Richard Mariner is standing on the bridge of the converted corvette 'Poseidon', his hand is steady despite the fact that the ship has just ridden out an earthquake powerful enough to destroy the Three Gorges Dam. He should be ordering 'Poseidon' back down the Yangtze but several things are making him hesitate.

An ecological experiment financed by Heritage Mariner and Greenbaum International has been set-up to track a plastic bottle, filled with littery tickets, that has been dropped in a Tokyo river, in order to prove how swiftly rubbish can foul the oceans. When it is found to contain the winning ticket, a dangerous game begins.

Richard Mariner is drawn into a danger-filled, action-packed race against time when his ship is hijacked by pirates Sayonara. The world?s largest Liquid Natural Gas tanker. She represents a huge and risky investment for Heritage Mariner. The first vessel of this size to sail without a crew, using only computer control and millimetre-precise GPS positioning, she is programmed to dock automatically in Japan. Her cargo has the potential of fifty-five...