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Added example(s)
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* HiddenSupplies: While Sal Casio is searching Pitt's apartment, he finds several guns in various ingenious hiding places throughout the apartment. Then Pitt shows that Casio missed at least one: the one hidden inside an empty orange-juice carton in the refrigerator.
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Trope was cut/disambiguated due to cleanup
Deleted line(s) 26 (click to see context) :
* CoolGuns: Pitt uses an old Tommy gun here.
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Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* HollywoodAtheist: The novel is not shy about associating atheism and evil. Lugovoy and Suvorov are both communist and atheistic, while Moran only pretends to be a devout Christian as part of his clean guy image: he's actually a "convinced atheist" in addition to from being evil and corrupt.
to:
* HollywoodAtheist: The novel is not shy about associating atheism and evil. Lugovoy and Suvorov are both communist and atheistic, while Moran only pretends to be a devout Christian as part of his clean guy image: he's actually a "convinced atheist" in addition to from being evil and corrupt.
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* BloodFromEveryOrifice: The deadly chemical weapon Nerve Agent S has the side effect of causing victims to do this before dying.
Changed line(s) 37,38 (click to see context) from:
* HollywoodAtheist: The novel is not shy about associating atheism and evil. Lugovoy and Suvorov are both communist and atheistic, while Moran only pretends to be a devout Christian as part of his clean guy image: he's actually a "convinced atheist" aside from evil and corrupt.
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin, and has his own luxuries which he acknowledge would not pass a Communist inspection (though, ironically, he resembles Stalin at this).
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin, and has his own luxuries which he acknowledge would not pass a Communist inspection (though, ironically, he resembles Stalin at this).
to:
* HollywoodAtheist: The novel is not shy about associating atheism and evil. Lugovoy and Suvorov are both communist and atheistic, while Moran only pretends to be a devout Christian as part of his clean guy image: he's actually a "convinced atheist" aside in addition to from being evil and corrupt.
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin, and has his own luxuries which heacknowledge acknowledges would not pass a Communist inspection (though, ironically, he resembles Stalin at this).
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin, and has his own luxuries which he
Changed line(s) 57 (click to see context) from:
* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: For a regular shipping company, Bougainville has access to a surprisingly advanced technology and resources, which is never explained.
to:
* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: For a regular shipping company, Bougainville has access to a surprisingly advanced technology and resources, which is never explained.explained.
----
----
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Changed line(s) 15,16 (click to see context) from:
** In the book, Lugovoy performs a memory transference by injecting ribonucleic acid (RNA) from the emitter in the receiver's hippocampus. In real life, RNA is a molecule related to the expression of genes and has absolutely nothing to do with memory. Its not even a neurotransmitter or anything related to the hippocampus in particular.
** Lugovoy claims dreams are almost exclusively visual experiences, without smell, taste or pain. In real life, those oniric traits ara comparatively rarer, but not impossible at all. People blind from birth, for example, have dreams that are obviously all but visual.
** Lugovoy claims dreams are almost exclusively visual experiences, without smell, taste or pain. In real life, those oniric traits ara comparatively rarer, but not impossible at all. People blind from birth, for example, have dreams that are obviously all but visual.
to:
** In the book, Lugovoy performs a memory transference by injecting ribonucleic acid (RNA) from the emitter in the receiver's hippocampus. RNA being related to memory is mostly dated science, it having been sort of a vogue in TheSixties born of James [=McConnell=]'s controversial experiments with flatworms. In real life, RNA is a molecule related to the expression of genes and has absolutely nothing not been reliably found to have anything to do with memory. Its memory; its not even a neurotransmitter or anything related to the hippocampus in particular.
** Lugovoy claims dreams are almost exclusively visual experiences, without smell, taste or pain. In real life, those oniric traitsara are comparatively rarer, but not impossible at all. People blind from birth, for example, have dreams that are obviously all but visual.
** Lugovoy claims dreams are almost exclusively visual experiences, without smell, taste or pain. In real life, those oniric traits
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Grumpy Bear is no longer a trope. Moving examples to other tropes when applicable.
