In the sweltering summer of 1862, Washington, D.C. is a city built on secrets—some spoken in war rooms, others whispered in alleys. Solomon Cross fixes broken furniture for men who believe power makes them untouchable. But Solomon has a gift he keeps hidden: when his hands meet wood, cloth, or metal, the truth clings to him like sawdust.
When a mother begs him to find her missing son from a contraband camp near the Navy Yard, Solomon discovers something far worse than a runaway child. Black children are vanishing—quietly, efficiently—then turning up across enemy lines carrying Union intelligence stitched into their clothing like contraband.
With an Irish detective willing to chase a case nobody else will touch, and a Pinkerton operative buried inside the War Department, Solomon follows the trail from muddy tents to polished townhouses on Lafayette Square—toward a doctor with clean hands, a kind smile, and a plan big enough to change the war.
Because the children aren’t the prize.
They’re the delivery system.
And the next package is aimed at the President of the United States.
