The Swarm
Frank Schätzing
 The book follows an ensemble of protagonists who are investigating what first appear to be freak events related to the world's oceans. The book has several sub-plots and will occasionally follow minor unrelated characters to illustrate how events unfold around the globe. Sigur Johanson, a Norwegian maritime biologist working at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim is asked to analyze a new species of marine worms. After several expeditions it becomes clear that the worms, together with bacteria, are destabilizing the methane clathrate in the continental shelf. When the continental slope collapses the subterranean landslide causes a tsunami that hits most of the North Sea's coasts, killing millions and severely damaging the infrastructure in the coastal regions. At the same time Leon Anawak, a maritime scientist who investigates the behavior of whales and works for a whale watching company, makes startling observations in the whales' behavior. In addition, he is called to investigate an incident where whales and sea-borne mussels seemed to have attacked and incapacitated a commercial freighter. When he returns to his whale watching job, he witnesses how humpback whales and orcas attack the watcher's boats. The whales work together to capsize the boats and then kill the people drifting in the water. A large number of tourists and close colleagues of Anawak are killed. The events that are witnessed by the protagonists are only part of a worldwide phenomenon. Several other attacks are briefly described in the plot: Swimmers are driven from the coast by sharks and venomous jellyfish. Commercial ships are attacked and sometimes destroyed in a variety of ways. France sees an outbreak of an epidemic that is caused by lobsters contaminated with a highly lethal type of Pfiesteria. When it becomes clear that all those events are related, an international scientific task force is created under the lead of the United States. The task force is led by Lieutenant General Judith Li, a close friend and adviser to the President; the protagonists become part of it. While the task force is in session, the attacks on humanity continue: The North American east coast is overrun by Pfiesteria-infested crabs that attack New York City, Washington D.C. and later Boston. The epidemic causes millions of deaths and renders the affected cities uninhabitable. The Gulf Stream has also ceased to exist, an event that may initiate a global climate change that would threaten human civilization. During a task force meeting, Sigur Johanson finally announces his hypothesis: The phenomena are intentional attacks by an unknown sentient species from the depths of the oceans; he states that this is the only logical conclusion, since the attacks are outside the power of any human agency and cannot be a natural phenomenon. Johanson calls them "yrr", after three letters he typed randomly on his computer. The goal of the yrr is to eliminate the human race, which is devastating the Earth's oceans. General Li and a small group of scientists take to the sea on the helicopter carrier USS Independence in an attempt to find the yrr and make contact with them. They discover that the yrr are single-cell organisms that operate in groups (or swarms, hence the novel's title), controlled by a single hive-mind that may have existed for hundreds of millions of years. The yrr form a collective intelligence and have inheritable memories that are passed on by manipulating parts of their DNA. Individual yrr recognize each other by using a specific pheromone. The scientists have some success in investigating the yrr and make limited contact. The attacks do not cease, however. Sigur Johanson also finds out that General Li has not been honest with them. One of the scientists has been working on a modified pheromone to eradicate the yrr completely. Johanson disagrees with this approach because the elimination of the yrr may completely destroy the maritime ecosystem and thus the human race. Li, however, is unwilling to accept that dominance over the Earth may not be a God-given birthright of mankind, and the United States in particular. She will rather take the risk than allow the US power to wane. While she gives orders to have Johanson killed, the ship is attacked and crippled by the yrr and a final showdown ensues on the sinking Independence. Li races for the ship's midget submarines with two torpedoes containing the modified pheromone. The scientists are trying to stop her and at the same time implement their own plan to save humanity. She is stopped at the last moment by Johanson who gives his own life to detonate the torpedoes and kill Li. Karen Weaver, a scientific journalist, then manages to get hold of the last surviving submarine and dives into the depth of the oceans. There she releases a dead human pumped full of the yrr's natural pheromone, hoping to trigger an "emotional" response. This works and the yrr cease their attacks on humanity. The epilogue reveals that a year later, mankind is still recovering from the conflict with the swarm. The knowledge that humans are not the only intelligent lifeform on Earth has plunged most religious groups into chaos, while parts of the world still suffer from the epidemic the yrr sent to destroy the threat to their marine homeland. Humanity now faces the difficult task of rebuilding their society and industry without coming into conflict with the ever-watching superpower under the sea again.