''Plague Ship'' is the fifth installment of The Oregon Files by

Clive Cussler Clive Eric Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached ''The New York Times'' fiction best-seller list m ...

and

Jack Du Brul Jack Du Brul (born October 15, 1968 in Burlington, Vermont) is an American author who writes techno-thriller novels. Early life Du Brul remained in Vermont throughout his childhood. He attended the Westminster School in Connecticut for grades 9 ...

. It recounts a series of violent viral attacks on cruise ships by extremists who want to make half the world's population sterile. The group, named "The Responsivists", is a thinly disguised cover for "Scientologists".

Plot

The crew of the ''Oregon'' has just completed a top secret mission against Iran to steal a rocket torpedo that was illegally sold to them by the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, when they come across a cruise ship adrift at sea. The passengers and crew were killed by a

hemorrhagic fever Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are a diverse group of animal and human illnesses in which fever and hemorrhage are caused by a viral infection. VHFs may be caused by five distinct families of RNA viruses: the families ''Filoviridae'', ''Flav ...

, similar to Ebola. As Captain Juan Cabrillo tries to determine what happened, explosions wrack the length of the ship. Barely able to escape with his own life and that of the liner's sole survivor, Cabrillo finds himself plunged into a mystery as intricate and perilous as any he has ever known. He'll be pitted against a cult with monstrously lethal plans for the human race - plans he may already be too late to stop. 2008 American novels Novels by Clive Cussler Novels by Jack Du Brul G. P. Putnam's Sons books The Oregon Files Collaborative novels {{2000s-thriller-novel-stub