"THERE'S BEEN A FIRE." Four words. Succinct. Terse. Steeped in code. These four words slam Joshua Cross into a world placing medical science on a collision course with radical terrorism,biological warfare, murder, and abduction. Understanding that fear is the greatest weapon of the terrorist. Colonel Joshua Cross, PhD, is catapulted into a war being conducted on three fronts. He is challenged by the first outbreak of smallpox in the United States in over fifty years and the need to reassure his government and the nation that the attack is containable. Perhaps the most basic challenge of all for Dr. Cross is the disappearance of his fiance' Dr. Katherine Dale.You will experience the intensity of human emotion when pitted with personal values, in conflict with the reality of a true national threat. From the laboratory to the field, from the logic of science to chaos of the real world, each readaer will find a common thread by which to identify with the personalities invested in leading a nation away from a looming crisis.