Terminal Freeze
Hardcover edition
|
|
| Author | Lincoln Child |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jeremy Logan |
| Genre |
Thriller Science fiction |
| Publisher | Random House |
|
Publication date
|
January 27, 2009 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 576 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 227929898 |
| Preceded by | Deep Storm |
| Followed by | The Third Gate |
Terminal Freeze is the fourth solo novel by Lincoln Child. The novel was released on February 24, 2009 by Random House. This is also the second novel in the Jeremy Logan series.
The events take place in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle. A decommissioned military base located near the fictional Mount Fear, the Mount Fear Remote Sensing Installation, is being used by a research team from Northern Massachusetts University to study the effects of global warming on a receding glacier. The team consists of five scientists from the University - Evan Marshall, a paleoecologist; Gerard Sully, a climatologist and the team leader; Wright Faraday, an evolutionary biologist; Ang Chen, a graduate student; and Penny Barbour, a computer scientist - along with the skeleton crew of four soldiers - Corporal Marcelin, Privates First Class Tad Phillips and Donovan Fluke, and the leader, Sergeant Paul Gonzalez.
The expedition discovers a monstrous ancient animal, presumed to be a preserved example of Smilodon populator, frozen in solid ice inside a lava tube made into an ice cave. The expedition's corporate sponsors, Terra Prime and its parent corporation Blackpool Entertainment, sense huge publicity and decide to have the beast cut from the ice, thawed, and revealed live on television. A massive entourage is sent to the base to begin production of the documentary, and the new crew includes Kari Ekberg, the field producer; Emilio Conti, the eccentric director (along with his assistant Hulce); Allan Fortnum, the director of photography; Ken Toussaint, the assistant director of photography; Wolff, the network liaison and channel representative; George Creel, the production foreman; and Ashleigh Davis, the spoiled host and star of the show (along with her assistant Brianna). The group is later joined by the truck driver Carradine, who brings Davis' luxurious trailer to the site, and a man who hitched a ride with Carradine, named Dr. Jeremy Logan, a private investigator and Yale professor of medieval history.
Meanwhile, local Tunit people, led by their chief Usuguk, try to warn the scientists that they do not understand what they have found. Specific warnings are that the entire mountain it was found in is a place of evil, the creature exists only for the sole purpose of killing, and that the Tunit do not believe it is dead. In addition, after a reexamination of the creature by Marshall, Faraday, and Barbour, it is revealed that the creature is not a Smilodon at all, but a new, unknown animal entirely, which may be up to 16 feet in length. However, Conti and Wolff are determined to move forward with the production, up until the creature suddenly vanishes from the vault it is being stored in. Although they initially believe it to be stolen, analysis of the hole in the vault floor by Faraday reveals that the incisions in the wood were made from the inside, and appear to be made by something more natural than a tool. Meanwhile, Logan reveals to Marshall that he is investigating the base itself after uncovering recently declassified government documents, detailing an incident at the base in 1958 that resulted in the deaths of 7 of the 8 scientists there. The incident, however, was forgotten when the officer reporting it, Colonel H.N. Rose, died in a plane crash with the full, detailed report.
...
Wikipedia