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Inca Gold is a book written by Clive Cussler. First published in 1994, it is the twelfth book in Cussler's Dirk Pitt series.

Plot summary

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In 1532 a fleet of ships sails in secret to an island in the middle of an inland sea. There they hide a magnificent treasure more vast than that of any pharaoh. Then they disappear, leaving only a great stone demon to guard their hoard. In 1578 the legendary Sir Francis Drake captures a Spanish galleon filled with Inca gold and silver and the key to the lost treasure, which included a gigantic chain of gold that belonged to the last Inca king, a masterpiece of ancient technology so huge that it requires two hundred men to lift it. As the galleon is sailed by Drake's crew back to England, an underwater earthquake causes a massive tidal wave that sweeps it into the jungle. Only one man survives to tell the tale... In 1998 a group of archaeologists is nearly drowned while diving into the depths of a sacrificial pool high in the Andes of Peru. They are saved by the timely arrival of Dirk Pitt, who is in the area on a marine expedition. Pitt soon finds out that his life has been placed in jeopardy as well by smugglers intent on uncovering the lost ancient Incan treasure. Soon, he, his faithful companions, and Dr. Shannon Kelsey, a beautiful young archaeologist, are plunged into a vicious, no-hold-barred struggle to survive. From then on it becomes a battle of wits in a race against time and danger to find the golden chain, as Pitt finds himself caught up in a struggle with a sinister international family syndicate that deal in stolen works of art, the smuggling of ancient artifacts, and art forgery worth many millions of dollars. The clash between the art thieves, the FBI and the Customs Service, a tribe of local Indians, and Pitt, along with his friends from NUMA, two of whom are captured and threatened with execution, rushes toward a wild climax in a subterranean world of darkness and death - for the real key to the mystery, as it turns out, is a previously unknown, unexplored underground river that runs through the ancient treasure chamber.

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Chronology

The plot revolv on the great pre-Columbian civilizations in the Andes is used especially often in discussions of the great indigenous civilizations of the Americas, such as those of Andes (Inca, Moche, Chibcha, Chachapoyas) and Mesoamerica (the Aztec and Maya).

• Huyana Capac gives to his son and heir Huascar a great gold chain, the most valuable treasure in the world.
• 1532 Francisco Pizarro kidnapps the Inca king Atahualpa and asks for a huge ransom.
• 1533 Huascar sends his richness in the North, beyond the lands of the Incas and the Aztec, in a small island in Center America, to protect it from the brother in law.

The record of the journey is in a quipu (prototype form of written record by knot, held by a quipumayoc) held in a small jade box.

• 1547 Spanish Coquistadors discover the Naymlap's tomb in the city of Tiapollo. The armor of the mummy of Naymlap is an aid to discover the
• 1577 Franis Drake set sail for the Pacific with four ships. He will be the first English man to pass the Strait of Magellan and will understand the presence of the Drake Passage.
• 1578 The biggest thresure Spanish galleon of the Pacific Armada Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, commanded by Juan de Anton and armed with only 2 cannons, set sails from Callao in the Incan lands to the colony in Panamà, to pass the istmo by mule and send the richness to Siviglia.

The English Corsair galleon Golden Hind, commandnd by Francis Drake and armed with 18 cannons, come near using a Spanish Flag and take over the Spanish galleon. The gold is taken on the English vessel and the religious stuff, including the Giada small case, is left on the Spanish one.

• The Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, captured and commanded by Drake's second Thomas Cuthill, is stormed by a Tsunami in the inland near Panama.
• 1580 The Golden Hind return to Plymouth with the gold, Drake is raisen to Sir by Elizabeth I
• 1594 A Portugehe expedition find in a village on the Amazon River Thomas Cuthill. He speak of Drake and the Coneption, but is left as a mad man.
• 1922 Tiapollo's armor is stolen from the Regional Archaeological Museum of Siviglia.
• 1939 Nicholas Bender publish a book on the ancient path of the hunter for Eldorado.
• 1964 Two subs die exploring the Cenote.
• March, ] Steve 'Doc' Miller of the Pennsilvanya University goes in Peru and is killed by Tupac Amaru. Cyrus Sarason of the Solpemachaco takes his place.
• October, 10 1998 Dr. Shannon Kelsey, expert of the Chachapoyas culture, and the operator Miles Rodgers, dive in the Cenote, and don't come back.

Trujillo milatr base asks for NUMA intervention. An helicopter with Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino take off from the NUMA seismic vessel Deep Fathom. Tupac Amaru with a band of Sendero Luminoso (Peruvian Maoist guerrilla group) kidnapp the scintists and the students, and take them in the Viracocha Valley, in the mytich death city Pueblo de los Mortos.

• Dirk Pitt free the prisoner and stole a Mi-8, an old soviet helicopter, to return to the Deep Fathom.
• Dirk Pitt ask to Hiram Yaeger to find evidence of a Tsunami in the zone.
• Rudi Gunn, altered by Yaeger, comes to the Deep Fathom and join the party.
• October 15, 1998 Pitt and Shannon return to the Cenope, recover the dead Dr. Miller and find an explosive trap.
• Julien Perlmutter is asked to find evidence on the Concepcion. He search in the archives at the Library of Congress. He contact Frank Adams, the publisher of the book titled On the Trail of El Dorado by Nicholas Bender and obtains the author's phone number. Mr. Bender graciously offers to give St. Julien the Journal of Cutthill

Pitt fly to Lima and receive a EG&G magnetometer from the NUMA ship. The Geometrics G-8136 is an airborne proton magnometer, similar to the old G-801 Gunn is used to. Pitt hopes to be able to locate about 1 ton of iron in the wrench from a heigh of 50-75 meter. Pitt, Giordino, and Gunn board a commercial flight to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. A petrol company in debt with NUMA lends them a McDonnell Douglas NOTAR MD900 Explorer helicopter, a two turbine modern copt with no tail rotor. They fly to the Bay of Caraquez and follow the Chone River inland, till the rapid. Then they fly a grid composed by line parallel to the 1578 coastline, from 2km inland to 7km, spaced 75m. Lines are 2km long. They find the galleon on the original grid at the 7th km, meaning the tidal wave would have carried the 570-ton ship 7km over the land. Pitt goes down to retrive the jade box while Gordino and Gunn refuel to the Manta airport. Pitt find an anchor, mother-of-pearl and turquoise manifacts, a 3 mt pit viper, a stern lamp and finally the jade box. Pitt takes immediately a liner to Dulles airport, Washington, where deputee Loren Smith takes him on a 1953Allard J2X Taken at the NUMA, Yaeger uses his computer to analyze the information in the quipu.

The Golden Body Suit of Tiapollo is taken in the Logan Storage Company, warehouse complex near Galveston, and taken to an underground complex under the Zolar International.

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Trivia

• Dirk Pitt wants a Dixieland Orchestra to play Waiting for Robert E. Lee ("Way down on the levee in old Alabamy...").

External Link

• http://ns.gov.gu/galleon/ on the real Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, witch was sunken in 1638 with Chinees richness.
• http://www.geometrics.com/ Producer of the magnometer used to localize the galleon

• 1990s novel stubs
• 1994 novels
• Dirk Pitt
• Clive Cussler