Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala of NUMA and their underwater vehicles B3 and Bubbles are attacked by a mysterious submersible when they take a scientist with them on an exploration. The scientist is head of an undersea laboratory, Davy Jones’s Locker, which disappears at the same time. The Navy asks NUMA for help in retrieving the laboratory. Of course, as in most of Cussler’s books, the future of the planet depends on Austin and NUMA, this time in safeguarding the vaccine to an epidemic. Our heroes are larger than life, their love interests of this adventure smart, petite, beautiful and a bit helpless, and the Asian enemy cruel but no match for our heroes. One of the enemies is shot near the end of the book, and then….
“The body was shipped to a warehouse where the receiver complained about the quality of the merchandise. The corpse was dissected, immersed in acetone to eliminate all traces of moisture, and then given a bath of polymers. The muscles and bones were touched up with paint, and the body bent into a standing position, the arm cocked and ready to smash a tennis ball.
When the transformed corpse arrived in London to join other bodies in an exhibition that would take it to Paris and New York, a tennis racket was placed in the boney hand. In time, his skinned body would adorn T-shirts, key chains, refrigerator magnets, even the cover of the catalog sold at the traveling exhibition. “
This part is pretty hilarious, more so as I have just been to the Bodies exhibition in Las Vegas. And indeed, all those sportive corpses are Asian, so maybe…..