In Paris, a young physicist performs an oceanographic experiment-then dies mysteriously after a romantic tryst with a beautiful stranger. In the jungles of Malaysia, powerful hypersonic cavitation technology-capable of toppling mountains with sound-is purchased by a private interest for an unspecified purpose. In Vancouver, a businessman leases a small research submarine for use in the waters of New Guinea. In Tokyo, in Los Angeles, in Antarctica, in the Solomon Islands, an intelligence agent races to put all of the pieces together to prevent a global catastrophe.