The Mediterranean Caper

The Mediterranean Caper is an Action-Adventure novel by Clive Cussler published in the United States in 1973. This is the 1st published book featuring the author’s primary protagonist, Dirk Pitt. It was nominated for an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America for "Best Paperback Original Novel of 1973."

Plot summary

Dirk has been sent to the Aegean to meet Commander Rudi Gunn, captain of the NUMA research vessel First Attempt, to try to get to the bottom of the recent spate of mishaps on its current assignment. The First Attempt is on a research expedition attempting to find a living fossil lovingly named The Teaser, which scientists believe may be living evidence of the development of the first mammal.

Following his fight with the biplane Dirk goes for a midnight swim and meets a beautiful young woman named Teri von Till who he quickly seduces and makes love to on the beach. She invites him to dinner at her uncle's villa that evening where Pitt is introduced to the book's primary villain, Bruno von Till. Pitt learns that von Till is an old comrade in arms of Lt. Kurt Hiebert, a World War I flying ace known as the Hawk of Macedonia, whose trademark was a bright yellow Albatross biplane.

After dinner, he confronts von Till about his involvement with the attack on the airfield and while von Till admits nothing he forces Pitt to leave the villa at gunpoint through a door that that leads him into what is known as the Pit of Hades. It is later explained that the Pit of Hades is a labyrinth once used in ancient Greek times when the villagers sentenced a convicted felon to death. The person sentenced to die was given the choice of an instant death or choosing the Pit of Hades. The labyrinth had only one entrance, a concealed exit, and roaming amongst the many passages was a hungry lion. In recorded history no one had successfully found the exit before the lion found them. While von Till does not have a lion he does have a very large white German Shepherd with which Dirk Pitt engages in a mortal struggle.

Following his successful escape Pitt is taken into custody when he returns to seek his revenge on Bruno von Till and is captured escaping the villa with Teri von Till as his prisoner. It is later revealed that Bruno von Till has been under surveillance by agents of Interpol and Inspector Hercules Zacynthus of the United States Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The inspector explains that von Till is suspected of being a world-class smuggler responsible for the transportation of all types of goods related to many heinous criminal acts. These acts include the great Spanish gold theft in 1954 which nearly toppled the Spanish economy; the mysterious disappearance of 83 high-ranking Nazi officers from Germany at the end of World War II and their sudden reemergence in Buenos Aires; and the abduction of a bus full of teenage girls in Naples, Italy who were sold into white slavery in Casablanca. The inspector now believes that von Till is attempting to smuggle nearly half a billion dollars worth of heroin into the United States using his fleet of cargo ships called Minerva lines.

Despite the best efforts of Interpol, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Customs, and many other law enforcement agencies they have been unable to catch Bruno von Till transporting anything illegal on any of his ships. Pitt eventually discovers that von Till, using the resources of his shipping line, has raised the sunken wrecks of the German U-boat U-19 and a Japanese I-Boat class submarine which he has been using as part of a smuggling operation. Von till has converted a German submarine into a completely automated smuggling craft that can be easily attached or detached from the holds of his cargo ships.

Using Pitt's surmises as a basis for action the inspector launches a campaign to capture as many distributors of heroin in the United States as possible. However, Pitt suspects that Bruno von Till is aware of the approach of Interpol and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and he launches his own desperate mission with Al and members of the crew of the First Attempt in a last-ditch effort to stop von Till before he can escape and set up his nefarious drug smuggling operation somewhere else.

Characters in "The Mediterranean Caper"

• Captain Darius - Assistant to Colonel Zeno of the Greek gendarmerie as well as a traitor in the employ of Bruno von Till.
• Lieutenant Kurt Heibert - World War I fighter ace known as the Hawk of Macedonia. He served in Jagedestaffel 91, obtained 32 victories over the allies on the Macedonian front and was one of the outstanding aces of the Great War. He was presumed shot down and lost in the Aegean Sea on July 15, 1918.
• Captain Al Giordino Deputy Special Projects Director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency.
• Commander Rudi Gunn Captain of the NUMA research vessel First Attempt and commander of the expedition.
• Dr. Ken Knight - A brilliant Marine geophysicist assigned to the research ship First Attempt.
• Colonel Lewis - Commander of Brady Air Force Base.
• Major Dirk Pitt of the United States Air Force now seconded to The National Underwater and Marine Agency as Special Projects Director
• Admiral James Sandecker - Chief Director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency.
• Bruno von Till - Owner and operator of the Minerva steamship line which he uses as part of a nefarious smuggling operation. Introduced as a World War I fighter pilot it is later revealed that von Till is in actuality Admiral Erich Hiebert; Commander of Nazi Germany's transportation fleet; fanatical follower of Adolf Hitler; and brother of Kurt Hiebert, the World War I ace. Hiebert was convicted in absentia by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg and sentenced to death for loading decrepit merchant ships with British and American prisoners of war and setting them adrift to be bombed by British and American pilots.
• Teri von Till - Niece of Bruno von Till who Dirk meets and seduces on a deserted beach. She is later revealed to be an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics working for inspector Zacynthus. Her real name is revealed as Amy.
• Inspector Hercules Zacynthus - Federal Bureau of Narcotics inspector who is the head of a multi-nation, multi-jurisdictional task force under the auspices of Interpol. Zacynthus is in Greece attempting to foil the smuggling operation of von Till and stop a massive shipment of heroin from reaching the United States.
• Colonel Polyclitus Anaxamander Zeno - second in command of the task force and Commander of the Greek gendarmerie, a branch of the national army.

Trivia

• In the United Kingdom, this novel was titled Mayday!
• Clive Cussler, a world-renowned car collector, frequently writes cars from his own collection into his novels generally as part of the fictional collection of his hero Dirk Pitt. In this novel Pitt takes home as the spoils of war his enemy's 1936 Maybach-Zeppelin.
• Though the names of the two major national advertising agencies that Clive Cussler worked for are never mentioned in his official biographies he does name two major agencies in this novel in reference to the villain’s over-obvious advertising of the destination for his illegal shipment of narcotics. It is possible that the two agencies that he named, BBD&O and J. Walter Thompson, are in fact the agencies that he worked for, which he has inserted into the story is a playful jibe.
• Cussler notes in the foreword to the reissue hardcover edition of the novel that he has never been particularly keen on the title 'The Mediterranean Caper. '
• In later novels Clive Cussler has developed a habit of inserting himself as a character on the periphery of his stories. While there is no character bearing his name in The Mediterranean Caper, the description of the doctor on the NUMA ship First Attempt seems to fit the author's description: tall, with gray hair, blue eyes, and a silver goatee.