MDRAB, multiple-drug-resistant
Antigenic shift, which produces the killer species of ACE, is a recognized evolutionary phenomenon.
Moonmilk is a real extremophile that lives in wild caves. A number of microbiologists believe that subterranean extremophiles are our best hope for developing new strains of antibiotics for use against microbes that, like ACE, are resistant to all existing drugs. Some—notably Dr. Hazel Barton, of Northern Kentucky University —have already synthesized new antibiotics from deep-cave extremophiles.
BARDA does exist and manages Project BioShield, which supports “advanced development of medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents.”
Several supercaves are found in southern Mexico: Huautla and Cheve are two of the most famous. Cueva de Luz is another character in the book, a combination of Cheve, Huautla, and several other such giants. These caves contain all the bizarre horrors described in the book, though no one cave—as far as we know—contains
Many—perhaps most—native peoples with sophisticated cultures dating back to prehistory truly believe that caves are sentient living beings.
Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are using BADS, the boomerang anti-sniper detection system developed by DARPA. “Gecko Gear” was created by DARPA, which refers to it as Z-Man Tools and continues working in a “thrust area” called BIM, for biologically inspired materials. The DARPA devices are a bit different from those depicted in the book, but both operate on the same principle. While still experimental, the tools are thought to be deployed with certain special operations units today.
Soft robots that use “jamming skin enabled locomotion” to shape-shift and conform perfectly to, say, human hands and feet were developed by a private company called iRobot.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ethan Ellenberg, my intrepid literary agent, first saw potential in
Kelli Fillingim masterfully guided
Elizabeth Tabor, Wallis Wheeler, Steven Butler, Sheila Bannister, Tasha Wallis, Lisa Loomis, Damon Tabor, and Jack Tabor all read early drafts of the novel and offered invaluable feedback. My good friend Jim Parker, an expert cave diver and perhaps the smartest and bravest man I’ve ever known, helped me avoid wrong turns in the diving passages.
My mother, Hallie Siple Tabor, contributed half of the heroine’s name. Deputy Chief Joyce Leland of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, the best supervisor any street cop could pray for, contributed the other half.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAMES M. TABOR is the internationally award-winning author of
ALSO BY JAMES M. TABOR
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by James M. Tabor
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tabor, James M.
The deep zone : a novel / James M. Tabor
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-53228-2
I. Title.
PS3620.A258D44 2012
813?.6—dc23
2011040477
Cover art and design: Carlos Beltran
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