Gone were the formal dress and the spartan flight coveralls. Terah was dressed for business in her fitted pants, black boots, and silky blouse. Her flowing hair was back to her usual, if not natural, dark red color with streaks of highlights. Gone with the blond hair was the cosmetic tint that made her naturally olive skin look pale. The reading gla.s.ses only emphasized the history professor side of her many personalities, but her ponytail said female athlete not lady librarian. Her long bangs gave her green eyes a smoky look.

Biel's portable a.n.a.log computer-he called it a laptop Difference Engine-clacked and clicked away as Rucker, Chuy, Deitel, and Lysander sat like schoolboys.

Terah clicked the b.u.t.ton for the first slide on the projector and the bespectacled, soft-chinned, spa.r.s.ely mustached mouse-face of the Reichsfuhrer-SS filled the screen.

Rucker booed. Chuy growled.

"Here's what we know so far," Terah said. "As Lysander has told you, Himmler has sent n.a.z.i spook squads all over searching for artifacts and magical icons from the ancient world-everywhere from Tibet to Haiti and all over the Near East, North Africa, and Scandinavia. They believe these artifacts to have power, and that they can shape the destiny of their Thousand Year Reich."

Hitler has his own fascination with artifacts of power, but he's really obsessed with the Spear of Destiny. He wants to harness it and other magicks in a way no one has been able to.

The next slide was a painting of the crucifixion, at the moment recounted in the Gospel of St. John that a Roman soldier pierced Jesus' heart with his spear.

"The Spear of Destiny is the pilum used to stab Jesus Christ as he died on the cross. The pilum is the foot-long iron or steel element attached to a wooden shaft. Only the pilum survived the ravages of age," she said, clicking to pictures and drawings of various Roman military spears.

"Supposedly, he who wields the Spear of Destiny cannot be defeated, and he who carries it masters the power of life and death. Or, according to some translations, the power of life over death."

"Same difference?" Chuy asked.

"Maybe. The translations conflict. Anyway, it's in line with Hitler's own narcissistic, megalomaniacal delusions-he believes he was chosen by destiny to lead the German people to mastery of the world."

Rucker and Chuy looked at Deitel, who just shrugged and said, "What? My family voted Christian Democrat. Back when we had elections."

"Continuing: the Spear of Destiny, notably, is not even mentioned in the four Synoptic Gospels-only St. John. John 19:34 ' . . . one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance, and immediately there came out blood and water.' "

"Not just blood, huh?" Rucker asked. "Or is that fuzzy in translation?"

"No, 'blood and water.' It's very specific. And it's very specific that He was already dead," she said. "The Roman soldier in question was historically, and inaccurately, referred to as 'Longinus' in the noncanonical Gospel of Nicodemus."

She saw Rucker's confused expression.

"From the Apocrypha," she said.

His expression didn't change.

"The collection of works excluded from the Bible by the early church at the Council of Nicea."

Nothing.

"Oh, Jesus Christ. Read a d.a.m.n book, already. Not every answer is in Popular Mechanics," Terah said, looking death at Rucker.

"Children," Lysander said admonishingly.

Terah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn't let him get to her like this.

"So," Chuy said, "Hitler thinks this spear was imbued with magic powers because it touched the heart of Christ and was washed in His blood?" He crossed himself. "That's peculiar, because the Christ died as a man, and nothing more than a man, before he rose from the dead after three days."

Terah nodded.

"Hitler is not the only one who thinks it has power. The spear has become a holy relic in the eyes of many Christians," she said. "Church fathers, holy men, and madmen throughout history have sought its power."

She went on to say that over the centuries, the story became its own legend. "Longinus" was made a minor saint in the Roman Catholic tradition.

