Authors: James Rollins

Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #Thrillers, #Suspense, #General

The 6th Extinction (56 page)

In this novel, different researchers espoused various pathways around or through this sixth extinction. I’ve attended debates, read extensively, and pored through articles on the multiple sides of this complicated issue, but I thought I’d talk a little about the origin of some of these

Scientific Philosophies

Conservation/Preservation

This encompasses those environmentalists who seek to save species or bolster environments to support the endangered. This camp also includes those who seek to revive the extinct. In some circles, this is viewed as “old-school environmentalism.”

Synthetic Biologists

Right or wrong, this is where the young, excited scientists seek to use genetic manipulation and the creation of synthetic life to reengineer the world. While there certainly is a measure of hubris and danger down this path, it also shows great promise.

New Ecologists

I came upon a fascinating interview of ecologist Craig Thomas in
New Scientist
, where he espouses a new philosophical way of looking at extinction: basically as an opportunity. That a great extinction could lead to new and exciting life-forms, new pathways for evolution, even creating a New Eden. It’s a fascinating alternate way of looking at this Sixth Extinction.

Dark Mountain

It would be hard to do this movement justice in a small paragraph. So I encourage you to check out their website (http://dark-mountain.net), where you can read
Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain Manifesto
by Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth. Again it’s a radical new way of viewing this great Sixth Extinction.

In the character of Cutter Elwes, I tried to create a person who espoused a bastardized version of the last three philosophies, while pitting him against Kendall Hess, who advocates for the first two. And in fact that very philosophical war is being waged in the scientific community right now.

And it wouldn’t be a Sigma novel without a little (or a lot) of

History

Darwin and the Voyage of the
Beagle

Charles Darwin did visit the Fuegian natives in the Tierra del Fuego region of South America. The people were skilled sailors, and it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities that they had crude maps of their voyages in their possession. One other true detail is that Darwin did in fact
not
publish his famous treatise until twenty years after that fateful voyage. Which begs the historical question:
Why?

Maps, Maps, and More Maps

Within these pages, you’ll find examples of ancient maps that depict what seemingly appears to be the continent of Antarctica—but without ice. While these are real maps, centuries old, the debates about them continue today. But what we do know is that ancient people have been navigating the world’s oceans for much longer than originally suspected. The nautical timeline for humankind keeps getting pushed farther and farther back into history. And with the destruction of the famous Library of Alexandria—that vast storehouse for all ancient knowledge—who knows what great truths vanished in those flames?

Germans in Antarctica

All of the historical details about the Nazi exploration and interest in Antarctica is based on facts, including the cryptic statements by Admiral Karl Dönitz during the Nuremberg trials and his oddly light prison sentence.

Americans in Antarctica

Operation Highjump, led by Admiral Byrd, was a real operation involving over 5,000 men. Yet it still remains shrouded in mystery. Byrd’s snow cruiser is also an actual vehicle and was shipped to that continent, only to eventually vanish into history (or under the ice). And yes, the U.S. government did test atomic bombs down there.

British in Antarctica

The British Antarctic Survey has been going strong down on the southernmost continent almost longer than any other country, changing its name in the process as described in this book. And the Haley VI station is an active British research post (unless it slid into the sea like it did in the pages of this book). It does indeed look like a centipede wearing giant skis.

Most of the “tech” of this book was already covered in the Science section, but there are a couple of additional gadgets worth mentioning.

Technology

Captive Air Amphibious Transport (CAAT)

While these vehicles are still in the prototype stage, they have built scaled-down versions of this vehicle that are fully operational. In fact, I chose to base the smaller CAATs featured in this book upon those prototypes (and I had to greatly refrain myself from not calling those mini-CAATs . . . “Kittens”).

Sonic Weapons

Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs
) are employed across the world by police and military forces and operate basically as described in the book.

The more portable
directed stick radiators (DSRs)
are a patented design by American Technology Corporation. As far as I know they’re not being actively produced, but they function pretty much as described in the story, including the ability to broadcast speech or to be used as a directional microphone for eavesdropping.

So if you’re going into a dark cavern under Antarctica you might want to buy stock in that company.

Just a couple of words about

Locations

Tepui

These strange otherworldly plateaus stretch through Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil. Many have never been walked by man, and the strange, isolated ecosystems up there are pristine and untouched. The mythologies described in this book are also accurate, as are those strange sinkholes, caverns, and tunnels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set his novel
The Lost World
atop one of these tepui, so I figured surely that’s where Cutter Elwes would set up shop, far from prying eyes.

Mountain Warfare Training Center

I was able to visit this facility outside Bridgeport, California, and while most of the details are accurate, I did take a few liberties on minor issues (sorry, guys, I owe you some ribs from Bodie Mike’s Barbecue). But the base does indeed have a V/STOL airfield used for training, including working with the tiltrotor Ospreys. And the “Son of Osprey,” the Bell V-280 Valor featured in this book, is currently in development.

Mono Lake and Ghost Towns

Likewise, I visited Mono Lake several times and I hope I did the place and its people justice. Also if you’re ever up there, do check out the local ghost towns. Just watch out for helicopters full of commandos.

ONE LAST HISTORICAL NOTE

I hope you enjoyed this book. It’s the
tenth
novel in the Sigma series, debuting on the
tenth
anniversary of the first (
Sandstorm
, 2004). Knowing that milestone was upon us, I thought I’d use this opportunity to tease a bit to the past. Like seeing the return of Ashley Carter and Ben Brust, those stalwart Antarctic explorers, who along with Jason, found themselves in much trouble in my very first novel,
Subterranean
. Additionally, in this new book, I also wanted to acknowledge what’s to come, with some big changes hinted at in these same pages—because Sigma’s greatest and boldest adventures are still on the horizon.

So I hope to see you out there!

Jim Rollins

PS: Bring sunscreen (and extra ammunition).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAMES ROLLINS
is the New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers that have been translated into more than forty languages. In each novel, acclaimed for its originality, Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets— and he does it all at breakneck speed and with stunning insight. He lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

www.jamesrollins.com

www.facebook.com/sigmaforce

@jamesrollins

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

ALSO BY JAMES ROLLINS

ALSO BY JAMES ROLLINS AND REBECCA CANTRELL

The Blood Gospel

Innocent Blood

ALSO BY JAMES ROLLINS AND GRANT BLACKWOOD

The Kill Switch

CREDITS

Cover design by Richard L. Aquan

Cover photograph © by Digital Globe/Getty Images

Author Photograph by David Sylvian

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE 6TH EXTINCTION. Copyright © 2014 by James Czajkowski. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rollins, James, 1961–