In May 2007, 62 years later, a team of CDC researchers, including beautiful field epidemiologist Sarah Matson, are unexpectedly infected by a deadly and mystery illness in the Aleutian islands; they are rescued by Dirk Pitt Jr. (hereinafter Pitt Jr.), who is nearby on a NUMA research vessel. Pitt Jr, with friend and coworker Jack Dahlgren, return to the site to investigate, but their helicopter is downed by gunfire from a mysterious trawler. They survive, eventually determining that the illness resulted from a toxic compound of cyanide and smallpox.