A new noise over the crackle of ice. The mercenaries’ boat roared into motion. Eddie hurriedly brought up his gun as he saw Harhund raise his own weapon, but the people on the cliff were not the Norwegian’s target. Instead he strafed the explorers’ RIB before bringing his outboard to full power and sweeping through the churning waves into the cave mouth.

Eddie sent a few angry shots after him, but hit nothing. ‘Bastard!’ he growled as he continued towards Nina. ‘He popped our boat!’

‘How the hell are we going to get out of here?’ she asked, watching the Scandinavian disappear through the opening – which was getting taller but narrower as the iceberg rolled.

‘Let’s just get out from underneath this bloody ship first! Climb towards me!’

She used her spikes to drive herself upwards and sideways. Ever-larger pieces of ice fell and shattered around them. Eddie ducked as a wardrobe-sized hunk burst apart, a piece as big as himself barely missing him as it swept past.

Worse was about to come. A deep, sorrowful moan echoed from above, the Dionysius’s trapped hull straining to support the rest of the vessel’s weight. Rivets burst from the plating like bullets. Either the ice was about to give way – or the ship.

And he and Nina were right in its drop zone.

‘Nina!’ he shouted. ‘Let go – jump!’

‘What? Are you crazy?’

‘Slide down! It’s the only way we’ll get clear in time—’

The ceiling exploded as the Dionysius finally broke from its prison – and fell.

Eddie had already thrown himself down the slope, grabbing the redhead as he whisked past. He looked back – as the Dionysius smashed down like a hammer of the gods.

The blow shattered the frozen wall beneath it, a shock wave flinging Nina and Eddie into the air amongst a hailstorm of flying debris. They landed hard not far above the waterline where the slope shallowed, grinding to a standstill in the broken ice.

But they were still not safe. The Dionysius lay on its side . . . but then the crushed cliff beneath it began to slip away in a sparkling avalanche.

With an animalistic roar, the ship followed.

‘Run!’ Nina screamed. She yanked Eddie to his feet, then they charged across the bottom of the slope.

The Dionysius swept sidelong towards them, a hundred-and-twenty-foot plough scraping up everything in its path. Nina’s crampons both helped and hindered, giving her grip, but also turning each step into a Frankensteinian stagger. Eddie was no better off, skidding on the loose, slippery surface.

The ice-encrusted juggernaut drew closer, snarling and screeching as it bore down upon them—