The Project 02 - The Lance

recovery. She could speak, with a slight blurring of some of her words. She could think clearly.
    Nick told her what had happened.
    "They were going to sacrifice Selena? Really?" Her voice was a whisper.
    "Yes. But no one will ever find out. The house went up in a firestorm. The fire trucks couldn't get near it. Everything turned to slag and ashes. Lodge shut the locals down before they could get going. It's amazing what the phrase 'National Security' will do. There's nothing left, nothing to point a finger at a Nazi conspiracy."
    "The Lance?"
    "Gone. Melted into nothing, and good riddance. They still have the copy in Vienna. As far as the world knows it's the real deal."
    "Rice owes Lodge. I wonder how that will work out?" She coughed, reached carefully for a tissue. "I need a long rest." She looked out the window. "I'm tired, Nick." The words came out slurred.
    Nick kept his face neutral. "You'll be back soon, Director."
    She looked at him. "We both know it won't be soon. Maybe never. Rice spoke with me about you taking over the team with Stephanie. What's your decision?"
    "I don't know. He said take some time to think about it."
    "Rice needs you. With Stephanie, you'll be fine. She can handle the political and administrative side, but you're the best choice to deal with the tactical and strategic decisions. The two of you can make it work." She coughed. "Rice needs you," she said again.
    A headache began. He needed time to think about it. He'd go to the cabin.
    Stephanie said, "We've talked about it. We've got you covered, Nick. Take some time off. I'll call you if anything important happens."
    Nick looked at the others. The team. His team. His friends.
    "Thanks," he said.

EPILOGUE

    Selena and Nick headed up into the Sierra Foothills. They turned off the paved road, bounced over a stretch of dirt and gravel and pulled up in front of Nick's cabin.
    The cabin was at the end of the road on top of a good sized hill. Built of old, dark wood, it had a steep, hunter green metal roof sloping down over a covered front porch. The foothills rose up behind. East were the High Sierras. West was a wide vista to the coastal range. It looked like the Pacific might not be too far away, but it was a hundred and fifty miles or so to the beach.
    The cabin was home. He always seemed to think better here. The place in D.C. was only where he stayed.
    They stepped from the car under clouds of black, gold and deep red.
    He unlocked the door, dropped his bag on the couch and opened a window. He opened the grate on the woodstove and set a match to the kindling and wood laid there.
    He opened a bottle of wine. They went outside and sat on the porch, watching the sun go down in splashes and streaks of vivid color behind the Coastal Range. Shadows lengthened under the trees. The air smelled of wood smoke from the stove.
    After a few minutes Selena said, "Do you think we got them all?"
    "I think we wrote the last page of Himmler's medieval fantasy. But Nazis are like the Hydra in that Greek myth. You cut off the head, two more spring back. You can't ever get them all. But Greenwood's bunch, yeah. We stopped them."
    Selena looked out at the afterglow of the sunset. "I was thinking about what I said a while back. About us being so different. How it was natural for you to jump into action and start shooting, but not for me."
    He tensed. Natural born killer.
    "Maybe we're not so different. It does seem to me that you...that you're more reckless than I am. But there's something that's the same."
    "What's that?" he set his glass down.
    "Instinct. You can't get where I am in martial arts without that. It's a zone, a place where I just do. Or it does me. I don't think about it. You do it too. Our training and experience are different but we both act out of instinct without thinking. So, it's the same."
    She drank some wine. She frowned.
    "I always thought my martial arts would protect me."
    He waited.
    "I couldn't get out of those bonds in Greenwood's room. I can't stop a bullet with a side kick. I can't use my skills to deflect it. It scares the hell out of me."
    "Bullets scare the hell out of me, too."
    "I guess it goes with the territory."
    "You could quit."
    "No. I don't want to. It would let everyone down. The team means a lot to me. It's the first time in my life I've felt like I was part of something important. I've got a real purpose in life, now. Bullets or not."
    Selena pulled up the collar of her jacket. The night was coming on and it was