Prey

Introduction

Prey is a 2002 science-fiction novel by Michael Crichton. Like his more popular novels in the Jurassic Park series, Prey employs the misuse of technology—and the hubris of opportunistic scientists—to pit his characters against a threat. In this case, the danger comes in the form of nanobots, microscopic agents that are rapidly evolving to destroy the people in a Nevada molecular fabrication lab. This guide uses the 2009 HarperCollins eBook edition of Prey.

Content Warning: Please note that this guide quotes and obscures the use of the F-word.

Plot Summary

Jack Forman is the main character. When the novel begins, he is a stay-at-home father who has been out of work for six months; he was fired from his job as a software programmer for MediaTronics after discovering damaging information about his boss and has not been able to find work in Silicon Valley since. Jack’s work focused on agent-based programs and algorithms that mimicked the behaviors of collective organisms like ants.

His wife, Julia, works for a tech company called Xymos. As her hours grow longer and her temper grows shorter, Jack worries that she is having an affair. One night, their baby, Amanda, turns red and begins screaming. The screaming doesn’t stop until doctors put her in an MRI machine at the hospital. They have no explanations. Jack is disturbed by how unconcerned Julia seems, particularly after he finds an unfamiliar electronic device plugged in under Amanda’s crib. Shortly afterward, some of the electronic equipment in their home fails as their memory chips erode.

Julia has a car accident, but she survives. An associate of Jack’s former boss then unexpectedly reaches out to ask him to come back to his job as an off-site consultant and help them solve a problem; Xymos has bought an algorithm Jack designed, and they need his expertise. After traveling to Xymos’s Nevada laboratory by helicopter, Jack is disturbed by what he finds. A combination of bacteria and pollution have mingled with the particle agents—or nanobots—that Xymos was working on to build an autonomous camera for the military. Now the swarm has shaken off its programming and is trying to infiltrate the facility while killing local wildlife. The swarm is reproducing and evolving, allowing it to solve problems.

Destroying the swarm becomes Jack’s priority, although Ricky, the man running the lab, resists. Jack and a team of scientists develop a plan to spray the swarms with a tracking agent so they can follow them at night when they shut down in the absence of solar power. After several conflicts with the swarms, two of their research partners are killed. Jack learns that the swarms can mimic human appearance.

That night, they track the swarms to their nest; there, the nanobots, instead of powering down, are practicing their three-dimensional mimicry. They have assembled their own production line similar to that at the lab to continue reproducing. Jack and Mae, a field biologist, realize the swarms are coordinating to take turns and share their power; with every passing hour, they evolve more rapidly. Jack and Mae infiltrate the nest and destroy the swarms with explosive thermite caps.

Julia returns to the lab, but she is erratic, flirtatious, and unhelpful. Jack sees a security video in which Julia and Ricky appear to be kissing, but they are actually passing nanobots into each other from their mouths. Jack realizes the particles have evolved enough to infiltrate their human hosts without killing them. Jack and Mae, the only remaining uninfected, develop a vaccine in the form of a virus and plan to distribute it without the hosts’ knowledge. While Mae distracts them, Jack loads their assembly line with the virus, knowing it will clog the filters and eventually explode, releasing the vaccine.

When Julia tries to transmit the particles to Jack, he manages to trap her in a magnetic chamber that has a similar function to an MRI machine. The magnets briefly stun the nanobots, long enough to reveal that they have been mimicking Julia’s appearance while the real Julia wastes away below their cover. She begs Jack to save their children and apologizes for her mistakes.

As the infected scientists close in on Jack, the assembly line explodes, showering them all with the vaccine. Jack and Mae escape, and Jack returns home, where he gives the vaccine to his children. He knows the nanobot technology cannot be contained forever, but he hopes that if he can help mass-produce the vaccine, humanity may survive the coming conflict.