The fourteenth colony

the war for independence is won. the war for survival has just begun.paris, 1783. the cannons have fallen silent, but the infant united states is drowning in debt. benjamin franklin knows that without hard currency, the fragile republic will be strangled in its cradle by european bankers. but the sage of philadelphia has one final, desperate card to play: a secret message intercepted from the british admiralty pointing to a mysterious island in the frozen waters of nova scotia.franklin assembles a team of expendable outcasts for a suicide mission: silas deane, a disgraced diplomat seeking redemption, and elara vance, a brilliant hydraulic engineer hiding a dangerous secret beneath a male disguise.their target? the money pit on oak island.rumored to hold the lost treasury of the knights templar, the vault is protected by a sophisticated 14th-century hydraulic machine designed to drown any thief who dares to dig. but the ocean isn't their only enemy. lieutenant colonel banastre tarleton-the ruthless "butcher" of the dragoon corps-is racing north to claim the prize for the crown and crush the american experiment once and for all.from the gilded salons of versailles to the storm-lashed coast of nova scotia, the fourteenth colony is a pulse-pounding historical thriller about the secrets that built a nation.the textbooks tell you how the war was fought. they left out how the peace was purchased.