Streams of Babel, Carol Plum-Ucci

Plum-Ucci, Carol (2008).
Streams of Babel
Orlando: Harcourt
9780152165567
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Six teens face a bioterrorist attack on American soil as four are infected with a mysterious disease affecting their small New Jersey neighborhood and two others, both brilliant computer hackers, assist the United States Intelligence Coalition in tracking the perpetrators.
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Meet Cora Holman. Her heroin addicted mother experiences flu like symptoms and then mysteriously dies within the first few pages of the novel. Cora, who has never really known her mother, has nobody to call, and wonders what to do as she, too, begins to feel as if she has the flu. The paramedic who retrieves her mother is Scott. He and his brother Owen also begin to experience symptoms. When their mother dies within days of Cora’s, Scott, a paramedic, begins to wonder if perhaps there is more to the situation especially when Rain, whose father happens to work with a special unit that deals with bioterrorist situations, too, becomes ill. Travel overseas to Pakistan and meet Shahzad, a sixteen-year-old computer prodigy who is working with the FBI as a virtual spy and has deciphered mention of something called Red Vinegar destined to kill thousands. While the storyline is obvious, Plum-Ucci deftly captures the fear, frustration, and confusion of her characters. Her split narrative only enhances the plot and creates a tension, which creates an intense page-turner. Initially hesitant to leave Pakistan, the asthmatic Shahzad decides to relocate to New York to work undercover with the FBI and get better health care. When a young Asian American computer hacker figures out Shahzad’s true identity, Shahzad is fired from the FBI. However, Shahzad cannot return to a mundane life, and as the teens in N.J. worsen- all are hospitalized-, Shahzad and his new found hacker friend decide that they can and will solve the mystery of the Red Vinegar. The climax occurs when the two boys come face to face with the terrorists! Internet spying and hacking along with bioterrorism guarantee to interest the most reluctant reader while the insecure Cora, good-hearted Scott and prom-obsessed Rain will appeal to those not usually interested in espionage and terrorism type reads.