Clive Cussler's The Devil's Sea (Dirk Pitt Adventure, Band 26) - Softcover

Buch 26 von 27: Dirk Pitt Adventures

Cussler, Dirk

 
9780593422458: Clive Cussler's The Devil's Sea (Dirk Pitt Adventure, Band 26)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593422457 ISBN 13: 9780593422458
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

Fearless adventurer Dirk Pitt must unravel a historical mystery of epic importance in the latest novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling series created by the “grand master of adventure” Clive Cussler.

When NUMA director Dirk Pitt discovers a forgotten plane crash in the Philippine Sea, he unearths clues pointing to an invaluable Buddhist artifact that has been lost for decades. But soon, he will learn that he’s not the only one making earthshattering discoveries. During a mission to recover a failed hypersonic missile from Luzon Strait, Pitt finds himself racing against a rogue Chinese military team…who have hijacked a ship strong enough to stir the ocean into a veritable Devil’s Sea.
 
From the cold depths of the Pacific to the dizzying heights of the Himalayas, only Pitt and his children can unravel the mysteries that will preserve a religion, save a nation…and save the world from war.
 

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Clive Cussler was the author of more than eighty books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt©, NUMA Files©, Oregon Files©, Isaac Bell©, and Sam and Remi Fargo©. His life nearly paralleled that of his hero Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers discovered and surveyed more than seventy-five lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Civil War submarine Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much publicity. Like Pitt, Cussler collected classic automobiles. His collection featured more than one hundred examples of custom coachwork. Cussler passed away in February 2020.
 

Dirk Cussler is the author of Clive Cussler’s The Devil’s Sea, and coauthor with Clive Cussler of eight previous Dirk Pitt adventures: Black Wind, Treasure of Khan, Arctic Drift, Crescent Dawn, Poseidon's Arrow, Havana Storm, Odessa Sea, and Celtic Empire. He serves as president of NUMA, where he continues his father's legacy of searching for important historical shipwrecks. He lives in Connecticut.
 

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

-1-

WenchAng Spacecraft Launch Site
Hainan, China
October 2022

The missile rose in a graceful arc, the thunderous burn of its solid-fuel booster engine rippling through the predawn sky. It wasn't a large missile, barely twenty feet tall, and it was fired from an auxiliary launchpad at the sprawling coastal base, which was more accustomed to massive satellite-carrying rockets. Yet to those watching the flight, it was considerably more important than the latest spy satellite.

The missile's fiery exhaust disappeared from sight in a matter of seconds. But the cameras from a reconnaissance plane tracked its progress far out to sea, supplemented by satellites that targeted the launch. The distant lenses viewed the missile as the exhaust suddenly fell dark and it briefly sailed on in silence. If an observer had been present as it passed, they might have heard a sonic boom, followed by a motorized whooshing, now accompanied by the burning exhaust of liquid propellant. But those senses would have to be acute, as the missile was traveling more than a mile per second.

In an operations bay twelve hundred miles away at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center, General Xu Junhai watched the missile on a large video screen. Long-range cameras on Hainan and on ships in the South China Sea showed only a speck as the missile sped from view. Xu turned to one of several engineers seated at a console, monitoring telemetry data. "Has the motor engaged?"

The engineer, a slight man with thick, square glasses, nodded without looking up. "Yes, sir. The Dragonfly has successfully transitioned from solid-fuel propulsion to scramjet flight."

"Speed?"

"Just over twenty-eight thousand kilometers per hour and accelerating."

The General turned back to the video screen, where he saw a small puff of smoke where the missile had been tracking. "What was that?"

His query was met by a long pause. "The data feeds have ceased. There . . . there seems to be a malfunction." The engineer kept his face down, fearful to make eye contact with the General. "The flight appears to have terminated."

The General, a humorless man of sixty who wore his thinning hair slicked back, couldn't hide his displeasure. "Terminated?" he boomed. "Again?"

It was the third failure in a row for the sleek prototype missile.

The engineer nodded.

The General called across the room to a bulbous man in uniform who was conversing with the flight director. "Colonel Yan."

Colonel Yan Xiaoming turned and approached with the trepidation of a man headed to the gallows.

The General stared at him. "Tell me what has happened."

"We are still assessing the data," Yan said, "but it was a flight failure during midphase acceleration."

"I can see that. What is the cause?"

