Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert combat ship Oregon have barely escaped a mission on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday from a defenseless boat under fire off the African coast. Cabrillo takes action, saving the beautiful Sloane Macintyre - who's looking for a long-submerged ship that may hold a fortune in diamonds. But what surprises Cabrillo is her story about a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked on the open sea by giant metal snakes in the same area.

What begins as a snake hunt leads Cabrillo onto the trail of a far more lethal quarry - a deranged militant and his followers who plan to unleash the devastating power of nature itself against all who oppose them.

Years ago, a secret Soviet plan was created to destroy the Alaskan oil pipeline. Now, those plans have been stolen by the brilliant and treacherous ex-KGB agent Ivan Kerikov. Joining forces with a powerful Arab oil minister, Charon's Landing is about to be unleashed at last. But they didn't count on the one man who possesses the determination and daring to stop them cold. They didn't count on Philip Mercer.

It begins deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, where a nuclear bomb strikes at the fiery hot heart of the earth. Churning, spewing boiling lava, a volcano rises with unnatural speed from the ocean floor -- the source of a new mineral that promises clean, limitless nuclear power.

It continues in hot spots around the globe: Hawaii, where a secessionist movement is about to turn violent and the American army may be asked to fire on U.S. citizens; Washington, D.C., where the subway system becomes the site of a running gun battle; the Far East, where disrupted diplomatic negotiations jeopardize world peace; a rogue Russian submarine, circling the infant volcano.

Caught in the middle is Philip Mercer, a geologist and a one-time commando with shady contacts in all the right (or is it wrong?) places. When Mercer learns that the daughter of an old friend is being kept under armed guard in a local hospital, he vows to rescue her, not knowing that this is the first step in unraveling the fantastic secrets of Vulcan's Forge.

The author of the bestselling NUMA and Dirk Pitt series returns with an all-new novel of adventure and intrigue featuring his unbeatable hero of the high seas-Juan Cabrillo.

Cabrillo and his motley crew aboard the clandestine spy ship Oregon have made a very comfortable and very dangerous living working for high-powered Western interests. But their newest clients have come from the Far East to ask for Cabrillo's special brand of assistance: a consortium of Japanese shipping magnates whose fortunes are being threatened by brutal pirates trolling the waters of Southeast Asia.

Normally, such attacks on the high seas are limited to smaller ships and foreign-owned yachts-easy targets on the open ocean. Now, however, giant commercial freighters are disappearing. But when Cabrillo confronts the enemy, he learns that the pirates' predations hide a deadly international conspiracy-a scheme of death and slavery that Juan Cabrillo is going to blow out of the water.

During World War II, in a secret Nazi submarine base, containers crafted entirely from looted wartime gold were hidden away. The treasure was not the solid gold chests, but the cargo they carried?an artifact so lethal that whoever possessed “Pandora's boxes” held the power to unleash hell upon the Earth…

In the unforgiving wastes of Greenland, geologist Philip Mercer uncovers a long-abandoned U.S. Army base buried under the ice?and a long-dead body still hot with radiation. But before Mercer and his colleague, the seductive Dr. Anika Klein, can investigate further, a flash fire engulfs the base. Ordered to evacuate, their plane is forced to land when a bomb is discovered on board, and they must seek shelter from the murderous weather in a hidden ice cavern.

That's where they learn the startling truth. A powerful German corporation has launched an operation to destroy evidence of its Nazi past. But one of the corporate mercenaries knows what's inside the Pandora's boxes, and he plans to hold the entire world hostage?unless Mercer can find a way to stop him…