guess." my father chuckled dryly.  "Bye son,
I love you." He said.

   "Bye dad, I love you too, and say bye to mom for me.  Thanks." I hung up
the phone.

   Dad thought they were dead.  I don't agree.  Crystal and that girl swam
and look too much alike for coincidence.  No, My wife was a Nereid.  My
daughter is a Nereid.  I had to find out more.  Dad was sending me his
father's papers, but they'd be a couple of days getting here.  I checked
the progress of the decryption software, only about halfway through the
next file, a big one, probably another movie.  The software didn't have any
controls to set the order of decryption, so I had to let it do it at its
own pace and in the order it chose.  Was the `they' Crystal ranted about
the Mossad?  Somehow, I didn't think so.  From everything I've heard about
them, they're usually unbelievably professional, and giving the victims of
war crime a hassle didn't seem their style.

   So, who was intimidating my daughter, and apparently other Nereid?  The
government?  It definitely more their style.  But the government leaked
information like a sieve.  I never had even heard a whisper of the Nereid
or the Chimera in my life until the last couple of days.  No.  It wasn't
our government.  Other governments, perhaps.  Or the mob.  I thought.  What
would the mob want with them?  Hell, or other governments, for that matter.
It was all a mystery and it sure as hell wasn't just unraveling nicely for
me.

   I did some web searches for `Nereid,' I got back a moon of Neptune, and
that most fishermen's wives called themselves that, Nereids.  According to
Greek myth, they were the daughters of Nereus, a sea god.  There were fifty
of them, and they helped sailors in trouble.

   `Chimera' yielded a picture of a creature with a lion's head and
foreparts, a goat's middle, a dragon's rear, and a tail in the form of a
snake.  But apparently, the meaning also covers any creature combining the
traits of two or more other creatures.

   So the Nereid were Chimeras but not necessarily the other way around. 
What happened to the other Chimeras?  Were there any others?  Well, being
built for water would explain Crystal's incredible swimming talents, and
the ability she had for holding her breath.  My daughter was a genetic
experiment?  A guinea pig?  The descendant of experiments, at the least, I
supposed.  I needed those papers dad was sending me, and I needed those
files decrypted.  Who had gathered those films, and from where?  This stuff
was just generating more questions every few hours.  I needed help.  Help
meant Marcus.

   I picked up the phone again, and punched Marcus' apartment.  After a few
rings Marcus answered.  "Whatcha need chief?" He said, having checked his
caller I.D.  screen.

   "Now, Marcus, my friend, do I only call when I need something?" I said
sweetly.

   Marcus, without hesitation, said "Yes.  But it feels good to be needed."
He paused a second.  "Did you get any of them dirty flicks decoded?" He
chuckled maniacally.  "I bet there's some good stuff if it was worth hiding
it behind a code-wall."

   "Nothing good yet, just some old home movies." I said.  Telling Marcus,
at best, a half-truth.  "But I do need some stuff tracked down." I said.

   My old buddy perked up.  "A little hunting trip, eh?" He said.  I
haven't gone dumpster diving in years, but lemme hear what you got."

   "Old Nazi genetics program called maybe Chimera or Nereid, or both." I
said.  "Anything you can dig up anywhere would be good." I then said
quietly.  "And be careful, there's people not wanting this stuff found,
nasty people."

   Marcus virtually cooed at that.  "Really?" He said in the tone of `Well,
I'm not sure you're serious, but I'll play along.' "I'll keep a low
profile." He said, at my silence.  "Any other connected names or places?"
he asked.

   Marcus knew his business.  He was a old-school hacker and he knew the
back doors to a dozen big government mainframes and over a hundred
corporate systems.  He also knew how to get hard copy information, the old
fashioned way, with cunning, brilliance, and balls.  I would owe him big
time, but if the information was out there, he'd get it, and likely
wouldn't be even noticed in the process.

   "Dr.  Sigmund Kurz." I said.  "That's the only name I know of, I'll pass
on anything else I dig up."

   "Sigmund Kurz." Marcus said distantly.  Then chuckled, "Sounds like one
of them old timey mad scientists." he pointed out.

   "Yeah." I agreed dryly.

   Marcus made a thoughtful belching sound, then said "I'll let you know
what I come up with, man." He paused.  "Not a lot to go on, but I might be
able to dig up some stuff." I heard him clicking on his keyboard.  "I know
some dudes in Germany who owe me favors, they might be able to do some
digging into the records there, especially the East German ones, they got a
lot of that old Nazi stuff filed away." He concluded.  "You gonna owe me
but big on this, Nathan." He said, then hung up.

