Part of NUMA Files, book 8
First published 2009
Kurt Austin watches helplessly as a bathysphere carrying his partner Joe Zavala plummets toward the ocean floor near Bermuda, attacked by an unknown underwater craft. Austin's desperate rescue saves Zavala and the other passengers from death a half mile beneath the surface. Meanwhile, in the Micronesian Islands, a classified government laboratory studying the Blue Medusa jellyfish for biomedical research has completely vanished without explanation. Austin suspects the two incidents connect and assigns his NUMA Special Assignments Team to investigate. What they uncover threatens far more than their own survival. A Chinese criminal network has orchestrated a series of gruesome medical experiments using the jellyfish research to develop a new virus capable of triggering a global pandemic. Austin and Zavala must navigate this conspiracy while racing against time to prevent the release of a pathogen that could kill millions worldwide.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: race-against-time, unlikely-allies
Setting: Bermuda, Micronesian Islands
Period: contemporary
454 pages · Hardcover · Putnam Adult
Content warnings: violence