"Deep beneath the ice of the Arctic Circle, something has awakened. A primordial creature frozen in time, it is the oldest, largest, most efficient predator that nature has ever produced ... Thirty-five miles off the Massachussetts coast, a small research ship is attacked. All but one of its crew is killed by the massive serpentine horror that rises from the sea ... Responding to a distress signal, fishing-boat captain Brian Hawkins arrives in time to save the ship's last survivor. But the nightmare is just beginning"--Page 4 of cover.