52 pages • 1 hour read
Michael CrichtonState of Fear
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 1 (Pages 123-178)Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Akamai”
Pages 123-138 Summary
Morton takes a private jet to the NERF banquet in San Francisco, accompanied by several celebrities and Evans. En route, he signs the papers Evans has drawn up, cancelling the grant to NERF. The celebrities, including actor Ted Bradley (who plays the president on a television show) discuss environmental issues and the Vanutu lawsuit. Morton secretly mentions a list of numbers he wants Evans to take to Kenner, though Ted interrupts before he can explain what the numbers are for or share the list.
At the event, Drake gives a speech declaring the catastrophic destruction global warming will cause. He introduces an intoxicated Morton, who at the podium quotes the French essayist Montaigne, saying, “Nothing is as firmly believed as that which is least known” (128). This odd reference, coupled with his drunkenness and mention of a late wife named Dorothy (he was never married to anyone by that name) alarm those around him. Morton shocks the crowd by announcing he is withdrawing his funding for NERF. The raucous crowd drowns Morton out while he criticizes NERF for being misguided.
Morton is escorted offstage and to a limousine. He refuses to get in, opting instead for his Ferrari. Before he leaves, he tells Evans a cryptic proverb, “All that matters is not remote from where the Buddha sits” (132). Later, Evans realizes this is an oblique clue to information Morton wants him to find. Evans and Sarah follow Morton. They lose him as the Ferrari careens down a winding Californian coastal road, but then spot an accident. It appears as though Morton crashed into a tree and was flung from the car into the water below. In the seventh part of the novel, however, it is revealed that Morton faked his death in order to go undercover in pursuit of ELF. The police arrive and question Evans about what happened, particularly about the time of the accident. In retrospect, their confusion and questions stem from the fact that Morton rigged the accident.
Pages 139-178 Summary
Morton’s entourage takes the jet back to Los Angeles, wondering about what caused his apparent death. Evans heads home, where Morton’s mistress Margo Lane calls and asks him to come over immediately. Margo insists that something is off about the incident, claims that Morton has been acting paranoid, and believes that he will turn up again. Evans advises her to get her finances in order before Morton’s accounts are frozen.
Evans once again goes home and discovers that his apartment has been ransacked. Lisa, an assistant from the law firm, calls and tells him that Morton’s home has also been robbed. He heads there to see Sarah, noting that a blue Prius he’d seen at Margo’s is following him. At Morton’s, Sarah tells Evans that all of Morton’s safes have been cracked by someone who knew the combinations. She suspects the robbers are after some information they knew Morton had and gave to one of them. Evans silently recalls the list that Morton mentioned on the plane but was unable to give him. In a sign that he has become suspicious given recent events, something makes him “hesitate to mention it” even to Sarah (152).
Drake calls Evans to NERF headquarters, where he is reviewing materials in preparation for the upcoming conference. He asks Evans about the papers withdrawing funding, warning him about the importance of the Vanutu case and the powerful influence of industry. He warns Evans to be cautious because powerful forces “will stop at nothing to be sure” that they lose the case (159). He also reveals that the blue Prius following him had been from NERF’s own security team.
Lisa tells Evans that Margo’s apartment has been robbed, and that she had become paralyzed after muttering something about a blue ring of death. Evans goes back to Morton’s home, where Sarah shows him that both of them had been bugged. While there, Evans suddenly remembers the Buddhist saying Morton had mentioned to him, and starts to search near a statue of Buddha in Morton’s home. At that moment, the lights go out and they are attacked. Kenner and Sanjong appear and save them from the attackers. The two have been searching Morton’s home all afternoon. Kenner helps Evans remember the key word in the Buddhist saying, “remote,” and they realize something is hidden inside a remote control near the Buddha statue (174). Sanjong confirms that what looks like a list of random numbers and words is a set of geographic locations intended for pilots, and then discovers a second slip of paper with even more exact coordinates. They are most interested in one pinpointing Mount Terror in Antarctica.
Part 1 (Pages 123-178) Analysis
As “Akamai” comes to a close, the stakes of the novel rise. Morton’s full-fledged rejection of NERF’s agenda to promote global warming as undisputed truth and imminent danger is shocking. This drama is vital to the novel, however, because it encapsulates the jolt that State of Fear wants to use to open readers’ eyes. The NERF banquet Morton uses to announce his withdrawal of financial support and his doubts about climate change is a metaphor for the opportunity Crichton has to shake up readers’ beliefs via his novel.
The role of media continues to develop as a theme in the last chapters of “Akamai,” particularly when Evans visits Drake at NERF headquarters. Drake is calculating in his preparations for the conference, seeking “people who show well on TV” for media appearances, for instance (156). Thriller elements are also part of the heightened drama at the end of the novel’s first part. Chief among these is Morton’s apparent tragic death and the events that ensue, including multiple break-ins and buggings. Once again, foreshadowing is used as a device to weave the dramatic elements together. For instance, Morton’s mistress Margo is the only character who does not believe he has been killed, and she expects him to turn up. She is quickly silenced, however, as the next victim of the blue-ringed octopus attacks. Another clue comes from the mouth of Morton himself, in the form of the nearly incoherent Buddhist phrase he mutters to Evans before disappearing.
Increasing attention is paid to the breadcrumbs ELF leaves behind, and how the group coalescing around Kenner and Sanjong will stop the eco-terrorists’ plot. As the novel goes on, the pair takes on the role of educating other characters about climate science, always seeming to have the right answers and information. A good example in “Akamai” is Kenner’s smug comment that the “mystery” of the slip of paper hidden in the remote was really “quite straightforward,” and his and Sanjong’s immediate and effortless realization that the numbers and letters on the slip are geographic coordinates (174).
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By Michael Crichton
