Dr. Guy Carson receives a prestigious position working on flu vaccines at GeneDyne's Mount Dragon Remote Desert Testing Facility in New Mexico. But as he settles into the isolation of his new home, things seem to be off. Coworkers begin acting strangely... even violently. Has there been contamination? Or is something more sinister going on? Then there are the rumors of treasure in the desert...
This novel provides examples of:
- Animal Testing: The genetically engineered viruses are tested on chimpanzees kept in an area called "The Zoo." Most of them die horrible deaths from the experiments.
- Eye Scream: Vanderwagon puts his own eye out with a fork after he's driven insane by PurBlood.
- It's the Only Way to Be Sure: employed twice:
- It is first described that the Soviets carpet-bombed a biological research facility and the neighboring village to stop an outbreak of a genetically modified organism in the 80s.
- Later, the underground laboratory at the Mount Dragon complex itself is pumped full of superheated air from the sterilizing units on the surface, turning the whole facility into a canned inferno.
- Tsundere: Susana Cabeza de Vaca. Insanely proud of her royal heritage and her genius, she almost immediately shows dislike for the main character, who dislikes her right back, and most of the side plot is the two slowly growing closer and closer, grudgingly respecting each other and, of course, slowly growing attracted.
