I made some corrections and add to the begining.

Caótico Engaño
…The mighty Mississippi River meanders from her humble beginnings in the northern United States down to her gaping mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. She has seen her fair share of the usual disasters that are associated with any river. However, the Mississippi hides a dark secret that she is about to unveil. She is lying in wait to unleash her savage furry.

In a once proud nation's most desperate hour, one man will step forth-offering salvation, but to gain it the stricken country must pay a heavy price.

Not only will Pitt have to thwart his most dangerous villain yet but he must also battle the forces of nature in all her savage glory. When events hit home, Pitt is torn between two choices both of which have disastrous consequences. Will Pitt be able to stop the cataclysm of events or will he find himself of the outside looking in, watching everything he knows disappears around him, unable to help...

Long ago.......................................................................................................

… The blistering summer sun sets on a lonely stretch of barren wilderness, where the scorching desert sands meet the cool ocean waves, where only the roar of the surf can be heard. The waning sun seems to hang frozen in the sky before a solitary beast, silently making his way to the coast, pierced the stillness of the infinite dusk. He stands there at the waterline staring past the horizon as the waves crash over his four hoofed feet. A breeze kicks up, plastering his long mane over his neck. The fading daylight gives him a demonic glow. Something startles him from his watch. Like a phantom, he drifts along. His long hair flows behind him in the wind. His four feet barely seem to sink in the soft sands as he floats across the beach. He gallops through the dusk. He is the sprite of the shadows. He is fierce, proud, and strong. He is a wild black stallion tearing down the shore. His muscles bunch and roll under his skin as he races the waves with reckless abandonment. Dusk rolls into darkness as a whistle stops the wild demon in his tracks. Calmly he walks over to a young boy who is crying. The boy easily slips a crude rope halter over the head of the stallion and lead to where a group of mares is being loaded on to a ship. The stallion balks at the idea of being lead up the ramp on to the Spanish galleon but gently follows the guiding hands of the young boy. He would never see the boy or his home ever again.

To the Bedouin tribesman who had just sold several of his prize horses to the Spanish aristocrat for many gallons of fermented European drink, the mares was the greatest lose to his herd. However, in the course to dealing with the European traders he had become addicted to the substance. Little did he know that is was the stallion that would give rise to a new breed of horses and a curse coat pattern that would pelage the owners of the beautiful horses for centuries…

Dirk Pitt shifted in his chair as the head of the genetic department lectured him on why they need a particular specimen for study, ASAP. Chris Johnston was a moderately tall, thin, balding man who had been talking nonstop for the last hour and a half. Pitt had no idea what he was talking about. All he had been able to derive from the endless babble was the word "horse." Thankfully, a phone call interrupted the long-winded speech.

“Hello.” Pitt said when he picked up the receiver.

“Hi,” replied a familiar voice.

“Be in my office in one hour” Pitt said tersely and hung up. “Now would you please specify what it is that you want again? You have one minute.” Pitt watched as Johnston recollected himself and began to speak again.

“I would like you to please contact this woman and ask her to bring in her horse so we can obtain DNA samples for study.” He finished the statement by handing Pitt a piece of paper with a name and address on it.

“Any horse she may have?” asked Pitt, perplexed. He watched as Johnston’s brows furrowed as he grabbed the paper and scribbled something on it, then storm out of the office forgetting the rest of his papers.

After the geneticist left the room, Pitt leaned back in his chair. He never liked dealing with department heads. Dirk wished he knew how Admiral Sandecker had done it for all the years he was the head of NUMA. While Pitt was mentally debating whether it would be worth the effort to harass the much sought after horse’s owner, he noticed that Johnston had left a magazine with his papers. Picking it up Pitt noted that it was left open at a specific article. The article itself really did not catch his eye but the picture did. It was of a black horse in mid-jump with a young woman riding bareback. The background had been darkened in a way so that only the horse and rider showed. The horse had four white socks and a matching blaze running down his face. Pitt noticed that the horse had what looked to be red stripes, like brindle on a dog. It’s tail was half red and half black. Pitt thought it was an elaborate dye job.

Pitt picked up the phone and dialed the number that was on the paper Johnston had given him. The first name written on the paper of definitely of Spanish origin. He tried to read the scribbled name but it was too illegible. Pitt could not figure out why genetics wanted a horse but he knew that it was not necessarily an odd request.

“Aló,” answer a young feminine voice with a distinct Spanish accent.

“Hello,” Pitt said going out on a limb, hoping he would not have to remember any of his high school Spanish. “Is this Lisa de la Regal?”

“Yes, this is she.” Stated in good English but retaining much of the accent.

“I am Dirk Pitt, the head of the National Underwater and Marine Agency. I was wondering if I could talk to you for a few minutes.” Pitt could tell that she was on a cell phone because the reception was bad.

“Um, would I be able to come to your office? I can be there in 45 minutes.” She asked him.

“Yes, if that suits you,” Pitt said before the connection was lost completely.

