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captured and thrown into a magnetic chamber. Jack feigns surrender when Julia walks in to interrogate him, but reactivates the magnetic chamber, remembering the incident with Amanda in the MRI. Julia's swarm is pulled away by the magnetic field to temporarily reveal the real Julia, who is gradually being consumed by the parasitic swarm. Before the swarm can repossess her body, Julia begs Jack to forgive her, says she loves him, and tells him to stop the swarms and save their children, as they have been infected too. Motivated, Jack runs to the roof, fights off the infected team, and finally manages to place the sample into the sprinkler system.
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also shocked to discover that the swarms can replicate the physical features, perceptions, and motions of humans when they see the swarms form replicas of Ricky, David, and Rosie. The group follows Rosie's body and find the swarms nesting in a cave and destroy the swarms, their nest, and their organic assembly plant using explosive
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Persuaded by Jack, the team decides to destroy the swarms, but are overwhelmed and retreat after the swarms kill David and Rosie. As night falls, Jack, Mae, and Bobby set out to find the swarms. While searching, they discover that the swarms are dragging Rosie's corpse through the desert. The team is
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bacteria, thereby protecting them from infection by the nanobots. Jack then takes a sample of the phage and plans to pour it into the sprinkler system to vaccinate everyone in the facility. He has Mae alert Julia and the infected team, who set out to stop Jack. In the struggle that ensues, Jack is
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Returning to the plant, Jack, Mae, and Bobby are greeted by Julia, who had discharged herself from the hospital and acts strangely as the remaining team looks for the cause of the nanobots' escape. Mae discovers security footage of when they were in the desert. To Jack's horror, the video reveals
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version of the nanobot swarms. These swarms do not show aggressive predatory behavior; instead, they take over human hosts, affecting their decision-making, and slowly devour them over time to produce more nanobots. This allows the swarms to remain hidden, while also allowing them to spread and
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for said nanobots. Ricky claims that contractors improperly installed filters in a vent, causing assemblers, bacteria, and nanobots to be blown into the desert, where they began forming into autonomous swarms. These "swarms" appear to be clouds of solar-powered self-sufficient nanobots,
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that Julia and Ricky had an affair, and shows
Charley engaging in a vicious fight with Ricky and Vince before being killed by Julia, who transfers a swarm into his mouth by kissing him. Jack and Mae realize that Julia, Ricky, Vince and Bobby have all been infected by a
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and sends a sample of the phage to her lab, Jack discovers that Xymos had intentionally released the swarm into the desert so that it would evolve to stay in a cohesive group in the wind, but called him in to destroy the wild strain once it became uncontrollable.
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Jack and Mae are able to distribute the phage around the facility, destroying the infected. They escape the facility in a helicopter shortly before the facility explodes due to a methane gas leak combined with thermite that Mae had placed in the building.
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under his own name and his twenty-third novel overall. It was first published in
November 2002, making it his first novel of the twenty-first century. An excerpt was first published in the January–February 2003 issue of
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The "Swarm" – Any of the many predatory clouds of nano-machines that "eat" animals serving as an antagonistic force in the novel. A notable aspect of the swarm is its capacity for fully
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behavior, killing wild animals through the use of code that Jack had worked on. Jack learns Julia was helping to make the swarms more benign, but they regressed when she stopped coming to the facility.
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Julia begins to display strange and abusive behavior toward her family until she's injured in a car crash, leaving Jack to consult Xymos where project manager Ricky is struggling with the nanobots.
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leaving Jack impressed yet suspicious of the new technology. The couple's baby Amanda awakens in agony, but is cured instantly after an emergency room
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Jack Forman – A former team lead/manager at MediaTronics working on distributed, multi-agent systems and advanced computer algorithms
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Ellen – Jack's sister from out of town. She takes care of his kids while he is in Nevada and believes Julia is on stimulants.
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After returning home, Jack doses his children and sister with the phage, curing them as well. While Mae calls the
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who is a stay-at-home husband. His wife, Julia, serves as an executive for a
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Mae Chang – A field biologist on Jack's consulting team
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brings together themes from two earlier
Crichton best-selling novels,
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explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective
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Ricky Morse – A friend of Jack's, works for Xymos
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company called Xymos, and claims to be working on revolutionary
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Tim Berman – The man that took over Jack's job.
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Don Gross – Jack's former boss, who fired Jack.
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Dealing: Or the
Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
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Dealing: or the
Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
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Even while pointing out the flaws in
Crichton's science, in
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Bobby
Lembeck – Computer programmer at Xymos
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Nicole – Jack and Julia's preteen daughter.
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Jack is taken to the Xymos research facility in Nevada's
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Amanda – Jack and Julia's baby daughter.
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David Brooks – An engineer on the team.
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describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily
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Maria – Jack and Julia's housekeeper.
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66:Learn how and when to remove this message
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389:) at rapid speeds. The swarms exhibit
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513:Gary – Jack's lawyer.
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1556:Novels about artificial intelligence
692:Dyson, Freeman (February 13, 2003).
