In Serpent, Clive Cussler introduced a hero for the new millennium in Kurt Austin, the leader of NUMA's Special Assignments Team. In previous encounters, Austin and his colleague Joe Zavala have battled eco-extortionists and mad empire builders-but they have never faced a menace like the one before them now. In the heart of the old Soviet Union, a mining tycoon has proclaimed himself czar of Russia. Claiming Romanov ancestry and backed by billions of dollars, he is determined to overthrow the already shaky Russian government-and U.S. opposition doesn't bother him one bit. A little crisis of their own should distract the Americans for a while, and he knows just the thing. . . . Filled with all the hair-raising action and endless imagination that are Cussler's hallmarks, Fire Iceis a dazzling thriller from the grandmaster of adventure fiction.