The Cobra Event

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Title The Cobra Event
Author Richard Preston
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Thriller novel
Publisher Random House
Released 1998
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 432 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-345-40997-3

The Cobra Event is a 1998 bio-thriller novel by Richard Preston describing a terror attempt on the United States by a man known only as Archimedes. Archimedes is the creator of a virus that mixes the incurable common cold with one of the world's most deadly diseases, smallpox. The virus is a Biosafety Level 4 hot agent (because it is human lethal).

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The book is divided into six sections. The first section, named "Trial", tells of teenage girl named Kate Moran who violently dies one day in school. The next section titled "1969", explains many tests done in the sixties by the U.S. government involving certain viruses. The third section, "Diagnosis", describes the autopsy of Kate Moran and also introduces many key characters such as Dr. Alice Austen, Mark Littleberry, and Will Hopkins. The book continues on the other three sections, "Decision", "Reachdeep", and "The Operation", describe these three characters' journey to discover the producer of the lethal virus Cobra.