Typhoon Fury Read online

  TITLES BY CLIVE CUSSLER

  DIRK PITT® ADVENTURES

  Odessa Sea (with Dirk Cussler)

  Havana Storm (with Dirk Cussler)

  Poseidon’s Arrow (with Dirk Cussler)

  Crescent Dawn (with Dirk Cussler)

  Arctic Drift (with Dirk Cussler)

  Treasure of Khan (with Dirk Cussler)

  Black Wind (with Dirk Cussler)

  Trojan Odyssey

  Valhalla Rising

  Atlantis Found

  Flood Tide

  Shock Wave

  Inca Gold

  Sahara

  Dragon

  Treasure

  Cyclops

  Deep Six

  Pacific Vortex!

  Night Probe!

  Vixen 03

  Raise the Titanic!

  Iceberg

  The Mediterranean Caper

  SAM AND REMI FARGO ADVENTURES

  The Romanov Ransom (with Robin Burcell)

  Pirate (with Robin Burcell)

  The Solomon Curse (with Russell Blake)

  The Eye of Heaven (with Russell Blake)

  The Mayan Secrets (with Thomas Perry)

  The Tombs (with Thomas Perry)

  The Kingdom (with Grant Blackwood)

  Lost Empire (with Grant Blackwood)

  Spartan Gold (with Grant Blackwood)

  ISAAC BELL ADVENTURES

  The Cutthroat (with Justin Scott)

  The Gangster (with Justin Scott)

  The Assassin (with Justin Scott)

  The Bootlegger (with Justin Scott)

  The Striker (with Justin Scott)

  The Thief (with Justin Scott)

  The Race (with Justin Scott)

  The Spy (with Justin Scott)

  The Wrecker (with Justin Scott)

  The Chase

  KURT AUSTIN ADVENTURES

  NOVELS FROM THE NUMA® FILES

  Nighthawk (with Graham Brown)

  The Pharaoh’s Secret (with Graham Brown)

  Ghost Ship (with Graham Brown)

  Zero Hour (with Graham Brown)

  The Storm (with Graham Brown)

  Devil’s Gate (with Graham Brown)

  Medusa (with Paul Kemprecos)

  The Navigator (with Paul Kemprecos)

  Polar Shift (with Paul Kemprecos)

  Lost City (with Paul Kemprecos)

  White Death (with Paul Kemprecos)

  Fire Ice (with Paul Kemprecos)

  Blue Gold (with Paul Kemprecos)

  Serpent (with Paul Kemprecos)

  CHILDREN’S BOOKS

  The Adventures of Vin Fiz

  The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy

  OREGON® FILES

  The Emperor’s Revenge (with Boyd Morrison)

  Piranha (with Boyd Morrison)

  Mirage (with Jack Du Brul)

  The Jungle (with Jack Du Brul)

  The Silent Sea (with Jack Du Brul)

  Corsair (with Jack Du Brul)

  Plague Ship (with Jack Du Brul)

  Skeleton Coast (with Jack Du Brul)

  Dark Watch (with Jack Du Brul)

  Sacred Stone (with Craig Dirgo)

  Golden Buddha (with Craig Dirgo)

  NONFICTION

  Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt

  Built to Thrill: More Classic Automobiles from Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt

  The Sea Hunters (with Craig Dirgo)

  The Sea Hunters II (with Craig Dirgo)

  Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed (with Craig Dirgo)

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  Copyright © 2017 by Sandecker, RLLLP

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Cussler, Clive, author. | Morrison, Boyd, author.

  Title: Typhoon fury : a novel of the Oregon files / Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison.

  Description: New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [2017] | Series: The Oregon files ; 12

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017012116| ISBN 9780399575570 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780399575587 (ebook)

  Subjects: | GSAFD: Suspense fiction. | Adventure fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3553.U75 T97 2017 | DDC 813/.54—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012116

  International edition ISBN: 9780735218376

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  CONTENTS

  Titles by Clive Cussler

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Cast of Characters

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  CHAPTER 58

  CHAPTER 59

  CHAPTER 60

  CHAPTER 61

  CHAPTER 62

  CHAPTER 63

  CHAPTER 64

  CHAPTER 65

  CHAPTER 66

  CHAPTER 67

  CHAPTER 68

  CHAPTER 69

  EPILOGUE

  About the Authors
/>   CAST OF CHARACTERS

  SECOND BATTLE OF CORREGIDOR 1945

  Sergeant Daniel Kekoa Soldier in the 24th Infantry “Hawaiian” Division.

