"By age twenty-four, Letty Davenport has seen more action and uncovered more secrets than many law enforcement professionals. Now a recent Stanford grad with a master's in economics, she's restless and bored in a desk job for U.S. Senator Colles. Letty's ready to quit, but her skills have impressed Colles, and he offers her a carrot: feet-on-the-ground investigative work, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security. Several oil companies...

At 80, T. Boone Pickens is a legendary figure. Known as the "Oracle of Oil" because of his uncanny ability to predict fuel prices, he built Mesa Petroleum, one of the largest independent oil companies in the United States, from a $2,500 investment. In the 1980s, Pickens executed a series of unsolicited buyouts of undervalued oil companies, reinventing the notion of shareholders' rights. When Pickens left Mesa at 68 after a downward spiral, many counted...