Book Review – Clive Cussler’s “Vixen 03″
Earlier today I finished reading Vixen 03, book number four in the popular Dirk Pitt series of books written by Clive Cussler.
First published back in 1978, Vixen 03 begins with the tale of an ordinary Air Force cargo plane on a highly secret mission back in 1954. The C-97 Stratofreighter, code named “Vixen 03,” has its crew awakened for an urgent night flight in the middle of the winter. Its cargo – secret. The Navy admiral in charge of the cargo informs the crew that in the event of an aircraft malfunction, they are not to bail. They are required to stay with the aircraft at all costs.
The C-97 is fully loaded and barely has enough power to lift off a runway in Colorado. Minutes into the flight there’s engine trouble. One of the propellers is thrown from the engine, cutting a gash into the fuselage. The C-97′s pilot tries to turn back to the airfield, but the aircraft just isn’t going to make it. The flight crew spots a clearing in the Colorado mountains and they make a belly-up landing on the snowy field. Unfortunately, they didn’t land on a field. The ice cracks and before anybody can flee, the C-97 suddenly sinks into a deep lake.
There the C-97 and its deadly cargo sit and wait until fate places the right person in the right place at the right time for its discovery.
Vixen 03 jumps ahead to September of 1988.
Dirk Pitt, the special projects director for NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) is spending some time with Loren Smith, a Congresswoman who represents a rural portion of Colorado. They’re in a rustic cabin that was built and used frequently by Loren’s father, a man who was tragically killed in an explosion three years ago.
One day while looking for fishing poles, Dirk enters the cabin’s garage and spies some most unusual equipment. He finds an oxygen tank and front landing gear from an aircraft hidden underneath a tarp. Loren shrugs it off, claiming that her father was always tinkering with things. Such a find is so unusual that Dirk’s curiosity drives him to investigate the peculiar aircraft parts.
Dirk’s investigation sends him to the nearest neighbors to learn more about the surrounding area. He then does more research, and it’s not until a visit from Colonel Steiger that Dirk realizes just where to conduct the search for the missing aircraft. Dirk’s pal Al Giordino arrives on scene, and the three of them start using sonar to scan the local lake’s bottom. Sure enough the aircraft is sitting in one of the lake’s deepest sections, explaining why no aerial search was able to spot the aircraft in the water.
It’s when Dirk uses diving equipment to confirm the aircraft’s identity that he discovers the secret cargo on-board Vixen 03. That is, the cargo along with skeletons of the four members of the flight crew still strapped to their seats. And the unknown fifth skeleton tied to the floor in the cargo area with some flesh still on its bones.
The U.S. Air Force does not acknowledge Colonel Steiger’s claims of the missing aircraft. According to the official report of Vixen 03, the aircraft crashed in the Pacific Ocean and is presumed lost at sea. Higher ups in the chain of command feel that there’s no need of opening the “can of worms” with the aircraft’s secret cargo.
Dirk Pitt follows the clues of Vixen 03 and learns of retired Admiral Bass, the same person who oversaw the C-97′s mission back in January of 1954. After confirming Pitt’s identity and knowledge of the aircraft, Admiral Bass informs Pitt of the aircraft’s secret cargo. It turns out that the unmarked 16-inch battleship shells in the cargo section are actually full of a deadly biological “doomsday” agent nicknamed quick death (QD). Bass persuades Pitt and Admiral James Sandecker to have NUMA recover the aircraft and properly dispose of the canisters, making sure that nobody can use them in combat.
NUMA is able to covertly raise the aircraft, but the problem is that of the thirty-six battleship shells, eight of them are missing. Pitt is hot on the trail of the missing ordinance, starting with Loren’s neighbors there in Colorado. Pitt confronts the neighbors and realizes the secret that they’re hiding. After surviving a gun battle, Pitt heads to the Phalanx Arms Company, the arms dealership that bought the explosive shells. Pitt meets with the company’s owner and learns that four of the shells are still housed in one of the company’s warehouses. The other four were mistakenly sold to customers. One of those customers just happened to be a company affiliated with the African Army of Revolution in South Africa.
