Ken Folletts Eisfieber (2010)

At the Scottish biotechnology company Oxenford Medical, an employee dies of the Madoba-2 virus on the eve of December 24. Madoba-2 is a strain of the Ebola virus with a 100 percent fatality rate. The employee had smuggled an infected rabbit through the security airlocks of the high-security laboratory. The company’s security officer, Toni Gallo, is under pressure, but with luck and skill she manages to reassure the public and prove that the employee did not infect anyone else with the virus. Meanwhile, Kit Oxenford, son of the company’s head, Professor Stanley Oxenford, plans to steal a serum currently being developed there. He has £250,000 in gambling debts, and his criminal creditors pressure him to pay them off by stealing it. Kit wrote the security software for his father’s company himself and plans to use this insider knowledge to get past its security barriers. Kit had previously stolen money from the company using accounting tricks to fuel his gambling addiction, but Gallo, then the newly appointed security officer, caught on to him. Professor Oxenford reluctantly fired his son from the company. Kit also wants to take revenge on his father and Gallo through the break-in. His creditors decide that it should take place on the night of December 24. During his family’s Christmas party, Kit steals his father’s access card, replaces the digital fingerprint stored on it with his own, and hacks the telephone system through remote access. The alarm system is also no longer connected to the local police. He disables all the equipment except the telephone exchange, which he redirects to his mobile phone, and poses as an employee of the telecommunications company that maintains the system. Kit plans to pose as one of that company’s technicians alongside the criminals and enter the building under the pretext of carrying out repairs. Gallo, too, is invited to the Oxenfords’ Christmas party at the start, to discuss that morning’s incident with the company head and keep an eye on press coverage. A romance develops between the widowed professor and Gallo. After the meeting, Gallo drives home as the winter weather begins to turn into a blizzard. On the way, she calls the security staff to check in. Kit is already at the company disguised as a telephone worker and can no longer prevent the call. Despite the poor road conditions, Gallo decides to drive to the company building. As she battles her way through the blizzard, Kit and his criminal accomplices, in disguise, make their way into the heart of the high-security laboratory. When they reach their destination—the refrigerated vault containing viruses and serums—Kit gets a surprise: his accomplices do not want the serum, but the highly dangerous Madoba-2 virus. They transfer the virus from its vials into a perfume atomizer and leave the building before Gallo arrives, delayed by the blizzard. The worsening weather prevents the robbers from getting far, however, and they head for the Oxenfords’ family home. Kit wants to steal his father’s four-wheel-drive vehicle, but it is not there because the housekeepers had borrowed it, as their own car was not suited to the severe weather. They enter the house, and Kit passes his accomplices off as people stranded by the blizzard. Their deception is exposed, however, and the criminals overpower the family. By now, Gallo has found the criminals’ getaway vehicles and makes her way to the Oxenford estate. There she finds the professor, who has escaped through a back door. He explains the situation to her and goes back into the house. Gallo overpowers one of the criminals. After she frees the captives, the situation reaches its climax: Kit threatens the entire family with the virus in the atomizer. During the escape, another criminal dies, and Kit is the only one of the criminals to survive. The police take him away and seize the atomizer.