Curt looked down at the picture. It was of an engraving; one he’d never seen before. The signature at the bottom of the engraving was instantly familiar: Paul Revere. Revere was in the image on the engraving as well, but he wasn’t alone. A second man was there with him. Heavyset, mostly bald but with curly, longish hair at the sides—and circular, metal-framed spectacles resting on the ridge of his nose. The two men were standing in what looked to be a workshop, with a table between them. On the table was what appeared to be an eagle, made of what might have been solid gold. But strangely, the eagle wasn’t the focal point of the engraving. The focal point was something else, an object hanging between the men, above the table.

A kite. With what appeared to be a key, dangling from its tail.

Mr. Arthur held out his hand, and Curt handed him back the photograph. Then Arthur turned toward the tender, beckoning Curt to follow.

“We’ll be in Philadelphia by the morning,” he said.

So, Curt realized, he would be making the trip down the coast after all.

He and Patricia had failed, but the hunt wasn’t over.

In fact, it was about to begin all over again.

Acknowledgments

When the Boston Globe first approached me—at the height of the pandemic—with the wild idea of me writing a serialized novella to run, daily, over a period of two weeks in the pages of my hometown newspaper, I was both excited and terrified. I’d always wanted to do this sort of book—a modern thrill ride built around an epic-scale mystery going back centuries into real history—but the thought of crafting a chapter a day for a waiting audience of readers seemed more than a little ambitious. Thankfully, a delusional sense of adventure won out over reason; The Mechanic, which has now evolved into a full-size novel, The Midnight Ride, ended up being one of the best writing experiences of my career. For this, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the wonderful readers of the Globe all over New England and around the country, who followed me daily on what turned out to be only the beginning of an incredible journey.

Likewise, immense thanks to the brilliant Linda Pizzuti Henry and the dedicated Brian McGrory for taking a risk on something like this, for all the right reasons. Special thanks to Mark Morrow at the Globe for helping shape the chapters that appeared in the newspaper and Heather Hopp-Bruce for the amazing artwork that appeared with each installment.