ALSO BY CLIVE CUSSLER DIRK PITT® ADVENTURES Havana Storm (with Dirk Cussler) Poseidon’s Arrow (with Dirk Cussler) Crescent Dawn (with Dirk Cussler) Arctic Drift (with Dirk Cussler) Treasure of Khan (with Dirk Cussler) Black Wind (with Dirk Cussler) Trojan Odyssey Valhalla Rising Atlantis Found Flood Tide Shock Wave Inca Gold Sahara Dragon Treasure Cyclops Deep Six Pacific Vortex! Night Probe! Vixen 03 Raise the Titanic! Iceberg The Mediterranean Caper FARGO ADVENTURES The Solomon Curse (with Russell Blake) The Eye of Heaven (with Russell Blake) The Mayan Secrets (with Thomas Perry) The Tombs (with Thomas Perry) The Kingdom (with Grant Blackwood) Lost Empire (with Grant Blackwood) Spartan Gold (with Grant Blackwood) ISAAC BELL NOVELS The Assassin (with Justin Scott) The Bootlegger (with Justin Scott) The Striker (with Justin Scott) The Thief (with Justin Scott) The Race (with Justin Scott) The Spy (with Justin Scott) The Wrecker (with Justin Scott) The Chase KURT AUSTIN ADVENTURES The Pharaoh’s Secret (with Graham Brown) Ghost Ship (with Graham Brown) Zero Hour (with Graham Brown) The Storm (with Graham Brown) Devil’s Gate (with Graham Brown) Medusa (with Paul Kemprecos) White Death (with Paul Kemprecos) The Navigator (with Paul Kemprecos) Polar Shift (with Paul Kemprecos) Lost City (with Paul Kemprecos) White Death (with Paul Kemprecos) Fire Ice (with Paul Kemprecos) Blue Gold (with Paul Kemprecos) Serpent (with Paul Kemprecos) OREGON FILES ADVENTURES Piranha (with Boyd Morrison) Mirage (with Jack Du Brul) The Jungle (with Jack Du Brul) The Silent Sea (with Jack Du Brul) Corsair (with Jack Du Brul) Plague Ship (with Jack Du Brul) Skeleton Coast (with Jack Du Brul) Dark Watch (with Jack Du Brul) Sacred Stone (with Craig Dirgo) Golden Buddha (with Craig Dirgo) NONFICTION Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt The Sea Hunters (with Craig Dirgo) The Sea Hunters II (with Craig Dirgo) Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed (with Craig Dirgo) G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS Publishers Since 1838 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 Copyright © 2016 by Sandecker, RLLLP Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-40642-1 Endpaper and interior illustrations by Roland Dahlquist This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Version_1 CONTENTS Also by Clive Cussler Title Page Copyright Cast of Characters PROLOGUE | Murder and High Jinks BOOK I | Captain Coligney’s Pink Tea Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 BOOK II | Pull Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 BOOK III | Storm King Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 BOOK IV | The Gangster Chapter 45 Chapter 46 EPILOGUE | THE CARTEL BUSTER About the Author CAST OF CHARACTERS 1895 Antonio Branco Immigrant Sicilian “pick and shovel man.” The padrone Labor contractor, Antonio Branco’s boss. Isaac Bell, Doug, Andy, Larry, Jack, Ron College freshman classmates. Mary Clark Student at Miss Porter’s School. Eddie “Kansas City” Edwards Van Dorn detective. 1906 White Hand Maria Vella Giuseppe Vella’s twelve-year-old daughter. Giuseppe Vella New York excavation contractor. David LaCava Little Italy banker, proprietor of Banco LaCava. Sante Russo Giuseppe Vella’s foreman and blaster. Black Hand Antonio Branco Wealthy wholesale grocer, Catskill Aqueduct purveyor. Charlie Salata Italian street gang leader; Black Hand extortionist. Vito Rizzo Salata Gang lieutenant. Ernesto Leone A counterfeiter. Roberto Ferri A smuggler. Sicilian groom Francesca Kennedy A killer. Irish Gangsters Ed Hunt, Tommy McBean Cousins, Gopher Gang graduates, founders of the West Side Wallopers. Van Dorn Agency Private Detectives Joseph Van Dorn Founder and Chief Investigator, “The Boss,” the “old man.” Isaac Bell Van Dorn’s top man, founder of Black Hand Squad. Wally Kisley, Mack Fulton Explosives expert and safecracking expert, respectively; partners known as “Weber & Fields.” Harry Warren Born Salvatore Guaragna, head of New York Gang Squad. Archibald Angell Abbott IV Blue-blood New Yorker, a “Princeton man,” former actor, boxer, Bell’s best friend. Aloysius “Wish” Clarke A drinking man. Eddie “Kansas City” Edwards Rail yard specialist. Bronson San Francisco field office. Grady Forrer Head of Research, New York field office. Scudder Smith Former newspaper reporter experienced in vice. Eddie Tobin Apprentice detective. Richie Cirillo Underage apprentice detective. Helen Mills Van Dorn intern, Isaac Bell’s protégée, Bryn Mawr College student, daughter of U.S. Army brigadier general Gary Tannenbaum Mills. Friends of Isaac Bell Marion Morgan His fiancée. Enrico Caruso World-renowned opera tenor. Luisa Tetrazzini Coloratura soprano, the “Florentine Nightingale,” a rising star. Tammany Hall Boss Fryer “Honest Jim” Fryer, political kingpin of New York City. Brandon Finn Boss Fryer’s henchman. “Rose Bloom” Brandon Finn’s paramour. Alderman James Martin Member of the “Boodle Board.” “Kid Kelly” Ghiottone Former bantamweight prizefighter, saloon keeper, Tammany Hall’s man in Little Italy. Plutocrats J. B. Culp Wall Street magnate, Hudson Valley aristocrat, inheritor of steamboat and railroad fortunes, founder of the Cherry Grove Gentlemen’s Society. Daphne Culp J. B. Culp’s wife. Brewster Claypool J. B. Culp’s lawyer. Warren D. Nichols Banker, philanthropist, member of Cherry Grove Society. Lee, Barry Prizefighters, J. B. Culp’s bodyguards and sparring partners. Cops Captain Mike Coligney Head of the NYPD’s Tenderloin Precinct. Lieutenant Joe Petrosino Founder of the NYPD’s Italian Squad. Chris Lynch Secret Service Counterfeit Squad. Rob Rosenwald New York District Attorney sleuth. Commissioner Bingham New NYPD official shaking up the department. Sheriff of Orange County Cherry Grove Bordello Nick Sayers The proprietor. Jenny A resident. The White House Theodore Roosevelt “Teddy,” “TR,” President of the United States, Spanish-American War hero, former Governor of New York State, former Police Commissioner of New York City. Chief of the President’s Secret Service protection corps The Catskill Aqueduct Dave Davidson Contractors’ Protective Association, superintendent of labor camps. Contractors Irish foreman PROLOGUE Murder and High Jinks New Haven, 1895 Chest-deep in a ditch, an Italian pick and shovel man looked up at a rush of custom-made shoes and broadcloth trousers inches from his face. Rich American students were scooping handfuls from the earth pile and sifting the sandy red soil through their fingers. The
