On the bottom of the icy sea off Nantucket lies the battered remains of
the Italian luxury liner, Andrea Doria. But few know that within its bowels
rests a priceless pre-Columbian antiquity - a treasure that now holds the key to
a puzzle that is costing people their lives. For Kurt Austin, the leader of a
courageous National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA) exploration team, the
killing begins when he makes a daring rescue of a beautiful marine
archaeologist. The target of a powerful Texas industrialist named Halcon, Nina
Kirov was attacked off the coast of Morocco after her discovery of a carved
stone head that may prove Christopher Columbus was not the first European to
discover America. Soon Kurt and Nina embark on a deadly mission to uncover
Halcon's masterful plan - an insidious scheme that would have him carve out a
new nation from the southwest United States and Mexico, and ride to power on a
wave of death and destruction. With Austin's elite NUMA crew attacking the
murderous conspiracy from different sides, an extraordinary truth emerges; that
Columbus may have made a fifth, unknown voyage to America in search of a
magnificent treasure. And that the silent, steel hull of the Andrea Doria not
only holds the answer to what the explorer may have found - but the fate of the
United States itself.
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