The Project 02 - The Lance

getting cold.
    "Are you going to take Rice up on his offer?"
    "I don't know."
    "Do you trust him?"
    "As much as any politician. But he's the President. He's always got to think of protecting the office of the Presidency. He could disown us if something goes wrong."
    "I've known him since I was fifteen. He and my uncle were good friends. I don't think he'd hang us out to dry. But you're right, he has to do what the office demands. Why do you think he set up the Project in the first place?"
    "He knows people like Lodge don't tell him the truth. He needs someone outside the agencies. We're a counterweight so he can find out what's what. It puts us at odds with everyone. CIA and DIA and the others are always jockeying for position. There's a lot of stonewalling and competition. They protect their turf and argue about the meaning of intelligence and what should be done about it. They hide things from him."
    "You make it sound like they're the enemy."
    "I don't mean it that way. But things get lost in the bureaucracy and there are a lot of personal agendas. Rice created the Project to cut through all the bullshit."
    "See, that's why Elizabeth and Rice want you to run things with Steph. You understand the dynamics, how things work behind the scenes."
    "There's a lot I don't know."
    "Nobody knows it all, not Elizabeth either. What's really bothering you?"
    "You want the truth? What if I make the wrong call and someone gets killed?"
    "Do you really need me to tell you there aren't any guarantees?"
    He looked at his empty glass. "What if you get killed? Because of one of my decisions?"
    It was out in the open.
    "Oh, Nick. You can't make me the reason to take this on or not. Elizabeth said something to me a while back, about feelings. About how we have to put them aside. Does it really make any difference, in the end? Did it make any difference in Argentina, or in Tibet?"
    "No. But I think about it."
    "You wouldn't be who you are if you didn't think about it. You're not like Lodge, or one of those Pentagon types. That's why you're the right person for the job. I trust you. We all do. Besides, it's my choice to stay. I know what I'm up against. I'll deal with it. And so will you."
    "So, you think we should take this on?"
    "We?"
    "You're on the team. You're part of the decision."
    "Would it make a difference, you think? What we'd be doing?" Her voice was light, but Nick heard a deeper question in her words.
    We.
    "It could," he said.
    "Then let's do it."

AUTHOR'S NOTES

    I always research my books carefully and this one is no exception. The internet is an amazing tool, though you have to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are millions of pages about Nazis like Himmler. Here's what is true and what isn't, to the best of my knowledge.
    Himmler was indeed in Alsace-Lorraine on his private train in December of 1944, where he had been sent to oversee "Operation North Wind", his first and only command in the field. He failed miserably.
    The Grand Council of Knights is real. It consisted of Himmler as Grand Master and twelve senior SS Generals. Some reports say more were involved. It was modeled on King Arthur's Round Table. He would meet with his Generals in the "Generals' Hall" of his castle in Westphalia. That room has been restored, including the Black Sun inlaid on the floor, along with the "Hall of Heroes" below. After the war had been won by Germany, it was supposed to become a shrine. There is a central circle with provision for an "eternal flame" in the center, with twelve plinths arranged around it that were to hold the ashes of his so-called Knights. It was never finished.
    I've often wondered why anyone bothered to restore it. Today it is a tourist attraction. You can see these places for yourself, if you really want to. You might find the atmosphere a bit...oppressing. Evil lingers for a long time.
    Himmler had big plans for his castle grounds, including a war college for SS officers, formal gardens, etc., etc. The plans still exist. Everything was shaped like a spear, with the castle (which is three-sided) at the point.
    Himmler created the Ahnerabe , a special SS branch devoted to "racial research" and searching worldwide for important relics, particularly the Holy Grail. He sent teams abroad as far as Tibet seeking secrets of magical power. This is true.
    One of the first things Hitler did when he entered Austria in 1938 was to send a special SS detachment to secure the Vienna Lance. It was taken to Nuremberg and