  Captain John Hayward Biochemist in the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

  THE CORPORATION

  Juan Cabrillo Chairman of the Corporation and captain of the Oregon.

  Max Hanley Vice president of the Corporation, Juan’s second-in-command, and chief engineer of the Oregon.

  Linda Ross Vice president of Operations for the Corporation and U.S. Navy veteran.

  Eddie Seng Director of Shore Operations for the Corporation and former CIA agent.

  Eric “Stoney” Stone Chief helmsman on the Oregon and U.S. Navy veteran.

  Mark “Murph” Murphy Chief weapons officer on the Oregon and former U.S. military weapons designer.

  Franklin “Linc” Lincoln Corporation operative and former U.S. Navy SEAL.

  Marion MacDougal “MacD” Lawless Corporation operative and former U.S. Army Ranger.

  George “Gomez” Adams Helicopter pilot and drone operator aboard the Oregon.

  Hali Kasim Chief communications officer on the Oregon.

  Dr. Julia Huxley Chief medical officer on the Oregon.

  Kevin Nixon Chief of the Oregon’s Magic Shop.

  Maurice Chief steward on the Oregon.

  PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE

  Luis Navarro Inspector in charge of prisoner transfer.

  Captain Garcia Captain of prison transport vessel.

  CHINESE MINISTRY OF STATE SECURITY

  Zhong Lin Field agent.

  NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY

  Abby Yamada Chief computer cryptanalyst.

  CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

  Langston Overholt IV The Corporation’s CIA liaison.

  PHILIPPINES COMMUNIST INSURGENCY

  Salvador Locsin Leader of the insurgents.

  Nikho Tagaan Locsin’s second-in-command and marine engineer.

  Stanley Alonzo Interior Ministry bureaucrat and mole for the insurgency.

  Mel Ocampo Biochemist hired by the insurgency.

  Maria Santos Biochemist hired by the insurgency.

  Dolap Insurgent soldier and Locsin’s cousin.

  THAILAND

  Beth Anders Art theft investigator and appraiser.

  Raven Malloy Beth’s bodyguard and former U.S. Army Military Police investigator.

  Udom Leader of drug gang.

  Alastair Lynch Interpol duty station official in Bangkok.

  Gerhard Brekker Leader of South African mercenary squad.

  Altus Van Der Waal Brekker’s second-in-command.

  UNITED STATES ARMY

  Greg Polten Civilian biochemical weapons expert.

  Charles Davis Greg Polten’s assistant.

  General Amos Jefferson Director of biochemical weapons testing at Dugway Proving Ground.

  PROLOGUE

  WORLD WAR II

  THE SECOND BATTLE OF CORREGIDOR

  THE PHILIPPINES

  FEBRUARY 20, 1945

  The tunnel exploded.

  Sergeant Daniel Kekoa dropped to the ground and covered his head as the M4 Sherman tank that had fired on the ragged entrance was thrown backward a dozen yards by the gigantic secondary blast from inside the tunnel. The thirty-ton tank flipped over and landed on its turret before a loose shell inside tore it apart in a fireball.

  When debris stopped raining down around him, Kekoa staggered to his feet, his ears ringing from the deafening explosion. Dozens of American soldiers lay dead or writhing in pain. He turned over the nearest man down. The vacant eyes and chunk of shrapnel protruding from the soldier’s chest showed that he was beyond help.

  Kekoa shook his head in disgust at the deadly foul-up. The briefing from Army Intelligence indicated that this particular tunnel sheltered enemy soldiers defending the island fortress strategically located at the mouth of Manila Bay. Kekoa had called in the tank to prevent a suicidal banzai attack, which had become commonplace with the fanatical Japanese. But there had been no indication that the tunnel might also contain large quantities of explosives close to the entrance.

  Captain John Hayward crouched nearby in one of the many craters created by the American pre-invasion bombardment, his hands still over his ears. Kekoa reached down to haul him to his feet. The slight man, with brown hair and circular-framed glasses, was shaking.

  “All clear now, Captain,” Kekoa said. “I told you I’d get you through this battle in one piece.” Of course, Kekoa could make no such promise, but what else was he going to tell this officer whose safety the Army had entrusted to him?

  “Thanks, Sergeant. I appreciate that.” Hayward took in the carnage with wide eyes. “What happened?”

  “Must have been an ammo dump inside the cave. Your boys in the OSS told us the ammunition would be stored farther down the tunnels.”