   Well, another ball rolling in the right direction.  I stood up and
stretched, feeling tired and it was just approaching noon.  I went
downstairs and started to make me some lunch, just a couple of sandwiches.
Crystal came in while I was finishing the construction on my latest
gastronomical masterpiece.  She slid into the kitchen and snatched my
second sandwich off my plate and slid her butt into the opposite chair at
the little table.

   "Hi, I'm home." She announced and sunk her teeth into my wheat bread
sculpture.  She chewed happily while she looked at me, and smiled.  "Mmm.
Seems it tastes better when you steal someone else's sandwich, don't you
think?"

   "I wouldn't know." I said with mock coldness.  "Some other people never
seem to make them for me to steal."

   Crystal giggled and took another massive bite.  "The nerve." She said
around the bite, then added.  "Some people." Giving her eyes a look of
shock and dismay.

   "Did you have fun at Marcie's?" I asked.  Starting to work on my own
sandwich before she could get any ideas for it.

   She nodded.  "Sure, same as always." She mumbled through a
sandwich-filled mouth.  "Just sat around and talked about boys." She
explained.

   "Boys, eh?" I said, raising an eyebrow.  "Should I be jealous?"

   She giggled, almost choking on her bite.  "God, no!" She exclaimed when
she finally got it to go down.  "Marcie talked, I listened, mostly."

   I nodded approvingly.  "Okay." I said, though I tried to keep my
expression dubious.

   We finished out sandwiches in silence, both lost in the crunchiness of
the lettuce and the flavor of the honey-ham.  I threw away my paper plate
and we went to the living room.  She fell asleep within minutes of the
start of a movie, and I napped with her soon after.  I awoke to her sitting
up and muzzily asking me what time it was.

   I looked at my watch.  "Two-thirty." I said.  She scooted out from under
my arm and stood up.  Giving me a fine view of one of her `super
stretches.' That alone almost had me up and raring.  She then started
stripping, which finished the job.  Her shirt came off first, followed by
her sports bra, revealing her small breasts and erect nipples.  She then
dropped her pants down, taking her panties with her.  This was not an
erotic strip show, but a functional disrobing.  Somehow, this was even more
arousing than if she had been trying.  She was just taking her clothes off
in front of me, casually.

   Crystal then looked at me.  "Let's swim." She said.  This wasn't a
request, it wasn't a demand, either, just a reasonable suggestion from a
reasonably naked girl in my living room.  She then turned and I watched her
small but perfect butt head out the patio door.  I rose a second time and
dropped my boxers to the floor.  And followed.  It dawned on me that I
followed this young lady about an awful lot.  She had already mounted the
deck and was looking back, waiting for me.

   As I got to the top of the deck she jumped and entered the water.  A
tiny splash followed her.  I sat on the edge of the deck and watched her
glide through the water.  As always, I was amazed at her grace.

   I jumped in, much less gracefully.  As I was under the water, I felt
Crystal slide past me, then immediately turn and come up in front of me,
then over my head and down my back, then curved between my legs and again
up my chest.  It was an incredible sensation.  It was like she was
everywhere, her hands brushed me, and various of her body parts touched and
slid past me at different places on my body.  I felt her hair slide over my
leg, then my arm, then my chest.

   It wasn't natural, how this girl moved in the water.  Or, rather, it was
far too natural how she moved in the water.  She kept up the aquabatics
until I surfaced.  Then she was swimming around me in a tight loop that
kept her nose brushing my ribs and her hands on my chest and belly.  I
could feel her hair now sliding over my ribs.  I began to move and she
modified her pattern, swimming under me upside down and pressing herself
against me as she slid up my torso.

   I was now as aroused as I probably ever have been.  The combination of
her caresses and her raw sensuality in the water was making me horny as a
goat.  I stopped and treaded water and she did the same, and finally took
in air.  We had been in the pool almost a full minute, and this was the
first breath she took.  She turned to look at me.  "Welcome to my pool."
She said, giving me a huge stunning smile.  Her eyes had that predatory
look in them, but even more so.  It sounded almost like `welcome to my
parlor' to me from the rhyme about the spider and the fly.  And I was the
fly.

   My daughter was still pursuing me, toying with me, even, though in the
most gentle way.  I needed to remember that predatory is just desire with
aggression.  I dove under the water and started swimming for the wall. 
Again Crystal was with me like a shadow.  Her lithe form slid around my
leg, then crossed around my back before curving under my arm, then coming
up right under me, her face mere inches from mine.  I opened my eyes to see
hers, and they were like green flames.  She rocketed ahead of me and got to
the far wall.  Decelerating and surfacing at the same moment where she was
waiting when I got there, treading water with just her feet, and watching
me as I came up for air.

   "Damn, you swim better than a fish." I said, as I got my breath.  "Where
did you learn that trick in the water of swimming around someone?"

