Sam Oliver never expected the British science consortium he worked for would ever need his skills as a former Air Force Pararescue specialist, but early one rainy December morning they call him.

A science expedition to Antarctica needs someone who can climb, knows how to live and work in polar climates, and is a qualified loadmaster; he has the skills, can he take the job?

He joins the Hobblestone-Thorpe 2012 Antarctic Expedition on the ice sheet at the base of the mountain, never dreaming that within it he will encounter an absolute impossibility and be the only person to return alive and able to warn the world what has broken free.