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SECONDWORLD by JEREMY ROBINSON
Hardcover and e-book editions available on May 22, 2012. Click here to buy!
DESCRIPTION:
Lincoln Miller, an ex-Navy SEAL turned NCIS Special Agent is sent to Aquarius, the world's only sub-oceanic research facility located off the Florida Keys, to investigate reports of ocean dumping. A week into his stay, strange red flakes descend from the surface. Scores of fish are dead and dying, poisoned by the debris that turns to powder in Miller's fingers and tastes like blood.
Miller heads for the surface, ready to fight whoever is polluting on his watch. But he finds nothing. No ships. No polluters.
No oxygen.
Instead, he finds a cloudless sky full of red particles dropping like snow and coating the ocean with a thick film that stretches to the horizon. When a dead blue whale collides with Aquarius, Miller begins a harrowing race to escape the affected area. Cut off from the rest of the world and surrounded by death, Miller makes his way to Miami where he discovers just one survivor, and the awful truth: the strange phenomenon that robbed the air of its life giving oxygen was an attack by an enemy reborn from the ashes of World War II. And they're just getting started. Miami, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo have all been destroyed. Millions are dead.
And if Miller can't track down and stop those responsible in seven days, the rest of the world is next.
EXCERPT:
3
Nine Miles South of Key Largo, Florida – Atlantic Ocean
Saturday - August 11, 2012
Fifty feet below the surface of the tropical ocean, Lincoln Miller cringed as his eyes locked onto the cracked portal window. A spider web of fissures spread out from the center, reaching for the edge like desperate fingers. He knew the glass would give way at any moment and ocean water would rocket into the research station, drowning whoever was inside.
Despite the dire circumstances, he had more urgent needs to attend to. He picked up the TV remote and paused the DVD before heading to the bathroom. The picture froze on the screen, stopping the first jet of CGI water as it rocketed through the portal.
As a NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigation Service) Special Agent currently tasked with investigating recently reported acts of ocean dumping over the coral reefs, Miller was technically hard at work. There were only three other people in the world that knew he wasn’t—the Director of the NCIS, the Deputy Director, and the Executive Assistant Director for Combating Terrorism—his bosses. He had balked at the assignment when it landed on his desk. His skills were better suited to tracking down Navy criminals on the lamb or tracking down sea-faring terrorists. As a former Navy SEAL, now Special Agent, his skills seemed a gross overkill in the battle against glorified litter-bugs. It wasn’t until he arrived on site that he realized the true nature of his assignment—a vacation.
He was scheduled to spend two weeks in the NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Aquarius, an underwater research station—the world’s only underwater research station. He was required to patrol the reefs surrounding laboratory twice daily, searching for signs of recent polluting, and if possible, apprehend the culprits in the act. As a SCUBA enthusiast and lover of all things ocean, he looked forward to each and every “patrol”.
Because Miller was an extreme work-a-holic, the NOAA assignment was the only way his superiors could get him to take his first real break in five years. It wasn’t that Miller was performing poorly; quite the opposite, they simply believed that no engine could run forever without a respite. In truth, their actions were selfish. Were Miller to burn out, the loss would be significant to the organization. Not only was he a consummate investigator, but his time with the SEALS made him a man of action as well. The NCIS had plenty of both, but rarely in the same package.