Deleted line(s) 34 (click to see context) :
* GrumpyBear: Amos Dover is grumpy and literally described as bear-like.
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Moving cut What An Idiot entry that lacked the proper formatting here.
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* IdiotBall: The book contains a ''spectacular'' number of those instances, including Pitt for publishing a bait for a corrupt corporation under his real name, Sandecker for then using Pitt for a secret mission, the Secret Service for seeing nothing wrong on a covert agent having mysteriously forgotten his part, the corrupt corporation for somehow not realizing there is an extra man in the team they have secretly gathered, the KGB for not properly briefing said extra man, Lee Tong for not shooting Pitt dead when he was in front of him with a rifle in the lifeboat (and instead trying to beat him to death), the Service Secret again for believing for a moment the president's supposed alibi for his disappearance (an alibi that might be a strong case for high treason anyway), General Metcalf for obeying the increasingly deranged orders of an obvious dictator wannabe on the basis of being his friend, and finally the corporation again for registering ship names that contain clues to their secret base.
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Not So Different has been renamed, and it needs to be dewicked/moved
* MirroringFactions: Subtlely done with the government of the United States, which is shown to be similar to the USSR in several ways: political corruption is a problem in both countries (Antonov and Moran), they both have brainwashing projects (Lugovoy and Edgeley), and both of them would eliminate people to keep affairs secret (Sutton and... well, many Russian people). It's even hinted that the US Press Secretary might be an ex-Nazi of all things.
Deleted line(s) 47 (click to see context) :
* NotSoDifferent: Subtlely done with the government of the United States, which is shown to be similar to the USSR in several ways: political corruption is a problem in both countries (Antonov and Moran), they both have brainwashing projects (Lugovoy and Edgeley), and both of them would eliminate people to keep affairs secret (Sutton and... well, many Russian people). It's even hinted that the US Press Secretary might be an ex-Nazi of all things.
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None
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The story is set in TheEighties, yet it features death lasers and incredibly advanced neuroscience.
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* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Antonov and Polevoi are genuinely puzzled that their plan to hijack United States by brainwashing its president met a spectacular failure. The implied point is that, as they both grew in a communist dictatorship, they cannot honestly get in their heads that a democratic country does not work the same way and is not completely at the orders of its head of state. They then reinforce this by stating that the capitalist mindset seems "unpredictable" and just too bizarre for them.
to:
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Antonov and Polevoi are genuinely puzzled that their plan to hijack United States by brainwashing its president met a spectacular failure. The implied point is that, as they both grew were raised in a communist dictatorship, they cannot honestly get in their heads that a democratic country does not work the same way and is not completely at the orders of its head of state. They then reinforce this by stating that the capitalist mindset seems "unpredictable" and just too bizarre for them.
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin and has his own luxuries which he acknowledge would not pass a Communist inspection.
to:
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin Stalin, and has his own luxuries which he acknowledge would not pass a Communist inspection.inspection (though, ironically, he resembles Stalin at this).
Changed line(s) 46,47 (click to see context) from:
* NotSoDifferent: Subtlely done with the government of the United States, which is shown to be similar to the USSR in several ways: its political are both corrupt (Antonov and Moran), they both have brainwashing projects (Lugovoy and Edgeley), and both of them would eliminate people to keep secret affair (Sutton and... well, many Russian people). It's even hinted that the US Press Secretary might be an ex-Nazi.
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the Communist Party and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much of the communist life conditions either.
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the Communist Party and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much of the communist life conditions either.
to:
* NotSoDifferent: Subtlely done with the government of the United States, which is shown to be similar to the USSR in several ways: its political are corruption is a problem in both corrupt countries (Antonov and Moran), they both have brainwashing projects (Lugovoy and Edgeley), and both of them would eliminate people to keep affairs secret affair (Sutton and... well, many Russian people). It's even hinted that the US Press Secretary might be an ex-Nazi.
ex-Nazi of all things.
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the Communist Party and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much ofthe communist his motherland's life conditions either.
