Three miles deep in the Atlantic lies a cargo to tempt the brave and the foolish: gold and atomic secrets. The diving-support ship, the Eventyrer, is positioned right over it with a Russian-built submersible – the Crab – ready for launch. Despite the ship’s compliment of skilled technicians, only one man aboard is capable of operating the Crab‘s claws – its exterior manipulators: Mark Jaeger, an estate agent from Brighton. His girlfriend Lucy works for the tycoon financing the operation and when Mark is 18,400 feet down on the ocean floor in pitch darkness and an ambient sea pressure of four tons per square inch, those two will be up in the sunshine enjoying a much closer relationship than usual between employer and employee. Mark has his own reasons for taking the place of a professional pilot and there’s a rival French team ready to step in if this lot back off. But in the thrill and adventure of the dive, will they forget that to reach the ocean bed is only half the journey? Cover art by Paul Wright.