Date first published	1998
ISBN Number	0 671 02216 4
Page Count	474 p/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are part of NUMAs' special operations team. They become embroiled in a murderous plot to stop any pre Columbus artifacts being found after rescuing an archaeologist from a group of terrorists.

Kurt becomes more determined to find out who or what is behind the attack when he is badly injured defending the ship from the same group of terrorists, as they make an abortive attempt to kill her.

Back in the States, a hazy picture of archaeological missions disappearing starts to appear, and Kurt decides to lure the mysterious organisation into a trap, which goes tragically wrong, leaving an innocent woman dead. Following various leads the adventurers start to focus on a huge conglomerate called Halcon industries, and in particular it's CEO Halcon.

Zavala stumbles onto Halcon's private estate, including his own private football pitch, and watches a game, played to the death, for winners and losers. Unbeknown to Zavala he has been spotted, and his termination ordered.

Paul and Gamay Trout have also been looking into some mysteries of the Gulf. Paul summoned back to the States to help Austin, is dismayed to find that Gamay has disappeared.

Gamay has met up with a renowned archaeologist, who takes her to an ancient Mayan city, and stumbles across looters, who will kill her just to stop her talking. With some ingenuity Gamay escapes, only to be spotted in mid flight, and a deadly race starts.

Review

This is the first of the NUMA files books, complete with a faux introduction from Dirk Pitt.

The story as with the Pitt novels starts with an event set in the past, with a link to the future. This time it is the apparently accidental sinking of the Andrea Doria.

It introduces two main sets of characters, Kurt Austin and his side kick Joe Zavala, and Paul and Gamay Trout. You also have a number characters familiar from the Pitt novels, such as Sandecker, Rudi Gunn and Hiram Yeager. I won't go into the characters from the Pitt novels as they are already familiar to readers of this site.

Austin and Zavala, are clones of Pitt and Giordino. To my mind they are too close to Pitt and Giordino, which makes them less interesting to the reader. The Trouts on the other hand have no comparison in the NUMA universe, and are consequently more interesting. From what has been revealed in this book neither would look out of place in a college library, but neither are they ones to back away from trouble. The only time Gamay approaches gut wrenching fear is with her encounter with a fer de lance.

The main plot and sub plot hum away at a nice pace - the two stories actually help, because whilst Austin and Zavala are recovering from their injuries we can follow the sub plot - which of course eventually leads us back into the main plot. However at some point the aims of Halcon change, from merely destroying all pre Columbus artifacts, to him wanting to unite Mexico and Texas, in some sort of modern Mayan Civilisation, including the blood letting.

The story ending comes to an abrupt end, with Halcons side kick suddenly deciding to kill his master, for no apparent reason or with any sort of explanation, which turns the final meeting into a bit of an anti-climax.

Apart from the weak ending, the whole book is a good read with the sort of gung ho action you would expect from Cussler, and without some of his wilder technology. It is to early to say at this point whether Austin and Zavala are worthy replacements for Pitt and Giordino. However the Trouts are a very interesting pair, and I hope we see more of them in the future.

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