Inca Gold (adapted for young readers)

Dirk Pitt is the world's greatest adventure hero -- a man of action who lives by his wits and daring. As Special Projects Director for the U.S. National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), he is cool and courageous, with a love of fast cars and extreme danger. A death-defying rescue of two drowning scientists plunges Dirk Pitt into a whirlpool of corruption and betrayal. Sinister criminals have traced a long-lost treasure -- worth almost a billion dollars -- from the Andes Mountains to a chamber on the banks of a hidden river that flows beneath a desert. Driven by burning greed, the criminals are racing to seize a golden prize...and to terminate the one man who can stop them: Dirk Pitt