‘Eddie, look!’ she gasped, but her husband was focused on the two people struggling through the water. As they approached, he climbed down the crane to meet them.

‘What the bloody hell are you doing?’ he demanded as Imka guided the young man and his bobbing cargo to the ship’s side. ‘Don’t waste time faffing about with his luggage – this place might collapse any second!’

‘His laptop is in it,’ Imka said through chattering teeth.

‘So? You planning to order some towels from Amazon so we can dry off?’

‘It has a satellite link,’ Cheng explained, with a hint of patronising exasperation even through his shivering discomfort. ‘If we get out of the cave, we can use it to call for help!’

The Yorkshireman stared at him. ‘Oh. Okay. Good idea,’ he admitted after a moment.

Nina laughed. ‘Mr Hui, you just earned yourself extra credit.’

Eddie helped Imka up, then snagged the backpack and passed it to her before bringing Cheng onto the crane. They clambered towards the deck. ‘We can’t send an SOS yet, though. Those arseholes have got a ship out there – if they know we’re still alive, they’ll come back and kill us.’

‘Then we can’t leave the cave even if you start the engine,’ said Nina.

Eddie followed Imka and Cheng aboard. ‘I know. I’m hoping they bugger off soon, otherwise—’

Deafening thunder from above – and a huge section of the icy ceiling plunged downwards.

It hit the fortress. Another strange flash from the rippling hull, but this time it could not deflect the damage. Thousands of tons of compacted ice sheared the exposed half of the ancient structure from the wall – and pounded it flat, the whole thing disintegrating in an explosion of mangled metal and shattered crystal.

The watchers on the ship dived to the deck as debris spun at them. The Dionysius shuddered as if struck by cannon fire. Nina clung to a stanchion as the ship reeled beneath her.

Not just the ship. The entire cavern – the entire iceberg.

The fortress was destroyed, and now whatever force had tipped the great mass of ice over was gone.

D43 was about to roll back upright – with them still inside it.

Chapter 13

13

‘If you can start the engine, now’d be a good time!’ Eddie told Imka. He led her at a run into the ship.

Nina picked up Cheng’s backpack and guided her student after them. ‘Get inside,’ she said. ‘It might be a bit warmer – and there’s less chance of getting beaned by falling ice!’

The redhead looked back at the remains of the fortress as they reached the hatch. A last residual glow from its heart flickered beneath the smashed ice and mangled metal . . . then faded to nothing.