The Cobra Event
| Author | Richard Preston |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
|
Publication date
|
1998 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 432 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 39891952 |
The Cobra Event is a 1998 thriller novel by Richard Preston describing an attempted bioterrorism attack on the United States. The perpetrator of the attack has genetically engineered a virus, called "Cobra", that fuses the incurable and highly contagious common cold with one of the world's most virulent diseases, smallpox. The disease that results from the virus, called brain-pox in the novel, has symptoms that mimic those of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, the common cold, and Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus. The book is divided between descriptions of the virus, and the government's attempt to stop the imminent threat posed by it.
The book is divided into 6 sections. The first section, named "Trial", starts with a teenage girl named Kate Moran who violently dies one day in school. The next section, titled "1969", describes tests done in the sixties by the U.S. government involving weaponized viruses. The third section, "Diagnosis", describes the autopsy of Kate Moran and, introduces the key characters of Dr. Alice Austen, Mark Littleberry, and Will Hopkins. The book describes these three characters' journey to discover the source of the lethal virus Cobra, in the other three sections, "Decision", "Reachdeep", and "The Operation".
The specific brainpox described in the novel is a fictional chimeric virus that attacks the human brain. The infective agent, code-named "Cobra" by the protagonists, is a recombinant virus made from modified variants of the nuclear polyhedrosis virus (a normally moth-afflicting virus), the rhinovirus, and smallpox.
The infection initially presents common cold-like symptoms and a characteristic blistering process in the nose and mouth, before invading the nervous system. Although not as contagious as the influenza virus, it spreads rapidly through the same vectors as the common cold, mainly via airborne particulate matter coming in contact with the mucous membranes of the respiratory system. Although tussis is the primary source of these particles, the inclusion of nuclear polyhedrosis virus allows for Cobra to form crystals, which can be easily processed into a fine powder.
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