ISBN 0-553-37828-7 (US trade pbk),,, 0-553-57545-7 (US pbk)

"My uncle [J.Frederick George] and I write novels together, under the pseudonym of Stephen Bury. We're writing mainstream, commercial, techno-thriller type of fiction, just for the hell of it." --Neal Stephenson (from an interview with Neal Stephenson in Interzone , Issue 109, July 1996).

"Clyde Banks is a deputy sheriff in a small Iowa town where law enforcement consists mostly of presiding at car wrecks. But Clyde's life is about to get a whole lot more complicated.

"His wife Desiree's Army Reserve unit has been called up to respond to a crisis in the Middle East, leaving Clyde to care for their five-month-old daughter. And an exchange student is found in the lake at nearby Eastern Iowa University, murdered. The investigation takes him deeper into shady events at the university, where a powerful department uses federal grant money for highly dubious research. As crazy as it sounds, the madman Desiree has just shipped out to fight may have his own factory right here in the heartland. And what it's producing is a very nasty bug.

"Suddenly it looks like Deputy Clyde Banks is the only person who can stop the wholesale slaughter of thousands of Americans. But first he's got to warm a baby bottle..." [jacket blurb, US trade pbk, 1996]

"This novel slips into your mind with ease. Fluid text enriched with social insight and cheeky humor. Thoroughly enjoyable." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , November 1996).