Civilization rests on the shoulders of outcasts. And when it needs someone to manage power stations located three kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean, it looks for special people for the rifter program—those adapted to a dangerous environment, those so used to injuries and chronic stress that life at the edge of an underwater volcano becomes relief. But among the cliffs and sinkholes of the Juan de Fuca ridge there are things nobody expected to find. And enough pressure—even for the victim used to everything—will turn them into a person made of steel. Yet when those above realize what has happened, the outcasts and the rejected already hold in their hands a secret that could destroy the entire world.