The Return of the Spanish Lady

Baker & Taylor
Archaeologist and expert on old planes Nicolette Scott tries to stop a pharmaceutical company from reviving the 1919 "Spanish Lady" flu epidemic that had killed millions around the world so it can make billions on the antidote.

Blackwell North Amer
With a reputation for ignoring authority, Nicolette Scott is an archaeologist whose knowledge of early airplanes has won her kudos as an expert and a job at the Smithsonian. Shortly after she begins there, she is thrilled to be included in the museum's latest project. A large pharmaceutical company is equipping an expedition to a remote region of Alaska, where, during World War II, a Japanese plane was shot down. It's a gamble, but the money is provided, and if the small group of experts can locate the plane and somehow bring it back to Washington, it would be a coup - and a boost for Nicolette's career.
Not long after the search begins, the plane is indeed found, but moving it would be risky: It has started disintegrating in unusually "warm" weather. Instead of returning satisfied with this modest triumph, Nicolette is dismayed to discover that there is a darker reason for the company's generosity. The expedition's real goal turns out to reach all the way back to the great Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1919 with the macabre nickname "The Spanish Lady." It killed millions around the world. This flu virus still exists in its few victims who happened to be preserved in constantly frozen ground. The expedition's backers had recently learned that three World War I veterans searching Alaska for gold had died of the disease near their crashed plane, and it is their bodies that are the real goal of the expedition.
Nicolette is shocked. The only reason she can see for the search, the willing expenditure of money, and the odd cast of characters is an ominous one, and she soon discovers a plot that equals the threat of global atomic war. Unless she can defuse it - and the effort could easily mean her death - the lives of the innocent members of the expedition will be forfeited and the lives of hundreds of millions will be at stake.