The Colonel glanced at the clipboard he gripped tightly. "Preliminary readings indicate a possible thermal failure in the lead fairing. But the vehicle did produce a new speed mark prior to failure."

"A thermal failure? That was the cause of the last launch's demise? I had been led to believe that problem had been solved."

"It is proving a difficult challenge."

The General waved at the video screen that now showed an empty sky. "The President was expecting success today." He let the words sink in. "This is your third failure. It will also be your last. When can I tell the President that the issues will be resolved?"

"I . . . I cannot provide a current time estimate. Dr. Liu is examining potential solutions. We will not rest until we have an answer, sir."

"I want a full report of the failure on my desk in the morning," Xu said, "and a solution by the end of the week." He turned on his heel and stomped from the control center, his face flush with anger.

An uncomfortable silence hung over the room for a moment, then the technicians resumed examining the flight data.

Colonel Yan made a phone call, then turned again to the flight director. "Have Dr. Liu meet me in my office." He departed the room slowly, taking a last look at the blank video screen.

Yan made his way to a third-floor office in the headquarters building for the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force. As program manager for the Dragonfly missile project, Yan's office was a large but plain space that overlooked a bare dirt field. He glanced out the window at a column of fresh recruits in the People's Liberation Army marching back and forth, their khaki uniforms blending with the mud underfoot.

Yan slumped into his desk chair and rifled through a drawer for a bottle of Japanese whisky called Hakushu he had acquired on a visit to Hong Kong. He poured himself a full shot and knocked it back. As the fiery liquid trickled down his throat, he contemplated his fall from grace.

It had started with his mistress, a woman he'd been introduced to in Hong Kong two years earlier, along with the whisky. She was a patent attorney for a Chinese electronics firm who happened to be relocating to Beijing. At least that's what she'd told him. She was, in fact, an operative for the Taiwan military. He found this out only after he discovered she had copied classified files from his computer on multiple occasions. And only after his wife had decided to divorce him.

Did Communist Party officials or General Xu know? When the woman turned up missing, not a word was said. But his rising career had come to a sudden halt. Superiors dismissed him, and old friends ignored him. With the failures so far in this lone project he had been allowed to manage, he now seemed on the brink of losing everything. His commission, his membership in the Party. Maybe even his life.

As he tucked the bottle away, there was a knock at the door. Two men, at the opposite end of the age spectrum, entered the office. The first, white-haired and in a lab coat, walked with a shuffle. Dr. Liu Zhenli was a respected rocket engineer who had worked on China's first intercontinental ballistic missiles in the 1970s.

The other man, a soldier dressed in fatigues, was tall and muscular and carried himself with a forceful confidence. His name was Lieutenant Zheng Yijong, and he was a member of the Army Rocket Force Special Operations Command. He was also Colonel Yan's nephew.

Yan waved them both to sit down. "As you know, the Dragonfly has had another launch failure. It appears to be a thermal issue again." He gazed out the window at the marching recruits. "We are under great pressure to succeed. There can be no more failures."

"We are pushing the boundaries of physics," Liu replied. "We have already attained atmospheric speeds unheard of in a suborbital craft. It represents a great technological success, for we have solved the issue of propulsion. It is now a problem of materials management."

"The missile is melting?" Yan said.

"In a manner of speaking. As you know, the problem is that a compact missile flying within the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds encounters extreme thermal stress, particularly with the leading edge. The missiles are succumbing to heat failure from atmospheric friction on account of high velocity."

"Yes, but our ICBM rockets endure similar temperatures upon reentry, do they not? And they don't melt in flight."

"This is true. But those are large vehicles, buffered by thick shields that dissipate heat over a wide area. We don't have that luxury with tactical devices such as the Dragonfly. A bulky heat shield would prevent the speeds we have already attained-and hope to surpass."

"Can't the same type of materials," Yan said, "be modified for use on the Dragonfly?"

"We've tested all kinds of ceramic, carbon, and composite materials, but none has held up under the speeds we are dealing with."

"The flight director indicated...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593422457
ISBN 13 
9780593422458
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
448
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
preigu
mail@preigu.de

Lengericher Landstr. 19
Osnabrück
49078
Deutschland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780593419649: Clive Cussler's The Devil's Sea (Dirk Pitt Adventure, Band 26)

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0593419642 ISBN 13:  9780593419649
Verlag: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2021
Hardcover