Things Are Not Always as They Seem.

Theme One - Things are Not Always as They Seem.

Mayday is a study of most things not always being as they originally seem to be. Clive Cussler uses the opening scene in the prologue to demonstrate that the feeling of hot, sultry boredom belies a sudden attack on the air field from the bright yellow World War I biplane replica creating sudden fear and havoc as the planes on the ground explode into giant fireballs seen for miles.

The author then creates a series of characters who are not who they claim to be. The woman Pitt makes love to on the beach, Teri, is not von Till's niece, but a spy. She is Zacynthus's plant, positioned to get closer to von Till. Zacynthus, too, is not the Police Inspector he is posing as, but an American agent of the Federal...