“Tom! -- what came back from space? --!” The
terrified cry in the depths of the sea reflects the ominous, inhuman
presence
that haunts Aurum City, the sunken ruins of lost Atlantis! Tom Swift's
most fantastic exploit begins when the young inventor and those closest
to him
travel to Venice to prevent the encroaching sea from drowning the
picturesque
city of canals. The project depends upon a new invention, the terraphaser, an
ingenious device capable of expanding and contracting the earth’s crust. The
sea-road to
Venice crosses a mystery. Unexplained floating debris suggests a
disaster,
somehow linked to the Tyche, the
scale replica of a 19th-Century schooner. What connects Tom's
investigation of
the shipwreck to an underwater attack by swarming micro-subs and two
whispered
words--“fata morgana?” The answer may
rest on the floor of the ocean, where an uncanny overpowering
force seeks to draw Tom to the plain of brooding golden
pyramids, and into a scientific effort even Tom thinks is
impossible--to
complete a deadly mission spawned in the farthest reaches of space and
time!