August 10, 1994
Dwight D. Chambers pulled his Impala SS right into a free spot, put the car in park, and sat for a second staring on the constructing in entrance of him: a monolithic slab a dozen flooring excessive, like a large checkerboard stood on finish. 1 / 4 century earlier, this skinny piece of concrete—unvexed by architectural thrives—had regarded like the longer term. Now it simply regarded like a jail. A brand new constructing had damaged floor throughout Pontchartrain Park, however probabilities had been good he wouldn’t be round to see it accomplished.
He unbuckled his seat belt because the information continued its background drone on the radio. He turned it up, hoping the blare would assist drown his ideas.
Unusual how six months in the past—a time when he’d been completely satisfied, when he’d loved his work—now felt so distant. He’d by no means taken a supervisory path, being content material to stay a subject agent. New Orleans was low-key so far as FOs went. He had eighteen years beneath his belt and didn’t thoughts the thought of one other two, till he made his twenty.
Then his longtime accomplice and buddy, Fenton, bought badly winged attempting to cease a restaurant holdup whereas off obligation. In return for his bravery, he’d been reassigned to a desk job within the Fed Constructing on Maestri Road. Chambers, who liked his accomplice like a brother, had been trying ahead to a last two years of dangerous jokes and bourbon rooster wings. Now he was abruptly in line for a brand new accomplice, fast-tracked out of Quantico, whom he was to ghost. Chambers knew the FBI had relaxed a few of its requirements, however he’d met the brand new jack and wasn’t certain he favored both him or his pretentions one bit. The truth is, he was half satisfied the man had misplaced management of his vertical maintain.
Then, one week earlier than the brand new partnership was to formally start, Chambers’s spouse had been killed in a collision with an eighteen-wheeler pushed by a methed‑up son of a bitch on I‑610. And that had just about given him a recent perspective on all the fucking world.
He didn’t bear in mind a lot of the times that instantly adopted. He had no children or siblings, and his mother and father had been useless. Solely after she was gone and the numbness began to fade did he notice simply how a lot of his life was invested in two issues: Janice and his job. After shedding her and reporting again to the workplace two weeks later to mentor his new accomplice, he discovered that the second didn’t matter a lot to him, both. Years of complicated instances; the occasional shut name; commendations—she’d been there with him each step of the best way. They’d lastly put the cash collectively for the down cost on the Miramar Seaside rental they deliberate for his or her retirement.
Now the considered sitting within the surf alone, with damaged goals for firm . . . no approach.
He’d principally sleepwalked by way of the final two months. As a substitute of pulling his weight as senior agent and doing the mentoring factor, he gave his peculiar new accomplice his choose of instances to cull by way of on his personal—he’d appeared significantly excited about a stale, six-years-chilly case involving a freighter washing up in Bayou Grove with all the crew useless—whereas the stack of paperwork on Chambers’s personal desk had grown greater and better.
“. . . in the meantime, the fallout from the genocide within the Central African nation of Rwanda continues to develop. President Clinton has said—”
Chambers lower off the radio announcer in mid-sentence and compelled himself out of the automobile and towards the checkerboard monstrosity, virtually swimming by way of the warmth. It was quarter to 10. He’d been an early riser all his life, however not anymore. Now, as an alternative of sleeping, he sat in mattress wakeful, service piece on one bedstand and a bottle of Tanqueray on the opposite, attempting to resolve which solution to go. Thus far, he’d chosen neither.
At first, a number of his colleagues on the Bureau had been sympathetic. They advised him it will get simpler with time—which was, clearly, bullshit. However during the last a number of weeks, as his apathy confirmed no indicators of dwindling, they’d began dropping by his workplace much less and fewer typically. He couldn’t blame them; he was exhibiting all of the indicators of being— in FBI parlance—a “broke-dick.”
Nothing had made this clearer than his response to the brand new assistant particular agent in cost, put in only a month earlier than Janice’s accident: Gerald G. Urbanski. Chambers had seen his share of petty tyrants, however Urbanski took the cake. Estevez, the particular agent answerable for the workplace, was a good sufficient man, however inside a couple of years he was in line to be kicked upstairs to Washington. It was already clear Urbanski was gunning for his job. Urbanski was a tin Hitler, always issuing edicts for brokers and administrative employees alike, normally regarding issues that had been obviously apparent.
