Binary is a 1972 techno-thriller novel written by Michael Crichton, who went under the name "John Lange" at the time. Crichton also directed a Made-for-TV Movie version of this book titled Pursuit.
John Wright is a middle-class small businessman who has decided that he has to assassinate the President of the United States. To pull this off, he spends his life savings to steal a U.S. Army shipment containing two precursor chemicals that form a deadly nerve gas codenamed VZ when combined. The President is going to attend a Republican party conference taking place in downtown San Diego, and John plans to use the VZ there. The nerve gas has no safe antidote, and it kills in two to three minutes after being inhaled or touched. This nerve gas is contained inside two "Alacran" (a combustible plastic) tanks, and plastic explosives are wrapped around the containers, so that when after the nerve gas is released, the containers explode, rendering the scene of the crime untraceable.
This book provides examples of:
- Big Bad: John Wright. He intends to assassinate the President of the United States, and he doesn't care if a million people die with the President.
- Deadly Gas: VZ is a deadly nerve gas that will kill people in two to three minutes after being inhaled or touched.
- Terrorists Without a Cause: John Wright wants to assassinate the President of the United States for no real reason.
