37. Space Bets

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Before leaving Italy, Hector had one small thing to do. Meet the Pope at the Vatican. Was it due to his religiousness? No, it was because of his anger and the urge to slap the man.

In WW1, the Vatican rented their warehouses to an arms manufacturer that sold weapons to Germany, they were literally making money from war. But they later acted like they had no idea it was happening. [A/N: This part is only about WW2 Vatican, not the modern one. I don't hate any religion. MC himself is a Christian. He don't want Church's money, he only want them to stop their policies.]

Now comes World War 2, and guess whose side it took, Fascists and Nazis, of course, not openly. Instead of staying out of politics and focusing on religion, they wanted to make more money, the Pope took the German side, and became friendly with Mussolini, in exchange for their support, the Third Reich was to deduct 8-10% of catholic germans' wages and send them to the Vatican.

However, Hector was going to hammer when the iron was hot. All this money that the Vatican had compiled was held in Western European banks, in countries that were on the Allies side and hated Germany. All this money could be traced to be coming from Nazi Germany.

Knowing that the Vatican would try to get away with all this money without it being frozen by making their own bank called Vatican Bank, which they already had, Hector was going to take it all and use it to help those who suffered from the war. He was going to do real god's work.

Even Hitler was making direct deposits to the bank, and since the Bank was Vatican's national bank with no obligations to reveal the deposits, all kinds of folks can keep their money there, even the Mafia of the future.

The Life Insurance money for Jews was also placed in this bank, after the war when the Jews will come to ask for money for their dead relatives, the bank and the insurance company will ask for a certificate of death, something impossible to get. The OSS, the precursor of the CIA had already submitted Hector the report of all these findings.

The church was and would be in the future the biggest landowner in the world, owning land around the world that if combined would be the size of France. Hector had no problem with all this, his problem was that all this wealth was not used on anything but lavish lifestyles of those who live in the beautiful palaces of the Vatican, even then most of the money is just sitting in the vaults. [A/N: Someone got offended by this part. Tell me what's offensive here as I can't see it.]

When he arrived in the city, he was enthusiastically welcomed by a few Cardinals. The world knew his power and influence by now, all he had to do was point his finger and the Allies would chew them out.

Pope Visus XII was the current ruler of Vatican City and the leader of the faith. He warmly welcomed Hector, albeit Hector was a Protestant officially. "Let's talk in private, your holiness."

His eyes contained a glimmer of threat, clear to the Pope, he took him to his personal chambers to talk. "Grand General Washington, we are pleased to welcome you to this holy land. There is enough light for god to shower upon us, be it a Catholic, Protestant or any other."

"I don't believe in religion, I only believe in God, the one and only, the father, the old man. All the religions in this world, be it monotheistic or polythetic, lead to him. I hope you won't try to convert me, I am not here on religious matter, I am here to call out your crimes." Hector coldly said, as he looked at the man's sin marker, it was red, as all people have.

Pope Visus XII's face contorted, a sneer developed on it, "What are you saying, are you accusing the Church?"

*SLAP*

"Do not make that face with me, for you cannot comprehend who stands before you. I know of all your crimes, all your dealings with the Nazis. How you are making money, why you made your bank.

"The money has not been transferred yet, correct? Don't worry, it will never do. I have ordered for all Vatican assets to be ceased that are in foreign banks. An independent committee will also investigate Vatican's involvement with the Nazis and in the end, those who must... will face trials."

Pope glared at him in deep anger, "You come to the Vatican to threaten me? Do you have any idea how easy it is to make you a public enemy? Just one decree and you shall become the most hated man in the world."

*BAM*

Hector grabbed his robes by his collar and lifted him in the air, "Do you know how easy it is for me to make the Vatican the most hated institution in the world? I just need to reveal your dealings with Nazis. Guess what, I will do exactly that now, the moment I take Berlin, I will reveal all the documents in front of the world.

"Your hands are painted red from the blood money made off of innocents, Visus, do not make me paint these walls red with your blood now."

"GUARDS!" he screamed.

However, nobody came in, reason? Logan and Moony were standing outside, Moony had already chased all the Guards away, he acted like playing but was in reality just dragging people away from there.

Inside the room, Hector took out his Godpad pro to connect with God's assistant in heaven, an angel, "Is this Pope liable to punishment?" he asked.