  “They’re not my boys. That intel came from a different part of the Office of Strategic Services. I’m not a spy, Sergeant Kekoa. I’m a scientist in the Research and Analysis Branch.”

  “I can’t say I’m surprised, given the way you carry that carbine.”

  The mission briefing had been just that: brief. The battalion commander had specifically asked for Kekoa to babysit Captain Hayward and follow his orders while keeping him alive. Everything else was on a need-to-know basis only, and as a grunt in the 24th Infantry “Hawaiian” Division, Kekoa apparently didn’t need to know anything. All Hayward had told his unit was that he needed to get inside the underground fortress before the Japanese could destroy it.

  The tadpole-shaped island of Corregidor and its howitzers guarded the entrance to Manila Bay, one of the largest harbors in the Pacific. The strategic outpost, also known as The Rock, was four miles long and little more than a mile across at its widest. As a U.S. commonwealth, the Philippines had been the last bastion to fall during the initial Japanese onslaught at the outbreak of the war, holding on until the island’s forces surrendered in May of 1942, two months after Douglas MacArthur had been evacuated.

  Kekoa was leading his unit as part of the operation to retake Malinta Hill on the island’s tail. Its vast grid of tunnels was bisected by a twenty-four-foot-wide main passageway that had served as a hospital and MacArthur’s headquarters. Dozens of smaller tunnels branched out from the main one, a bomb-proof network so large that it not only housed munitions, food, and water for a huge garrison that could withstand a siege for months but also had room for the thousand-bed hospital. In the three years since the Japanese conquered Corregidor, they had fortified their positions, digging out additional tunnels to augment the extensive system built by the Americans, some of which had been collapsed intentionally before the 1942 surrender.

  Hayward’s target was inside one of those tunnels.

  Kekoa took stock of the dozens of casualties and found out that two of the men who had died were in his platoon. Kekoa had served with both of them in the National Guard in Honolulu before joining the Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then fought side by side with them during the invasions of New Guinea and the Filipino island of Leyte. They weren’t the first men he’d lost, and judging by the insanity of this mission, they wouldn’t be the last, either.

  The explosion had closed off the entrance. They had to find another way in. Under Hayward’s direction, Kekoa gathered his platoon and headed toward the south side of Malinta Hill. The sound of rifle fire and artillery blasts continued nonstop from around the island, and Kekoa was bathed in the stench of gunpowder and burnt flesh.

  When they reached their new position, Kekoa and Hayward crouched in a foxhole to plan the assault.

  When he asked Hayward for orders, the captain hesitated and then asked, “What do you suggest?”

  “Have you ever been in battle before
, sir?”

  “I think you know the answer to that. My office is in the new Pentagon building. This is the first time I’ve been outside the United States, let alone under fire.”

  “What do you do in Washington?”

  “I’m a biochemist.”

  “I don’t even know what that is. What I do know is that it’s suicide to go into those tunnels before we’ve cleared them out.”

  Hayward gave him a halfhearted grin. “I thought you promised to get me through in one piece.”

  “I’ll do my best, sir. But these defenders are fanatical. I’ve heard from soldiers in some of the other battalions that they’re strapping bomb vests to their chests and running at us kamikaze-style. The battle plan is for our troops to get close enough to the tunnels to dump gasoline down the openings, light it on fire, and then seal the entrances up to burn through all the oxygen.”

  “That’s exactly why we need this mission to succeed,” said Hayward. “We need to get inside before that’s done.” He looked around, then lowered his voice so the other men couldn’t hear. “Do you think I want to be here, Sergeant? I have a wife and two children in a nice house in the Virginia suburbs. I was a college professor at Georgetown before this all started. I am not a warrior.”

  “Then why are you here, sir?”

  Hayward sighed with resignation. “I can’t tell you much, but you deserve to know the stakes if you might die for my sake. You can see where this war is going, right? The way we’re hopscotching islands northward?”

  Kekoa nodded.

  “The war is nearly over in Europe. It’s just a matter of time until Germany gives up, which means the U.S. will turn all its resources to this side of the world. Our government has said we’ll accept nothing less than unconditional surrender, so what do you think the ultimate goal in the Pacific is?”

  “The invasion of Japan.”

  “Right. Look around you. We’re fighting like mad for every yard on this tiny rock. Now imagine what it will take to conquer the home islands with every citizen willing to fight to the death for their beloved Emperor.”