Shock Wave (novel)
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| Shock Wave | |
 1st Edition Hardcover |
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| Author | Clive Cussler |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Paul Bacon |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dirk Pitt Novels |
| Genre(s) | Adventure; Techno-thriller |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date | January 2, 1996 1st Edition Hardcover |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 537 (Hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-684-80297-X |
| Preceded by | Inca Gold |
| Followed by | Flood Tide |
Shock Wave is a book written by Clive Cussler. First published in 1996, it is the thirteenth book in Cussler's Dirk Pitt series.
[edit] Plot summary
While investigating the reason for the death of a large number of marine animals, Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino stumble upon a group of tourists on a day trip from their cruise ship, the Polar Queen, to Seymour island. The tourists have experienced a mysterious "disease" that killed two of them and a crewman in a matter of minutes. As the tourists are brought to the NUMA research vessel, the Ice Hunter, they find out that Polar Queen is missing and won't respond to their calls. After some searching, Pitt and Al find her going in circles heading towards a cliff. Pitt is winched onto the ship from a helicopter, and narrowly avoids the crash. Pitt finds one surviving passenger, Deirdre, aboard the ship. Deirdre turns out to be the sister of the tour guide of the group found on Seymour island, Maeve, who seems perplexed to find her aboard.
While investigating the mysterious disease, more and more information suggest that the victims had been killed by extremely high-powered soundwaves. At this time, an outbreak happens in another part of the ocean, killing all crewmen on a cargo ship and a Chinese junk. This time, the cargo ship is blown up while a boarding party from a passing ship is aboard, and a futuristic yacht is spotted in the distance, heading away from the scene. The yacht turns out to belong to the Dorsett Consolidated Mining Company, a gemstone mining company headed by the ruthless Arthur Dorsett, the father of Maeve, Deirdre and their third sister, Boudicca. The only Dorsett not working for this company is Maeve, who ran away from home as a young girl, breaking all bonds with her family, including changing her last name to Fletcher.
By borrowing the US Navy sonar net in the Pacific, NUMA finds out that the acoustic plague appears to be caused by a convergence of soundwaves from four sources around the pacific, Gladiator Island in the southwest, one of the Commander Islands in the northwest, Kunghit Island in the northeast and Easter Island in the southeast. Since Kunghit Island is situated near to the United States, Pitt decides to go there to investigate. He enlists the help of Mason Broadmoor, a Native American living on an island nearby. Broadmoor is a fisherman, delivering fish to the mine on Kunghit Island once a week with his associates. During such a visit, Pitt is smuggled onto the island to meet a disgruntled employee, who gives Pitt a tour of the mine. The mine employ a revolutionary mining method using high-powered soundwaves to dig through clay containing gems, in this case diamonds. On the way out, he is captured by the company security force only to be rescued by Broadmoor. Before this however, Pitt learns that the Dorsetts have kidnapped both of Maeve's sons, holding them hostage. Pitt and Broadmoor escape from the island using Jet Skis.
Soon after returning to the US, Pitt, Al and Maeve are sent to Wellington to board another research vessel, the Ocean Angler. The mission is to covertly approach Gladiator Island, get ashore, find Maeve's sons, and bring everybody back to the vessel. It goes wrong from the start though, since the pickup car drives them to a Dorsett company warehouse instead of the research vessel. After a failed escape attempt, they are all brought onto the Dorsett yacht, which immediately puts to sea. After about a day Pitt, Al and Maeve are all abandoned in a small craft far away from ordinary shipping routes in the southwest Pacific Ocean. In addition, a tropical cyclone is quickly approaching the craft
While Pitt, Al and Maeve are enduring the storm and trying to survive, other events take place in Washington. The NUMA computer center discovers a way to predict the coming convergence zones, and find that in a few weeks the Hawaiian island of Oahu will be hit. Since the NUMA boss, Admiral James Sandecker fails to convince the President of the looming threat, he launches a clandestine operation to avert the disaster. The plan is to reflect the soundwaves from the convergence zone toward Gladiator Island. A giant reflector is obtained from a government agency and dismantled before being loaded on a cargo ship to bring it into the convergence zone.
Far away, Pitt, Al, and Maeve have successfully endured the storm and finally stumbled upon a small island. There they find the remains of a sailboat that they use together with their own battered craft to build a small sailship. With this ship, they set course for the Gladiator island, planning to rescue Maeve's sons from her evil family. While they climb ashore the island, the sound reflector outside Oahu successfully reflects the high-powered soundwave toward Gladiator Island. At the same time, scientists find that this might make both volcanoes on the island erupt. Admiral Sandecker gets the surprise of a lifetime when Pitt calls him from the island, using Mr. Dorsett's phone.
In the end, Arthur and Boudicca Dorsett are killed by Pitt and Al after finding Maeve's sons. They then flee aboard the Dorsett yacht. There Maeve is fatally shot by Deirdre before she is killed herself. Giordino takes off with the children aboard a Dorsett helicopter parked on the yacht, and Pitt put the yacht to sea. While flying away from the island, Giordino can only watch while the yacht is engulfed by a pyroclastic ash cloud.
Upon arrival at a safe landing point away from the exploding island, Al is recruited by the rescue officials to fly back to the island. While Al is concerned about what he will find, he has already decided to fly back and try to rescue his friend Pitt. And, since he is going back, he also agrees to take a load of food, fresh water, and medical supplies for those who will most certainly need the items in the days following the eruptions. Upon arrival at the island, Al is first told that no communication, via radios, has been received by authorities that would let him know if Pitt is still alive. As Al begins to feel much sadness in losing his best friend, another person tells Al that there is good news, as information has just reached them telling them a stranded yacht has been seen floating several miles from the island. Al, feeling it might be Pitt, takes the helicopter up once again, and flies to the coordinates hoping to find Pitt alive.
The yacht is found drifting on the sea, and Pitt is alive since he barricaded himself from the searing heat of the ash cloud. Bad news is also found, though, as Maeve is discovered dead from the injuries she sustained at the hand of her sister. The reader will also see that prior to her untimely death, she and Pitt had pledged their deepest love to each other.
After Pitt is rescued by Al, he eventually winds up flying back to D.C. on a commercial jet flight, and goes home after having spent some time in a hospital recovering from his very serious injuries.
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