Fire Ice

In Serpent and Blue Gold, Cussler introduced a hero for the new millennium in Kurt Austin, the leader of NUMA's Special Assignments Team. In previous encounters, Austin and his colleague Joe Zavala have battled eco-extortionists and mad empire builders -- but they have never faced a menace like the one before them now.

In the heart of the old Soviet Union, a mining tycoon has proclaimed himself czar of Russia. Claiming Romanov ancestry and backed by billions of dollars, he is determined to overthrow the already shaky Russian government -- and U.S. opposition doesn't bother him one bit. A little crisis of their own should distract the Americans for a while, and he knows just the thing. All along the eastern seaboard lie pockets of methane hydrate, a notoriously unstable compound known as "fire ice." What if somebody should set them off, say, outside a major city? Think of the explosions. Think of the earth tremors. Think of the tidal waves...