When National Underwater and Marine Agency director Dirk Pitt rescues a team of archaeologists trapped in a cavern by an earthquake, an unexpected artifact is discovered that rewrites history. A two-thousand-year-old silver scroll contains a message in a language more ancient than Phoenician and offering clues to a priceless treasure from antiquity. While they work to decipher the message, another mystery arises. A freighter has disappeared without a trace in the Mediterranean. When Pitt and his partner Al Giordino find the wreck, they discover that the cargo-a large scale particle accelerator capable of creating plutonium and radioisotopes-is missing. In the wrong hands, its use could spell disaster for Western civilization. It’s only the first step in a perilous journey to uncover a trail of drugs, deceit, secret technology, and a conspiracy that threatens the planet. From a desperate car chase in the hills of Sicily, to a wild escape on a Spanish river, to a harrowing ride on an underground boring machine, the race begins to connect the pieces in a puzzle with very ancient roots but deadly modern consequences. Only Pitt can discover the truth and halt the plans to extinguish humanity and turn the skies to obsidian.
