Deep Empire is the nineteenth book in the series of Deathlands. It was written by Laurence James under the house name James Axler. Plot synopsis Picking up directly from the events at the end of Shockscape, Ryan Cawdor, his son Dean, Krysty Wroth, J.B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, Mildred Wyeth, and Michael Brother find themselves trapped at the exterior entrance of a redoubt somewhere south of Yuma, Colorado. The group is being pursued by a posse headed by Rick Coburn, sec boss of the nearby ville of Vista, intent on killing them for the death of the ville's Baron. Safety lies within the redoubt, but the exterior keypad which operates the redoubt's main doors is not functioning. Ryan makes the decision to scale the mountain the redoubt is built into, with the intent of reaching a section of corridor which has been opened to the elements following an earthquake. Ryan scales the steep mountain and makes it inside, taking more than a half-hour to recover from the subzero climb. He then makes his way into the redoubt, carefully moving past a hive of mutated albino worms, previously shown to be carnivorous and capable of burrowing through solid concrete. At this point he is attacked by Coburn, who has followed Ryan's ascent into the redoubt. The two spar hand-to-hand, finding themselves evenly matched. When Coburn pulls a gun (shortly before Ryan was going to pull a knife) the noise rouses the nearby mutant worms, who swarm Coburn and devour him alive. Ryan opens the entrance door and lets his friends into the redoubt; the companions then make a jump in the redoubt's MAT-TRANS chamber. The jump takes them to a somewhat damaged redoubt, which all describe as being unnaturally humid. The reason for this is soon discovered: the bulk of the facility appears to have become submerged, leaving only the MAT-TRANS facility above water. The companions exit through a partially submerged, open tunnel, finding themselves on a chain of islands; using his sextant, J.B. places them on the Florida Keys. The group is alarmed to discover that Michael, who earlier revealed that he cannot swim, has not surfaced. They briefly search for him, only to find him when a gigantic sea serpent emerges from the bay, clutching Michael. Inexplicably, Michael is rescued when a large group of dolphins appear and swarm the serpent, causing it to drop him and scaring it