Recap / The 39 Clues Outbreak

A traitor returns.

Dan: Doesn't it seem like every time we meet someone new, they end up being the very people who are trying to destroy us?
Amy: Yeah. But maybe this time will be different.
Dan: Why's that?
Amy: Because this time, we're not the ones being hunted. This time, we're the hunters.

Outbreak is a standalone book in the fifth and final series of The 39 Clues, Superspecial.

The Cahills are the most powerful family has ever known. For the past five centuries, they have secretly served as guardians of the world. The Cahill command presidents, take down corrupt governments... and are currently led by a fourteen-year-old boy with a superhero complex.

Dan Cahill may be young, but he's nobody's fool. So he knows he must act fast when he learns that Sinead Starling, a former friend who betrayed the family, is up to her eyeballs in a plot to control a deadly virus. But is Sinead behind the plot, or is she a hero trying to stop the virus from getting out? The search for Sinead will take Dan and his friends from Cuba to the Bermuda Triangle, where the fate of the world may just depend on whether the Cahills can trust a traitor...

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Tropes:

• Bittersweet Ending: More sweet than bitter, though. The Cahills are able to save the day, curing their own family members and Cuban civilians who were infected, while the original boss of ShkrellX Pharmaceuticals, Dominic West, was taken in by the authorities. Sinead ends up replacing him, and is also forgiven by the Cahills. The only down side is that due to Agent Gimler's and Agent Pratt's attempts at stealing Saladin, Dan had to fake his cat's death, meaning that Grace's surviving pet cannot see the outside world like his previous owner, and must remain hidden. The cat doesn't mind, however.
• Book Ends: The first and last action sequences involve a Cahill sibling being held hostage by the enemy, via a weapon pressed into them. In the beginning, Amy has a gun pointed at her back by someone who wants a valuable silver star belonging to the Church of the Nativity. For the end, Dan has a virus syringe aimed at him by one of West's cronies. But whereas Amy was able to fend off her captor without being shot, Dan deliberately presses the needle into himself to stop his enemy.
• Drives Like Crazy: Ted, during the car chase in Cuba, due to his blindness.
• Faking the Dead: Dan deceives Agent Gimler and Agent Pratt into believing that he killed Saladin by throwing him into the sea, with Saladin having hidden himself just minutes ago. This means that he has to stay presumed as dead to the media, and can never leave the Cahill mansion again.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted and played straight.
  • Amy attempts to run in the line of fire towards a Uzi sub-machine gun-wielding man to allow Dan and a nearly-unconscious Dr Miller to escape. Luckily, Ted and his dog, Flamsteen, save the day.
  • Dr Miller shoves Sinead out of a laboratory in the Bermuda Triangle, seconds before decontamination occurs. Namely, he is incinerated with flames that are 650 degrees Farenheit.
• Involuntary Dance: There's a disease that causes people to uncontrollably dance. It spreads to most of the Cuban population, as well as Ian, Cara, Hamilton, Jonah, and briefly, Dan and Nellie.
• The Plague: The story revolves around the Cahills trying to stop a deadly disease from spreading.
• Redemption Equals Death: Dr Miller feels immense guilt for creating diseases for his government to use, and is willing to redeem himself for all his previous actions. It results in him committing a selfless act by saving Sinead, but at the cost of his life.
• Running Gag: There is at least someone who quotes The A-Team. Dan isn't happy that others are saying it, besides him.
• Synthetic Plague: The disease was initially a goat pox, and was artificially modified to have the ability to affect humans, too.
• Wham Line:
  • Cara, Ian, Hamilton and Jonah jump to one part of Sinead's laboratory in London as men in radiation suits incinerate her belongings. Where they landed proves to be a bad idea.
    They were standing in the wide-open laboratory.
  • Nellie has finally landed the plane containing the infected Ian, Cara, Hamilton and Jonah in the Bermuda Triangle, and then this line drops when she leaves the plane.
    And that's when she noticed her own left foot tapping to a beat she couldn't hear.
• Wham Shot: In the end, Agent Gimler hold the Cahills at gunpoint, despite their lies that every sample of the virus was destroyed. Their justification?
  Agent Gimler: There is still one living sample of the virus. (Looks at Saladin)
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: A brief one. The Cuban residents are cured of the disease, as are Dan, Nellie, Ian, Cara, Hamilton and Jonah. Dominic West ends up arrested by the authorities, and Agent Gimler and Agent Pratt go to the Cahills and congratulate them for their heroism. It seems the book will end happily... but not before the two agents try to steal Saladin, as he still has the virus in him.

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