What was a girl like me doing skiing through the Siberian forest? I’m a botanist; it was just a field trip, at least that’s what I told myself. At first.

“I’m Ellen; being from Alaska; I knew could handle the winter forest.
I’d once have laughed if you’d told me the truth. In Siberia ancient primordial forces are at work; I’d have laughed.”

But then I met one.

“She’s a Mother I now know; the other’s her daughter, sort of. I’m her daughter too now, I don’t know what she saw in me; I’m just glad she adopted me.
Beautiful though it is, evil stalks the white forest.
My Mother has a way about her; vast, pure, ancient and mysterious.

I’d learn secrets aeons old from her; trust me, a girl just can’t resist.”

India. Marty never thought he’d be here; never thought he’d be working for the Brits and the Yanks.
Yet here he was leading an IRA active service unit on the streets of Delhi.
Their mission; liquidate the target.
He knew they’d be expendable; they were working for bastards after all. Why did Marty Lynch think he could lead them to success? He knew they’d be a handful for any opponent; they’d done it before.
It would be a clash of worlds; but it was a long way from the streets of Belfast to teeming Delhi. Marty wrestled with the clash of cultures as nuclear death loomed. It didn’t get any bigger; and then it did.
It got personal.

Stuart volunteered for the mission; why not? He knew he’d never be selected.
He was chosen; didn’t life know it isn’t supposed to be like that? He couldn’t back out now, too many were counting on him; the world knew he’d been selected.

She’d no real choice, if the truth be known, she was going. She knew it was too big a burden for anyone but it had fallen on her; she’d have to go.

It was the last thing either one of them expected.
Above there was love; a sweet forbidden torture.
Below there was terror; a dark malevolence. It could rip them apart.
It had to be faced; below.

They had an ally from the most unlikely of places. Their ally would pit himself against something he didn’t know existed. A peer.
The two of them faced love and terror in a far away place.

Forbidden – It would be joy or pain.
Or both.

One girls descent into hell. Hell would never be the same again.
‎“My name’s Sofia. I was just a girl from Leningrad; I didn’t deserve it I knew, but they didn’t care. I was sent to a Gulag prison camp. I knew it’d be hell. It was designed to break you. But it would take more than that to break me.
I didn’t expect that there’d be two sides to the Gulag, the spirit of defiant human flame burned strong in there; how could I rebel and endanger my new friends?”
In harsh inhumane Soviet Gulag corrective labour camps, inmates were worked cold and starved. Many died, some were released and recounted tales of dystopian horror. Starvation, rape, beatings and psychological abuse were common place.
If you resisted or struck back you were known as a bitch, whether woman or man.
Bitch in Russian is a darker term than in English; it means bitch, slut, and traitor. A bitch is someone who’s beneath contempt; barely human, therefore scum.
Sofia would become the bitch from hell.
To her surprise she will draw on hidden strengths and stoop to the lowest depths.
However Sofia’s opponents knew it was a fight to the death. It was her or the Gulag.

Apparently it never happened it's all just cold war rumour.
“My name’s Tom, I’m on the side of the good guys. I was posted to Moscow and there I met Irina, she’s a Soviet Naval officer; we knew we shouldn’t get involved but we couldn’t help it. We were from opposite sides of the iron curtain, at least that’s what the outside world thought; for us it was a little more complicated. Eventually it had to happen; we were forced apart.”
…And then it got worse…
“I was tasked with leading a mission into a very dark and dangerous place. It was illegal and deniable but failure was not an option, millions of lives were at stake. I’d been given my mission but I had my own mission too; find Irina.”
SBS black operations don't happen, honestly.
The dive team....allegedly.Tom (Cushy) Hilton, Blackbeard, The clamshell, Jaws, Stinker, Starfish.
They’re not exactly household names, but then they wouldn’t have it any other way. Glory hunters aren’t welcome in their world. You owe a lot to men quietly prepared to risk it all, in the most dangerous place on Earth.
“I knew I’d meet Irina again, what we had was too good to lose. But I never imagined it would be like that.”
Beneath Sunless waves is Book 1 of the; To cross the Iron Rubicon. Series.

Irina wished she’d never heard of Ragnarok. It was what Vikings called the end of the world. The cold war called it Mutually Assured Destruction, but the early signs of a thaw were in the air. Not all were happy with that.
On both sides of the Iron curtain shadowy groups lurked and bided their time.
It had to happen sometime. Beneath the swamp of deceit, East and West joined forces.
The day of Ragnarok was nigh. Irina knew it was down to her to lead the fight; through what horrors she didn’t know.
“I’m a proud Soviet Naval officer now living in the West, I stand alone astride two worlds.
I couldn’t see them both consumed in a fiery death, and just stand by.
If they wanted to burn my two worlds and my man, they’d answer to me.”
The struggle against it was fought in LA, Moscow, the Siberian forest and the Pacific skies.
Those who’d bring about Ragnarok had picked the wrong girl.
“I’m Irina Petrenko and you’re between a rock and a hard place.”
A fall into darkness is Book 2 of the; To cross the Iron Rubicon. Series.