THE NEXT GREAT WAR WILL START INSIDE US Greg Bear’s powerfully written, brilliantly inventive novels combine cutting-edge science and unforgettable characters, illuminating dazzling new technologies — and their dangers. Bear draws on state-of-the-art biological and anthropological research to give us an ingeniously plotted thriller that questions everything we believe about human origins and destiny — as civilization confronts the next terrifying step in evolution. A mass grave in Russia that conceals the mummified remains of two women, both with child — and the conspiracy to keep it secret…a major discovery high in the Alps: the preserved bodies of a prehistoric family — the newborn infant possessing disturbing characteristics…a mysterious disease that strikes only pregnant women, resulting in miscarriage. Three disparate facts that will converge into one science-shattering truth. Molecular biologist Kaye Lang, a specialist in retroviruses, believes that ancient diseases encoded in the DNA of humans can again come to life. But her theory soon becomes chilling reality.For Christopher Dicken — a ‘virus hunter’ at the Epidemic Intelligence Service — has pursued an elusive flu-like disease that strikes down expectant mothers and their offspring. The shocking link: something that has slept in our genes for millions of years is waking up. Now, as the outbreak of this terrifying disease threatens to become a deadly epidemic, Dicken and Lang, along with anthropologist Mitch Rafelson, must race against time to assemble the pieces of a puzzle only they are equipped to solve. An evolutionary puzzle that will determine the future of the human race…if a future exists at all.