The Deep Zone

In this gripping debut thriller fromJames M. Tabor, a brilliant and beautiful scientist and a mysterious specialops soldier must lead a team deep into the Earth on a desperate hunt for thecure to a deadly epidemic.

When she was unjustly fired from a clandestine government laboratory,microbiologist Hallie Leland swore she would never look back. But she can'tignore an urgent summons from the White House to reenter the realm ofcutting-edge science and dangerous secrets.

"Potentially the worst threat since Pearl Harbor" is how the presidentdescribes a mysterious epidemic killing American soldiers inAfghanistan-and now poised for outbreak in the States and beyond. Millions willdie unless Hallie and a hastily mobilized team can recover the ultrarareorganism needed to create a new antibiotic. The good news is that Hallie knowsmore about the organism than anyone else on the planet. The bad news is that itcan be found only at the bottom of Earth's deepest cave.

Hallie's team is capable-especially the mysterious Wil Bowman, who knows asmuch about high-tech weaponry as he does about microbiology-but the challengeappears insurmountable. Before even reaching the supercave, they must traversea forbidding Mexican jungle populated by warring cartels, Federales, andmurderous locals. Only then can they confront the cave's flooded tunnels, lakesof acid, bottomless chasms, and mind-warping blackness. But the deadliestenemies are hiding in plain sight: a powerful traitor high in the Washingtonranks and a cunning assassin deep underground, determined to turn Hallie'smission into a journey of no return.

The award-winning and bestselling author of two nonfiction books aboutadventure and exploration, James M. Tabor now plunges readers into the harrowingsubterranean world of supercaves-and even deeper, into a race-with-the-devilthriller that pits one woman against a lethal epidemic and a murderousconspiracy.

James M. Tabor isthe nationally bestselling author of Blind Descent and Forever on theMountain and a winner of the O. Henry Award for short fiction. A formerWashington, D.C., police officer and a lifelong adventure enthusiast, Tabor haswritten for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Outsidemagazine, where he was a contributing editor. He wrote and hosted the PBSseries The Great Outdoors and was co-creator and executive producer ofthe History Channel's Journey to the Center of the World. He lives inVermont, where he is at work on his next novel.