Marissa was preoccupied and baffled as she watched this growing feeding frenzy of colorful tropical fish. But then things turned serious. Out of the blue streaked a five-foot barracuda-type fish which tore through the offal before disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. The smaller fish, which had scattered upon the larger predator’s arrival, soon returned in ever greater numbers.
Marissa’s blood ran cold. By reflex she drew her legs up onto the dive platform. Just as she did, more coils of intestine went by in a swirl of dark color that had to be blood.
Above and beyond the sloshing of the waves against the boat’s stern, Marissa heard distinct splashing noises. Standing up, she peered into the boat. Moving to port so that she could see better in the direction the noise was coming from, Marissa spotted two men. One was on the smaller boat she’d seen from below; the other was on the Oz itself. Both were busily emptying buckets of churn into the water. With the breeze Marissa caught a fetid whiff of decaying fish.
Rafe was nowhere to be seen. Turning back to look at the water off the stern, Marissa saw a widening patch of blood that was now staining the surface dusky red. Fish had begun leaping from the water in their frenzy for the food.
Marissa shouted at the men.
“Hey!” she yelled.
“There are divers in the water!”
The men’s heads shot up and they glanced at Marissa. She noticed one was Asian. Then they went back to their task, furiously dumping the rest of the offal.
“Rafe!” Marissa yelled.
The Asian man leaped from the Oz onto the deck of the smaller boat with the boat’s bowline in hand. Then, with a roar of a powerful engine and a puff of gray exhaust, the smaller boat sped away to the west.
“Rafe!” Marissa yelled again as loud as she could.
Rafe came out of the cabin, shielding his eyes from the blazing sun. Smudges of grease were on his cheeks. He had a large wrench in his hand.
“There ere two men dumping chum into the water,” Marissa yelled.
“They’re heading away in a speedboat.” Marissa pointed to the receding launch.
Rafe leaned over the gunwale and glanced at the boat.
“My word, they’re heading west!” he said.
“They were supposed to fish out beyond the reef.”
“Fish!” Marissa cried.
“Look what they dumped into the water!”
Rafe looked down.
“Jesus!” he cried- He ran back to the stern and eyed the expanding patch of red. Fish were leaping from the water in even greater numbers.
“Jesus!” he repeated.
“Could this mess bring sharks?” Marissa asked him.
“Good Lord, yes!” Rafe said.
“Oh, my God!”
Despite her terror, Marissa pulled her mask back over her eyes and nose. She put her mouthpiece back into her mouth, then leaped into the water.
Fish of every size and shape swarmed around her. Visibility was drastically reduced. Biting down on her mouthpiece, Marissa swam ahead, trying not to think about anything but getting Wendy back into the boat.
By the time Marissa neared the mouth of the channel, she saw her first shark; small and white-tipped, it was slowly circling the offal. The ghastly creature terrified Marissa more than anything she’d seen in her life. Keeping her eye on the shark, Marissa swam to the left, close to the wall of coral. While she was still watching, the shark suddenly darted forward into the feeding melee and snared a rope of intestine. Then another larger shark appeared out of nowhere and gave chase.
Trembling uncontrollably, Marissa rounded the edge of the mouth of the channel, scanning the distance for sight of Wendy and Wynn. More sharks appeared, progressively larger than the first two, including one Marissa recognized as a hammerhead.
The big fish looked prehistoric, like a monster left over from the dinosaur age.
Up ahead Marissa finally saw Wynn. Wendy was directly below him, exploring a crevice; only her legs and flippers could be seen. Marissa swam toward them, but even before she got there, Wynn turned and looked her way.
Frantically, Marissa pointed over her shoulder at the feeding frenzy that had developed. Wynn responded by ducking down and giving Wendy a tug. Then he swiftly swam toward Marissa with strong strokes.