What if the Civil War never truly ended, and no one realized America was being led into surrender?

A standalone thriller. New listeners can start right here.

When Professor Jack Sullivan is asked to decode a cipher from the war's final days, he expects a historical curiosity. Instead, he uncovers a thread Jefferson Davis died protecting, a secret never meant to resurface.

Jack, his fiancée Emma Wilson, and former SEAL Steve Johnson are pulled into a hunt more dangerous than any battlefield. From Washington's archives to the back alleys of New Orleans, from the coast of Mexico to the shadowed ridges of Arkansas, every trail leads deeper into the world of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a brotherhood long believed defunct.

But the Knights didn't disappear. They became patient.

For 160 years they studied what force could never win. They embedded themselves in the institutions Americans trust, and waited for the moment when they wouldn't need to seize power. They would be invited to take it.

Now their heirs have risen. A cartel is running weapons north while a cyberattack probes the power grid, and a senator climbs toward power on the fear both create. And every clue Jack follows was placed there for him, by people who already know how his mind works.

He was never hunting the treasure. He was being led to it.

Priya Patel, a Homeland cyber analyst, joins him. Four days remain to break a design older than anyone imagined, before the trap closes around everyone he loves.

Some secrets don't stay buried. They grow roots.

Great for fans of Steve Berry and Clive Cussler.