Synopsis: From the flaps of the Forge first printing: "A supertanker has crashed off the shores of San Francisco, producing the largest oil spill in history. Desperate to avert an ecological - and public relations - disaster, a multinational oil company releases an untested virus designed to break up the spill. A virus that spreads like wildfire on the wind, destroying anything made of petroleum - destroying gasoline in automobile tanks, plastics, nylon, the very fabric of modern civilization itself. Dr. Spencer Lockwood, one of the few scientists to recognize the danger, tries to alert government and industry to the impending danger. But his warnings go unheeded and the devastation mounts. As America descends into savagery, Lockwood forges a courageous band of scientists to carry out a daring plan to restore order. But humanity's last hope my be snuffed out by a ruthless general driven by an insatiable desire for power. A riveting and inspiring saga of ecological catastrophe and human survival, Ill Wind is all the more frightening because it could actually happen. Kevin Anderson, a technical consultant for the Air Force, and Doug Beason, a former science advisor o the Reagan administration, have drawn upon the latest breakthroughs in biotechnology to create a disaster scenario that is terrifying in its plausibility."