Skeleton Coast (The Oregon Files #4)

1896: Four Englishmen flee for their lives across the merciless Kalahari Desert, carrying a stolen fortune in raw diamonds, and hunted by a fierce African tribe. The thieves manage to reach the waiting HMS Rove - only to die with their pursuers in a vicious storm that buries them all under tons of sand . . . 

The present day: Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert combat ship Oregon have barely escaped a mission on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday from a defenceless boat under fire off the African coast. Cabrillo takes action, saving the beautiful Sloane Macintyre - who's looking for a long-submerged ship that may hold a fortune in diamonds. But what surprises Cabrillo is her story about a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked in the same area on the open sea by giant metal snakes.

What begins as a snake hunt leads Cabrillo on to the trail of a far more lethal quarry - a deranged militant and his followers who plan to unleash the devastating power of nature itself against all who oppose them.