The bone hunters

the long version

"One of the greatest archaeological finds of all time, Peking Man, the 780,000-year-old remains of our earliest known human ancestor, disappeared during World War II from a cargo ship bound for America. Now the Chinese government is fighting to keep a new religion from taking hold--a faith based on the belief that Peking Man is God. And they dispatch ruthless operatives to find and destroy the world's most priceless fossil. But the U.S. government has its own team on the hunt. From the mountains of Bavaria to the jungles of Central America and across the vast Pacific, Professor Barnaby Finchem, his brilliant protégé, Lexy Vaughan, and pilot Steve Macaulay will brave the wrath of nature and of man to win a race against unbridled tyranny..."-- Back cover.