   "I first did it at the pool, with a guy named David." She said, smiling.
"But he got so disoriented that the almost drowned, so they made me knock
it off."

   I looked at her, some poor teenage boy getting that treatment probably
would get disoriented as his body said `follow that sexy thing' and his
brain said, `uh...air?'

   "Well, it was really neat, like swimming with a dolphin, well, a very
small dolphin, with a pretty smile." I said, trying to make the complement
as non-private as possible.

   Crystal eyed me speculatively.  "No, it's swimming with the
Crystalfish." She said, and shot into the water, coming up between my legs,
and her arm dragged with exquisite slowness across my semi-engorged rod. 
By the time she broke contact, it was well on its way to full hardness. 
She slid up my back and I felt her emerge from the water behind me, her
hands on my shoulders.  I felt her body pressed against my back.  It was
warm and tight, and I think I felt every muscle and bone on the surface of
her body.  She moved her head close and I could feel her hot breath on my
neck.  She must be burning vast numbers of calories swimming like she does,
and it generates a huge amount of waste heat.  She kissed my shoulder where
my neck joins it, causing an electric shock through my spine.  "Thanks,
though, for the compliment on my smile." She whispered into my ear.

   Then all the contact was gone.  I turned to see her nearing the far wall
of the pool.  I called after her when she shot to the surface, and then
treaded water again.  "Where'd the Crystalfish go?"

   Crystal called back.  "Sorry, Crystalfish have to be caught.  They're
not like some guppy." I started swimming after her, though I knew if she
didn't want me to, I would never catch her.  She waited patiently as I
dragged my ungainly form through the water, and at the last moment darted
like a minnow for the far wall again.  I actually saw a trail of bubbles
surfacing the water as she broke the surface at the far end.  `Just how
fast was she in the water, really?' I thought.  She was giggling.

   I lurched after her putting forth my best turn of speed at the last
moment, hoping to throw her timing off.  I missed by mere inches, and she
was gone again, over in the corner nearest the house.  She said "Almost had
me there, you're a trisksy one." This last sounded uncannily like Golum
from Lord of the Rings.  She was pressed to the corner, only her head out
of the water.

   I crept up on her slowly this time.  She had cornered herself, limiting
her choices of escape routes.  Additionally, the ladder was off to her
right, which limited it further, and I was hoping that she didn't notice
that.

   I got to proper lunging distance and did so, lurching forward with all
my speed.  She turned to bullet off again, and saw the ladder.  Her face
got a panic-stricken look for a moment, and she turned under the water and
attempted to elude me by swimming right between my arms.  I timed the grab
perfectly and had her, however her body was slicker than I had thought. 
She almost shot out of my grip but I managed to get a second grip, on her
waist with one arm, and around one thigh.  I touched bottom and launched
for the shallows of the pool.  When I could stand I did, I had her upside
down in the water, and felt her arms flailing helplessly in the water at my
legs.  I loosed my grip on her thigh and reached down and got one of the
arms.  I started to turn her over and loosened my hug on her waist.

   With a terrific burst of strength, Crystal almost got loose, she pried
her torso loose of my grasping arm.  My God, it was like fighting a wild
animal.  She was using every drop of power to try to elude me.  The
Crystalfish was proving a catch worthy of any angler.  I managed to hold
onto the arm, though, and she didn't get far.  I gripped the waist again,
this time right-side up.  I lifted her from the water, and released my grip
on her arm.  I hugged her to me, both arms around her waist.  Her head was
level with mine, which put her feet at about my knees.  She flailed the
air, but couldn't reach much with her back to me.  I heard her panting, and
she was growling!  I carried her to the wall of the pool.  She calmed
somewhat by then, and was only panting now, and would here and there give a
lurch one way or another, trying my bearhug on her.

   I reached the wall, and pressed her against it with my body.  I put my
hands under her arms, and lifted her out of the water, she again almost
slipped me, but I put a hand on the middle of her back and pushed, sending
her staggering onto the deck.  I crawled out after her.  She was sprawled
on the deck, limbs all askew.  She was still panting heavily.  I was
staring up between her legs directly at her cunt, and it was laid bare and
inviting.  My eyes crept up her form to her head, which was laying to the
side.  One eye regarded me with that same animal fury it had earlier, only
now even more intense.  She was watching for a chance to break for the
water.  I didn't give her that chance.  I grabbed her by the waist and
picked her up, spinning her in midair.  We were in my element now, on solid
ground, or deck, anyway.

   I held her at arm's length, with her feet dangling in the air, my hands
under hear clamped down arms.  I looked into her eyes, and the predatory
look in them was fading some.  She was breathing less deeply now, just a
little winded.  I was breathing like I had run a mile.  "Gotcha." I said to
her.