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the Communist Party and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much of
Changed line(s) 55 (click to see context) from:
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: In 1963, the CIA built a fleet of crappy-looking ships secretly equipped with missiles and black ops gear to harass Castro and later execute mission. They also took part in the Irani invasion in 1985.
to:
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: In 1963, the CIA built a fleet of crappy-looking ships secretly equipped with missiles and black ops gear to harass Castro and later execute mission.missions. They also took part in the Irani invasion in 1985.
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None
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* HardTruthAesop: People, governments and ideologies cannot be simply redeemed through compassion, and if you ever approach them with the intent to help them, [[TheFarmerAndTheViper they will take advantage on it to destroy you]].
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Changed line(s) 5,6 (click to see context) from:
At the same time, much to the shock and horror of everybody in the White House, the troubled President of United States disappears in a ship tour through the Potomac in midst of the difficult climate of the ColdWar. The trail is soon caught by Pitt himself, that discovers clues of a sinister and improbable plan operated by an absurdly powerful North Korean shipping company that could lead to the fall of the government.
to:
At the same time, much to the shock and horror of everybody in the White House, the troubled President of United States disappears in a ship tour through the Potomac in midst of the difficult climate of the ColdWar.UsefulNotes/ColdWar. The trail is soon caught by Pitt himself, that discovers clues of a sinister and improbable plan operated by an absurdly powerful North Korean shipping company that could lead to the fall of the government.
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* RetiredBadass: Sal Casio remains an uber-strong martial artist despite being 60 and barely still accepting cases.
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Badass Grandpa is not a trope
Deleted line(s) 17 (click to see context) :
* BadassGrandpa: Sal Casio is 60 and still is a uber-strong martial artist.
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None
* CoolGuns: Pitt uses an old Tommy gun here.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Antonov and Polevoi are genuinely puzzled that their plan to hijack United States by brainwashing its president met a spectacular failure. The implied point is that, as they both grew in a communist dictatorship, they cannot honestly get in their heads that a democratic country does not work the same way and is not completely at the orders of its head of state. They then reinforce this by stating that the capitalist mindset seems "unpredictable" and just too bizarre for them.
* InterchangeableAsianCultures: Suvorov seems to believe this, as he mistakes the Koreans for Mongolians.
Changed line(s) 42 (click to see context) from:
** Vladimir Polevoi is another for Viktor Chebrikov, KGB head under Andropov.
to:
** Vladimir Polevoi is another for Viktor Chebrikov, the KGB head under Andropov.
Changed line(s) 44 (click to see context) from:
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the USSR and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much of communism either.
to:
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the USSR Communist Party and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much of communism the communist life conditions either.
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None
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''Deep Six'' is an early novel by Creator/CliveCussler. It was published in 1984 as the seventh book in the Literature/DirkPittAdventures series, although it actually follows the fifth book, ''Night Probe!'', given that the previous installment, ''Literature/PacificVortex'', is a {{Prequel}}.
When a mysterious and extremely deadly poison spreads through the waters off the coast of Alaska in 1989, killing everything it comes in contact with from scientists to members of the crew of a Coast Guard cutter, Dirk Pitt and his NUMA team are dispatched in an attempt to find the source of the poison. After a female and rather attractive member of his team is killed by the poison, Pitt vows to take revenge on whoever is responsible for the poison outbreak.
At the same time, much to the shock and horror of everybody in the White House, the troubled President of United States disappears in a ship tour through the Potomac in midst of the difficult climate of the ColdWar. The trail is soon caught by Pitt himself, that discovers clues of a sinister and improbable plan operated by an absurdly powerful North Korean shipping company that could lead to the fall of the government.
----
!!This book provides examples of:
* AbortedArc: Lugovoy fears the brainwashed president might eventually break from their control and do "something terrible" due to all the process. This is never brought up again.
* ActionPolitician: Speaker of the House Lorrimer shows some of this during the burning cruise ship crisis.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Defied. Lugovoy, an obvious biological/cognitive psychologist, chews Freudian theories out while talking to his assistant.