Lisa Regal leaned back in the passenger seat of the red 1966 AC Ford Cobra after she hung up her cell phone. She loved riding in the antique topless car. After a minute she at up and craned to look over her shoulder at the dark green pickup that had been tailing the sports car through Washington D.C. Lisa relaxed when a large dark nose poked itself out of the window of the stock trailer that the pickup was pulling.

"Don't worry about them," came a male voice from the driver's side of the car.

"You say that when they are your babies." Lisa replied with a mock pout. The man laughed at the comment as he focused again at navigating the traffic.

"The head of Numa just called me.," she said after a couple of minutes.

"Really."

"It sounds as though Johnston is trying to get him to unwittingly get me to bring them Relámpago." Lisa said with an air of anger in her voice.

"Are you?"

“¡Claro que no!”

Pitt stepped off the elevator at the ground level of the thirty story Numa headquarters. He had been looking for Johnston for the last 30 minutes, but had been unable to find him. Pitt wanted to return his papers to him and to find out why they were going through all this fuss over a horse. Pitt decided to take a chance and walked outside. He nearly fell over laughing.

Standing in the middle of the parking lot, with the stupidest look on his face, was Johnston. Standing in front of him with her back to Pitt was a young woman, who at that moment was throwing a temper tantrum. She was yelling, animatedly, at Johnston in rapid Spanish and had started to attract a crowd. Pitt notice that Al Giordino was standing there watching the two combatants as was Summer and Loren Pitt. He also saw his son, Dirk Pitt Jr., leaning against his red AC Ford Cobra thoroughly enwrapped by the spectacle. Just behind the car was a dark green pickup attached to a large stock trailer with Jack Dahlgren was hanging out the driver side door. Several shadows could be seen behind the closed windows of the trailer.Pitt turned his attention back to the young woman. She looked to be about 5’6”, with a light build. Her long honey, blonde hair fell to just below her shoulder blades. She wore a light blue halter-top that left several inches of skin exposed. Her black jeans that looked as if they had come from a rack in the men’s section were belted low on her hips. The neon, sparkly, orange belt contrasted sharply from the black denim, as did the thin, triple stacked chains that hung from her belt loops on both of her legs. Her feet were noticeably bare. The exposed tattoo on her lower back seemed to pop off her light to medium tan skin. Pitt recognized her from the picture in the magazine.

The heated debate was abruptly interrupted by a loud metallic noise. Pitt looked in time to see the loading door to the trailer fall to the ground, with an even louder crash. Lisa whipped around and screamed something unintelligible. A deep rumble emanated from the entry. Lisa’s blue-grey eyes stared intensely at the trailer as a slender female slowly back down the ramp followed by a pack of giant longhaired shepherds. “You would think that one of these days you would learn. My brother is still mad at you and your husband for running over my dog the last time you tried to get close to my horses.” Lisa started to say motioning her head toward Johnston for emphasis. “So he sent me several more that are also trained to guard my horses. He also said that if you continue to cause me problem to bring you to the kennel and he will introduce you to the rest of his dogs.”

Pitt watched as the blood drained from Johnston’s face. The women continued to slowly back away from the trailer and over to her car. The dogs remained at the bottom of the loading ramp but they all kept their eyes train on the people around them. Johnston turned and study Pitt for a moment as his wife got in her car and drove away. Lisa crossed her arms and glared as Johnston wordlessly collected his papers from Pitt and walked back to the Numa building.

“What in the world just happened?” Pitt asked loud enough everybody heard him.

“That was another ill fated attempt from your head geneticist to get a DNA sample from one of my best horses.” Lisa said as she walked over to the trailer. She gave a soft command to the dogs and all but two of them got back into the trailer. Pitt still could not figure out what was going on as the senorita disappeared into the trailer. By the way the springs on the back axle creaked and the light clip clop inside the trailer he tell she was leading one on the horses out.

“To get to the horse she wanted Mrs. Johnston would have had to crawl around several of my other horses,” Lisa said, as she led two giants from the trailer. “which would have ended in her getting kicked or bitten by one of these two naughty boys. She would have then had to get past my two mares who have foals with them so they would have been extra protective.”

Pitt walked closer to the trailer as the young senorita went back in and led out to more horses, each of which had two foals with them. He notice that the two that were already out were not tied to the rail on the side of the trailer but their lead ropes were loosely dangling from their halters. Lisa left the two mares standing beside the other horses. Pitt also noticed that each horse had a specific dog that stayed glued to them at all times.

“The dogs were train by my brother to stay with their specific horse at all times after I had one of them stolen.” Lisa said as she walked out of the trailer with two more horses. This time one of the animals had a blanket on that hid 90% of his body. “Those are some of my best,” she said dropping the lead rope to the second horse and started to unbuckle the blanket on the first. “And of course this bad boy seems to be the hot item of the day.” The horse reared at the same time she pulled off the blanket. Pitt could she that it was the same horse from the picture in the magazine.

“I have a question for you. Who is the color specialist for your horse?” Pitt asked.

“You think that this is a dye job. No this is his normal coat. One you can see that the hair that is a different color is also of a different texture. The skin underneath is the same way. Two you can ask your daughter she was with me when he was born.” Lisa said smugly.