Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon darts over the globe, swerving conspiratorially between the Second World War and the present. Our heroes from the 1940s include the intrepid, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe, the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, and the legendary crypt analyst. They are members of Allied Detachment 2702, who is attempting to crack Axis communication codes while keeping the enemy from discovering that their codes have been cracked. It really comes down to layer upon layer of dishonesty. One of the other members of 2702, Dr. Alan Turing, tells Waterhouse about the peculiar operations of the unit. "We send out an observation aircraft initially when we intend to destroy a convoy... Its true mission, of course, is not to watch; we already know the precise location of the convoy. Its true responsibility is to be observed. The Germans won't view it suspiciously when we eventually sink them."

The current plot revolves around the grandchildren of the WWII heroes, Randy Waterhouse, a programming whiz, and Amy Shaftoe, a formidable woman, working together to establish an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and possibly unearth gold that was meant for Nazi coffers. All of this secrecy is reflected in the plot. The book's paranoid tone is further enhanced when the enigmatic Enoch Root, a crucial figure in Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, reappears with an impenetrable encryption system inherited from World War II, confusing the characters of the 1990s with connections to a conspiracy.