* ArgentinaIsNaziland: Subverted in that it is United States, not Argentine. Sonny Thompson, the White House's press secretary, is rumored in-universe to have been an understudy of Joseph Goebbels.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** In the book, Lugovoy performs a memory transference by injecting ribonucleic acid (RNA) from the emitter in the receiver's hippocampus. In real life, RNA is a molecule related to the expression of genes and has absolutely nothing to do with memory. Its not even a neurotransmitter or anything related to the hippocampus in particular.
** Lugovoy claims dreams are almost exclusively visual experiences, without smell, taste or pain. In real life, those oniric traits ara comparatively rarer, but not impossible at all. People blind from birth, for example, have dreams that are obviously all but visual.
* ArtisticLicenseMartialArts: One of Koryo's female mooks adopts a "judo stance" and throws several strikes to Casio. In real life, UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} is a grappling art, with no strikes (it ''does'' have striking in its old katas, but those are basically in disuse outside of grading exams), and it doesn't have a particular, recognizable stance (the nearest to this might be the kinds of sleeve and collar grips that can be established to grab the opponent).
* BadassGrandpa: Sal Casio is 60 and still is a uber-strong martial artist.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Georgi Antonov and Min Koryo, although the latter spends more time on the role.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The president himself, which is the plot of the book.
* TheCavalry: A nearly literal example at the end when Dirk storms the Bougainville ship with a regiment of Civil War reenactors after being unable to find any other forces close enough.
* ContinuityPorn:
** One of the White House men reads Pitt's file, mentioning evens from previous books like the Titanic rescue (''Literature/RaiseTheTitanic''), Vixen Operation (''Vixen 03'') and the Canada affair (''Night Probe!'').
** It also contains a reference to the S. S. ''United States'', which would be brought up in ''Flood Tide''.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Loren happens to be in the deck of the ''Leonid Andreyev'' just when Moran is brought to the ship.
* CorruptPolitician: Alan Moran, who we are said he has connections to the mafia.
* {{Determinator}}: After the first group of Federal agents trying to stop the tug with the vice president onboard get shot up and there radio is lost, one man hikes several miles to the nearest phone booth (with a severe injury, under the hot summer sun) to call the White House and report what's happening.
* TheDragon: Lee Tong to Min Koryo.
* DragonLady: Min Koryo shows shades of having been this in the past.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Prostitution is the only shady business Min Koryo doesn't practice. It's hinted to be because she is a former child sex slave.
* ExactWords: The USSR follows their word to hand Bougainville a cargo of gold... only that they sink the ship right after and recover the cargo.
* GoodCounterpart: Raymond Edgeley to Lugovoy.
* GrumpyBear: Amos Dover is grumpy and literally described as bear-like.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Let's say the presidential Secret Service doesn't get its best portrayal ever in this book. Not only they fail to impede the president to be kidnapped, but also somehow don't notice when he is brough again to the White House.
* HardBoiledDetective: Sal Casio, complete with a noir-style outfit.
* HollywoodAtheist: The novel is not shy about associating atheism and evil. Lugovoy and Suvorov are both communist and atheistic, while Moran only pretends to be a devout Christian as part of his clean guy image: he's actually a "convinced atheist" aside from evil and corrupt.
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin and has his own luxuries which he acknowledge would not pass a Communist inspection.
* LaserCutter: Koryo has a rather futuristic laser ray emitter installed directly over her bed, in case of undesirable people threatening her.
* MayDecemberRomance: Subverted. Sandecker has a date with Bonnie Cowman, who is young enough to be his daughter, though it doesn't work out.
* MegaCorp: The Bougainville corporation isn't as powerful or complex as other corps presented in Cussler's books, but it is ''absurdly'' efficient, outsmarting both the USSR and the United States government all the day.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Georgi Antonov is a stand-in for real life president Yuri Andropov, who had his own scandal for questionable psychiatric commitment of people deemed enemies of the State (though Andropov died in 1984, while Antonov is still alive by 1989). The characters even mention real life foreign minister Andrei Gromyko, who was Andropov's right hand man.
