Help with finding a novel - Americans and Russians create alien threat with bacterial weapon

[SMH976]

I think the title of the book is 'The Common Enemy' or something similar. The plot relates to the Americans and the Russians cooperating in creating a perceived alien threat by pulling together a group of scientists who develop a bacterial weapon with a short potency that will be used on an American and a Russian city in an effort to improve world peace by directing world attention starwards. I read the book many years ago and have never been able to find it since. I do not know the name of the author.

 

[PaulMmn]

There have been a number of short stories and TV programs with similar plots...

The Outer Limits (TV show) had an episode where a man was turned into an 'alien' through drastic surgery. He was supposed to launch in a space ship and land at the United Nations. Unfortunately, he landed elsewhere, and the chase the find The Monster as The Monster tried to get back to his wife took up much of the episode.

A story described a plan by a group of scientists who developed superior technology. They let little hints drop the led the government to believe they were aliens and led the government to start tracking them. They escaped in a car that grew wings as it zoomed up the entrance ramp to a freeway and flew away. The story tracked the government's efforts to unwind the alien technology. One plot point I remember was the government's search of the 'aliens' headquarters-- they found a strip of microfilm that had slipped under the veneer along the front edge of a desk. The microfilm was in an unknown language. The end of the story described the scientists congratulating themselves on pulling off the masquerade, and that it had motivated the government to put efforts into space exploration. Or so I remember. Thinking back, it feels like an Asimov or someone of that era.

 

[SMH976]

Thanks PaulMmn for your reply. I know there are some similar plots but I am not sure whether the book I read was classified under SF or perhaps some sort of thriller genre as it only related to a perceived alien threat.

 

[Danny McG]

Possibly 'Wild Card' by Raymond Hawkey and Roger Bingham (1974)

Wild Card (Presidential, book 1) by Roger Bingham and Raymond Hawkey

Wild Card (Presidential, book 1) by Roger Bingham and Raymond Hawkey - book cover, description.

www.fantasticfiction.com

 

[SMH976]

There have been a number of short stories and TV programs with similar plots...

The Outer Limits (TV show) had an episode where a man was turned into an 'alien' through drastic surgery. He was supposed to launch in a space ship and land at the United Nations. Unfortunately, he landed elsewhere, and the chase the find The Monster as The Monster tried to get back to his wife took up much of the episode.

A story described a plan by a group of scientists who developed superior technology. They let little hints drop the led the government to believe they were aliens and led the government to start tracking them. They escaped in a car that grew wings as it zoomed up the entrance ramp to a freeway and flew away. The story tracked the government's efforts to unwind the alien technology. One plot point I remember was the government's search of the 'aliens' headquarters-- they found a strip of microfilm that had slipped under the veneer along the front edge of a desk. The microfilm was in an unknown language. The end of the story described the scientists congratulating themselves on pulling off the masquerade, and that it had motivated the government to put efforts into space exploration. Or so I remember. Thinking back, it feels like an Asimov or someone of that era.

Thanks PaulMmn for your reply. I know there are some similar plots but I am not sure whether the book I read was classified under SF or perhaps some sort of thriller genre as it only related to a perceived alien threat.

 

[SMH976]

Possibly 'Wild Card' by Raymond Hawkey and Roger Bingham (1974)

Wild Card (Presidential, book 1) by Roger Bingham and Raymond Hawkey

Wild Card (Presidential, book 1) by Roger Bingham and Raymond Hawkey - book cover, description.

www.fantasticfiction.com

Thanks Danny. This sounds like a similar theme but the book I read definitely involved the co-operation of the Americans and the Russians I will get a copy of Wild Card and see if it is the one I read. Cheers.