The “king of hardcore action ” (Brad Thor, New York Times bestselling author) and New York Times and #1 international bestselling author weaves a breathless thriller starring Jack West, Jr. that’s “a clever mix of history, mythology, and geography” (Associated Press). A shadow world behind the real world… When Jack West, Jr. won the Great Games, he threw the four legendary kingdoms into turmoil. A world with its own history, rules and prisons… Now these dark forces are coming after Jack...in ruthless fashion. That is reaching into our world—explosively… With the end of all things rapidly approaching, Jack must find the Three Secret Cities, three incredible lost cities of legend. It’s an impossible task by any reckoning, but Jack must do it while he is being hunted...by the greatest hunters in history. With Matthew Reilly’s signature “wave after wave of nonstop action” ( Booklist ), The Three Secret Cities is an electrifying rollercoaster ride of a thriller. Matthew Reilly is the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of numerous novels, including The Four Legendary Kingdoms , The Tournament , The Great Zoo of China , The Five Greatest Warriors , The Six Sacred Stones , Seven Deadly Wonders , Ice Station , Temple , Contest , Area 7 , Scarecrow , and Scarecrow Returns , as well as the children’s book Hover Car Racer and the novella Hell Island. His books have been published in more than twenty languages in twenty countries, and he has sold more than 7.5 million copies worldwide. Visit him at MatthewReilly.com and at Facebook.com/OfficialMatthewReilly. The Three Secret Cities Sky above the US Atlantic Coast November 24, 0530 hours (US Eastern time) Jack West’s plane shot across the sky faster than the speed of sound, rushing toward New York City. Known as the Sky Warrior, the plane was a Tupolev Tu-144, a Russian-made clone of the Concorde. It was sleek in the extreme, clad in black radar-absorbent material, and like the famous Concorde before it, it was fast: really, really fast. Jack had acquired the Sky Warrior from an old enemy after his previous plane, his beloved 747 the Halicarnassus, had been destroyed during a desperate mission at Easter Island. Right now, flown by Jack’s loyal pilot, Sky Monster, the dart-shaped plane was slicing through the air at Mach 1.5 at an altitude of 50,000 feet, far above commercial airliner routes. As a man who often ventured to some of the more remote corners of the globe, the bustling metropolis of New York City was not one of Jack’s regular destinations, but right now he was in a hurry to get there. His haste was not just for his own reasons. It was also for the gentleman traveling with him: Mr. Anthony Michael Dominic DeSaxe, known to the regular world as one of the richest men on Earth, a billionaire shipping and mining magnate, and the fourth member of his extremely old and aristocratic family to be appointed Marshal of France. But that was the regular world. In more shadowy circles, he was known as one of the four eternal kings who ruled the planet: Lord Hades, King of the Underworld. Or at least he used to be. • • • Things had moved quickly for Jack and Hades after they had returned to Jack’s home in the hours following the disastrous ending to the Great Games. That Jack had won the Games was nothing short of historic, an achievement that would place him in an elite pantheon of heroes that included the mythic Greek warrior Hercules. Indeed, as Jack had discovered halfway through them, the Games and their many diabolical challenges and prizes were the source of the myth of the Twelve Labors of Hercules. It was that very discovery that had proved crucial to his ultimate victory. Arriving back at his home in the vast Australian outback, all Jack had wanted to do was rest. He’d never chosen to go to the Games; he’d been drugged and kidnapped, then forced to fight nonstop for his life for two days and nights, all the while wearing a Homer Simpson T-shirt and jeans. Honestly, now he just wanted to tend to his many wounds and sleep in his own bed for about a year. But that was not to be. • • • First, his wife, Zoe—with her short blond hair and bright-blue eyes—had been waiting for him, freshly returned from her own investigative trip to the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean trench on the planet. Seeing the Sky Warrior making its final approach to the farm’s landing strip, Zoe had hurried out onto the tarmac to meet it. She couldn’t wait to tell Jack of her experiences and she smiled broadly when she saw him, Lily, and Alby emerge from the plane, followed by Pooh Bear and Stretch. “Wait’ll you hear what I saw—” she began. Then she saw his shaved head. And the many cuts and bruises on his face. And the way he limped slightly and nursed his right arm. His left arm—made of titanium from the elbow down—was covered in dirt and scratches. What had happened