** Vladimir Polevoi is another for Viktor Chebrikov, KGB head under Andropov.
* NotSoDifferent: Subtlely done with the government of the United States, which is shown to be similar to the USSR in several ways: its political are both corrupt (Antonov and Moran), they both have brainwashing projects (Lugovoy and Edgeley), and both of them would eliminate people to keep secret affair (Sutton and... well, many Russian people). It's even hinted that the US Press Secretary might be an ex-Nazi.
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the USSR and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much of communism either.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Sal is deterred to tear down the Bougainville's for killing his daughter, as is Pitt for Julie Mendoza.
* RussianGuySuffersMost: USSR is the main loser of the three-way war with United States and the Bougainville corporation.
* ShoutOut:
** Suvorov is said to be the son of a Party member named Viktor Suvorov, just like the real life novelist and historian.
** Novelist Harold Robbins is also mentioned.
* SovietSuperscience: Lugovoy's mind control techniques are straight out of sci-fi. Later subverted when the technology that Bougainville gets him is even better, and then when U.S. technology on the matter is stated to be even more advanced.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: In 1963, the CIA built a fleet of crappy-looking ships secretly equipped with missiles and black ops gear to harass Castro and later execute mission. They also took part in the Irani invasion in 1985.
* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: For a regular shipping company, Bougainville has access to a surprisingly advanced technology and resources, which is never explained.
When a mysterious and extremely deadly poison spreads through the waters off the coast of Alaska in 1989, killing everything it comes in contact with from scientists to members of the crew of a Coast Guard cutter, Dirk Pitt and his NUMA team are dispatched in an attempt to find the source of the poison. After a female and rather attractive member of his team is killed by the poison, Pitt vows to take revenge on whoever is responsible for the poison outbreak.
At the same time, much to the shock and horror of everybody in the White House, the troubled President of United States disappears in a ship tour through the Potomac in midst of the difficult climate of the ColdWar. The trail is soon caught by Pitt himself, that discovers clues of a sinister and improbable plan operated by an absurdly powerful North Korean shipping company that could lead to the fall of the government.
----
!!This book provides examples of:
* AbortedArc: Lugovoy fears the brainwashed president might eventually break from their control and do "something terrible" due to all the process. This is never brought up again.
* ActionPolitician: Speaker of the House Lorrimer shows some of this during the burning cruise ship crisis.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Defied. Lugovoy, an obvious biological/cognitive psychologist, chews Freudian theories out while talking to his assistant.
* ArgentinaIsNaziland: Subverted in that it is United States, not Argentine. Sonny Thompson, the White House's press secretary, is rumored in-universe to have been an understudy of Joseph Goebbels.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** In the book, Lugovoy performs a memory transference by injecting ribonucleic acid (RNA) from the emitter in the receiver's hippocampus. In real life, RNA is a molecule related to the expression of genes and has absolutely nothing to do with memory. Its not even a neurotransmitter or anything related to the hippocampus in particular.
** Lugovoy claims dreams are almost exclusively visual experiences, without smell, taste or pain. In real life, those oniric traits ara comparatively rarer, but not impossible at all. People blind from birth, for example, have dreams that are obviously all but visual.
* ArtisticLicenseMartialArts: One of Koryo's female mooks adopts a "judo stance" and throws several strikes to Casio. In real life, UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} is a grappling art, with no strikes (it ''does'' have striking in its old katas, but those are basically in disuse outside of grading exams), and it doesn't have a particular, recognizable stance (the nearest to this might be the kinds of sleeve and collar grips that can be established to grab the opponent).
* BadassGrandpa: Sal Casio is 60 and still is a uber-strong martial artist.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Georgi Antonov and Min Koryo, although the latter spends more time on the role.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The president himself, which is the plot of the book.
* TheCavalry: A nearly literal example at the end when Dirk storms the Bougainville ship with a regiment of Civil War reenactors after being unable to find any other forces close enough.
* ContinuityPorn:
** One of the White House men reads Pitt's file, mentioning evens from previous books like the Titanic rescue (''Literature/RaiseTheTitanic''), Vixen Operation (''Vixen 03'') and the Canada affair (''Night Probe!'').
