Richard Whitney
Clayton Tucker and his colleagues at the Dallas Observer eagerly prepare to cover the anniversary of the first human heart transplant using a cloned heart. Cloning, stem cell therapy and gene splicing have become nearly routine in 2042, opening the door to advances in medicine only dreamed of ten years earlier.Traveling to South Africa where the first heart transplant was initially performed in 1967, Clay discovers that a company named Pontiac Pharmaceuticals had sponsored immunological research, attempting to address the issue of rejection during the original transplant. Later he learns that Pontiac also funded the transplant in Dallas.Clay and Brian Singh begin looking into Pontiac. They learn that Pontiac is a small part of Omega Security Systems; a multinational arms dealer, and private security agency. Brian travels to the company’s headquarters to interview Pontiac’s COO Darius Kent, who later arranges a secret meeting with Brian and Clay.Kent is concerned that an advanced unstable biological weapon is being developed at the company’s new lab in Bosnia, a secretive project under the control of the company’s president, the “Colonel.” Kent helps Clay and Brian infiltrate the lab using a newly developed counter-insurgency device, the “macro skin.” Clay and Brian, posing as two of the company’s researchers, access the lab’s computers.The two reporters are confronted with the ultimate biological weapon, the “Alastor.” Clay and Brian are faced with escaping the lab and getting back to Dallas with the data intact and hopefully in time. The initial field test of the weapon is only days away.
