Robert Ludlum's The Ares Decision

With U.S. intelligence agencies wracked by internal power struggles and paralyzed by bureaucracy the President is forced to establish his own clandestine group - Covert-One - selected from the very best operators America has to offer. It is only activated as a last resort when the threat is on a global scale and time is running out.

In Uganda an American Special Forces team is wiped out by a group of normally peaceful farmers. Video of the attack shows even women and children possessing almost supernatural speed and strength consumed with a rage that makes them immune to pain fear and all but the most devastating injuries.

Covert-One's Colonel Jon Smith is sent to investigate the attack and finds evidence of a parasitic infection that for centuries has been causing violent insanity and then going dormant. This time though it's different. The infection is purposely being kept alive. And as Smith and his team are cut off from all outside support they begin to suspect that forces much more powerful than the Iranians are in play...