With a sudden, powerful jolt the great white rammed the cage, grabbing it with its prodigious jaws.

Marissa managed to hold on while the shark tried to bite through the steel bars. Over Wynn’s shoulder Marissa could see right into its mouth, studded with rows of six-inch teeth. The titan’s eye was a huge oval of impenetrable blackness.

Several of the cage’s bars bent under the force of the shark’s jaws. The fish shook the cage with such force that Marissa lost both her mask and her mouthpiece. Yet still she held on.

The shark then disengaged itself, leaving behind some of its teeth. Marissa grabbed for her mouthpiece with one hand, still clinging to the cage with the other. With her mask gone, her vision was blurred. But she could make out Wynn as he put in his own mouthpiece and began frantically pulling on a rope that led to the surface. She noticed a large laceration across his arm that was bleeding profusely.

Apparently giving up on biting through the cage’s strong bars, the shark began circling it. Moving in the same direction, Marissa struggled to keep the cage between herself and the great white. Suddenly, the cage started to rise. Knowing she’d be doomed without its protection, she kicked furiously in an effort to stay with it, clambering up with her hands on the steel bars. Just as the cage broke the water’s surface, she was able to roll onto its top.

Scrambling forward, Marissa reached for the hoisting cable. Just as she made contact, the shark hit the cage and rocked it once more. In the process, Marissa rolled partway off, her legs dangling in the water. In a panic, she lifted them and curled herself around the cable, holding on for dear life.

11
April 8, 1990
11:47 A.M.

Marissa remained in a tight ball around the hoisting cable until she felt the cage settle on the deck of the boat. Only then did she open her eyes.

Rafe was already opening the cage door, swinging it out and away. Wynn struggled through the small door. He had a hand over the gash on his arm. Despite the pressure, it was bleeding profusely.

Marissa let go of the cable and, with her flippers still on, managed to climb down from the top of the cage. It took a few moments for the awful truth to sink in: Wendy wasn’t on the boat with them. In her mind’s eye, she saw Wendy in the shark’s jaws.

“Wendy’s still in the water!” she screamed. But Rafe was busy attending to Wynn’s wound. The two men had rushed to the spot where they kept an emergency first-aid kit.

Tripping over her flippers, Marissa tried to run after them. She struggled out of her scuba tank, letting it drop on the deck. Then she bent down and pulled off her flippers.