Alistair MacLean · 1962 · thriller

Alistair MacLean's 1962 thriller, published as by Ian Stuart. From the most secure biological research station in Britain, a scientist is found dead and two flasks are missing - one of them a virus that would depopulate a continent. The thief begins writing to the newspapers, naming the places he will open it, and the government has no way of knowing whether he is bluffing.

1. 1
   Mordon

   At the Mordon research establishment on the Wiltshire downs, wired and supposedly impenetrable, a scientist lies dead in a sealed laboratory and two culture flasks are gone - one of them the Satan Bug itself.

2. 2
   London

   The letters arrive at Fleet Street naming a village, then a district, then London - and Pierre Cavell, thrown out of Mordon's own security, has days to find a flask that could empty the country.