In the face of a new plague that threatens the world, our forensic heroes investigate the past to save the future— studying evidence from when the Black plague decimated a small english village eyam, pronounced eem, during the seventeenth-century. After the greedy founders of a scientific research laboratory intentionally infect subjects with a deadly plague in order to develop a lucrative vaccine, the plague spreads beyond the lab’s control. A top-secret government team of scientists covertly begins to research a solution. They turn their attention to the seventeenth-century—the only other time when a widespread plague ravaged the world—for clues on how to prevent this disaster from happening again. In particular, the scientists are interested in how eighty people from the village of Eyam were able to remain virtually untouched by the plague at the height of the Black Death’s deadly reign over Europe. But trouble is afoot in Eyam—grave robberies, grisly murders, and the bizarre reappearance of the Blue Monk—a legendary, spectral figure from the time of the plague. Can he be real? And who’s trying to stop the team from discovering the truth about Eyam? Distinguished authors Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore, M.D. have collaborated to deliver this sweeping, fast-paced novel that spans the globe and transcends time. Sure to leave readers wanting more, The Eyam Factor is a riveting introduction to the authors’ new Time Scene Investigators series. "I was on the edge of my seat from the very first page of The Gabon Virus and didn't breathe again until I turned the last page. Fast-paced and gripping, this book will make us all think, This could happen ." -- Debbie Macomber, New York Times bestselling novelist Paul McCusker is a Peabody Award-winning writer and director who has written novels, plays, audio dramas, and musicals for children and adults. He currently has over thirty books in print. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Walt Larimore, M.D. is a noted physician, award-winning writer, and medical journalist who hosted the cable television show on Fox’s Health Network, Ask the Family Physician . He lives in Monument, Colorado. The Gabon Virus A Novel By Paul McCusker Howard Books Copyright © 2009 Paul McCusker All right reserved. ISBN: 9781416569718 CHAPTER ONE July 15, 1666 Rebekah Smythe loo ked down at her brother's lifeless body, his eyes staring vacantly toward the heaven he had hoped and prayed to inhabit. With a pale and trembling hand, she reached down and closed his eyelids. She had done the same for her father and three of her sisters -- all lying still now in their shallow graves not far from their home; so silent after their days of suffering and anguish. She could not weep for them. Her tears were spent long ago. She looked at the makeshift cots on which her mother and youngest sister slept fitfully. They had come down with the symptoms just two days earlier. She dared not hold out hope for their survival. In another day or two, if all went as it had for the rest of her family, they'd be gone and she'd be alone. Alone. By the grace of God, she had resisted the illness. Yet the outcome of her survival would be loneliness. In her darker moments, she wondered how far God's grace could carry her. Agnes Hull, who lived in the next cottage down, had also survived the Black Plague and claimed that the warm bacon fat she drank was the reason. She left bottles of the wretched liquid at the doors of afflicted families, but unfortunately, it didn't work for Rebekah's family. John Dicken, who worked in the local mines, was also a survivor. Believing himself immune, he had established himself as Eyam's village grave digger. He would offer his services the instant he heard of another victim. After burying the body away from town, he would return to claim the burial fee -- reportedly taking whatever he fancied. Most were too sick to stop him. Besides, what use was their money if they were dead? Few of the men were well enough to take the job from Dicken, and it wasn't as if anyone new would arrive to challenge him. After all, the village was under strict quarantine. Rebekah sat on a stool, staring at the fire. Pushing a lock of hair away from her face, she was overcome by a feeling of selfpity. How had it come to this? Who could have foreseen last September that something as unassuming as a box of cloth from London would start such an epidemic? Mr. George Viccars, a traveling tailor, certainly couldn't have. As he opened the box -- wet from a rainstorm -- and laid the cloth out to dry, he could not have imagined what he was unleashing upon them all. Within a day, he developed the telltale symptoms of rose-colored spots on his skin and quickly died. The Earl, the village's patron, sent his personal physician from the castle to examine the tailor's body. The doctor's diagnosis was Black Plague. It had arrived in Eyam. And so began a year of terror. The village had ral