For the new post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States, it was supposed to be a historic event and moment of great celebration.But when the launch of the new A2e rocket goes terribly wrong, panic grips the entire world — because this rocket has a nuclear reactor on board.From the moment the A2e crashes, that nuclear reactor is on a countdown to meltdown. It will reach a supercritical state within a matter of days.And so, even as the A2e plummets to the very depths of the ocean, the desperate race to retrieve it begins.Failure will result in catastrophic damage to Earth and all life upon it. Yet the rocket has plunged so deep into the ocean that it seems almost impossible to find, let alone salvage.Enter Dane Brande, maverick but world-leading oceanographer who, with his highly-skilled, international team of experts and cutting edge equipment, may be the world’s best, possibly only, hope of salvation.But will Brande take on the job and if he does, will he survive it?Against a background of riots and international rage, interested parties converge on the sea above the crash site.A rogue environmentalist, whose ambitions are unclear even to himself, threatens to derail the operation. Newspaper reporters circle and protesters gather as the world looks on.Soon after the end of the Soviet era, the Russians and the Americans are once more racing each other to an achievement — that of raising the rocket — but in this new world order and time of threat, do they actually need to co-operate?To what extent are they willing and able to do that?Meanwhile, Brande must keep his own demons at bay and hold his nerve long enough to find and retrieve the rocket. If he succeeds he will save the world from catastrophe and secure the future of his ground-breaking research and diving salvage company…But will Brande succeed or will he, like others, lose his life in the search for the lost rocket and its terrifying cargo?