Henry couldn't afford to be passive. He wasn't worried about the James brothers; they were on the run and likely had no idea why he was even on this train. He had also made sure the reporters didn't mention Linda or her family.
But a professional intelligence organization like the black market was a different story. They would dig, and they would likely discover his connection to Linda. They were a tenacious, venomous enemy, and he could not allow them to harm the people under his protection.
The train arrived at the New York station at 5:45 AM.
As a direct descendant of the railroad's primary shareholder, Consuelo and her party were escorted through a private exit. A fleet of eight luxury carriages and over forty guards from the various families were waiting for them. The recent kidnapping attempt had put everyone on high alert.
The New York of this era was a far cry from the city of skyscrapers Henry remembered. The main roads were still dirt, not much better than Denver's, and the air was thick with the stench of the 2.5 million pounds of horse manure that were deposited on the city's streets every single day.
The city's population was concentrated on Manhattan Island, which was divided into three districts. Uptown, the new home of the city's wealthy, had sprung up around the recently completed Central Park. Downtown was the domain of the poor, a sprawling slum filled with immigrants, mostly Irish. The infamous Five Points, a nexus of gang activity, was at the heart of it.
As the convoy of carriages made its way uptown, Henry's keen eyes spotted six different groups of men tailing them.
The party first went to the Upper West Side to drop off Linda and her children at her parents' apartment. Her father, Jacques, was a successful French wine merchant. Henry didn't get out, simply promising to visit in a couple of days. Pete and Mary saw them safely inside.
A few minutes later, on a quiet, tree-lined street, Henry had the carriage stop.
"Pete," he said, "I have some business to take care of. I might not be back until this afternoon. Take my luggage to the hotel. You and Mary should stay inside today. Don't go out."
He then instructed the Astor family's servant to see Pete and Mary settled in their rooms at the Astor House.
As the carriage drove away, Henry stepped into the shadows of the trees. He watched as two carriages and three riders—his tails—passed by, following the Astor carriage. He then slipped into the woods, changed his clothes, applied his disguise, and summoned a quarter horse from his space.
He rode south, toward Downtown.
It was just after 7 AM. He passed large swathes of grassland and numerous small farms. The entire area was a massive construction site, with old buildings being torn down to make way for the new. The closer he got to Downtown, the more the landscape was dominated by the four and six-story brick factory buildings of the sugar, publishing, and garment industries.
The six groups of stalkers followed the Astor carriage all the way to the hotel. They watched as Pete and Mary went inside. After waiting for over a dozen minutes with no sign of Henry, they sent their reports back to their employers.
Meanwhile, Henry had arrived at his destination: a four-story, factory-style brick building at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 24th Street. The sign above the door read: "The Raven Brotherhood."
This was the headquarters of the New York black market.
The main building was surrounded by a three-meter-high stone wall, its massive iron gate shut tight. On the left was a smaller side entrance, guarded by four young men in vests that did little to conceal their shoulder-holstered pistols.
Henry knew from the archives he had studied that the three buildings surrounding this one also belonged to the black market, their ground floors disguised as legitimate businesses. Those buildings, along with the main clubhouse, housed a permanent garrison of nearly five hundred armed men and another four hundred support staff.
It was a fortress.