An American mining engineer, Captain Humbert Reynolds, has gold fever—an elusive ailment that cloaks rational thought and drives men across endless plains and daunting mountain peaks to seek their quarry. Ignoring all warnings and signs of treachery, Reynolds travels to the barren expanses of the Gobi Desert in search of the glittery gold. Captured by bandits and thrown to an enclave of Machiavellian monks nestled deep inside a cavernous mountain, Reynolds finds a scene that resembles the horrors of Dante's hell.
'Calling all cars, calling all cars. Here's the story on the Smoke Rise kidnapping. The missing boy is eight years old, fair hair, wearing a red sweater. His name is Jeffry Reynolds, son of Charles Reynolds, chauffeur to Douglas King.'
The police at the 87th Precinct hate kidnappers. And these kidnappers are stupid, too. They took the wrong boy - the chauffeur's son instead of the son of the rich tycoon, Douglas King. And they want a ransom of $500,000.
A lot of money. But it's not too much to pay for a little boy's life ... is it?
