Artifice - Jeff Schanz

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Résumé :
In the near future... -A meteorite rumored to carry extraterrestrial life is stolen and disappears. -Moon mission astronauts report fatal encounters with bizarre creatures. Their claims are dismissed. -Alien rumors are ridiculed and refuted until - a spaceship crashes in Washington D.C. A live broadcast at the crash site shows the deceased pilot is an unidentifiable creature. The footage goes viral and plunges Earth into a frenzy of misinformation and unrealizable expectations. Afraid of a panic, the government keeps the public unaware of the true nature of the extraterrestrial lifeform: a microscopic organism that transforms its hosts into fatally infectious, nearly indestructible, savage beasts. Only a secretive few know the pilot of the crashed craft was originally human. The U.S. Government publicizes a multinational peace expedition to the home world of the fictitious intelligent aliens. But it's an elaborate charade to hide the real mission. In secret, a strike team has been dispatched to eliminate what they believe is a sinister threat. In the anonymity of space, a mysterious cabal is suspected of perverse extraterrestrial experiments, deadly abominations, and weapons against humanity. What the clandestine strike team discovers is nothing they could've prepared for. The team will have to survive an unholy death trap to stop an agenda for mankind's future as dark and cold as the depths of space....