The Aral - Paperback

by Frank Wilem (Author)

FACT: The Aral Sea area is the worst man-made ecological disaster in the history of the world and home to what once was the world's largest bioweapons lab. Quint, Dawson, and their team rush to Uzbekistan to destroy a bioweapons cache before it falls into the hands of terrorists. With the Aral Sea shrinking, Renaissance Island will soon become a peninsula giving terrorists easy access to anthrax, VX nerve agent, and most terrifying: a genetically altered strain of small pox for which there is no method of prevention and no cure. The quirky characters from Wilem's previous two novels face dust storms, armed mercenaries, and some of the team's old enemies who place obstacles in their path at every turn. In a race from Uzbekistan to the Arctic, not all of them will make it out unscathed or alive in their struggle against thugs, terrorists, and corrupt Russian soldiers.

Author Biography

Frank J. Wilem, Jr., is an entrepreneur living in Gulfport, Mississippi with his wife, Dee Dee, and daughter, Brittany. Frank's love for the sea blossomed during his high school years at West High in Torrance, California when a friend convinced him to snorkel off Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes. When it was his turn to use the mask, one look beneath the chilly Pacific waters and he was hooked. After graduating from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, the call of the ocean led him to the University of Miami, where he earned a Masters degree in Ocean Engineering. Frank worked in the R&D departments for two Fortune 500 companies before his love of the ocean led him to join Computer Sciences Corporation at NASA's Stennis Space Center. He left there to become a founder of Triton Systems, Inc., which he and his partners grew into a $100 million company and the nation's largest manufacturer of automatic teller machines. With the sale of Triton, Frank purchased his sportfish boat, Vixen, and pursued his passion for bluewater fishing. Most days he and Captain Eric Gill can be found in the northern waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the Bahamas, chasing billfish, tuna, wahoo and dolphin. The Aral is Frank's third book.