Germs of War

Germs of War is a fictional account of a biologic attack on the US by Afghanistan based terrorist groups that predicted events of September 11, 2001 and subsequent anthrax attacks. The central figure is Tracy Hopkins, a graduate student at Mayo Clinic who is drawn against her will into a nexus of terrorists and corrupt politicians. The terrorist making biological weapons is a Tariq Bukhari, a young physician from Pakistan. Dr Dan Howard, a professor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, recruits him. The professor is known to be inept but his research is supported by huge grants from an outside agency (an alliance of Pakistan's Secret Service and Afghanistan's Taliban). A corrupt senator facilitates the arrangement. Bukhari's task is to create a biologic weapon and to confirm its efficacy. He manages to insert a toxin from Vibrio cholerae into the tubercle bacillus. Victims who inhale the bacillus drown in their own secretions. The entire staff of an intensive care unit succumbs to a test of this lethal concoction. Tracy Hopkins stumbles upon a vial of the modified bacillus quite unexpectedly. Renegade CIA agents, more than one terrorist group, and her family all get drawn into trying to find that vial. This amalgam of science fiction, recombinant technology, and James Bond keeps the reader guessing as to its ultimate end.Ketan Desai is the author of 'Germs of War', published 2002 under ISBN 9781588986269 and ISBN 1588986268.