The Cobra Event

Plot summary

The book is divided into 6 sections. The first section, named "Trial", starts with a teenage girl named Kate Moran who violently dies one day in school. The next section, titled "1969", describes tests done in the sixties by the U.S. government involving weaponized viruses. The third section, "Diagnosis", describes the autopsy of Kate Moran and, introduces the key characters of Dr. Alice Austen, Mark Littleberry, and Will Hopkins. The book describes these three characters' journey to discover the source of the lethal virus Cobra, in the other three sections, "Decision", "Reachdeep", and "The Operation".

"Cobra" and its effects

The specific brainpox described in the novel is a fictional chimeric virus that attacks the human brain. The infective agent, code-named "Cobra" by the protagonists, is a recombinant virus made from modified variants of the nuclear polyhedrosis virus (a normally moth-afflicting virus), the rhinovirus, and smallpox.

The infection initially presents common cold-like symptoms and a characteristic blistering process in the nose and mouth, before invading the nervous system. Although not as contagious as the influenza virus, it spreads rapidly through the same vectors as the common cold, mainly via airborne particulate matter coming in contact with the mucous membranes of the respiratory system. Although tussis is the primary source of these particles, the inclusion of nuclear polyhedrosis virus allows for Cobra to form crystals, which can be easily processed into a fine powder.

The optic nerves of the eye, accessed through the eyelid, and olfactory nerves of the nose provide a direct pathway to the central nervous system for the neurotropic Cobra virus to spread along, where the virus takes root. Once present in brain matter, the virus begins to replicate exponentially faster. Infected brain cells experience growth of viral crystals in their nuclei, eventually leading to lysis of the cell. The brain stem, the area of the brain that controls the basic functions of life, is heavily affected by this growth. The Cobra virus also knocks out the gene for the enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT), whose absence causes Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. As a result, patients experience both autocannibalistic urges, and increased aggression towards others. These neurological symptoms develop and progress incredibly quickly, going from neurologically asymptomatic to full blown within a matter of several hours, eventually resulting in death due to the severe damages to the brain stem. Cobra is so aggressive in its growth that autopsies reveal a brain almost liquified by the extensive cell lysis.

Impact of the book

President Bill Clinton was reportedly sufficiently impressed by the terrorist scenarios recounted in the book that he asked aides and officials for closer study and suggested more funding for research into bioterror threats. However, there is some variation in the assorted accounts of this episode in his administration: about his degree of concern, who was asked to help, the depth of inquiry, the formal status of his orders, and the magnitude of expense involved.