My first book, Reprisal, is about a terrorist who steals smallpox virus  from Russia in an attempt to infect school children in Minnesota and start a pandemic.  Little did I know that non-terrorist scientists may have created a potential plague–much worse than small pox.  See the editorial in a recent issue of The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/an-engineered-doomsday.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=An+engineered+doomsday&st=nyt

Scientists …