Trojan Odyssey. A Dirk Pitt Novel

549 Pages·2003·1.34 MB·English

by  Clive Cussler

Clive Cussler
Trojan Odyssey
scanned by unknown
corrected by ab
There is a brown tide infesting the ocean off the shore of Nicaragua.
The twins are working in a NUMA(r) underwater enclosure, trying to
determine its origin, when two startling things happen: Summer
discovers an artifact, something strange and beautiful and ancient; and
the worst storm in years boils up out of the sky, heading straight not
only for them but also for a luxurious floating resort hotel square in its
path.
ISBN: 0-399-15080-3
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
2003
Book design by Lovedog Studio Illustrations by Carmelisa Castelli Henschen

Not for sale!!!
Inside Flaps

Dirk Pitt battles his deadliest, and most extraordinary, foe
– with help from a very unexpected source.
Long hailed as the grand master of adventure fiction,
Clive Cussler has continued to astound with the intricate
plotting and astonishing set pieces of his novels. Now,
with a few surprising twists, he gives us his most
audacious work yet.
At the end of Valhalla Rising, Dirk Pitt discovered, to
his shock, that he had two grown children he had never
known about, twenty-three-year-old fraternal twins born to
a woman who he thought had died in an underwater
earthquake. Both have inherited his love of the sea: the
girl, Summer, a marine biologist; the boy, himself named
Dirk, a marine engineer. And now they are about to help
their father in the adventure of a lifetime.
A brown tide is infesting the ocean off the shore of
Nicaragua. The twins are working in a NUMA underwater
enclosure, trying to determine its origin, when two
startling things happen: Summer discovers an artifact,
something strange and beautiful and ancient; and the
worst storm in years boils up out of the sky, heading
straight for them – and for a luxurious floating resort hotel
square in its path.
The peril for everybody concerned is incalculable, and
Pitt, Al Giordino, and the rest of the NUMA® crew
desperately rush to the rescue, but what they find in the
storm’s wake makes the furies of nature pale in
comparison. For there is an all-too-human evil at work in
that part of the world, and the tide is only a byproduct of
its plan. Soon, the work will be complete – and the world
will be a very different place.
If Summer’s discovery is to be believed, the world as we
know it is already a very different place ….
Filled with dazzling suspense and breathtaking action,
Trojan Odyssey is Cussler at the height of his storytelling
powers.
Author

CLIVE CUSSLER is the author or coauthor of twenty-
four previous books, most recently the Dirk Pitt adventure
Valhalla Rising, the Kurt Austin novels Fire Ice and White
Death, and the Juan Cabrillo novel The Golden Buddha.
He is also the author of the nonfiction The Sea Hunters
and The Sea Hunters II; these describe the true adventures
of the real NUMA, which, led by Cussler, searches for lost
ships of historic significance. With his crew of volunteers,
Cussler has discovered more than sixty ships, including
the long-lost Confederate submarine Hunley. He divides
his time between Arizona and Colorado.
Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to Iman Wilkens and his revealing
book Where Troy Once Stood. He has truly shown the
way toward a more practical solution to the mystery of
Homer’s Trojan War.
I would also like to thank Mike Fletcher and Jeffrey
Evan Bozanic for their expertise regarding underwater
rebreathers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or
locales is entirely coincidental.
In loving memory of my wife, Barbara, who walks with
the angels
NIGHT OF INFAMY

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About 1190 b.c.
A CITADEL ON A HILL NEAR THE SEA
It was a setup, created with simplicity and an acute insight
into human curiosity. And it fulfilled its function
flawlessly. The ugly monstrosity stood twenty feet high on
four stout wooden legs propped on a flat platform. The
housing, mounted on the legs, sat triangularly with open
ends. A rounded hump rose on the front of the peaked
housing, with two forward slits for eyes. The sides were
covered with cowhides. A platform supporting the legs lay
flat on the ground. It looked like nothing the people of the
citadel of Ilium had ever seen.
To some with a good imagination, it vaguely resembled
a stiff-legged horse.
The Dardanians had awakened in the morning, expecting
to see the Achaeans surrounding their fortress city, and
ready for battle as they had been for the past ten weeks.
But, the plain below was empty. All they could see was a
thick haze of smoke drifting over the ashes of what had
been the enemy camp. The Achaeans and their fleet had
vanished. During the dead of night they had loaded their
ships with their supplies, horses, arms and chariots, and
sailed away, leaving only the mysterious wooden monster
behind. Dardanian scouts returned and reported that the
Achaean camp was abandoned.
Overjoyed that the siege of Ilium had ended, the people
threw aside the main gate of the citadel and poured across
the open plain where both armies had clashed and spilled
their blood in a hundred battles. At first they were
mystified. Several of them suspected some kind of trick
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and argued in favor of burning it. But they soon
discovered it was simply a harmless housing on four legs
crudely constructed of wood. A man climbed one of the
wooden legs, entered the structure and found it empty.
»If this is the best the Achaeans can do for a horse,« he
yelled, »small wonder we won.«
The crowd laughed and chanted with glee when King
Priam of Ilium arrived in a chariot. He stepped to the
ground, and acknowledged the cheers of the onlookers.
Then he walked around the odd-looking edifice, trying to
make sense of it.
Satisfied it presented no threat, he declared it a spoil of
war and decreed that it be dragged on its rollers across the
plain to the gate of the city, where it would stand as a
monument to the glorious victory over the raiding
Achaeans.
The happy event was interrupted as two soldiers escorted
an Achaean prisoner through the crowd who had been left
behind by his comrades. His name was Sinon, and he was
known to be the cousin of the mighty Odysseus, king of
Ithaca, and one of the leaders of the great raiding party
that had besieged Ilium. At the sight of King Priam, Sinon
prostrated himself at the elderly king’s feet and pleaded
for his life.
»Why were you left behind?« the king demanded.
»My cousin listened to those who were my enemies and
cast me out of the camp. If I had not escaped into a grove
of trees when they were launching the ships, I would have
surely been dragged behind until I drowned or was eaten
by the fish.«
Priam studied Sinon intently. »What is the story behind
this aberration? What purpose does it serve?«
»Because they could not take your fortress and because
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