Ghost Rig

by Cliff Patton, Leah Patton

ST. LUCIE ONE
was the first in a whole new breed of offshore drilling rigs designed for truly deep ocean oil exploration. It was an engineering marvel — the most ambitious experimental project Florexco had ever undertaken. But now the rig looked empty and dead...

DEEPER AND DEEPER
they had drilled — 700 feet, 1400 feet, inch by inch closer to the earth's inner core until a flash appeared. It was a bluish-green fiery ember — a glowing ball that seemed to throb and pulsate. Slowly it grew until it finally exploded in a shocking burst of brilliance. Then it was gone...

THE DEAD were left behind — skin burnt and leathery, faces contorted into horrified expressions of fear and pain. Where had that deadly ball of fire come from? Would it reappear and destroy again? The truth lay buried deep within the unknown bowels of the universe — a truth more catastrophic than man had ever imagined!

Genres: Horror

576 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1981

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ghost Rig is an old thriller from Zebra Books and it is a lot of fun. Published in 1981 you can expect it to be dated, but unlike most older thrillers, the subject matter still feels fresh. Our main lead is Jori Ashe, with a Ph.D. in geological engineering. She has been working in off-shore oil rigs for over a decade and, although content with her job at Gulf, she accepts a new post with an up and coming oil company Florexco based in Palm Beach, FL. The lead scientist there has developed a new drilling rig that should be able to go much deeper and much faster than anything else. Jori's new job is to manage the new rig in its first drill. Jori has faced a lot of sexism, being a woman in a 'mans' occupation, and faces a lot more at the new rig, especially from her co-director on the rig. The authors do a good job with this, exploring it from Jori's as well as her sexist colleague's perspectives, even though they overlook some of the blatant racism espoused by some of the characters. I mean, who calls black people negros any more in normal conversation?

Anyway, they locate the first dig about 15 miles off the coast of East Florida and all seems to be going well until one day they hit something that basically destroys a drill bit. Unperturbed, Jori orders a harder diamond cobalt bit put on and they go at it again. They finally break through and some sort of weird green electrical cloud emerges and kills almost everyone on the rig, leaving them looking like desiccated mummies. The few survivors quickly perish in a local hospital. Jori, fortunately, was at her beach front house when this happened. Florexco sends a team out to the rig and while most of the breakers were blown, no serious damage seems to have occurred. Mystified, they write it off as a bizarre lightening strike.

Florexco restarts the rig, but Jori does not quite buy the explanation of the accident. It seems that a lot of the workers on the rig are developing low white blood cell counts and other health anomalies but Florexco tries really hard to suppress the news. Several weeks later a similar event happens, this time Jori does get caught in the green energy field and struggles to live after being taken to a hospital. I will stop with the plot else I give too much away.

This is a 'romantic' novel in the sense that technology is a double edged sword, and the best intentions may produce horrible results. Patton crafts an engaging read with several nice twists and turns at the end. Sure, this is dated, but as I said above, it still feels fresh. 3.5 stars rounding up.