Tractrix is a mystery/adventure novel with archeological undertones and just a hint of science fiction. It's the first in a series called Seeds of Civilization, which deals with the age and origin of the Earth's earliest civilizations in light of the growing body of underwater archeological discoveries.
When aerospace engineer and recent widower Frank Morton wins an $86 million lottery jackpot, he retires to pursue a life-long interest in the many unsolved “mysteries of history.” Coincidently, an
old Viet Nam buddy shows up with a mysterious black
sphere inscribed with what appear to be Maya hieroglyphics. Intrigued, Frank convinces his buddy and two other friends, an archeology professor and a newspaper researcher, to
help him investigate the origin and purpose of the sphere.
In Las Vegas, Frank learns that Al Thompson, the old timer who gave Tony the sphere, has been hospitalized with a gunshot wound. Frank attempts to learn more about the old man by posing as his nephew. Unfortunately, the nurse that Frank tries to dupe into giving him information turns out to be the old man’s stepdaughter and she accuses Frank of kidnapping because the old man had disappeared just hours before Frank’s arrival at the hospital.
Eventually, Frank convinces the stepdaughter, Jill Harris, that he meant no harm and he agrees to help her locate the old man. Tony arrives from Atlanta to join in the hunt and Al Thompson is eventually located in a military hospital outside Las Vegas where he soon dies from the gunshot wound.
A search of the old man’s mobile home uncovers a safe containing two more
spheres and a large amount of cash. Just as Tony and Jill are becoming romantically involved, Department of Energy
agents appear and inform Jill that her stepfather was actually a physicist assigned to a secret DOE project. The agents convince Jill that she should take her stepfather’s cash and leave the country until those responsible for the old man’s death are apprehended.
Jim Barnes, an anthropologist from the University of Washington and Linda McBride, Frank’s next-door neighbor and a staff researcher for Seattle’s largest daily newspaper, join Frank and Tony in Las Vegas to continue the investigation of the mysterious spheres.
Jim decodes the hieroglyphics and discovers that the three spheres each specify the date and location of a total solar eclipse that occurred in Mesoamerica. The locations seem to be relative to a site named Loltun, so Frank and Jim head to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to pursue the origin of the spheres while Tony remains in Las Vegas to continue the investigation into the old man’s death.
In Merida, Frank meets Alejandra, a Mexican-American divorcée and owner of the sidewalk café in front of the hotel. Meanwhile, Jim is befriended by Carmen, a librarian at the nearby university. With the help of a local shopkeeper and his son, Frank and Jim visit Loltun Caverns and find another sphere in a secret chamber deep beneath the complex. This new sphere appears to be the last of twenty such objects once stored in the chamber. On their way back to Merida, the sphere begins to show signs of activity.
Back in Nevada, the DOE agents approach Tony and asks for his help. They disclose that spheres similar to the one the old man gave Tony have been showing up at an isolated spot inside the DOE’s highly secure Nevada Test Site every two or three years since 1951 – the year the first nuclear test was conducted there. Tony tells the agents about the dates and locations Jim has deciphered and one of them immediately flies to the Yucatan to retrieve Frank and Jim. The agents “draft” Frank, Tony, Jim and Linda into a special investigative unit headed by DOD exobiologist Ben Kingston.
The closing chapters of Tractrix provide the solutions to a number of intertwined mysteries and Ben reveals classified information that implies a direct connection between the Maya of the Yucatan and an ancient race of explorers.
In the Epilogue, st in Seattle, Frank announces plans to begin a new investigation and asks Tony, Jim and Linda to join him in his newly created non-profit research organization called the Northwest Institute of Discovery and Investigation (NWIDI).
Tractrix is followed by the novel Tsubute, which takes place on the tiny Japanese island of Yonaguni. Book 3, to be titled Triangle, is currently in production and will focus on the recently discovered "lost city" located 2,200 feet underwater just off the northwestern tip of Cuba.
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