“Scientists are closing in on warm caves under Antarctica which could support secret life”

(http://www.businessinsider.com/warm-caves-under-antarctica-which-could-support-secret-life-2017-9)

Life always finds a way. There’s no other rational explanation for how anything can survive in Antarctica, a continent where the winter is spent in total darkness and at an average temperature of more than fifty degrees below zero. We’re talking about an environment as barren and desolate as the surface of the moon, and yet trapped beneath the ice is an amazing biome unlike any other on the planet.

The world might be dead aboveground, but it is alive with volcanic activity below. Geothermal heat is responsible for keeping entire networks of lakes and rivers from freezing at depths of more than two miles beneath the surface and, as we’re only now learning, the formation of systems of caves warm enough to support higher orders of life. In addition to bacteria and fungi, soil samples have demonstrated traces of DNA from algae, mosses, and small animals, among them species of unknown origin not found anywhere else in the world.

While exploration of the caves has only just begun, some speculate that these warrens could potentially cover the entire continent beneath the ice, connecting them with the site of the recent discovery of a 13,000 year-old meteorite containing fossilized bacteria theorized to be of extraterrestrial origin. Combining an isolated subterranean ecosystem with organisms that shouldn’t have otherwise survived is a recipe for disaster.

It’s this precise scenario that forms the basis for the first book in the Unit 51 Series, Subhuman, in which a team of scientists discovers that something terrifying has survived beneath the ice, something that’s not entirely human. I challenge you to imagine the possibilities presented by this article and then read Subhuman—coming this November from Kensington Publishing, available wherever books are sold—and you’ll soon learn that far worse things than death await us below.

They Are Not Human.

At a research station in Antarctica, five of the world’s top scientists have been brought together to solve one of the greatest mysteries in human history. Their subject, however, is anything but human . . .

They Are Not Natural.

Deep beneath the ice, the submerged ruins of a lost civilization hold the key to the strange mutations that each scientist has encountered across the globe: A misshapen skull in Russia. The grotesque carvings of a lost race in Peru. The mummified remains of a humanoid monstrosity in Egypt . . .

They Are Not Friendly.

When a series of sound waves trigger the ancient organisms, a new kind of evolution begins. Latching onto a human host—crossbreeding with human DNA—a long-extinct life form is reborn. Its kind has not walked the earth for thousands of years. Its instincts are fiercer, more savage, than any predator alive. And its prey are the scientists who unleashed it, the humans who spawned it, and the tender living flesh on which it feeds . . .

Praise for Michael McBride

“A fast-paced and frightening ride. Highly recommended for fans of creature horror and the thrillers of Michael Crichton.”—The Horror Review on Predatory Instinct

“McBride writes with the perfect mixture of suspense and horror that keeps the reader on edge.” —Examiner

ORDER NOW

Michael McBride was born in Colorado and still resides in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. He hates the snow, but loves the Avalanche. He works with medical radiation, yet somehow managed to produce five children, none of whom, miraculously, have tails, third eyes, or other random mutations. He writes fiction that runs the gamut from thriller (Remains) to horror to science fiction (Vector Borne, Snowblind) . . . and loves every minute of it. He is a two-time winner of the DarkFuse Readers’ Choice Award. You can visit him at www.author.michaelmcbride.net.