Estevez was no dummy; he needed to notice what was occurring, how morale was struggling, and what a dick the ASAC was. Chambers guessed he was merely unwilling to rock the boat so near the shores of his personal promotion. There was an outdated Bureau saying: Higher a prick on essentially the most needed than a prick with seniority. However whereas the remainder of the brokers muttered across the watercooler, pining for the nice outdated days, or gathered for gripe periods after hours, Chambers simply couldn’t carry himself to provide a shit. Identical to he couldn’t resolve between the Glock or the gin.
He entered the constructing, handed by way of the sleepy safety screening, and bought on the elevator. He reached his ground, stepped out, and stopped. A recent discover had been tacked to the Agony Board.
The “Agony Board,” because it had rapidly change into identified, was Urbanski’s good concept. He’d had it put in proper outdoors the primary investigative workplace every week after arriving, and he used it to submit scoldings, mini-manifestos, or edicts for the edification of his subordinates.
Chambers stepped nearer, idly squinting on the laser printing. He realized it was the identical one Urbanski had put up the week earlier than: the ASAC should actually like his personal prose, or maybe he felt it hadn’t been given the consideration it deserved, as a result of he’d reprinted it on different-coloured paper and caught it up instead of the outdated one.
The primary FO of the NO division is regarded as much as by our six resident businesses, and the town of New Orleans itself, to take care of self-discipline and implement its personal strict codes of conduct. There are twelve separate parishes beneath our jurisdiction, and if we aren’t seen to behave professionally, whether or not within the workplace or within the subject, whether or not on obligation or off, we is not going to command—or deserve—the respect essential to do our jobs. Towards that finish, inside assessments are approved and in reality inspired, so long as they don’t compromise safety or intervene with day‑to‑day operations of the sphere workplace. Briefly: all guidelines for conduct, safety, and professionalism in its many features are to be strictly adopted. This contains the said pointers for grooming. . .
Chambers stopped studying. It was, certainly, the identical rant because the week earlier than, besides Urbanski had added the sentence about “inside assessments”—in different phrases, encouraging individuals to rat one another out.
He made his approach into the crowded central workplace, desks lined with folders, the air thrumming to numerous fingers hammering away at phrase processors. His personal semi-personal workplace was close to the entrance entrance—good as a result of it meant a brief stroll, dangerous as a result of it put him close to Urbanski and the person’s loud, countless bullshit. Estevez, as SAC, had his personal workplace down the corridor and thus was spared.
Chambers was midway by way of his workplace doorway, jacket already off, when he stopped. His new accomplice was not there—and by the seems to be of issues, he hadn’t clocked in but. His desk was as neat as Chambers’s was messy. He glanced at his watch: virtually ten. Was he sick?
“Hey,” sounded a voice behind him. “The place’s your junior?”
Chambers glanced over. It was Win Malone, workplace wit and scourge of newly whelped brokers.
“Good query,” Chambers replied.
“Nicely, be sure he will get this.” Malone dropped a sealed envelope on the chair by the empty desk. “It’s for his scrapbook.” And he chuckled cynically.
His chortle was lower quick by the sounds of Urbanski’s boisterous chatter coming from the path of the elevators. Malone instantly made himself scarce. A minute later, the conquering hero appeared in particular person, accompanied by two gents. Chambers acknowledged one instantly: T. J. Fulsom, president of New Orleans’s second-largest financial institution and a giant wheel round city, supposedly harboring mayoral aspirations. The opposite was a stranger: a plump man in a dark-blue Baracuta with prematurely graying hair, glasses thick as Coke bottles, and a straw hat so blue it will have made Bing Crosby envious. Chambers guessed he was a lawyer. The three stepped from the elevators into the foyer, accompanied by a lot camaraderie and backslapping.
“Fascinating, fascinating,” the financial institution president was saying. “Clearly, our nice metropolis is in succesful fingers.”
