Book Review – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child’s “Mount Dragon”

Genetic engineering is a fascinating area of science.

It can be used to enhance food products to increase size and shelf life.  It can be used to modify organisms and create new species, such as GloFish.  And some day, genetic engineering may even be used to modify or enhance human beings, removing “flaws” and other nuisances.

First published in 1996, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child‘s thrilling novel, Mount Dragon, takes an alternate look at genetic engineering and the future of the human race.  The story takes place at a remote testing facility in the middle of a desert in New Mexico, about as isolated as you can get in the continental U.S.  That’s for good reason, too.  At the testing facility scientists are working with some of the deadliest diseases known to mankind and how to prevent them from spreading to humans.

Mount Dragon begins in New Mexico as Dr. Franklin Burt, a research scientist at GeneDyne, is rushed to a nearby hospital.  He’s locked in an insane asylum for further testing.  All seems well and it appears that the prestigious scientist just has a case of cabin fever until he viciously attacks the doctor examining him.

Across the country in New Jersey, Dr. Guy Carson is also a scientist who works at a different GeneDyne facility.  He’s originally from New Mexico and dislikes living and working in Jersey.  His boss is continually holding him back from any real projects.  One day he’s asked to have a video conference with GeneDyne’s CEO, Brent Scopes.  Scopes offers Carson a transfer to the Mount Dragon Remote Desert Testing Facility at the White Sands Missile Range in the desert of southern New Mexico.  It’ll only be a six-month long assignment, but the pay will be tremendous.  And he has to leave immediately.

Carson leaves New Jersey behind and heads back to New Mexico.  He was born and raised in the desert, and he feels at home when arriving there.

Dr. John Singer, the director of Mount Dragon, greets Carson and gives him a tour of the facility.  One of the first things noted is that security is extremely tight at Mount Dragon.  The facility is heavily guarded as well as being located deep within the White Sands Missile Range, a restricted area of the desert.  There is no paper allowed at Mount Dragon.  All notes need to be taken on the computers.  All of the workers also have to undergo a weekly medical exam, just to make sure that everybody stays healthy.

Singer also explains that Mount Dragon is also home to the only Level 5 containment lab.  It’s buried underground, is self-contained, and has an incinerator that can be used to purge the facility should such an emergency ever occur.  Located within the Level 5 lab is also a separate security station, a quarantine zone, and even the Zoo, a collection of chimpanzees used for testing.

Carson is there to replace Dr. Franklin Burt.  It’s explained that the scientists are kept to six-month terms at Mount Dragon to help reduce the strain of living and working in the extreme isolation of southern New Mexico.  It’s also mentioned that sometimes the scientists go crazy, but this is believed to be from the cabin fever and isolation of the work station.

In his office, Dr. Singer explains what they’re really doing at Mount Dragon.  GeneDyne had already created the product PurBlood, artificial blood that can be used for transfusions.  Thanks to PurBlood there’s no need to fear any diseases or other disorders that can be spread through an unscreened blood transfusion.  Plus, PurBlood works with all blood types.  PurBlood was Dr. Burt’s project, and it’s scheduled to go into full production and used in hospitals soon.

After completing PurBlood, Dr. Burt began working on X-FLU, a genetic modification that would make human beings immune to catching the flu.  X-FLU would be inserted into a virus which would attack and modify a person’s germ cell.  Germ cells are passed to future generations during reproduction.  If successful, the future of humanity would eventually become immune from catching the flu.

The only catch is that none of the experiments with the X-FLU have been successful.  After two weeks, all of the test subjects have died a terrible death.  On top of that, the current version of X-FLU is highly contagious and can be easily passed from one person to another.  IF this version of the X-FLU should ever be released, either accidental or intentional, then it would literally wipe out the human race.  That’s one of the reasons why Mount Dragon is so remote and strict with its security.

Inside the research lab, Dr. Carson is teamed with Susana Cabeza de Vaca, Dr. Burt’s former assistant.  De Vaca isn’t too pleased to be working with Carson, nor is she thrilled to be working with genetic research.  She wants to be in the medical field and that’s where she was first assigned when arriving at Mount Dragon.  She was switched to being an assistant when Dr. Burt went crazy and had to be removed from the laboratory.

