On the road, a Red Crescent ambulance found them and soon they were surrounded by solicitous doctors and two nurses wrapped head to toe in gray chalabis.
They rode in the back of the ambulance to Mecca, passing trucks filled with soldiers and more bodies pushed to the sides of the road.
Many more bodies.
But the lights of the Grand Mosque burned bright, and they were told that even now, Hajjis were circling the Kaabah Kaabah, the House of God, rejoicing in their fortune. For they had been to Mecca and listened to God, and soon they would be going home.
After Note:
The biological weapons and processes in this novel are possible, but not in the way I have described them. I have tried to persuade of the dangers without providing salient details.
The dangers are real, and immediate. Sober judgment, selfless, nonpartisan planning, and sanity are the only solutions.
For those who go in harm's way, there is ultimately no politics. Only pain, loss, death-and hope.
About the Author.
QUANTICO.
Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California. His father was in the US Navy, and by the time he was twelve years old, Greg had lived in Japan, the Philippines, Alaska-where at the age of ten he completed his first short story-and various other parts of the US. He published his first science fiction story aged sixteen. His novels and stories have won prizes and been translated around the world.
By the same author
Darwin's Radio
Darwin's Children
Vitals
Dead Lines
Slant
Eon
The Forge of God
Moving Mars
Eternity
Anvil of Stars
Legacy
Queen of Angels
Blood Music
Hegira
Psychlone