Part of Cussler's National Underwater& Marine Agency (NUMA) series, BLUE GOLD takes Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala on a quest to discover what really happened when their powerboat encountered a flotilla of dead whale bodies--an encounter in which they themselves were nearly killed. After they find a strange underwater laboratory where they almost meet up with death again, they must penetrate the Venezuelan rain forest to find the goddess who can help them stop the 7-foot tall psychopath who is on his way to holding the whole world ransom to an eco-disaster of apocalyptic proportions.