Carson and de Vaca continue the X-FLU research where Dr. Burt had last finished.  Carson thinks that he spots Burt’s mistake and tries a different technique for modifying the virus.  In theory it should work.  After this virus is injected to a set of chimps, one of them still dies a horrific death.

While examining the dead chimpanzee, Carson notices that Rosalind Grandon-Smith, one of his fellow scientists who has a battleaxe personality, develops a kind of obsession compulsive disorder.  Before she can be questioned about it, one of the infected chimps breaks open his cage door and scratches her through her biosuit, infecting her with the X-FLU.  Rosalind is whisked away to quarantine where she dies a painful death a few days later.

A few days later, Dr. Andrew Vanderwagon also develops a strange disorder.  One evening he takes a statement too literally and tries to remove his eyeball with a fork.  He then tries to use a knife and attack the other scientists, but he’s stopped and removed from the facility.

Is cabin fever suddenly affecting the scientists, or is there something else at fault?

Over at Harvard University, Dr. Charles Levine makes a living by lecturing students and trying to find every way possible to destroy GeneDyne and its founder, Brent Scopes.  Levine and Scopes used to be best friends in college, and together they discovered a way to genetically engineer a better type of corn.  They filed a patent for it, and then Scopes took that patent and founded GeneDyne, making a fortune in the process.  Levine was against the way that Scopes made a commercial product out of something that he thought should have been made public for everybody to benefit from.  The two of them became enemies and Levine uses his publicity to continually attack Scopes and GeneDyne.

Levine is friends with a computer hacker named Mime, and with his help he infiltrates Mount Dragon’s secure network and secretly contacts Guy Carson, Levine’s old acquaintance.  Carson isn’t happy with the secret chat sessions, but he gives Levine small pieces of information, to which Levine makes public and uses against Scopes.  Scopes releases damaging back against Levine, and Levine is ultimately released from his position at Harvard.

Back at Mount Dragon, Carson and de Vaca do more researching, and Carson realizes that perhaps it’s not his procedure that was wrong with the X-FLU, but rather something much earlier in the process instead, something that was originally thought to be safe.

After Brandon-Smith’s death, Mount Dragon was visited by an investigator from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).  The investigator researches and ultimately determines that the Level 5 lab is safe to use again after a thorough sterilization process was completed.  He also confides with Carson and reveals that there’s more to Mount Dragon than Carson knows.  The investigator tells him that the scientists probably have secret journals that are hidden around the facility.  He implies that Dr. Burt most likely had one as well.  If Carson can find it, then maybe he’ll learn what’s really happening at the remote research facility.

Carson and de Vaca go through Dr. Burt’s notes, and sure enough, it looks like he’s leaving out information.  The journal entries in the computer continually decrease in size as the days progress.  They look at some of Dr. Burt’s poems and realize that the professor left behind clues to find his hidden journal.  They head into the desert and successfully find the secret journal.

In his secret journal, Dr. Burt writes a series of letters to his wife.  In the letters, Dr. Burt confesses that he faked some of the results for PurBlood so that it would pass the FDA’s standards for being safe.  He then injected himself with the PurBlood to test it on a human being.

Knowing this information, Carson investigates the PurBlood notes and test results, and he sees Dr. Burt’s mistakes.  It turns out that PurBlood is actually dangerous as it causes an imbalance of molecules within a person’s mind, causing hallucinations and other mental health problems.  The incorrect processing method was also being used in the X-FLU, and that’s why Carson’s experiment failed.

To make matters worse, Carson discovers a video file in the Mount Dragon server.  A little while ago, a film crew recorded a presentation as PurBlood was officially completed.  The ceremony concluded with all of the scientists, the security staff, the director of the facility, and even Brent Scopes himself all being injected with the PurBlood to show their faith and confidence in the product.  That’s why everybody is going crazy.  It’s not from cabin fever but from the PurBlood.  This ceremony occurred just prior to Guy Carson and Susana de Vaca being transferred to Mount Dragon.

Scopes discovers that Carson has had a sudden interest in PurBlood when he should be working on X-FLU.  He has also caught Carson chatting with Charles Levine.

