Temple

A sensational new action /adventure blockbuster from the internationally bestselling author of Ice Station . Deep in the jungles of Peru, the race of the century is underway to locate a legendary Incan idol that was carved out of a strange stone which in the late 20th century could be used as the basis for a terrifying new weapon. The only clue to the idol's final resting place lies in a 400-year old manuscript, and a brilliant young linguist is unwittingly recruited to translate the manuscript and to lead the US Army to a mysterious temple where the idol is hidden. But it is only when they open the temple doors when they discover they have broken a golden rule—some doors are meant to be unopened... About the Author: Matt Reilly has written novels, screenplays, and magazine articles, and has also directed three short films. He lives in Australia. Publishers Weekly As aggressive as an avalanche--and often with the same grace--Reilly's second pulp-fiction adventure hurtles into the Peruvian jungle, where competing factions search for a precious Incan idol, the "Spirit of the People." The U.S. Army leads the pack. Like the others, the army wants the relic because it is made out of thyrium-261, a rare material, found only in meteorites, that can be used to create a fearsome weapon of mass destruction. The idol--a carved snarling jaguar head--is hidden in a stone temple and guarded by a pack of fearsome rapas, huge cats that can tear the best-trained warrior limb from limb. If the rapas aren't enough, 22-foot crocodiles also lurk nearby. The army group is led by unlikely hero William Race, a linguist brought along on the journey to translate the 400-year-old manuscript revealing the location of the idol. Race and the soldiers manage to fight off the rapas and retrieve the precious statuette, only to have a latterday Nazi paramilitary group, the Stormtroopers, crash the scene and take it away. However, the Stormtroopers can't hold the idol for long. U.S. Navy Seals swoop in to grab it, then lose it to a terrorist outfit from Texas. The mad chase--fought on land, water and in the air--hurtles through ancient ruins, abandoned gold mines and tribal villages. The action, punctuated by regular bursts of superhuman feats and other absurdities, careens along at a breakneck pace. Australian Reilly (Ice Station) has a gift for sustaining momentum that never lets up. His writing may be crude at points, his characters cartoonish and his humor inelegant, but his story delivers all the excitement it promises. (Jan. 19) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. Four centuries ago, a precious idol was hidden in the jungles of Peru. To the Incan people, it is still the ultimate symbol of their spirit. To William Race, an American linguist enlisted by the U.S. Army to decipher the clues to its location, it's the ultimate symbol of the apocalypse... Carved from a rare stone not found on Earth, the idol possesses elements more destructive than any nuclear bomb--a virtual planet killer. In the wrong hands it could mean the end of mankind. And whoever possesses the idol, possesses the unfathomable--and cataclysmic--power of the gods... Now, in the foothills of the Andes, Race's team has arrived--but they're not alone. And soon they'll discover that to penetrate the temple of the idol is to break the first rule of survival. Because some treasures are meant to stay buried..and forces are ready to kill to keep it that way... William Race, a mild-mannered professor, is impressed into the U.S. army on a bizarre mission: to retrieve a centuries-old Incan idol revered by a Peruvian Indian tribe. The idol, carved out of a meteorite, is the missing ingredient in a so-called "planet-killer," a weapon long sought not only by the U.S. government, but also by a neo-Nazi group whose scientists, linguists, and anthropologists seem to be one step ahead of the Americans. Only Race can translate the legendary manuscript that holds the key to the idol's location high in the Andes in a temple guarded by huge, man-eating panthers, on a moat seething with equally carnivorous crocodiles