in late 1931, the gandor fight the runorata family for control of the same area after a new drug surfaces. in an attempt to resolve the situation, luck gandor asks his adoptive brother claire stanfield, a psychopathic assassin and train conductor, to travel to new york. claire agrees to, and as a conductor, boards the transcontinental train the "flying pussyfoot". the train is hijacked by the russo and lemure gangs, who are trying to kidnap a senator's family, and a battle ensues between the two gangs. jacuzzi splot, nice holystone and their gang attempt to protect the passengers and fight the hijackers, while claire assumes the identity of the rail tracer, a monster that eats train passengers, and slaughters much of the russo and the lemure. during a confrontation between ladd russo and chane laforet and the lemure, claire interrupts and proposes to chane laforet, who is the daughter of huey laforet, one of the original immortals aboard the "advenna avis". a serial stowaway and newspaper field agent named rachel flees claire and ends up helping in the rescue of the hostages. the last remaining members of the lemure are eventually defeated by jacuzzi's gang, while sadistic murderer ladd russo is incarcerated and loses his arm to claire. at the same time, ennis writes to isaac and miria, inviting them to manhattan. the duo boards the same train and meets jacuzzi, and unwittingly sway immortal czeslaw meyer from enacting malevolent acts via bombs to be used in the new york drug war.