Part of NUMA Files, book 6
First published 2005
Kurt Austin and the NUMA Special Assignments Team discover that a decades-old scientific breakthrough has fallen into dangerous hands. Sixty years earlier, a brilliant Hungarian researcher learned how to artificially create polar shifts, natural phenomena that can disorient wildlife, destroy electrical systems, and at their most extreme, trigger massive earthquakes and climate disasters. The scientist's work vanished, but now an anti-globalization leader has recovered it. He believes he can use the technology to deliver a controlled shock to industrialized nations, then reverse the process. Austin and his team, including Joe Zavala, realize the terrifying truth. Once a polar shift begins, no force on Earth can stop it. The phenomenon could wipe out all life on the planet. Racing against time, Austin must prevent the activation of a weapon that makes their previous missions look simple. Even for veterans of impossible situations, this threat pushes them beyond their limits.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: race-against-time, save-the-world
Setting: NUMA
Period: Sixty Years Ago
531 pages · Paperback · Putnam