The Cry of the Halidon: Robert Ludum

This is the second Ludlum book I've read and I am really impressed with the uniqueness and originality of each. In this one a geologist, Alex McAuliff, is hired by the Dunstone company to do a geological survey of Jamaica for two million dollars. He can't understand why he is being paid so much, but then he is approached by the secret service. The service lets him in on a secret, everyone from the last team sent to Jamaica has disappeared. Realizing he is trapped, knowing too much he puts together a team to go. He thinks he has picked these people himself, but no one on the expedition is who they seem. Once in Jamaica he witnesses several "attacks" where people are injured, only they appear later unharmed. He is them kidnapped by the "Halidon" a secret society living deep in the jungles of Jamaica, who operate as a sort of "watch keeper" overthrowing governments and people in other lands to protect the little people without a voice. The team gets out of Jamaica mostly intact and Geologist McAuliff turns into a bodyguard for the head of the Secret Service until Halidon is happy that Jamaica will not fall into the hands of the white man.