The angel checked the records and replied soon, "Yes, to the Hell. Wait, God said he will teach him a lesson right now."

And behold, a white light appeared in the room, formless, yet felt like a warm presence. It spoke directly to the Pope. By the end of the whole ordeal, the man was on the ground, crying while repeating, "Sorry, Sorry, Sorry..." His mind was utterly broken for sure.

[A/N: A guy in the comments claimed I'm letting my personal feelings sway MC. Well, maybe, but I'm using real history for the most part. I consider myself a neutral guy, that's why I have not named any American political party in this fic. If your feelings are hurt then I apologise and hope you become more tolerant.

About the Vatican, we have a lot of example of great popes, but as with all trees, there is always a bad apple, like Alexander VI in the past.]

...

"Let's head back home," Hector came out of the office and walked away with Logan and Moony, went straight to the airfield and got on the aeroplane.

"What did you do to him? I was hearing all the voices," Logan asked him.

Hector chuckled, "Nothing, just a simple chat about God,"

"Ugh... you mean you talked about nothing," Logan grunted, clearly not a believer.

Hector passed him a glass of scotch, "Boy, believe it or not, a religion can be fake, but god, well he's real."

"Don't tell me you became religious after meeting the Pope?" Logan talked back.

"BOW WOOF!" Moony voiced, ~God is awesome, he used to come to dog heaven to play with us.~

Of course, Hector could not tell that to Logan, "Someday you will meet him and it will all make sense. Wait, actually, I can be seen as a god,"

He was not joking, after all, if Odin can be a god, he too can be one. But, how could Logan believe that, he just went to sleep.

...

Somewhere in Nevada,

Hector had returned to fulfil his other constitutional duties. But the first thing he did was go to the place where his company warehouse was.

"Have you done it?" He asked the team of scientists.

"We have been able to achieve a breakthrough, but we've been unable to test it. You're making us do something that would otherwise take us decades of research." They, as always, nagged.

"Well, I can't wait decades. The war needs to stop and we need this to do that. As long as your math and construction are right, trust yourself." He basically gave them the green light to continue.

What they were doing was something unthinkable, to send a satellite into space and use it for communication was a concept that could only be theorised. This was in a way more revolutionary for its time, more than the A-Bomb.

"Alan, how confident are you?" He asked the young genius from the UK, now an American.

"My calculations and machines are good, if there is any problem it would be in the construction." He replied, focusing on the many small dials and expensive screens.

Hector nodded and looked at the light rocket, "I hope we are successful, with these, we won't just be helping in the war but the entire future of our nation."

The rocket was made to just take the small satellite to space, it could not carry anything beyond 40 kilos of weight. By length, the rocket was about 10 metres tall and 1 metre wide. The plan was to send 5 satellites into geosynchronous orbit, but even if 2 of them are successful, it'd help.

"Einstein, are you enjoying your new sea-facing villa in Los Angeles?" Hector talked to his lead scientist. Living a better life of luxury had done wonders for the man, he didn't look dumb and mad anymore.

"My younger son loves it since it's his dream to become a great musician. My wife is also happy, but sadly, we don't get much time to enjoy ourselves there. Still, we appreciate that we are not in your place, the amount of work you do is backbreaking." Albert gratefully replied. He was happy to be living this American dream.

"Haha, don't worry, after the war is over, which I will do by the start of 1945, I will periodically send everyone on a month-long holiday, all paid by me." he cheered him up. This was the number one rule of running a successful tech company, never making your scientists dissatisfied.

...

A few hours later, the first rocket was to be fired up, the countdown was done, "BEEP"

The button was pressed and the rocket's engine ignited. It slowly started to fly up while making rumbling noise that felt like it could punch a hole in the ground.

"YES YES!" Alan Turing cheered seeing all going well.

"NO NO NO!" A minute later he started crying, as the dials started showing a problem in trajectory. *BOOM* With that, the rocket came back to the ground, burning.

A distance from there, Logan and Moony sat on beach chairs, an umbrella on their heads, and they drank chilled beer, milk for Moony though. "Woof!" Moony raised his paw towards Logan, who annoyedly handed him a dollar.

"I will win the next bet," Logan said, consoling himself.

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