Synopsis
When a genetically engineered virus four hundred times more lethal than conventional neurotoxins is stolen by the Middle East's most dangerous terrorist, the president of the U.S. orders all military resources to be directed at the virus's destruction. Original.
From the Author
What inspired me to write CODE: ALPHA?Several real-life events brought to my attention the drama of genetic engineering and biological/chemical terrorism. The first was an article in Science magazine about how the U.S. Army’s institute for infectious diseases at Ft. Detrick, Md., was looking for scientists to introduce human nervous-system genes into bacteria through recombinant DNA methods -- which they eventually received special permission from the National Institutes of Health to perform. It seemed the U.S. military was working on some very serious stuff.
Then along comes a Stanford graduate candidate who proposed splicing toxigenic genes into E. Coli bacteria found in the human intestine. Her adviser dissuaded her from going ahead with the experiment in the event that the anomaly ever escaped the lab. Finally, a former researcher at Ft. Detrick charged that more than a quart of disease virus was discovered missing from a biological warfare program there. The former lab director said security is so lax at Detrick that large amounts of deadly organisms could be carried out of laboratories in a pocket or briefcase by any employee with clearance to work there.
I put these real-life incidents together and thought, what if a terrorist stole something really nasty from Ft. Detrick, something that an innocent Stanford graduate intern working there had inadvertently created? What would be the consequences if the anomaly fell into the wrong hands?
A lot of readers have asked me if it's actually possible to create an organism as dangerous as "Saint Vitus." My answer is anything's possible. Most of my material comes from today's headlines. Just when the naysayers state that some form of gene spicing or cloning isn't possible, along comes a news story that announces yet another incredible breakthrough. As a society, it's prudent if we keep an open mind, don't become complacent, and expect the impossible.
U.S. defense consultants have been saying for two decades that this country is entirely defenseless against biological and chemical terrorism. Do we, in fact, have an "ALPHA" Team out there to protect us from crazies who might be plotting such an attack on U.S. soil? I can only hope so.
by Joseph Massucci
by John Birmingham
