The Storm

Dear Reader,

The Storm

This is Clive Cusslers 10th instilment in the NUMA series.  Our heros of this series are Kurt Austin and Joe Zalva.  Kurt is the head of  NUMA’s Special Assignments Team, NUMA stands for National Underwater and Marine Agency.

NUMA is a research organization linked to the US government, they study everything and anything marine, and occasionally they would have a land adventure, but it would usually wind up being linked to the water in one way or another.

Clive Cussler has a few book series on the go, and two of these are NUMA related, the NUMA series, and the most famous one is the Dirk Pit adventures. Dirk pit was made famous in the movie Sahara, Dirk was played by Matthew McConaughey. (a sigh from the girls).

In the Storm, we are attacked by some kind of eating swarm of water bourn sludge, for lack of a better word, that completely devours anything organic, or oil based, including plastic, and wood, so much for our little research vessel that gets caught in the wake of these creatures.

After the NUMA research vessel fails to report in, Kurt and Joe are sent to the Indian Ocean to the last known location of the boat.  They find a burnt out hulk, no people just fiberglass, and the scorch marks where there was obviously a fire, in and around the pilot house.  With all three of the NUMA employees on the boat having undergone extensive training in survival and all being excellent boaters, after all their livelihood is being on the ocean, Kurt is puzzled by the fact that both fire extinguishers on the boat are still hanging where they belong, why would the crew let the fire just burn?  Fire on a boat in the middle of the ocean is one of, if not the biggest no nos of all, so why let it burn, what were they trying to do with the fire, or what were they trying to burn?

Back on dry land Kurt and Joe begin their investigation, meeting a girl who introduces herself as the sister of one of the crew, NUMA being a large government agency, Kurt and Joe were not familiar with the entire crew or their family, so they ask a few questions the girl seems to have the right answers so off they go in search of whomever or what ever caused this unfortunate tragedy.

Along the way we meet up with the notorious villain, who has devised a plan to change the world’s weather pattern, he has already begun, to the highest bidder will go the rains, millions will suffer, unless Kurt and Joe can find a way to stop him.  This book introduces us to one of the newest technologies created by man, as well as an old technology that was never used, but is still fiercely guarded by one last remaining tribe of WWII inductees, waiting for new orders from the commander in chief. Kurt will use one against the other to bring down the mastermind behind this latest threat to our fragile ecosystem.

This is the second of the three books I received for Fathers day this year, this one was from Sarah, thanks Sarah, this was, as expected, a great adventure to bring with me on the first week of vacation.

I highly recommend you read Clive Cussler, his adventures are always fun to read, he captures the imagination of the reader, as well as his characters, as they leap from the page and come to life on their own.

bfn Brian