While Dirk Pitt was salvaging and hunting for the missing QD shells, we learn about the troubles taking place in the nation of South Africa. The African Army of Revolution (AAR) is composed of black militants led by the American expatriate Hiram Lusana, and their goal is to overthrow the white government of the Republic of South Africa.
The Minister of the South African Defense Force, Pieter de Vaal, is determined to stop the AAR and overthrow the current government, placing himself in charge of the country. He conducts a devious plan of framing the AAR by using black troops to attack a white farm, killing the white family and all of the black workers, including the women and children. The attack was partially designed to enlist the aide of Captain Patrick Fawkes, knowing that he’d want to get his revenge against the AAR after finding out that they slaughtered his family.
Pieter de Vaal’s grand plan, code named Operation Wild Rose, involves a plot to use black mercenaries posing as AAR troops to attack the USA and win international sympathy for his government. The plan involves Captain Fawkes taking command of the decommissioned battleship Iowa, gutting the ship to raise its draft, and sailing the ship up the shallow Potomac River to conduct a raid against Washington, DC.
The AAR isn’t completely innocent as they’re coordinating attacks against the white South African military and government officials. They pay for inside knowledge of the South African military. Congressman Frederick Daggart is friends with Lusana, and he tries to blackmail Congresswoman Smith into voting to send foreign aide to the AAR. Hiram Lusana is set to do whatever it takes to topple the white South African government and take control of the country.
With the help of the Director of the National Security Agency, Dale Jarvis, Dirk Pitt is able to uncover the plot to use a battleship to shell Washington, DC. The only questions are if the people know about the QD shells, and when they’re planning on striking. When Pitt and Jarvis visit the dock where the Iowa is undergoing its refurbishment, the ship is already gone. It’s now a race against time to find the ship and stop it at all costs before the QD is unleashed on an American city.
The President is briefed on the situation, and he agrees to send in Navy SEALs along with Marines to capture and disable the battleship. If they fail, then he’s prepared to launch a massive air strike combined with a bunch of tanks firing upon the ship from the shores. Despite the risk of QD, the President is unwilling to use a low-yield tactical nuke to destroy the ship.
With a battleship now caught in an even shallower part of the Potomac River, it’s up to a combined effort of Dirk Pitt and the U.S. military to board the Iowa and protect Washington, DC from the terrorist attack. The ship begins shelling the city, and it’s a race against time before the QD doomsday shells are blasted to the city.
As a whole, Vixen 03 is a fast-paced action-adventure story that’s also a quick read. With many of the chapters only being a couple of pages long, you’ll be well into the meat of the story in no time.
While Cussler’s previous book, Raise the Titanic!, focused primarily on ships, underwater exploration, and deep-sea salvaging, Vixen 03 had a nice blend of aviation along with a small helping of ships. Vixen 03 also takes us overseas for a good chunk of the story and into troubling times in the Republic of South Africa.
While Vixen 03 introduced us to Loren Smith, Al Giordino and Admiral Sandecker’s roles were kept to a minimum. Commander Rudy Gunn and much of NUMA as a whole is missing from this story. Dirk Pitt doesn’t see much combat action this time around apart from a small gun battle in Colorado and his role in retaking the battleship Iowa.
Fans of Cussler’s series will recognize the standard pattern of Dirk Pitt having a hunch when solving puzzles and usually being correct in the end. The problem is that Cussler doesn’t leave that many clues for the readers. For example, when dealing with the fifth skeleton in the C-97 and confronting Loren’s neighbors about it, Pitt was revealing information about Loren’s father (and the neighbor) that was unknown to the readers until that point in the book.
Maybe that’s why most people don’t classify Cussler’s books as mystery books. It’s hard for the readers to solve the puzzles when A) we know so little about the situations and guest characters, and B) everybody, no matter how innocent they appear in the beginning, is a suspect. Elderly people in their retirement days can be just as guilty as a young secretary.
Vixen 03 is a decent read and a must-have for fans of Cussler’s work. The story moves quickly and you’ll have a satisfying ending to the story in no time. On a side note, the C-97 Stratofreighter was a cool aircraft.