Inca Gold
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{{Infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = Inca Gold
| image = [[Image:Inca Gold.jpg|200px]]
| image_caption = 1st Edition Hardcover
| author = [[Clive Cussler]]
| cover_artist = Paul Bacon
| country = [[United States]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| series = [[Dirk Pitt]] Novels
| genre = [[Adventure novel|Adventure]], [[Techno-thriller novel]]
| publisher = [[Simon & Schuster]]
| release_date = [[June 2]], [[1994]] 1st Edition Hardcover
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages = 539 pp (Hardcover edition)
| isbn = ISBN 0-671-68156-7
| preceded_by = [[Sahara (novel)|Sahara]]
| followed_by = [[Shock Wave (novel)|Shock Wave]]
}}
'''Inca Gold''' is a novel written by [[Clive Cussler]]. First published in [[1994 in literature|1994]], it is the twelfth book in Cussler's [[Dirk Pitt]] series.
==Plot summary==
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 the renowned scuba diving hero 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.
==Chronology==
The plot revolves 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]] ([[Tahuantinsuyu|Inca]], [[Moche]], [[Chibcha]], [[Chachapoyas culture|Chachapoyas]]) and [[Mesoamerica]] (the [[Aztec]] and [[Maya civilization|Maya]]).
[[Image:Vorkolumbische Kulturen.png|thumb|380px|Chachapoyas culture]]
{{proseline}}
*[[Huayna Capac]] gives to his son and heir [[Huascar]] a great gold chain, the most valuable treasure in the world.
*1532: [[Francisco Pizarro]] kidnaps 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 Central 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 [[Conquistador]]s discover the [[Naymlap]]'s tomb in the city of [[Tiapollo]]. The armor of the mummy of Naymlap is an aid to discover the hidden treasure.
*1577: [[Francis 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 treasure 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]], commanded by [[Francis Drake]] and armed with 18 cannons, approaches 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 returns to [[Plymouth]] with the gold, Drake is dubbed Sir by [[Elizabeth I]]
*1594: A [[Portugal|Portuguese]] expedition find in a village on the [[Amazon River]] Thomas Cuthill. He speaks of Drake and the Conception, but is left as a mad man.
*1922: Tiapollo's armor is stolen from the [[Regional Archaeological Museum of Siviglia]].
*1939: [[Nicholas Bender]] publishes a book on the ancient path of the hunter for [[Eldorado]].
*1964: Two subs die exploring the [[Cenote]].
*March, [[1998]] Steve 'Doc' Miller of the [[Pennsylvania 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, Peru|Trujillo]] military base asks for [[National Underwater and Marine Agency|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), kidnaps the scientists and the students, and take them in the [[Viracocha]] Valley, in the mythical death city [[Pueblo de los Muertos]].
[[Image:Mi-8 CM1.jpg|thumb|Polish Mi-8T in Iraq, AL Hillah 2005]]
*Dirk Pitt frees the prisoners and steals an [[Mi-8]], an old soviet helicopter, to return to the Deep Fathom.
*Dirk Pitt asks [[Hiram Yaeger]] to find evidence of a Tsunami in the zone.
*[[Rudi Gunn]], alerted by Yaeger, comes to the Deep Fathom and joins the party.
*[[October 15]], [[1998]]: Pitt and Shannon return to the Cenope to recover the dead Dr. Miller and find an explosive trap.
*[[Julien Perlmutter]] is asked to find evidence on the ''Concepcion''. He searches the archives at the [[Library of Congress]]. He contacts 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 flies 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 wreck from a height of 50-75 meters.
Pitt, Giordino, and Gunn board a commercial flight to [[Quito]], the capital of [[Ecuador]]. A petrol company in debt to NUMA lends them a ''[[McDonnell Douglas]] [[NOTAR]] [[MD900 Explorer]]'' helicopter, a two-turbine modern helicopter with no tail rotor.
They fly to the Bay of Caraquez and follow the [[Chone River]] inland, until they reach the rapids. Then they fly a grid composed by 2km-long lines parallel to the 1578 coastline, from 2km inland to 7km, spaced 75m.
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 retrieve the jade box while Gordino and Gunn refuel at the [[Manta]] airport. Pitt finds an anchor, [[mother-of-pearl]] and [[turquoise]] artifacts, a 3 meter [[pit viper]], a sterno lamp and finally the jade box. Pitt hops a flight to Dulles airport, Washington, where Deputy Loren Smith picks him up in a 1953[[Allard]] J2X.
Taken to NUMA, Yaeger uses his computer to analyze the information in the quipu.
The Golden Body Suit of Tiapollo is taken to the Logan Storage Company, a warehouse complex near Galveston, and taken to an underground complex under the Zolar International.
==Trivia==
*Dirk Pitt wants a [[Dixieland]] Orchestra to play [[Waiting for Robert E. Lee]] (''"Way down on the levee in old Alabamy..."'').
==External links==
*http://www.bc-alter.net/dfriesen/ecuador.html/ The Lost Treasure of Ecuador
* http://ns.gov.gu/galleon/ on the real Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, which was sunken in 1638 with Chinese riches.
*http://www.geometrics.com/ Producer of the magnometer used to localize the galleon
{{Dirk Pitt novels}}
[[Category:1994 novels]]
[[Category:Dirk Pitt novels]]
[[it:L'oro dell'Inca (romanzo)]]