By now other members of the facility are showing signs of mental health problems.  Any of them are capable of suddenly going berserk and attacking anybody at any moment.

Brent Scopes alerts the security guards and Carson and de Vaca are on the run.  De Vaca insists on destroying the laboratory to keep the X-FLU out of the hands of their crazy colleagues.  It’s just too dangerous to leave alone.  Besides, with the facility on high alert, the Level 5 containment lab will be the last place that the security team would look for them.

The two scientists manage to intentionally set off a level-zero alert that ignites and destroys the facility.  A tremendous explosion obliterates the entire underground research lab.  Guy Carson and Susana de Vaca then steal two horses and make a getaway into the desert.  Not only are they running for their lives, but they also have to stop the PurBlood from being distributed.

While most of the security team goes in one direction, Nye, an eccentric Englishman who is determined to kill both of them, follows Carson and de Vaca’s tracks further into the desert.  He slowly pursues them across the dry and punishing landscape.  The two of them use some tricks to stay ahead of GeneDye’s head of security, and they manage to find water when it’s desperately needed.

Nye jumps ahead of them and sets an ambush.  He shoots and wounds Carson.  De Vaca pleads for her life and trades Nye his horse and rifle (unloaded, of course) in exchange for a buried treasure that Nye has been seeking.  She gives him coins as proof that she and Carson found the treasure in a mountain cave.  Nye accepts and heads to the cave while Carson and de Vaca escape.  They make it to safety and stop the shipment of PurBlood.  Nye, meanwhile, is never heard from again.

In Boston, Charles Levine receives information from Mime, his computer hacker friend, of how to find Brent Scopes.  Carson had sent Levine some critical documents about PurBlood and X-FLU before Scopes discovered it and cut off the network connection.

To find Scopes, a wealthy man who lives more in his virtual computer world than real life, Levine infiltrates one of GeneDyne’s facilities and follows Mime’s instructions to hack into the network.  He does so while hiding in an elevator, and Levine navigates Scopes’s custom virtual world and eventually finds his old friend.  Brent is furious with Charles and locates him in the building.  He has his security team escort him to his office.

In his office, Scopes and Levine discuss PurBlood and X-FLU.  Brent reveals that he never injected himself with PurBlood.  At the ceremony he had himself injected with a colored substance that only looked like PurBlood.  As far as the X-FLU, not all of it was destroyed at Mount Dragon.  Scopes still has a vial of it stored there in his office.

Levine challenges Scopes to a contest where they have to recite quotes relating to certain subjects.  It’s an old game that they used to play back in college.  If Levine wins then he’ll receive the vial of X-FLU so it can be destroyed.  If Scopes wins then Levine will sign the patent extension for their genetically altered corn, and Brent Scopes can continue to make a fortune with it.

Charles Levine wins the contest.  When Brent hands over the vial of X-FLU, he breaks it and crushes the broken glass into both of their hands.  It’s a death sentence as there’s no cure and the virus will kill both of them in a couple of days.

They both comes to terms with their imminent deaths.  Brent Scopes then orders his assistant to drop a powerful poison into the sealed room to effectively destroy the virus.  The assistant is to then incinerate the dead bodies and destroy all remaining traces of X-FLU.

Mount Dragon ends with Brent Scopes and Charles Levine both dying from the poison.  However, their digital personalities have been added to Scopes’s virtual world, and both of those characters will continue to “live” and interact with other users.

So is Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s book, Mount Dragon, any good?

Yes.

As a whole, Mount Dragon is a fantastic book that takes a rather chilling looking into the world of viruses and genetic engineering.  The book is full of medical terminology and the concepts sound interesting.  It makes you wonder if such a place really exists.

Mount Dragon moves at a quick pace, and you’ll most likely be finishing the book in no time.

Personally, I would have liked it if Mount Dragon found a way to be more evil and sinister.  I like the concept of the doomsday virus, but I would have liked to have seen more of a horror element.  This book also lacks an evil or sinister twist at the end of the story, unlike Preston and Child’s other books.

Those are just minor issues to an otherwise well-researched and impressive story.