BENEATH THE DARK ICE BENEATH THE DARK ICE Greig Beck St. Martin’s Paperbacks Table of Contents Title Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Chapter Twenty-two Chapter Twenty-three Chapter Twenty-four Chapter Twenty-five Chapter Twenty-six Chapter Twenty-seven Chapter Twenty-eight Chapter Twenty-nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-one Chapter Thirty-two Epilogue NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.” This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. First published in 2009 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited BENEATH THE DARK ICE Copyright © 2009 by Greig Beck. Excerpt from Dark Rising copyright © 2010 by Greig Beck. All rights reserved. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. ISBN: 978-0-312-59979-9 Printed in the United States of America Pan Macmillan Australia trade paperback edition published in 2009 St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / September 2010 St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Barbara, who still makes it fun. Acknowledgements I want to thank my wife, Barbara Weir, whose eye for detail is second to none, my son Alexander for making me laugh every day, and Cate Paterson, Joel Naoum, and Nicola O’Shea for their editorial skill, patience, and good humour, and for showing me how to turn a story into a book. Thank you. In 1996, Russian and British scientists discovered a warm-water lake two and half miles beneath the Antarctic ice. “Lake Vostok” as it has been named, is the size of Lake Ontario and biologists suspect that it may contain life forms that have been unseen on the surface for millions of years. Hundreds of these hidden bodies of water are thought to exist all around the world.