The book was eventually turned into a TV movie starring Janine Turner and Antonio Sabato, Jr., called Fatal Error.

A group of lawyers are meeting to take down Telecon corporations when suddenly they are all hit with a rhinovirus that the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) classifies as "CaV".

At the same time, our protagonist Nick Barnes is in the back of an ambulance trying to save a woman who suffered a car accident.

Minutes later, the USAMRIID turns the area into a quarantine zone and lets Nick and the other officers off easily because they know that the virus could not affect them.

While this happens, president Marcus Teal of Telecon is preparing to activate his fiber optic system that had outdone Microsoft and other computer companies in the "Big Turn On".

A controversy erupts between the employees because some are winding up dead and the lead programmer Melora Parkridge begins to plan her revenge on the world after what technology had done to the entire civilization.

This starts the conspiracy that the killer is a computer virus that produces a subliminal light pattern that causes the brain to react.

After getting photos of the Washington infection, they go to Telecon to speak to Marcus Teal about the virus and learn a good bit about fiber optics.

Melora is now ready to complete her plan by releasing Reaper into the main computer of Telecon, unaware of its ability to use CaV or control people.

They begin a chase through the crowd because Ned shoots Teal and takes the key card needed to shut down the computer and quarantine the virus.

"[1] Publishers Weekly gave a negative review, writing "Reaper quickly loses steam under pedestrian prose and a barrage of characters cloned from other medical thrillers...turning the pages becomes a major effort.