Cobweb

The Gulf War is imminent and there's something mighty strange going on in the Agriculture Department of East Iowa University. When an Arab student turns up drunk - and dead - in the lake, redneck Deputy County Sheriff Clyde Banks gets a feeling he's on to something big. It's a suspicion shared by low-ranking CIA agent Betsy Vandeventer. Betsy's pretty big too - having once been a farm girl from Idaho. But before two great minds yell conspiracy theory, in steps top US policy-maker James Millikan. Here's a man well used to dictating the Middle East's future - from a comfortable seat at a top Paris restaurant. While shenanigans in the Midwest might not be exactly his style, there's a technique that serves America well in all matters of national security. It's called the 'Cobweb', and it backfires every time.

From his triumphant debut with "Snow Crash to the stunning success of his latest novel, "Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson has quickly become the voice of a generation. In this now-classic political thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a savagely witty, chillingly topical tale set in the tense moments of the Gulf War.
When a foreign exchange student is found murdered at an Iowa University, Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks finds that his investigation extends far beyond the small college town--all the way to the Middle East. Shady events at the school reveal that a powerful department is using federal grant money for highly dubious research. And what it's producing is a very nasty bug.
Navigating a plot that leads from his own backyard to Washington, D.C., to the Gulf, where his Army Reservist wife has been called to duty, Banks realizes he may be the only person who can stop the wholesale slaughtering of thousands of Americans. It's a lesson in foreign policy he'll never forget.