“Thanks, T. J.,” Urbanski mentioned as he gestured down the hall. “In case you’ll please make your self and your affiliate snug in my workplace. I’ll be alongside in a second.” And because the banker headed down the corridor in a single path, Urbanski went in the other way, towards the proof room, the armory, and most essential, the john—the place, little doubt, he deliberate to empty the primary vein.
Chambers felt his lip curl. Urbanski had already made a follow of sucking as much as bigwigs. He showered civic leaders, commissioners, and rich donors with FBI merchandise, courtesy playing cards, and particularly personal excursions.
A few minutes later he got here again into view, headed towards his workplace whereas concurrently smoothing down the entrance of his jacket. As he handed the central office, he gazed over on the researchers and stenographers, his expression assuming a martial sternness. Chambers rolled across the doorframe and into his workplace to flee it.
Like all petty dictators, Urbanski was additionally a hypocrite. He knew excursions of headquarters needed to be vetted weeks prematurely—they usually weren’t supposed to incorporate delicate work areas.
Chambers hung up his jacket, sat down at his desk, turned on his Gateway 2000, and unlocked the drawers of his desk. He’d reached the GS‑13 wage cap, netted a pleasant set of commendations over his years with the Prison Investigative Division—however now that meant fuckall. He pulled a three-and‑a‑half-inch floppy from a drawer and caught it into the pc’s empty drive. Since his spouse’s demise, he’d been going by way of the motions of cleansing up the Shattered Defend case involving a dozen corrupt cops working a safety racket. The case had been so large, and generated a lot paperwork, that it was straightforward to look busy. Staring on the amber letters on the darkish display was higher than what awaited him later: a silent home filled with recollections, a frozen dinner—after which one other evening spent attempting to resolve between the Glock and the gin. The woman, he thought bitterly, or the tiger.
These musings had been interrupted by a flurry of raised voices, so loud that every one different dialog within the central workplace ceased. Chambers rose from his desk, leaving the floppy grinding away in its drive, and caught his head out the door.
The identical three males had been once more standing close to the exit to the elevator financial institution: Urbanski, Fulsom, and the man within the hat. However as an alternative of participating in courtly farewells, the ASAC appeared to be offended—very offended—with the person within the hat, gesticulating and making accusations whereas the person was busily taking images with a Polaroid digicam. It made no sense: Urbanski had invited these two into HQ to curry favor—not piss them off.
It didn’t take lengthy for Estevez, roused out of his workplace by the commotion, to seem. He stepped between the boys. “What’s occurring right here?” he shouted at Urbanski. Then he glanced across the workplace and its staring crowd. “All of you, get again to work.”
Chambers had by no means heard Estevez elevate his voice earlier than. Neither had anybody else, it appeared, as a result of the huge room went silent. However no person went again to work.
“Sir, this, this man—” Urbanski, red-confronted, gestured on the man within the blue hat—“has simply made essentially the most outrageous accusation . . .”
“Enable me,” the person mentioned in a surprisingly acquainted voice, “to introduce a sure merchandise of proof into the dialog.” With a motion so fast Chambers wasn’t certain he’d seen it, the person darted his fingers into the go well with jacket of T. J. Fulsom and whipped out a manila packet that had been tucked in an inside breast pocket.
“What the satan—!” Fulsom cried furiously, however fell silent because the blue-hatted man handed the packet to the SAC.
Estevez took it, his face a mix of confusion and suspicion. “What’s this?”
“Now that’s in your possession,” the blue-hatted man mentioned, “I shall take away these thalian trappings and clarify.”
The person then proceeded, in his personal candy time, to take away first the hat, then the thick spectacles, after which a wig. He eliminated the windbreaker—which had been artificially padded—subtracting at the least thirty kilos from his body and revealing a black go well with beneath. He then plucked a tissue from a field on a close-by desk and gave his face a fast swipe, revealing remarkably pale pores and skin.
Chambers, recognizing the person, was surprised. This was not some mucky-muck New Orleans citizen in spite of everything . . . however his personal accomplice. The person stood there, smiling faintly, his silvery eyes glittering in marked distinction to his somber black go well with.
______
What the hell?” Urbanski raged, as shocked as anybody else. “That belongs to Mr. Fulsom!”
“Mr. Estevez, sir,” got here the honeyed drawl of Chambers’s junior accomplice, “I’d recommend inspecting the contents of that envelope in personal.”