** It also contains a reference to the S. S. ''United States'', which would be brought up in ''Flood Tide''.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Loren happens to be in the deck of the ''Leonid Andreyev'' just when Moran is brought to the ship.
* CorruptPolitician: Alan Moran, who we are said he has connections to the mafia.
* {{Determinator}}: After the first group of Federal agents trying to stop the tug with the vice president onboard get shot up and there radio is lost, one man hikes several miles to the nearest phone booth (with a severe injury, under the hot summer sun) to call the White House and report what's happening.
* TheDragon: Lee Tong to Min Koryo.
* DragonLady: Min Koryo shows shades of having been this in the past.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Prostitution is the only shady business Min Koryo doesn't practice. It's hinted to be because she is a former child sex slave.
* ExactWords: The USSR follows their word to hand Bougainville a cargo of gold... only that they sink the ship right after and recover the cargo.
* GoodCounterpart: Raymond Edgeley to Lugovoy.
* GrumpyBear: Amos Dover is grumpy and literally described as bear-like.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Let's say the presidential Secret Service doesn't get its best portrayal ever in this book. Not only they fail to impede the president to be kidnapped, but also somehow don't notice when he is brough again to the White House.
* HardBoiledDetective: Sal Casio, complete with a noir-style outfit.
* HollywoodAtheist: The novel is not shy about associating atheism and evil. Lugovoy and Suvorov are both communist and atheistic, while Moran only pretends to be a devout Christian as part of his clean guy image: he's actually a "convinced atheist" aside from evil and corrupt.
* {{Hypocrite}}: President of the USSR Georgi Antonov is not exactly a fan of Stalin and has his own luxuries which he acknowledge would not pass a Communist inspection.
* LaserCutter: Koryo has a rather futuristic laser ray emitter installed directly over her bed, in case of undesirable people threatening her.
* MayDecemberRomance: Subverted. Sandecker has a date with Bonnie Cowman, who is young enough to be his daughter, though it doesn't work out.
* MegaCorp: The Bougainville corporation isn't as powerful or complex as other corps presented in Cussler's books, but it is ''absurdly'' efficient, outsmarting both the USSR and the United States government all the day.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Georgi Antonov is a stand-in for real life president Yuri Andropov, who had his own scandal for questionable psychiatric commitment of people deemed enemies of the State (though Andropov died in 1984, while Antonov is still alive by 1989). The characters even mention real life foreign minister Andrei Gromyko, who was Andropov's right hand man.
** Vladimir Polevoi is another for Viktor Chebrikov, KGB head under Andropov.
* NotSoDifferent: Subtlely done with the government of the United States, which is shown to be similar to the USSR in several ways: its political are both corrupt (Antonov and Moran), they both have brainwashing projects (Lugovoy and Edgeley), and both of them would eliminate people to keep secret affair (Sutton and... well, many Russian people). It's even hinted that the US Press Secretary might be an ex-Nazi.
* PunchClockVillain: Aleksei Lugovoy, to a point. While he is unambiguously loyal to the USSR and profiled as an amoral scientist, he is clearly overwhelmed by the project's magnitude and would honestly rather be doing anything else. Also, he doesn't share Suvorov's fanaticism and meanness, and his inner thoughts show he doesn't think much of communism either.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Sal is deterred to tear down the Bougainville's for killing his daughter, as is Pitt for Julie Mendoza.
* RussianGuySuffersMost: USSR is the main loser of the three-way war with United States and the Bougainville corporation.
* ShoutOut:
** Suvorov is said to be the son of a Party member named Viktor Suvorov, just like the real life novelist and historian.
** Novelist Harold Robbins is also mentioned.
* SovietSuperscience: Lugovoy's mind control techniques are straight out of sci-fi. Later subverted when the technology that Bougainville gets him is even better, and then when U.S. technology on the matter is stated to be even more advanced.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: In 1963, the CIA built a fleet of crappy-looking ships secretly equipped with missiles and black ops gear to harass Castro and later execute mission. They also took part in the Irani invasion in 1985.
* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: For a regular shipping company, Bougainville has access to a surprisingly advanced technology and resources, which is never explained.
