In 2000, multiple archaeological expeditions are mysteriously vanishing around the world, the only common trait being their connection to the same sponsor and the fact they were all about to uncover history-changing data about Pre-Columbian contacts with America. A scientist and diver from one of those, Nina Kirov, is fortunately rescued in time by Kurt Austin, leader of the the special operations team of the National Underwater & Marine Agency. Together, Kirov and the NUMA find proof that a Texas-based corporation led by a Hispanic millonaire might have some relation with it. What they ignore is that Halcón Industries is just the cover for something much more ancient and sinister, the Brotherhood of the Holy Sword of Truth, whose goals threaten the root of the United States.
This is the first novel by Cussler not to be starred by Dirk Pitt, although it does have a brief connection to the Dirk Pitt Adventures, whose 15th installment Atlantis Found was published the same year.
This book provides examples of:
- Artistic License – History: Enough to have its own article.
- Bastard Bastard: The Dragon is the illegitimate son of a housemaid and a Nazi soldier and clearly is a believer in Murder Is the Best Solution.
- Big Bad: Francisco Halcón, the CEO of Halcón Industries and lord of the Brotherhood.
- Been There, Shaped History: The bad guys sunk the Andrea Doria.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: In this case, Francisco Franco was an ally to the Brotherhood.
- The Cameo: Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino has a brief appearance in which they mention a mission to the Antarctica, the plot of the novel Atlantis Found, that was published the same year as this book.
- Continuity Nod: Austin and Zavala mention the events of Raise the Titanic!.
- Dashing Hispanic: Halcón's surprisingly little pagetime doesn’t detract him from showing a stylish personality.
- Divided States of America: Halcón not only wans to make himself leader of a country called Angelica formed from the Southwest plus Mexico, but also has contingencies in place for the Chinese-controlled Pacifica, plus Quebec separating from Canada and the Maritime Provinces, cut off from the rest of the country, joining the remainder of the USA.
- Expy: An in-universe word by Dirk Pitt comments that Kurt Austin, the just introduced protagonist of this book series, is quite similar to him. He isn't wrong: like him, Austin is a Hunk with a distinctive eye color, an influential father, a collection of old artifacts, and a best friend from a Mediterranean country who works as an engineer.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Nina's ability to recall ancient events is barely touched upon, as well as left unexplained at the end, but it really seems to be a supernatural ability, given that it allowed her to witness an unknown building device from the ancient Egypt that puzzled an engineer of her own time – something Nina could have hardly imagined by herself.
- Motive Decay: Discussed. The Brotherhood's initial purpose had the goal to secure geopolitical interests of the Spanish Empire. After the fall of the latter, the purpose remains the same, only that its new leader re-oriented it towards causing a political uprising that will lead to a secession in the United States.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Mole is horrified when he realizes that the villains plan to murder the family of his cousin/bodyguard charge and immediately turns on them.
- Oddly Small Organization: For an organization of its range and power, the Brotherhood is oddly small and intimate in its operations, deploying a single operative for most of their missions and subcontracting assassins when needed. Even weirder is that they don't seem to lack dedicated manpower, as they also have cultlike members trained in ancient Mayan ways (who are gleefully killed by their own boss for the kicks) and a private army that is left offscreen. This approach ends up killing Halcón himself, who goes to a dangerous mission with the sole help of the mentioned hitman.
- Shout-Out: Professor José Chi's surname is probably a reference to Gaspar Antonio Chi, one of the mestizos who denounced Diego de Landa for his misdeeds in Yucatan.
- Toros y Flamenco: Halcón, a Spaniard naturalized as a United States citizen, is mentioned to be a former bullfighter, and a cheating one at that. No flamenco, though.
- You Have Failed Me: There is a scene showing three surviving bad guys from a failed assassination attempt earlier in the book forced to compete in a Deadly Game.