“That is outrageous!” Urbanski cried, reaching for the envelope.
Estevez pulled it again and gave everybody a tough stare, which appeared to close all of them up. “All of you, in my workplace.” After which, whereas the shocked silence nonetheless held, Estevez turned and checked out Chambers. “You too, Agent Chambers.”
Then he walked briskly down the hallway.
“I protest this in essentially the most vehement phrases!” mentioned Fulsom. Nonetheless, he and the others adopted Estevez down the corridor. Chambers threaded the maze of desks and adopted of their wake, conscious that every one eyes had been turned of their path.
Estevez opened the door and ushered everybody in. He strode previous his secretary to his inside workplace, the others following, and shut that door onerous. Then he moved behind his desk and sat down. The remaining remained standing, and he made no effort to ask them to sit down.
“All proper, Agent Pendergast,” he mentioned. “Mike Decker’s a private pal of mine, and he strongly beneficial you—and with FBI star energy like that, I’m going to provide you a bit of slack right here. However just a bit. So earlier than I apologize to one in every of our main residents, from whom you simply snatched what seems to be like private property, I’d like to listen to your clarification.”
“No clarification mandatory,” mentioned Fulsom swiftly. “I demand that or not it’s returned to me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of denying Mr. Fulsom the chance to listen to why I picked his pocket,” mentioned Pendergast. And with that he put his digicam—a Polaroid 600 Impulse— on a close-by desk, together with its still-growing footage.
Chambers had identified from the leap his new accomplice performed by his personal rule guide. He’d additionally heard rumors he had a guardian angel excessive up within the Bureau. However coming into the workplace in disguise like that, making a weird spectacle in entrance of all the CID—it made completely no sense, except Pendergast was not simply eccentric however loopy, and . . .
Pendergast turned to Estevez. “Might I proceed?”
“Simply hurry up.”
“Gladly. Agent Urbanski right here,” Pendergast resumed in a honeyed voice, “has made the important level that safety on this constructing is to be maintained on the highest stage. In his newest posting he states, and I quote: Inside assessments are approved and in reality inspired. Or, to place it colloquially: snitch in your fellow staff in the event that they stray.”
“Get to it,” Estevez mentioned.
“In my admittedly quick time right here, I’ve observed one significantly egregious lapse: Urbanski’s penchant for bringing women and men of wealth or authority into this safe space for personal excursions. A transparent violation of protocol.”
“You little prick!” Urbanski started. “I’ve each proper to carry essential metropolis officers in right here—!”
“Quiet,” Estevez mentioned, eyes nonetheless on Pendergast. “Proceed.”
“A number of evenings in the past, whereas I used to be within the parking storage beneath the constructing, I occurred to see a determine—whom I acknowledged because the distinguished Mr. Fulsom now standing earlier than us—method Agent Urbanski as he was stepping into his automobile. From the physique language, I gathered that our banker needed one thing, maybe a favor—and never essentially an altruistic one. I managed to listen to solely the tail finish of the hushed dialog, however sufficient to grasp they might talk about the problem extra absolutely at a restaurant in LaPlace at lunch the subsequent day.”
Urbanski stared at Pendergast, eyes narrowed, face the colour of day-old liver. “I used to be troubled by this conspiratorial alternate. And so, with Agent Urbanski’s personal admonitions concerning ‘inside assessments’ ringing in my head, I, too, went to LaPlace the subsequent day, arriving on the rendezvous level a couple of minutes early—within the guise you noticed simply now—so as to have a couple of personal phrases with Mr. Fulsom. I discussed I’d overheard the dialogue within the storage the evening earlier than. I advised him that Urbanski was not a person to be trusted in such dealings; that I personally was an agent on the take and in disguise; and that if he let me fake to be a shady lawyer employed in his service, I’d see that—for a small lower—he bought what he needed. I hinted that repulsing my provide wouldn’t end in a superb end result for him. He accepted.
“Quickly afterward, Urbanski joined us. Naturally, he didn’t acknowledge me, and he swallowed Fulsom’s clarification that I used to be his legal professional and have to be a part of the dialogue. After which, over lunch, I discovered of Mr. Fulsom’s concern about Operation Pink Champagne.”
