Terrorists have unleashed the rapidly spreading virus dubbed The 'noids. Those infected become organic WMDs who attack others to spread the virus. As the plague spreads laws become meaningless and the military helpless. Civilization is collapsing from within.
Gemma Goode, host of a wildly popular syndicated show about the unusual and the paranormal, and her fiancé, police profiler Danny Sullivan, know about the virus, having uncovered it through a series of chance encounters and investigative work. The 'noids attacks the Ammon's Horn region of the brain, filling its victim with paranoid delusions, culminating in a violent, deadly outburst, ultimately followed by suicide.
The virus, fused with a common cold germ, spreads, turning the country into a nation of violent lunatics. Danny and Gemma flee westward, ahead of the collapse. The trek west is long and nightmarish, and filled with life-or-death encounters with 'noids victims and bands of looters. California has closed its border and maintains its isolationism by military force. The government is trying desperately to get things under control. As they battle their way west, Danny begins to obsess that the President, who has been evacuated to California, is infected with the virus.
Danny will do anything--including assassination--to stop the President before he can start a nuclear war.
