Area 7 (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = Area 7
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Thomas Dunne Books edition cover
author = Matthew Reilly
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series = Shane Schofield
genre = Techno-thriller novel
publisher = Pan Macmillan
release_date = October 31, 2001
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages = 596 pp (paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0-333-90626-8
preceded_by = Ice Station
followed_by = Scarecrow

"Area 7" is a novel written by Australian thriller writer Matthew Reilly. It is his fourth book, published in 2001, and is the sequel to Ice Station.

Plot Summary

The President of the United States is visiting America's most secret military installation, Area 7. Assigned to his protective detail is Shane Schofield and his team of Marines including Gena 'Mother' Newman, Elizabeth 'Fox' Gant and Buck 'Book II' Riley Jr. They are plunged into a race for survival when an Air Force general, Charles “Caesar” Russell, unleashes a plan he has been working on for over 15 years. Despite being 'executed' on the president's inauguration, Caesar is revived, and with a squadron of elite airforce soldiers (the 7th Squadron), have taken control of Area 7 and initiated a lockdown. A transmitter, attached to the president’s heart before he was elected, has been activated; a satellite sends and receives messages to and from this transmitter, which is powered by the kinetic energy of the president’s heart beating. If the satellite doesn't receive the messages from the transmitter 14 plasma nuclear warheads in the airports of the Northern, “pro-black” capital cities of the United States will explode, flattening these cities, and making way for a new, racist, Confederate America. As long as the President's heart beats, the messages will be sent to the satellite, and the nuclear warheads will not detonate. To prevent the president from trying to escape Area 7, Caesar also overrode the launch codes on the Nuclear Football so that to prevent the detonation of the warheads, the president must place his hand on the fingerprint sensor on the Football (that is being kept in Caesar's possession) every 90 minutes.

Several Marines and Secret Service personnel are killed in the initial fight with the 7th Squadron, who possess superior weapons and are physically stronger and fitter. The president and two of his Secret Service personnel manage to escape from the initial firefight as due Schofield, Riley, Newman, Gant and several other marines; albeit destroying an AWACS plane and two Humvees in the process.

While moving through the underground complex, Gant and her group, including the president, come to cell block, and find a scientist locked inside one of the cells. After being released and questioned it is discovered that the prisoners being held at Area 7 are 'volunteers' that the scientists use carry out experiments. It soon comes to light that there are ways of opening exits out of Area 7, and two have already been opened by another scientist, Dr Gunther Botha. In addition to opening two exits, Botha also shut down main power to the complex, so that it is now running on auxiliary power. Meanwhile Schofield and his group, after fleeing from the ground level hangar, make their way into the sublevels where they find a bedroom of a 6 year old boy named Kevin. Schofield's group then meets up with Riley's group, and the president reveals that the reason for his visit to Area 7 is to check on progress for a vaccine being developed for the Sinovirus, a genetically engineered virus that differentiates between the colour pigmentation in a person's skin, allowing it target only people of a specific race (however people of Asian descent are immune). The president explains that to develop a vaccine for the Sinovirus (and protect America from biological weapons containing the Sinovirus) the scientists had to create a genetically engineered human, a boy named Kevin, who's blood could be used to produce antibodies, and the prisoners being held at Area 7 are used as guinea pigs to test the vaccine.