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wasn’t as large as a great white, but he was still big . Ten feet long and over four hundred pounds, with a mouthful of hideous needle-sharp daggers meant for spearing his prey, he looked like a swimming nightmare.
    I shook my head in disbelief. He shouldn’t have been in the reef tank with us. And whoever had let him out of Shark Row had him very riled up. He swam around Joe inbig circles the way sharks sometimes do when they’re stalking prey. With each pass the circle would get smaller until the shark was within easy striking distance.
    Joe hadn’t seen him yet. But he had stopped swimming, and I could tell he sensed something was wrong.
    â€œHey, bro, where’d all the fish go? Is something going on up there?” Joe asked. “It’s hard to see through all the bubbles.”
    â€œShark!” I yelled. “We have to get out of the tank!”
    â€œDuh, there are about thirty of them. Stop messing with me,” he said.
    â€œI’m not messing with you, Joe!” I pleaded. “Get out of there now! One of the sand tigers got into the tank!”
    â€œHa, ha, very funn—” Joe started to say. Then he saw Bruce. “Oh boy.”
    I saw a stream of bubbles spew from Joe’s mask and hit Bruce in his snout as he circled. Sharks have sensory organs in their noses that can pick up the tiniest electrical impulses in the water. To the shark, the unexpected burst of bubbles must have felt like an all-out assault!
    Bruce whipped around and charged into the bubbles, filling the space between Joe and me. I was still a few feet above Joe, and I swam hard for the surface as the giant shark passed close enough that I felt the water from his wake punch me in the legs. Then something clamped onto my arm from above.
    Oh no!
    But it wasn’t the shark; it was Big Chuck pulling me out of the water to safety. Luckily, I’d only been in a few feet ofwater, where he could reach me. Joe was still down there, though.
    My heart was pumping like a piston inside my chest and my head was throbbing from the quick ascent, but I couldn’t worry about that now. Not while my brother was still underwater with the shark.
    â€œJoe!” I yelled into the dive comm mask. “Take cover in the coral nook!”
    Joe didn’t respond.
    â€œJoe!” I yelled again, but there wasn’t any answer.
    I tried to dive back into the tank after him, but Big Chuck wrapped his beefy arms around me and wouldn’t let go.
    I looked down helplessly.
    The water was all cloudy with sand and bubbles. Deep below I could make out the form of the thrashing shark. There was no sign of Joe. Not until a second later. That’s when his scuba mask floated to the surface.

LIVE BAIT
7
JOE
    I GOTTA SAY, DIVING IN the reef was definitely one of the awesomest things I had ever experienced. Or at least it was until Bruce showed up.
    One second I was swimming through masses of amazing colorful fish and the next I was all alone. I was trying to figure out where all the fish went when someone dimmed the lights in the tank. That’s what it looked like at least. I thought Frank was playing with me when he said one of the sand tigers had gotten into the reef exhibit. It wasn’t until I started to make out the shape of the massive shadow passing over me that I realized what was going on. I had just turned into shark bait.
    Even with the bubbles clouding my vision, there was no mistaking the ferocious shark circling above me.
    â€œOh boy,” I said, and actually laughed. It was an odd thing to do the moment before a shark tries to eat you, but I couldn’t help thinking about Aly jokingly calling me Aquaman. The laugh didn’t last long as it hit me that I might never get to see Aly again.
    Then the bubbles from my dive comm mask hit Bruce in his ugly snoot. He didn’t seem to like that one bit. The shark charged. I could just make out Frank above me, swimming frantically for the