529:Mary – Ricky's wife.
335:Jack Forman, an unemployed software
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283:distributed artificial intelligence
269:about developments in science and
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418:that kills the nanobot-producing
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362:is performed that same night.
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604:"20th hunts Crichton's 'Prey'"
16:2002 novel by Michael Crichton
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1114:The First Great Train Robbery
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235:is the thirteenth novel by
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411:contaminate other humans.
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623:"It's the Little Things"
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788:The Great Train Robbery
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1491:*Released posthumously
1395:Jurassic World Rebirth
694:"The Future Needs Us!
354:being injected into a
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911:(2017) *
903:(2011) *
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1586:Hard science fiction
1516:2002 American novels
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1243:The Andromeda Strain
1020:Post-Crichton novels
772:The Andromeda Strain
698:by Michael Crichton"
483:Lamarckian evolution
262:The Andromeda Strain
1566:Novels about robots
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310:population dynamics
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279:genetic engineering
90:First edition cover
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465:genetic algorithms
356:human test subject
345:imaging technology
302:genetic algorithms
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153:Publication place
148:November 25, 2002
117:Science fiction,
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906:
898:
890:
882:
874:
867:
866:
858:
850:
842:
834:
826:
818:
810:
802:
794:
786:
778:
770:
757:Bibliography
701:
695:
687:
678:
668:
656:. Retrieved
653:The Observer
652:
642:
630:. Retrieved
626:
616:
607:
597:
580:
563:
561:
556:The Observer
554:
552:
545:
543:
431:
427:
419:
413:
404:
396:
370:Basin Desert
367:
364:
349:
341:nanorobotics
330:
327:Plot summary
318:
287:
260:
255:
250:
247:
241:
231:
230:
229:
219:
206:
62:
53:
33:
1460:(1973–2022)
1406:Video games
1235:Adaptations
1227:(2016–2022)
1219:(1994–2009)
1039:Non-fiction
945:Scratch One
379:reproducing
374:source code
333:protagonist
36:in-universe
1505:Categories
1449:Franchises
1307:Disclosure
1299:Rising Sun
1181:Rising Sun
836:Disclosure
828:Rising Sun
658:28 January
632:28 January
589:References
521:headhunter
441:Characters
337:programmer
298:complexity
271:technology
1457:Westworld
1224:Westworld
1165:Westworld
1098:Westworld
969:Zero Cool
540:Reception
434:U.S. Army
408:symbiotic
391:predatory
294:emergence
133:Publisher
1541:Nanopunk
1430:Timeline
1355:Timeline
916:Eruption
860:Timeline
852:Airframe
570:See also
400:thermite
383:evolving
352:nanobots
246:magazine
208:Timeline
197:50433577
127:nanopunk
106:Language
56:May 2011
1476:Related
1267:Pursuit
1189:Twister
1130:Runaway
1090:Pursuit
1071:Travels
953:Easy Go
937:Odds On
608:Variety
421:E. coli
109:English
42:Please
1440:series
1433:(2000)
1425:(1996)
1417:(1984)
1414:Amazon
1398:(2025)
1390:(2022)
1382:(2018)
1374:(2015)
1366:(2008)
1358:(2003)
1350:(2001)
1342:(1999)
1334:(1998)
1331:Sphere
1326:(1997)
1318:(1995)
1310:(1994)
1302:(1993)
1294:(1993)
1286:(1978)
1278:(1974)
1270:(1972)
1262:(1972)
1254:(1972)
1246:(1971)
1211:(1980)
1192:(1996)
1184:(1993)
1176:(1993)
1168:(1973)
1160:(1973)
1141:(1989)
1133:(1984)
1125:(1981)
1122:Looker
1117:(1978)
1109:(1978)
1101:(1973)
1093:(1972)
1074:(1988)
1066:(1983)
1058:(1977)
1050:(1970)
1031:(2019)
1012:(1972)
1009:Binary
1004:(1970)
996:(1970)
988:(1970)
980:(1969)
972:(1969)
964:(1968)
956:(1968)
948:(1967)
940:(1966)
887:(2006)
879:(2004)
871:(2002)
863:(1999)
855:(1996)
847:(1995)
839:(1994)
831:(1992)
823:(1990)
815:(1987)
812:Sphere
807:(1980)
799:(1976)
791:(1975)
783:(1972)
775:(1969)
764:Novels
402:caps.
304:, and
281:, and
223:
210:
123:horror
96:Author
1315:Congo
900:Micro
804:Congo
416:phage
306:agent
169:Pages
114:Genre
79:Prey
38:style
1106:Coma
884:Next
868:Prey
696:Prey
660:2011
634:2011
564:Prey
381:and
312:and
259:and
251:Prey
243:Seed
232:Prey
191:OCLC
178:ISBN
360:MRI
300:),
172:502
46:to
1507::
1216:ER
700:.
677:.
651:.
625:.
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323:.
292:,
285:.
277:,
125:,
121:,
740:e
733:t
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385:(
248:.
69:)
63:(
58:)
54:(
50:.
40:.
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