Book excerpt: The Arcadian returns to the dark ice in a reprisal of one of his first and most deadly missions. But this time the stakes couldn't be higher. In 2008, a top secret US submarine went missing on its test voyage off the coast of Antarctica. After years of silence, its emergency beacon is suddenly activated, but strangely, the beacon is emanating from a point miles below the ice sheets of the frozen continent. The race is on. The Chinese government, alerted at the same time as the Americans, is after the submarine's secrets. And the Americans need to retrieve their technology, quickly and quietly, from a place now marked as an international forbidden zone. With the reluctant assistance of petrobiologist Aimee Weir, Alex Hunter and his team of HAWCs return to the location of their first mission together. But only a few members of the team know the truth. A treacherous horror lies in wait for them, deep beneath the Antarctic ice. A direct follow up to 2009's Beneath the Dark Ice this thriller is packed with mystery and suspense, and perfect for fans of Matthew Reilly, Steve Alten, Myke Cole, Graham Masterton, James Rollins and Michael Crichton.