The fifth original novel based on the massively successful and Emmy Award-winning television series created by Chris Carter. When a disease-ravaged body is found in the smouldering ruins of the federally funded DyMar genetic research lab, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully fear that a deadly man-made plague is on the loose. As the FBI agents investigating the 'X-Files' - cases the bureau has deemed unsolvable - Mulder and Scully pursue the truth wherever it leads. Racing to contain the lethal virus before it can spread, Mulder and Scully make a chilling discovery: before his death, Dr David Kennessy, a hotshot cancer researcher at DyMar, had been experimenting with a promising but highly dangerous technology - bio-machines that can cure any disease, heal any wound. And when a second corpse turns up, savagely mutilated from within, it's anything but theoretical. Could machines created to cure have learned to kill? Scrambling for answers, Mulder and Scully are opposed at every step by faceless enemies with all the resources of the government - even perhaps their own agency - at their command. As sinister forces close in, Scully fights to save the life of an innocent boy, while Mulder comes face-to-face with a crazed and desperate man - a man whose slightest touch brings agonizing death - and perhaps a resurrection more horrible still!