Yves Massarde

Yves Massarde is a fictional character in the book "Sahara" by Clive Cussler. He is also featured in the movie based on the book.

Basic information

Yves Massarde is a French tycoon in the book Sahara. He runs the Fort Foureau (Sahara) hazardous waste disposal project. Massarde is portrayed as a brilliant businessman, but shady at the same time.He is a ruthless man, who has supposedly killed off people to gain control of several profitable companies. His fortune is estimated to be around 2 billion American dollars, however he has a large stash of gold on a French island in the South Pacific.

Plot

Yves Massarde runs the Fort Foureau Hazardous Waste Project which disposes of toxic and biological waste. During the initial stages of the project sand storms would damage the solar mirrors within the collection grid inhibbiting it's ability to vaproize the toxins within the waste. So it was then stored underground until an elastic coating was put on the mirrors to keep them from being damaged. The toxic waste that was stored underground was leaking into the Underground Niger River causing major health problems with the nearby villages. If not stopped it would soon spread to the Atlantic Ocean where it would spread very rapidly due to the high levels of salt in the water, and suck out all the oxygen in the water causing all marine plants and animals to die almost instantly. However, Dirk Pitt and Albert Giordino find out that Massarde is hoarding the waste and is aware that his cover has been blown. Scared of being exposed as "the worst polluter of modern times" he decides to blow the plant to make it look like an industrial accident. Dirk and Albert end up stopping Massarde from blowing up the plant by disabling the self-destruct sequence. If Massarde had succeeded the toxins would have been sealed underground and eventually would have contaminated the entire ocean.

Tebezza

Tebezza is a gold mine owned by General Kazim and Yves Massarde. They send political prisoners and criminals to work in terrible conditions to mine gold for their own profit. Yves Massarde sends the French workers who constructed or found out about the secret underground storage vault to Tebezza.

Death

After Dirk Pitt and Albert Giordino take over Fort Foureau, they tie him up in the burning hot Sahara sun and afterwards give him 3 litres of water to drink and send him on his way. However the water is contaminated with nuclear material from the underground vault. Massarde dies within a week.