The First Horseman (1998)

An icebreaker forges through frozen waters to a remote island in the Arctic, carrying a scientific team that hopes to unearth the bodies of miners killed by the 1918 Spanish flu. Reporter Frank Daly has the story of a lifetime. But his plan to join the scientists on their historic mission is ruined by a ferocious storm. When he meets up with the ship upon its return to port in Norway, it is clear tht something has gone terribly wrong.

"Superchilling tale of the Spanish Flu's revival (which killed 20- to 30-million people in 1918... Mind-blowing Arctic amazement and an unholy crew of fanatics combine lethally to destroy the reader's sleep, as do the really smart (hero and heroine)...  Far more more realistic than Stephen King's superflu in The Stand."  Kirkus Reviews.

"Eerie suspense... Thrusts readers into the thick of a rapid-fire plot... Keep[s] you turning the pages and praying that this is only fiction." - www.amazon.com

"Highly recommended...(a) page-turning scientific thriller...unnerving and compelling." Library Journal.
Biological Warfare and the influenza 'supervirus':

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918:  The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster. Learn more at the Stanford University Web Site:

http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

Read it and weep. Kyle Olson may know more about biological warfare than anyone. He is a national treasure.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no4/olson.htm


So is the Federation of American Scientists.
http://www.fas.org/biosecurity/resource/agents.htm

The spread of a lethal strain of bird flu in the past two years has sparked fears of a new pandemic.

BBC: How Bird Flu has spread:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/05/bird_flu_map/html/1.stm

Svalbard.
http://www.svalbard-images.com/

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