Blood of Eagles — Dean Ing

It begins high in the mountains of Albania with a load of gold stolen b the Nazis, wanted by the Comunists, and in the hands of the fierce Gheg freedom fighters. Today that gold has become the prize in a battle being fought across the world, a battle for control of the Mediterranean, a battle raging, now, in Gilman, California. And a sixteen-year-old boy named Mark Paladino is suddenly the target of killers.

Mark has no idea why he is being chased. Neither does his teacher, Stuart Ransome, who saves the boy's life. Paladino's father asks Ransome to protect Mark, but tells him little more. It is Ransome's friend, a private detective named Wiley Reed who helps put things together--and who is there when they fall apart.