   She gave me that same wide smile.  One full of teeth and somewhat
unsettling.  Her head tilted downward a little and she looked up at me,
giving her the whole aspect of a shark.  "You caught me." She said.  "But
can you keep me?"

   "I'm pretty sure I can." I said, regarding her.  I kept a happy smile on
my face, despite the somewhat unsettling look she had adopted and the
almost hostile challenge she had just issued.  I carried her to the deck
chairs, and laid her upon one.  I planted one hand on her stomach and
chest. She tried once to sit up, but I was much stronger than her, and
outweighed her by over a hundred and twenty-five pounds.  "What do I do
with a Crystalfish, anyways?" I asked.  "I mean catching one is a
steel-plated bitch, but once you get one..."

   Crystal looked at me and said.  "We're an endangered species you know."
Her face utterly blank.  "Only a few of us around."

   "No doubt, and more's the pity." I said honestly.  The world with a
million more Crystals would be a better place, I felt, if somewhat more
tired.  "So I have to throw you back?"

   She eyed the water.  "Well, like redfish, you can keep one if you think
its of breeding age."

   "That's a tough call." I said, now slightly alarmed at the tack this
conversation had taken.  "How would one know?"

   She took her eyes from the water and trained them on mine again.  I felt
them lock on, and I couldn't look away.  "Just look at yourself.  If you
want to breed with the Crystalfish, then they're of breeding age." She
said.

   "And if they are?" I heard myself ask.

   She shrugged slightly.  "Depends, some people eat them, others stuff and
mount them, still others breed them." Those eyes were boring into me like a
vice press.  My mouth was dry and my legs were growing weak.  She looked
down a moment at my bulging organ.  "Which do you want to do?" Then her
eyes snapped back to mine.

   Despite the activities of the last day, I was nervous all over again. 
Something in her attitude had changed in the last few hours.  What had
happened at Marcie's house?  What that really where she went?  She was
still my angel, that was clear, but she was now in a different mode, a more
aggressive one, a more dangerous one.

   I sat on the deck next to her chair and gently rubber her thigh.  "What
would I rather do?" I said, distantly.  Her eyes were still tracking me
like a cat watching a bird.  Her face was deadly serious, despite the wit
of her rejoinders.  I knew the answer she wanted.  "I want to breed her." I
said, putting as much intensity behind it as I could muster.

   Her predatory smile widened, and somehow her teeth looked sharp and
pointed in my eyes.  "Good choice." She said.  "They're great for that."
She nodded slowly.  Her voice took on a lame British nature documentary
tone.  "Many enthusiasts find breeding Crystalfish to be a rather pleasant
pastime, as well as therapeutic." She said, then continued.  "Though
breeding them can be difficult at times, they are prone to bouts of
enthusiasm that can result in their own or others' injury." The intensity
drained a little from her eyes, and her smile seemed more normal now.  "I
want to breed." my angel said, in a near whisper.  "Tonight." She whispered
even ore distantly.  "Tonight would be ideal." And her eyes closed.  She
seemed to sleep, and after a few minutes, I was convinced that she was
asleep.  I covered her with a beach towel to keep her form burning, and sat
beside her, and watched her sleep.

   Asleep, she looked like my little girl again.  Her face relaxed and that
rather frightening predator was gone.  Her mouth relaxed as she breathed
gently through it, showing perfectly normal teeth, if in slight need of
braces.  I watched her for an hour or so, then picked her up.  I was
astonished at her slight mass.  She was little burden for my arms, and she
kept on sleeping.  I carried her into the house and up the stairs, then
into `our' room.  I laid her out on the bed, and slid the covers over her.
She murmured something that I couldn't make out, then curled onto her side.

   I watched her again for a few minutes, then went back to my office. 
Marcus had already sent me an email.  I popped it open and it showed a
picture, looking like one taken from an old newspaper, showing Kurz, my
grandfather, shaking hands with the Fuhrer.  Under the photo was the
caption.  `Scientist, Dr.  Sigmund Kurz is congratulated by our leader for
exemplary service to the Reich.  His classified work promises to remake the
face of warfare and spell the end of all resistance to the mastery of the
Aryan race.' Appended was a note from Marcus.

   "Interesting guy, this Kurz.  Seems he disappeared to Argentina after
the war, working on that angle, too.  - Marcus."

   I headed out and performed some chores, including tooling around the
front yard on my riding mower, a task that always proves to be entertaining
if not productive.  I managed to run by the grocery store and pick up a few
things we needed, and even a bottle of wine that I felt I badly needed. 
I'm not a heavy drinker, but I felt my situation demanded either a libation
or inebriation.