For four novels, Clive Cussler has charted the exploits of the Oregon, a covert ship completely dilapidated on the outside but, on the inside, packed with sophisticated weaponry and intelligence-gathering equipment. Captained by the rakish, one-legged Juan Cabrillo and manned by a crew of former military and spy personnel, it is a private enterprise, available for any government agency that can afford it and now Cussler sends the Oregon on its most extraordinary mission yet.

The crew has just completed a top secret mission against Iran in the Persian Gulf, when they come across a cruise ship adrift in the sea. Hundreds of bodies litter its deck, and as Cabrillo tries to determine what happened, explosions rack the length of the ship. Barely able to escape with his own life and that of the liner’s sole survivor, Cabrillo finds himself plunged into a mystery as intricate and as perilous as any he has ever known, and pitted against a cult with monstrously lethal plans for the human race . . . plans he may already be too late to stop.
Juan Cabrillo is Chairman of the “Corporation”, a special US Government-sponsored group that operates out of a ship called the Oregon; a marvel of scientific research equipment bristling with state-of-the-art weaponry – but disguised as a heap of junk.
Cabrillo and his crew of mercenaries with a conscience are able to cross the high seas in their ‘rusting’ tub unmolested, seeking out those beyond the arms of the law and dealing out justice to any who would plot chaos on a global scale.