The Lazarus Vendetta - by Robert Ludlum

Just finished reading “The Lazarus Vendetta” by Robert Ludlum. A few years ago the storyline would have seem outlandish. But in these days of sudden rapid outbreak of diseases like SARS, Bird Flu and Swine Flu, it’s not a question of“if” anymore but “when”. :-(

The storyline then, without further ado. It all begins at a remote village in the strife-torn country of Zimbabwe. The workers of the Lazarus movement who are trying to promote natural farming there are shocked to find that all the residents have been killed in the most grotesque way imaginable – their bodies reduced to a pile of slime and bones. They don’t get much time to react though as unseen snipers gun them down. The scene is repeated outside the Teller Institute – that’s housing research facilities of many Nanotechnology companies – when the members of the movement stage a protest rally there, just ahead of US President Sam Castilla’s visit.

The world watches, terrified as its worst fears about US secret weapons of mass destruction are confirmed day by day. And Lieutanant Colonel Jonathan Smith who is called upon to make sense of the situation that is rapidly sliding out of the control of Uncle Sam, finds that somewhere in this saga of death and destruction are involved two of the most prestigious US intelligence services – the Bureau (that’s FBI, for the uninitiated!) and the Agency (that’s CIA, again for the uninitiated!) - and Britain’s MI6!