"Now whether you believe in Jesus Christ the messiah and the son of G.o.d, or simply in the historical Jesus who was a revolutionary rabbi put to death for crimes against the temple elders, the fact is, there is extra-biblical historical proof that Pontius Pilate did order the execution of a young rabbi named Jesus in what we now call 33 A.D. And there is an extra-biblical account of how this rabbi was stabbed by a Roman soldier before he was taken off the cross," she said, slides of ancient historical texts in the original Greek, Latin, and Hebrew ill.u.s.trating her point.

The next slide showed a collage of photos, sketches, and paintings of various spear tips.

"The first historical reports of the spear tip are by Ca.s.siodorus in the early sixth century and Gregory of Tours in the mid-sixth century," Terah said. "Also, around 520 A.D., Flavius Magnus Aurelius Ca.s.siodorus Senator, a Roman statesman and writer, said he saw the Spear of Destiny in Jerusalem. The Catholic Encyclopedia says St. Antonius toured the holy places of Jerusalem and claims he saw it and the crown of thorns Jesus was forced to wear."

Rucker raised his hand. Terah shook her head.

"Sometime later the spear was secreted out of Jerusalem when the city was captured by the Persians under King Khosara II. The Church's agent, Nicetas, took it to Constantinople and secured it in the Church of Hagia Sophia."

Rucker, pouring coffee, said, "So we're off to the Ottoman Empire?"

"Not even close. If it was the original, it disappeared for a while-and several claimants later popped up," Terah said.

"What?" Rucker asked.

"There have been several artifacts that were claimed to be the true Spear of Destiny," she said.

She clicked another slide-showing a thirteenth century painting of the French monarch.

"The first was the so-called French spear. It was enshrined in Sainte Chapelle in Paris until the French Revolution. Republican forces seized it from the royalists and deposited it in the Bibliotheque Nationale, where it resided until five years ago," she said.

"The Surete suspected German agents stole it in 1923, killing twelve employees of the Bibliotheque Nationale, five Paris policemen, and four soldiers at a border crossing. The crime scene was an abomination."

The next slide was from the French national police files. Chuy retched. Deitel, a medical doctor, almost followed suit.

Another slide: St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.

"Then there is the Vatican lance. This was said to have likewise ended up in Constantinople, where it fell into the hands of the Turks. According to Pastor's History of the Popes, Sultan Bayazid II sent it to Innocent VIII in 1492. Even at the time, the authenticity of this spear was in doubt, and although the eighteenth century pope Benedict XIV suggested the Vatican spear matched historical drawings of the Spear of Destiny, and it's kept in St. Peter's Cathedral, the Church makes no claim to its authenticity."

"So we're not going to the Vatican or Paris, either?" Deitel said.

"Hold that thought. Needless to say, the Vatican believes but cannot prove that in 1922-mere months after they seized power in Germany-n.a.z.i agents broke into the cathedral, took the spear, and killed four altar boys, two priests, and a night watchman."

Terah's slide showed crime scene photos "borrowed" from the Vatican Guards' investigations office. The victims were hung from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, eviscerated.

"My G.o.d," Chuy said, and crossed himself again. "Was all this ritualistic slaughter tied to the spear?"

"We don't know. Maybe. Or it may have been how the thieves got their kicks."

The next slide showed the propaganda pictures of the Austrian people welcoming regular German army and Waffen-SS troops into their cities.

"Now, you're all familiar with the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria into the Third Reich on March 12, 1924. But guess what Hitler's first act was the next day?" Terah asked.

"Arresting art school administrators," Rucker said.

"Hunting for the prost.i.tute who gave him syphilis," Chuy said.

"Destroying the birth records that list his grandfather as Jewish," Deitel said, joining in.

Terah rolled her eyes. Lysander seemed amused..

"The Holy Roman Emperors in Vienna had a lance of their own, the Hofburg spear. It was wrapped with a silver band said to be one of the nails used to crucify Him. Charles IV went so far as to have a golden sleeve put over the silver one, inscribed 'Lancea et clavus Domini-Lance and nail of the Lord,' " Terah said. "It was taken, this time without a body count."

