A Report from Group 17

A Report from Group 17, published in 1972, is a science-fiction thriller written by Robert Leslie Conly under his pen name Robert C. O'Brien. Set in Washington, D.C., during the Cold War, the story deals particularly with the danger of developing bioweapons. The potential cause of conflict is a resurgence of Nazism in Europe. A 12-year-old girl who lives near a Soviet estate in Maryland becomes a victim of intrigue when she is kidnapped for use as an experimental subject. Themes include the threat of modern war to human survival, the moral responsibility of scientists, and the importance of both individual freedom and sympathetic instincts. Following two novels for children, A Report from Group 17 was the first of two dystopian novels that O'Brien wrote for adults. His last novel, Z for Zachariah (1974), depicts a conflict between two survivors of a nuclear war and deals with similar themes.

12-year-old Allison Adam lives with her mother and 2 brothers in an isolated farmhouse by Seneca Lake (a reservoir that was being planned at the time O'Brien wrote his story) near Washington DC. Every day after school, Allie stops by the walled grounds of Villa Petrograd, property of the Soviet embassy, and climbs a tree to view monkeys at a small zoo there. Fond of animals, Allie is troubled that the monkeys keep dying mysteriously. Unknown to her, the embassy holds the secret research lab of Helmuth Schutz, a former Nazi now developing bioweapons for the Soviets—specifically, mutations of the bacteria coryna and anthracis. Discovering Allie's spying, Schutz lures her into the compound by leaving a gate open and then kidnaps her for experiments. When her bike is later found near the Potomac River upstream from dangerous rapids, the police assume she fell in accidentally and drowned. Only Allie's 5-year-old brother Willis knows where she went, but he has promised her to keep it secret.