The Project 02 - The Lance

shredding the cushion to confetti. Nick and Ronnie reached around the walls and fired to both sides, then came through the opening low and firing.
    The silenced weapons stuttered and jumped, spraying the room with bullets. The MACs weren't silenced, and their barking shattered the night.
    The nine millimeter rounds tore into Greenwood's expensive walnut paneling. The shooters went down, tumbling backwards. The MP-5s chopped up the walls and furniture around them.
    "Upstairs," Nick shouted. No need for hand signals now. "Lamont, cover us." Another shooter appeared on the second floor. Ronnie fired and he tumbled down the stairs. An ugly man, dressed in black like the others. Ronnie followed Nick at a run up the stairs. Lamont took up position at the bottom in case someone came up from below or from another part of the house.
    Upstairs were five large bedrooms and three baths, all empty. Greenwood wasn't there and neither was Selena. They retreated back to the ground floor. Less than five minutes had passed since they'd entered the house.
    "The library." Nick pointed with his MP-5.
    The adrenaline rush was in full swing. Where was everyone? They must have heard the shooting. Another hallway led from the living room to the library, where a single desk lamp burned in the darkness. The light reflected from a crystal pen and inkwell on the desktop and the silver surface of a closed laptop computer. There was no one there. There was no one in the garden, or the downstairs bathrooms, or the closets, or the maid's room, or the garage.
    "Has to be the basement," Ronnie said. "That's all that's left. They're here somewhere."
    They found the door to the basement and pulled it open. A light was on. They descended a flight of wooden steps into a room with a cement floor. The walls held shelves and a workbench. Boxes were stacked in one corner. Aside from storage, it was empty.
    "What now?" Lamont said.
    "Something's not right." Ronnie scanned the room. It looked like an ordinary basement, the kind you'd find almost anywhere. "This room is too small. Remember the plans? Greenwood did a major make over here a while back. It was a lot bigger than this. There's got to be a hidden door."
    They walked around the room. There was a faint mark on the floor, like part of a crescent moon, at one end of a high bank of shelves. Nick tugged on the shelves but they didn't move. He felt around the side.
    Nothing.
    He traced his fingers along the upper edge and felt something plastic. A switch. He pressed it and the shelves swung away from the wall. They started down a flight of stone steps.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

    Greenwood's voice made the hairs on the back of Selena's neck stand on end. She'd always heard about that. There was something primal in the harsh rhythm of the old language. Barbaric. Threatening. Frightening.
    Still chanting, Greenwood went to the table in the center of the room. The chanting stopped. He opened the box. Selena saw a flash of diamonds and gold in the torchlight as he lifted the lid away. Greenwood took something from the box.
    Greenwood said, "Bring her."
    Four men moved away from the circle and came over to where she hung helpless. Each man took a key and unlocked one of the iron cuffs that bound her, grasping an arm or a leg. Selena struggled. The men lifted her naked body and brought her to the pole in the center of the room. Two men kept her arms and legs imprisoned while the other two bound her with leather thongs to the rings embedded in the pole. Then they returned to their places in the circle.
    Greenwood stepped forward and held up a long, tapered blade in front of her face. It was brown and rusted with age, notched and pierced and wrapped in gold.
    The Vienna Lance.
    Greenwood spoke to her in German. Something moved in his eyes, as if more than one person were looking out at her.
    "My name is Gruenwald," he said, his voice guttural and wet. "My father was Master of the Council before me, as Himmler was before him, as my son shall be after me. Tonight, the Reich is reborn. Your blood will open the passage."
    Greenwood took the Lance and made a deep cut in Selena's forearm, opening a vein. The ancient blade dug into her flesh. She clenched her teeth against the pain. Greenwood picked up the emerald cup and caught the blood running down. The point of the Lance gleamed red in the flickering light of the torches. Selena twisted in her bonds and hot blood ran down her arm, down her side, draining into the cup.
    When