Lena Voss · Book 1

TIEFSTRÖMUNG

A line is falling. And Lena Voss sees what others don’t want to see yet.

At the ICRU in Hamburg, oceanographer Lena Voss discovers a change that begins too quietly to set off any alarm, and that could grow too big to ignore later. The Atlantic overturning circulation is weakening faster than expected.

The dikes on the Lower Elbe are built for a flood that statistically comes once every two hundred years. Lena spends a night redoing the math, and the interval keeps getting shorter. Every twenty-seven years. Every fourteen. Every eight.

To prove the data, she heads out into the North Atlantic on a research vessel captained by Kai Sörensen. The man she hasn’t spoken to in eight years. Not since the night Lukas died.

Read a sample: “Look Inside” on Amazon · The books are published in German.

Characters

• Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
• Kai SörensenFS Nordmark captain, eight years without a word to Lena
• Lukas AhrensOceanographer at Lena’s side, died at sea eight years ago
• Anna KesslerLower Elbe emergency manager who has known Lena thirteen years
• MarcoEmergency physician who stops by with bratwurst after his shift
• HagenPolitical coordinator at the ICRU, guardian of the Meridian contract
• Dr. Maren SeifertICRU head of risk communication, reads every warning herself
• Lars BrandtCEO of Meridian Risk Systems in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld
• Jürgen KaminskiEmployee at Meridian Risk Systems in Hamburg
• Mats ReimersFS Nordmark systems technician who knows the old OCEANUS probe
• Yuki TanakaClimate data analyst aboard the FS Nordmark, double-checks everything
• ThodeShip’s doctor on the FS Nordmark, photographs fish
• BroderCook on the FS Nordmark; on Sundays there’s cake
• Niklas BrennerYoung marine geologist on board, keeps the handwritten equipment log
• Dr. RüheICRU meteorologist who knows about the old probe in storage
• Frau YildizDirector of nursing at Haus Deichblick in Wilhelmsburg
• Frau PetersenNinety-four, lived through the 1962 flood

Places

• FS VindelThe research vessel of the night Lukas died
• FS NordmarkLena’s research vessel in Book 1, captained by Kai Sörensen
• ICRU HamburgLena’s institute in Hamburg, looking out over the Elbe
• Meridian Risk SystemsHamburg sensor maker in Bahrenfeld, supplies data to the ICRU
• Lena’s ApartmentLena’s Hamburg apartment, which never looks quite lived in
• The Lower Elbe and the DikeThe land behind the dikes between Hamburg and the estuary
• North Sea, Shelf, and Monitoring NetworkThe sea off the Elbe estuary, decisive in Lena’s math
• FS Heron and HelgolandA broken-down ship off Helgoland, where Lena meets Lukas
• The North AtlanticThe current’s ocean and Lena’s study area in Book 1
• KielWhere the Nordmark’s voyage begins

Things

• The ReportThe official report on the night aboard the FS Vindel
• Meridian’s PapersData feed and documents from Meridian Risk Systems
• The BraceletLena’s bracelet, worn for eight years, never explained
• The NapkinLukas’s current diagrams on a napkin from the galley
• Lena’s Red NotebookLena’s notebook for measurements, written by hand