Chimera

A Jack Turner Mystery

Someone breaks into the high-level security section of USAMRIID (US ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES) at Fort Detrick, Maryland and stole vials of weaponized smallpox. Later the individual is found dead at the Washington, DC train station.

Jack Turner, Ph.D., is a chemist and the Coroner of San Sebastian County California. He is also a reserve officer (Lt. Colonel) in the Army Medical Service Corp and has a background in chemical and biological warfare from working for defense contractors and a stint at USAMRIID.

When one of his Medical Examiners hits the HOT ZONE lock down button, while performing an autopsy, Jack is called to the morgue. The body the M.E. was examining died of smallpox. Not regular smallpox, but an unusual and highly reactive strain of the disease. Upon examination Jack realizes the strain is at a man-made chimera. The smallpox virus was released from the inside the cells of an E-coli bacteria as the cells were killed by antibiotics and the dead man’s immune system.

Who made it? Where did it come from? E-coli is common. But, smallpox was eradicated decades ago.

Dr. Jack Turner receives orders from the U.S. Army Adjutant General activating his reserve commission and authorizes him to act as a law enforcement special agent of the army.

Will Jack and a health department officer, Nancy Cartwright, be able to find the Chimeras and the perpetrators before the terrorists trigger a pandemic?

Somehow, Jack and Nancy must stop an attack worse than an atom bomb.