Night Probe!

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Night Probe!

1st Edition Hardcover
Author Clive Cussler
Cover artist Lou Feck
Country United States
Language English
Series Dirk Pitt novels
Genre(s) Adventure, Techno-thriller novel
Publisher Bantam Books
Publication date August 1981
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 344 pp (Hardcover edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-553-05004-4
Preceded by Vixen 03
Followed by Pacific Vortex!

Night Probe! is an adventure novel by Clive Cussler. This is the 5th book featuring the author’s primary protagonist, Dirk Pitt. Published in 1981 it is an action-adventure novel set in the near future of 1989.

Contents

[edit] Plot introduction

The world is in the throes of an energy crunch and the United States is on the brink of financial disaster. Desperate to find any solution that can save the nation from national bankruptcy, the President of the United States looks to Dirk Pitt and NUMA to pull off an audacious double salvage operation.

[edit] Explanation of the novel's title

A Night Probe is an old diving term for exploring the darkness of underwater caves.

[edit] Plot summary

It is 1989 and the United States is in an economic freefall caused primarily by the world’s dwindling supply of energy. CIA estimates put the depletion of the Middle East oilfields at just two years away. The total worldwide demand for oil is more than 50% of estimated supplies and while nuclear and other alternative energies are trying to make up the difference they are coming up short. Canada is now the exclusive supplier of electricity to 15 states in the northeast after investing billions in a massive new hydro-electric power plant in Quebec. To make matters worse, a top-secret experimental sub developed by NUMA has recently discovered a stratigraphic trap, potentially the richest kind of oil deposit, which lies just across the border in the territorial waters of Quebec.

Radicals in Quebec, secretly led by Canadian MP Henri Villon, are pushing for a referendum on independence from Canada. Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Charles Sarveux fears that if Quebec declares independence Canada will disintegrate as the other provinces either follow Quebec into independence or possibly petition the U.S. for statehood.

Heidi Milligan, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, is working on her PhD in history by researching the naval policies of President Woodrow Wilson between assignments. She stumbles across a reference to a "North American Treaty" in a long forgotten letter and is intrigued when she finds out that all traces of the treaty appear to have been erased from the National Archives.

The North American Treaty, it is later revealed, was a landmark agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1914, the U.K. finds itself in economic hard times with war looming on the horizon. Fearing that the nation will not survive without a large infusion of capital, the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, with the cooperation of King George V, quietly approach the United States and offer, for the sum of one billion dollars, to sell Canada to the United States. President Wilson quickly agrees and pays a down payment of $150 million to seal the deal. Tragedy strikes when, on the same day in May 1914, the American copy of the treaty goes to the bottom of the Hudson River when the Manhattan Limited attempts to cross a downed railroad bridge and the British copy goes to the bottom of the St. Lawrence River when the liner RMS Empress of Ireland is accidentally rammed by a Norwegian collier. With both nation's copies of the treaty destroyed Wilson orders all records of the treaty destroyed and records the $150 million payment as a war loan.

Now that knowledge of the treaty has once again emerged, the President of the United States orders NUMA and Dirk Pitt to attempt to recover the copies of the treaty, which have both lain submerged for more than 70 years. The treaty becomes the cornerstone in the President’s plan to save the United States from national bankruptcy by proposing an audacious plan, to merge the United States and Canada into one nation, "the United States of Canada."

The British see the loss of Canada to the United States as the start of the unacceptable and unthinkable disintegration of their Empire. If Canada is allowed to leave the Empire, so too might Australia, or even Ireland and Scotland. The British Secret Intelligence Service recalls one of their best former agents, Brian Shaw, from retirement and orders him to keep an eye on the American salvage efforts and to ensure the destruction of the North American Treaty at all costs.

[edit] Characters in "Night Probe!"

  • Dirk Pitt – Special Projects Director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA)
  • Admiral James Sandecker – Chief Director of NUMA
  • Al Giordino – Assistant Special Projects Director for NUMA.
  • Rudi Gunn – Director of Logistics for NUMA.
  • Heidi Milligan – U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander working on her PhD. in history in her spare time. Milligan discovers the first evidence of the North American Treaty and sets the plot in motion. Heidi Milligan also appeared as a supporting character in the previous Dirk Pitt novel Vixen 03.
  • Brian Shaw – Former officer from the British Secret Intelligence Service who was forced to retire when he became so well known to the Russians that he could not operate in the open without drawing attention from SMERSH assassination teams. Shaw is pulled from retirement to work against the Americans in the quest for the North American Treaty. He is strongly hinted to be James Bond incognito.
  • Foss Gly – An American expatriate who leads a team of assassins he terms “specialists” doing the dirty work for the radical Free Québec Society. Gly is also a master of disguise and impersonation.
  • Henry Villon – Liberal Party member of the Canadian House of Commons and the secret head of the Free Québec Society.
  • Alan Mercier – United States National Security Advisor
  • Charles Sarveux – Newly elected Prime Minister of Canada

[edit] Literary significance & criticism

Like many popular fiction novels in the action-adventure and thriller genres Night Probe! did not garner much attention from literature critics or commentators. An informal survey of reviews by readers on various websites such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com trend toward the positive with the most criticism arrayed against the primary plot point, the sale of Canada to the United States by Great Britain.

While the sale is an unlikely development, especially as the British Empire had not yet begun its 20th century decline in 1914, it is not without precedent in history for a country to sell its interests in North America to the United States for some quick cash. After all, the United States acquired more than 500 million acres (2 million km²) of territory from France with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867.

However, the book fails to reconcile the fact that at the time of the Treaty Canada was a British Dominion with its own government, and as a result would not have been in a position where it could have been sold to the USA by any government but its own. The workings of the British Empire do not appear to be analysed within the book. The fact that the treaty was also based around the USA entering the war in 1914 is also ignored, as America's failure to fulfill its side of the bargain on the year that the treaty stipulated would seem to negate it.

[edit] Allusions and References

A unique facet to the Dirk Pitt novels is that they generally feature a prologue set in an earlier period of history than when the primary action is set. This period can be anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand years in the past and generally sets up some important facet of the primary plot that will later be revealed.

In Night Probe the prologue is set in May 1914 just prior to the outbreak of World War I. Several historical figures of the period are referenced fictionally including President Woodrow Wilson, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, and King George V.

Also a common feature of the Dirk Pitt novels are references and story themes based on maritime and ecological science. In Night Probe! the introduction of advanced Side-scan sonar technology to search for oil and other energy and mineral content below the surface of the sea is a primary plot device.

[edit] Film, TV or Theatrical Adaptations

No film, television or theatrical adaptations have yet been planned or produced from this novel.

[edit] Release Details

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