Rucker, who was eating pistachios, spit out a sh.e.l.l and said, "Let me guess. That one's now in Germania, where Der Fuhrer sleeps with it under his pillow."

"Close enough. He could have it in his tailpipe for all we know," Terah said. Rucker nearly choked on a sh.e.l.l. "Hitler has all three of these spears, and even he knows they're almost certainly not the real thing."

"So none of these concern us?" Rucker asked.

"Not really," Terah said.

"Oh for . . . then why are you lecturing us like you're some sort of history professor?" Rucker said.

Terah's eyes narrowed.

"She is some sort of history professor," Deitel said quietly.

Rucker hissed.

Her eyes were Tesla death rays. "Context, sweetheart."

"Ahem," Lysander said with little subtlety.

"You need to realize how far Hitler and his occult minions are willing to go to possess the Spear of Destiny," Terah said, "and how much history is wrapped up in this piece of steel. Even before he'd fully secured power in Germany, Hitler was willing to risk international incidents and even war. His agents murdered untold dozens in the Vatican and Constantinople. All for a biblical artifact."

"I think we're all well aware how much respect Der Fuhrer has for human life," Rucker said.

"Yes, we are now. With his power over Germany absolute, he's drawn the Black Iron Curtain. But these events occurred when he'd just seized the government, and his hold grip on Germany was tenuous at best," Terah said. "He was not eager to reveal his aims quite so openly then."

"It's true, Herr Kapitan," Deitel said. "In the early days after the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was vying for control of his own party against the SA and rival party leaders. He also had to court the favor of the military leadership, the industrialists, the noncommunist unions, and the leaders of the corporate/public inst.i.tutions. It was only in the last few years, after he and his SS secured their power, that Hitler showed his true face."

"Such naked, murderous aggression in 1922 could have meant his ejection from party leadership," Terah said. "Now he has his sights set on the last-and probably true-Spear of Destiny, and he has Germany in an iron grip. Imagine what he's capable of."

There weren't a lot of sarcastic replies.

"Recently, a French historian has attacked the problem from an entirely different angle," Terah said. "Professor Claude Renault of the Universite de Cergy-Pontoise decided to study the Spear in a way no one else has-looking at the time back when the Spear of Destiny was just a spear."

She clicked another slide. It showed a charcoal sketch of what looked like a true pilum. Measuring almost a foot long, it was utilitarian, clean, and deadly, wholly unlike the pointlessly ornate forgeries they'd seen in the previous slides. This was the spear tip of a Roman officer-a centurion.

"Professor Renault, we believe, is uncovering the story of the true spear even now. His work is virtually unknown. He contends the spear's story begins long before Jesus was condemned. The professor's early papers show that we are fortunate the Roman Empire kept such detailed reports on its military, and that the centurion who owned the spear in question was from a Roman patrician family that likewise kept fairly complete family doc.u.ments."

She had a monograph in hand but didn't refer to it.

"According to Dr. Renault, the centurion who possessed what was to become legend was a former cavalry officer named Cascus Antonius. He served with the Legio III Augusta in what is present-day Algeria. His legion saw action between A.D. 17 and A.D. 24, particularly in southern Algeria, against the rebel Tacfarinas, who had organized Numidian and Mauretanian tribes against Roman rule.

"The campaign carried them deep into West Africa, farther south into sub-Saharan Africa than any Roman expedition-south of what is French West Africa and into what we know today as Niger," Terah said.

She explained that Cascus Antonius kept a detailed journal of his unit's expedition that went well beyond a military diary. He catalogued samples of various plants and sketched the exotic animals they saw. He wrote of the African tribes they encountered, describing their foreign customs. The first three-quarters of his service journal showed a keen, educated mind and a fair military officer.

"Sometime around A.D. 22," she said, "Tacfarinas's rebels ambushed his unit, killing almost all of his men and capturing Cascus Antonius. He wrote later about his escape and journey north through the jungle. In particular, he describes the time he spent with a West African jungle tribe, where he used the tribe's own iron ore to forge steel weapons: a gladius-a short sword, and a pilum-a spear tip."