This, Chambers knew, had been a sting operation the FBI had just lately carried out in a French Quarter mansion involving intercourse traffickers, rich patrons, and underage prostitutes. Cameras had been put in, and feminine brokers had impersonated girls of the evening.
“Sir!” Urbanski cried. “Are we actually going to hearken to this rookie speak such—!”
“Urbanski!” Estevez mentioned sharply. “You’ll get your flip. Now keep quiet.”
Chambers may see Fulsom was white-confronted, however at the least he was sensible sufficient to maintain his mouth shut.
“Relating to Operation Pink Champagne, it appears Mr. Fulsom was on the premises the evening earlier than the raid. It was solely after the raid that he discovered concerning the cameras—and, based on rumor, one of many videotapes incriminated him. That videotape was duly deposited in our safe proof room. For a consideration of fifty thousand {dollars}, Fulsom proposed to Particular Agent Urbanski that, beneath the guise of a tour, he would possibly retrieve mentioned videotape and put the unique into Fulsom’s fingers.”
That is loopy, Chambers thought—greater than loopy.
“One can find the videotape in that envelope,” Pendergast mentioned. “Additionally, you will discover, among the many footage I took, the envelope being handed from Urbanski to Fulsom—I deliberately used a Polaroid in order that the images would develop in actual time, and I couldn’t be accused of doctoring them.”
He fell silent. Urbanski and Fulsom had been themselves mute, as stricken as statues.
Estevez, nonetheless holding the envelope, stared at Pendergast. “Let me get this straight. You undertook, by yourself, with none authorization in anyway, to arrange a sting operation— proper right here, in my subject workplace? With out letting me know? And then you definitely pickpocketed this man?”
Pendergast mentioned nothing.
“I’m not even certain I’ve the authorized proper to open this envelope. We don’t have a warrant to go looking his particular person—and it was improperly obtained.”
“Not so, sir,” Pendergast mentioned coolly. “We’re in a high-safety space on federal property, and I had direct proof {that a} crime had been dedicated. In case you examine with authorized, you’ll find that this proof was correctly obtained and can rise up in court docket. And naturally, whenever you open that envelope you’ll find it isn’t his property, however the property of the FBI.”
Estevez turned pink. “You’ve some nerve, Pendergast. Pulling a stunt like that is dangerous sufficient—however not informing your superiors makes your actions unprecedented in all my expertise.”
Immediately— with out even realizing he was doing it—Chambers heard himself converse up. “Sir, earlier than you say anything, I believe it’s essential to get the info straight right here.”
Slowly, with the precision of a machine, Estevez’s eyes swiveled towards him.
“You recognize my report, sir—and you realize my service.”
“Go on,” mentioned Estevez, his voice with a menacing undertone.
“Agent Pendergast and I mentioned this sting operation. And I—I permitted it.”
Excerpted from PENDERGAST: The Starting. Copyright © 2026 Preston & Little one printed by Grand Central Publishing, a Hachette E-book Group firm. All rights reserved.
From the #1 New York Occasions bestselling duo Preston and Little one comes the Agent Pendergast origin story—a golden alternative for longtime followers and new readers to study Agent Pendergast’s unusual and surprising first case.
It solely took six months for the lifetime of Particular Agent Dwight Chambers to crumble round him. First, he misplaced his accomplice, after which, tragically, his spouse. Returning to work on the New Orleans Subject Workplace, Chambers is dismayed to seek out himself saddled with mentoring a model new FBI agent—a sure A. X. L. Pendergast. As Chambers tries to drag himself collectively, his enigmatic and exasperating junior accomplice pulls an outrageous stunt that will get each of them suspended.
Pendergast welcomes the banishment, as a result of it offers him the chance to analyze a peculiar homicide in Mississippi that has captured his fancy. Chambers grudgingly goes alongside. What begins off as a whimsical quest swiftly turns right into a terrifying pursuit, as Chambers and Pendergast uncover a string of grisly, ritualistic killings that defy any identified serial killer profile.
Thanks largely to Pendergast’s brilliance and unorthodox strategies, they clear up the case and discover the killer… and that’s when the true horror begins.
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