Martel closed in. Nina unclipped her carabiner, then drew back, took a breath – and jumped.

She caught the anchor’s long main shank with both hands, swinging for a moment before catching the end of its horizontal stock with one foot. Gasping, she pulled herself against it and looked along the ledge. The jump across the broken ice was about six feet, farther than the gap she had just crossed, but she was sure she could make it—

The cavern shuddered again – and the anchor burst free from the cliff.

Nina screamed as it carried her helplessly out over the freezing water.

Chapter 12

12

Eddie entered the tunnel leading to the hatch, seeing a mercenary regaining his balance. He gunned him down without hesitation, then ran out onto the ledge – to see his wife sweeping across the cavern on the Dionysius’s anchor, what was left of another mercenary impaled upon it. ‘Buggeration and fuckery!’

Martel was rapidly traversing the cliff towards him, Harhund on the outcrop beyond. The Yorkshireman whipped up his stolen SIG and locked on to the nearer man. One shot was all it took. A burst of blood from Martel’s chest, then he spasmed and slipped from the ledge. The rope snapped tight, leaving him flopping like a fish on the sloping ice face.

Eddie didn’t spare the dying man another thought, fixing his sights on Harhund. The Norwegian had already brought up his own rifle, but firing one-handed from his precarious perch, the best he could do was to unleash a frenzied hail of suppressing fire at the fortress.

It was enough, forcing Eddie to drop as rounds struck the hull behind him. He registered that the impacts sounded somehow wrong, but had no time to wonder why.

Harhund’s magazine ran dry. Eddie rose and reacquired his target – only for the mercenary leader to scramble around the outcrop. He fired again, but the rounds only smacked against ice. ‘Balls!’

Nina finally stopped screaming. He saw the anchor reach the far end of its arc, pausing for the briefest moment – before swinging back at the cliff.

Nina hadn’t even heard the gunfire over her own terrified yell. She ran out of breath as the anchor came to the top of its sweep, gasping in more air – and felt the anchor chain shake as the Dionysius lurched.

She looked up with a new surge of fear. The ice trapping the ship was crumbling, the survey vessel slowly but relentlessly tearing free.

And now she was swinging back underneath it.

The chain jolted again, steel shrilling against steel as it snagged the edge of the ship’s tilted deck. A sudden rush of wind hit her as the anchor’s swing speeded up; with the pendulum effectively shortened, the laws of physics now forced it to move faster to conserve its momentum.

Sending her back at the ice cliff like a wrecking ball.

‘Oh shit!’ she shrieked as the frozen wall rushed closer—