Praise for
RICHARD PRESTON and
THE HOT ZONE
Petrifyingguaranteed to make the world you live in a more frightening placea stunning wake-up call.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
As spine-chilling a narrative as Ive read in recent yearsvivid and cinematic.
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
Fascinatingand frightening.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A fast-paced, gripping medical thriller.
NEWSDAY
No movie will match the real-life horror described in Richard Prestons The Hot Zone.
TIME
A bone-chilling account of a close encounter with a lethal virusa totally convincing page-turner, proving that truth is scarier than fiction.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
A medical cliffhanger.
BOSTON GLOBE
Mesmerizing.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Horrifying and rivetingPreston exposes a real-life nightmare potentially as lethal as the fictive runaway germs in Michael Crichtons The Andromeda Strain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
More chilling than fiction.
SCIENCE NEWS
BY RICHARD PRESTON
THE DARK BIOLOGY SERIES
The Hot Zone
The Cobra Event
The Demon in the Freezer
Crisis in the Red Zone
ALSO
The Wild Trees
First Light
Micro (with Michael Crichton)
American Steel
The Boat of Dreams
Panic in Level 4
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, AUGUST 1995
Copyright Richard M. Preston
Map copyright David Lindroth
Excerpt copyright 2019 by Richard M. Preston
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Penguin Random House LLC, in 1994. The Anchor Books edition is published by arrangement with Penguin Random House LLC.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Portions of this work were originally published in The New Yorker.
GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT IS MADE TO THE FOLLOWING FOR PERMISSION TO USE BOTH PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL:
D AN W. D ALGARD : Brief excerpts from Chronology of Events by Dan W. Dalgard. Copyright 1989, 1994 by Dan W. Dalgard. Reprinted by permission.
K ARL M. J OHNSON : Excerpt from a letter by Karl M. Johnson to Richard Preston. Reprinted by permission.
T HE W ASHINGTON P OST : Excerpt from Deadly Ebola Virus Found in Va. Laboratory by DVera Cohn (12/1/89). Copyright 1989 by The Washington Post. Reprinted by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Preston, Richard, 1954
The hot zone / Richard Preston. 1st Anchor Books ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Random House, 1994.
1. Ebola virus diseaseVirginiaReston. 2. Ebola virus diseaseAfrica. 3. Primates as laboratory animals. I. Title.
RC140.5.P74 1995b
614.57dc20 95-5751
Anchor Books Trade Paperback ISBN9780385495226
Ebook ISBN9780307817655
Cover design by Megan Wilson
Cover photograph Science Source
www.anchorbooks.com
v3.1_r13
TO FREDERIC DELANO GRANT, JR. ,
ADMIRED BY ALL WHO KNOW HIM
THE AUTHOR GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES A RESEARCH GRANT FROM
THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.
This book describes events between 1967 and 1993. The incubation period of the viruses in this book is less than twenty-four days. No one who suffered from any of the viruses or who was in contact with anyone suffering from them can catch or spread the viruses outside of the incubation period. None of the living people referred to in this book suffer from a contagious disease. The viruses cannot survive independently for more than ten days unless the viruses are preserved and frozen with special procedures and laboratory equipment. Thus none of the locations in Reston or the Washington, D.C., area described in this book is infective or dangerous.
The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead man.
APOCALYPSE
TO THE READER
This book is nonfiction. The story is true, and the people are real. I have occasionally changed the names of characters, including Charles Monet and Peter Cardinal. When I have changed a name, I state so in the text.
The dialogue comes from the recollections of the participants, and has been extensively crosschecked. At certain moments in the story, I describe the stream of a persons thoughts. In such instances, I am basing my narrative on interviews with the subjects in which they have recalled their thoughts often repeatedly, followed by fact-checking sessions in which the subjects confirmed their recollections. If you ask a person, What were you thinking? you may get an answer that is richer and more revealing of the human condition than any stream of thoughts a novelist could invent. I try to see through peoples faces into their minds and listen through their words into their lives, and what I find there is beyond imagining.
RICHARD PRESTON
CONTENTS
Part One
THE SHADOW OF MOUNT ELGON
Part Two
THE MONKEY HOUSE
Part Three
SMASHDOWN
Part Four
KITUM CAVE
INFECTIOUS AREA
NO UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY
TO OPEN THIS DOOR,
PLACE ID CARD ON SENSOR.
PROCESSING
YOU ARE CLEARED TO ENTER.
SUITE AA-5
INVESTIGATOR:
COL. NANCY JAAX
AGENTS IN USE:
UNKNOWN
PROCEED FORWARD .
BIOSAFETY LEVEL
LOCKER ROOM
STATUS:
FEMALE
REMOVE EVERYTHING TOUCHING THE SKIN: CLOTHING, RINGS, CONTACT LENSES, ETC. CHANGE INTO STERILE SURGICAL SCRUBS.
YOU ARE CLEARED TO ENTER .
BIOSAFETY LEVEL
CAUTION:
ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT
BIOSAFETY LEVEL
STAGING AREA
ALARMS:
ENABLED
SPACE-SUIT STATUS:
READY
CAUTION
BIOHAZARD