Even Chad Donegan’s discovery of the long-lost I-52
submarine can’t suppress the reality of life that is overwhelming the
ambitious ocean explorer. The pressures of his young marriage and the
potential bankruptcy of his deep-sea exploration company force Chad to
accept unwanted challenges—challenges that, unknown to Chad, will threaten
the lives of him and his crew both above and below the turbulent ocean’s
surface.
Ms. Jessica Bainbridge, a Washington, DC, bureaucrat with a nose
for success and a drive to prevail, provides Chad with an opponent tougher
than any he faced while taking the Olympic wrestling gold medal.
Jessica—driven to make her political statement with a new educational
program called ABYSS—would stop at nothing to see her selfish dreams
fulfilled.
Kenji Nomoto, informed of Chad’s planned expedition to explore
the I-52
submarine—a submarine whose deadly cargo he helped load many years
before—decides it is time to once again challenge the capabilities of the
ocean explorer. Using his remaining submarine, which he recently modified
for a new and more insidious mission, the multi-billionaire initiates his
deadly plan. And in doing so, provides another source of the poison he
continues to covertly inject into the body of America. Revenge for the
atrocities of WWII would be his.
Sam Brashly—investigative re-porter, Pulitzer winner, computer
hacker—is hired by Jessica to document the expedition upon their return.
Working from the comfort of his chair in Malibu, with Courvoisier and a
cigar in hand, Sam savors the midnight darkness of the Internet like
Dracula. Using his extraordinary talents, he follows the adventure from afar
and delivers his own unique ending to the voyage.
From San Diego
to the Atlantic Ocean, the story spirals into the depths where man and machine
battle to the death. This high-tech thriller throws Nomoto and his mole,
Chad’s crew, a Navy SEAL team, and all their combined technology into the
ultimate underwater conflict. This time, only one will survive.
Ocean explorer Chad Donegan has two dreams: to be the
first to dive solo to the deepest point in the ocean, then to fulfill his father's
dying wish-that he win an Olympic wrestling gold medal. After winning a
berth on the U.S. Olympic team, Chad's plans are jeopardized when he's
summoned to the Pacific Rim Explorer, his research vessel, which is at sea
using its high-tech vehicles to probe a sunken ship, the center of an
international investigation.
Waiting for Chad is an
unseen menace-a Japanese multi-billionaire's secret empire and its advanced
underwater equipment; equipment designed to inflict an insidious form of
justice on America. The leader of the empire is driven by a lust to avenge the
losses experienced by him, and Japan, in World War II. Kondo Hattori, the
empire's ruthless tyrant, is responsible for two significantly modified
Russian submarines, one of which is lurking off the coast of California with
its cargo of death.
In California,
oceanographer Kristen Norris, trying to overcome her brutal marriage and
divorce, buries herself in her research. She eventually teams up with Chad at
sea, where they'll use his submersibles to investigate suspicious seismic
activity off the coast of Japan, hopefully proving her hypothesis concerning
cataclysmic earthquakes.
Reporter Sam Brashly,
who snoops, hacks and blackmails for stories, has reached deep into the
empire's computer banks, leading Kondo to Kristen's research. They are too
close. The order is given to eliminate Sam, Kristen and all others straying
across the empire's secret plan. Kondo's first attack comes at sea, leaving
Chad trapped in the depths in his one-man submarine.
The story accelerates,
twists and turns as Chad, aided by high-tech systems, challenges the empire in
a wild pursuit across the ocean to its secret headquarters. Battles rage in
Japan, below the surface near California, and on Chad's own vessel off the
coast of Japan, where Kondo is directed to initiate the final gambit of death
to eliminate the ship, its crew, and Chad...along with his dreams.
