Douglas Preston - Mount Dragon

(Back Cover)

MOUNT DRAGON IS AS MARVELOUSLY COMPLEX

AS ANY THRILLER IVE EVER READ....

IT IS NOTHING LESS THAN A TOUR DE FORCE!

Stuart Woods, author of Choke

A delightfully gruesome yarn and an apt mirror of our love-hate relationship with science.

Business Week

Mount Dragon: an enigmatic research complex hidden in the vast desert of New Mexico. Guy Carson and Susana Cabeza de Vaca have come to Mount Dragon to work shoulder to shoulder w ith some of the greatest scientific minds on the planet. Led by visionary genius Brent Scopes, their secret goal is a medical breakthrough that promises to bring incalculable benefits to the human race. But while Scopes believes he is leading the way to a new world order, he may in fact be opening the door to mass human extinction. And when Guy and Susana attempt to stop him they find themselves locked in a frightening battle with Scopes, his henchmen, and the apocalyptic nightmare that science has unleashed....

The writing team that scared the willies out of readers with The Relic returns with a second, equally gripping novel of techno-terror.... Its a grand and scary story, with just enough grisly detail to stimulate real-life fears and characters full enough to engage the attention.

Publishers Weekly

Dynamic duo Preston and Child once again demonstrate their mastery of the genre.... The thrillfest runs full force to the very last page.

Kirkus Reviews

Read this and youll be panting for Preston and Childs next yarn.

Booklist

(Inside Flap)

The most dangerous place on Earth.... A slam-hang medical thriller, swift, gruesome, and wickedly clever.

Richard Preston. New York Times

best-selling author of The Hot Zone

The Hot Zone meets The Stand .... Explosive.

Jack Anderson. Pulitzer Prize- winning columnist

When you finish this book youll want to storm a genetic engineering firm and destroy their projects.... Mount Dragon is a powerful, fast-paced story, with a cast of interesting characters.... It will probably be made into a motion picture in no time.

San Francisco Examiner

Like a fictionalized rock-em, sock-em version of Richard Prestons The Hot Zone.

Library Journal

A chilling, fabulous trip through cyberspace, flight and survival on the searing desert, high-tech wonders that defy beliefall these elements and more combine for an evenings worth of heart-stopping excitement. A year ago, it seemed difficult, if not impossible, for these two guys to top their first novel. After I finished flipping the pages of this one and my near cardiac arrest had been averted, one clear impression lingered. Brother, was I mistaken.

The Tampa Tribune-Times

(Reviews)

First rate entertainment.... Imagine a Michael Crichton-style thriller with immensely more detail paid to the level of writing.... And yes, Preston and Child weave in plenty of soberly provocative discussion of the ethics of screwing around with human genetics.... First class storytellers and stimulating entertainers.

Locus

The Relic is a straight thriller. Thats like saying, however, that Die Hard was just another action adventure flick or that Gone With the Wind was just another Civil War film. Each stands as a superlative example of its type.

Orlando Sentinel on The Relic

Better than anything the theoretically recombinant team of Michael Crichton and Peter Benchley could ever hope to achieve.

Albuquerque Journal on The Relic

The Relic satisfies the primal desire to be scared out of ones wits.... The ending is a real bone-chilling shocker.

Express Books on The Relic

Forge Books by

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Relic

Mount Dragon

Reliquary

Douglas Preston

& Lincoln Child

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK

NEW YORK

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.

MOUNT DRAGON

Copyright 1996 by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Cover art by Shelley Eshkar

Maps by Mark Stein Studios

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

Tor Books on the World Wide Web: http://www.tor.com

Send author mail to

Tor is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

ISBN: 0-812-56437-5

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 95-41323

First edition: February 1996

First mass market edition: February 1997

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Mount Dragon is a work of fiction. The GeneDyne corporation, the Foundation for Genetic Policy, the Holocaust Memorial Fund, the Holocaust Research Foundation, Hemocyl, PurBlood, X-FLUand, of course, Mount Dragon itselfare all products of the authors imaginations. Any resemblance of these or other entities in the novel to existing entities is purely coincidental. All the characters and events portrayed herein are fictitious. Nothing should be interpreted as expressing the policies or depicting the procedures of any corporation, institution, university, or governmental department or agency.

To Jerome Preston, Senior

D. P.

To Luchie; my parents; and Nina Soller

L C.

F irst, we want to thank our agents, Harvey Klinger and CAAs Matthew Snyder. Gentlemen, we lift our tumblers of single-malt Highland scotch in your honors: this project would never have been started were it not for the help and encouragement youve given us.

Wed also like to thank the following people at Tor/Forge: Tom Doherty, whose vision and support have remained equally unflagging; Bob Gleason, for believing in us from the beginning; Linda Quinton, for her refreshingly candid marketing advice; and Natalia Aponte, Karen Lovell, and Stephen de las Heras, for their sundry acts of authorial succor.

From a technical aspect, we wish to thank Lee Suckno, M.D.; Bry Benjamin, M.D.; Frank Calabrese, Ph.D.; and Tom Benjamin, M.D.

Lincoln Child would like to thank Denis Kelly: pal, erstwhile boss, long-suffering sounding board. Thanks to Juliette, soul of patience and understanding. Thanks also to Chris England for his explication of certain arcane slang. Wotcher, Chris!

A pre-war Gibson Granada, along with a generous fistful of chocolate-chip cookies, to Tony Trischka: banjo deity, confidante, and all-around good hang.

Douglas Preston would like to thank his wife, Christine, who crossed the Jornada del Muerto desert with him no less than four times, as well as Selene, who was helpful in so many ways. Aletheia was a great sport, camping in the Jornada with us when she was only three weeks old. Thanks to my brother Dick, author of