Eleventh Hour

Nicknamed "Gepetto," a rogue scientist has left a trail of deformed fetuses across Eastern Europe--rejects from failed experiments at human cloning. Shocking evidence indicates that Gepetto has set up shop in England. With the life of at least one unwitting surrogate mother in the balance, Hood and Rachel race to bust a black market in human reproduction.

Professor Hood's task is to oversee the work of the Local Disease Control Committee, an enthusiastic group of volunteer scientists, containing the outbreak and locating the source. Time is crucial here: the virus is highly infectious, and if they don't act swiftly and decisively, a global pandemic will surely ensue.

Hood's former classmate, the renowned climatologist Richard Adams, may have suffered a breakdown. Fired from his job at an environmental think tank, Adams claims that insidious powers are sabotaging his imminent breakthrough on global warming. Only by cracking an intricate code can Hood determine whether his friend - and the world - face real danger.

After a child's kidney tumor disappears, his father credits the cure to water from a particular spring. Hood and Rachel rush to the scene to investigate - along with a horde of hopeful cancer patients. But if the water has such curative power, why does it seem to make so many people sicker?