Deitel raised his hand. "That seems a bit anachronistic."

"Very good, Doctor," Terah said. "At this time, metallurgy was unheard of in West Africa. They wouldn't-or shouldn't-have had the refined iron available for Antonius to use in the production of steel.

"In fact, the indigenous population of sub-Saharan Africa never developed even the most primitive iron metallurgy, nor any metallurgical technology," she explained. "And yet Antonius wrote he was able to forge high-quality weapons. They were so well made he continued to use them even after he made it back to Legio III Augusta's headquarters."

Antonius's own writings showed that the centurion increasingly grew paranoid that other officers envied his weapons. His journal entries seemed less balanced after the African expedition, Terah said.

"After the Tacfarinsas expedition, Antonius's unit was transferred to a remote post in modern-day Tunisia, Ammaedara. It is known that very few members of Legio III Augusta survived the transfer. The unit and the post seem to have faded from history."

Chuy's brow twisted. "You mean the records are lost?"

"We believe the legion was lost. Antonius survived and was transferred to Legio III Gallica, where he was reduced in rank despite his patrician status. This legion served under the prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate," Terah said. "And that's the last update from Dr. Renault's research. That's according to his unrevised notes, gathered for us by our cousins in French intelligence."

"That's it?" Rucker said. "That doesn't exactly get us to the spear, you know."

"That's why we have to get to Dr. Renault before the n.a.z.is do. The n.a.z.i's expert, Dr. Otto Rahn, has led the Huns on a wild goose chase. He's the German medievalist who is simultaneously seeking the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant. His days are probably numbered, owing to his lack of success so far and the fact that he's secretly a h.o.m.os.e.xual," she said. "For all his errors so far, he is a great scholar, and our people at Prometheus are trying to get him to defect before the Gestapo discovers his private proclivities. We're thinking he is intentionally misdirecting the German efforts."

"Meanwhile," Lysander said, "we know the n.a.z.is obtained a sample of some sort related to the true spear, and now for more than merely satisfying Hitler's obsession, they want to find it."

Biels added: "We don't know how the spear is connected, but our Difference Engine calculations incorporating all the available data say it figures directly and perhaps even causally into Project Gefallener."

The ability of Difference Engines to take raw numerical data and translate it into complex algorithms and statistics had grown exponentially since Babbage debuted the very first engine in London in 1851. The a.n.a.log calculating devices of yesterday had grown into bra.s.s and mechanical devices that could store entire libraries worth of data variables.

"Why do people think the spear has power?" Rucker asked. He wasn't much for dealing with belief as he was with fact.

"Theories abound in philosophical, religious, and alchemical circles," Terah said. "It could very well be that the Spear of Destiny has power because it was washed in His blood. Except for our visiting doctor, we've all had experiences dealing with the power of certain holy relics from various cultures. Science hasn't explained these phenomena-"

"Yet," Rucker interjected.

"Fine, yet, but that doesn't make them any less real," Terah continued. "Certainly the blood of Christ is powerful in the Christian faith; it is even symbolically or, in the case of Catholics, literally consumed. But the common denominator in terms of Christ's blood is salvation and life, not power, conquest, death, and decay."

"But it could be something about the spear itself, right?" Rucker asker her. "The anachronistic iron ore in Africa."

Lysander nodded.

"That's the other direction Renault's research is taking," Terah said. "No one has yet found the African tribe that Antonius describes in his journals.

"There is the issue of the meteoric iron," she continued. "The only other place with such a high degree of ancient meteoric iron is north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia, and south in the western fields of Antarctica. Modern expeditions to West Africa date several of the deposits of meteoric iron to as far back as 5000 B.C., so that fits. Beyond that, there seems to be nothing fantastic about the meteoric iron itself."

"That we know of yet," Lysander added. "We may not know what we should be looking for, or how to look for it."

"This is starting to sound very like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne," Rucker said. "I like it."