Read Online Fifth Ave 02.5 - From Manhattan With Love by Christopher Smith - Free Book Online Page A

time not far in front of him.   He ran to it while people openly started to weep at the sound of it.   Everything appeared to be happening in slow motion.
    The lights started to flicker and for an instant, he saw her face.   It was the most welcomed sight he’d ever seen.   He did love her.   She was pointing above the crowd toward the corridor, where people were moving more freely now.   They could escape through the side exit, which would lead to the front of the building, but the moment he reached Carmen, she stopped him.
    “The Grille Room,” she said.   “We take those stairs and exit on the side of the building.   Not the front.   The side.   Hurry!”
    He grabbed her wrist and steamrolled forward with her.   Together, they trampled people in an effort to get to the stairs, down over them to the foyer below and then to the exit.  
    Other people were rushing alongside them.   Outside, the night was alive with the sound of sirens.  
    Carmen and Alex joined the flood of those leaving this hell they created and as they did, the lights behind them spit at their backs, almost as if they were aware of their escape and cursing the injustice of it.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    EPILOGUE
     
    ONE MONTH LATER
     
    Save for the black bikini bottom she wore, Carmen Gragera walked naked onto the dock of her round Bora Bora hut, which stretched deep into the Pacific ocean, and looked down at the impossibly clear blue water before she dived into it.   Below her, she could see a wave of fish scatter in her wake and it occurred to her again that if this wasn’t paradise, she’d never see it in her lifetime.
    She heard another splash come behind her and popped to the surface just as Alex did.   They smiled at each other, circled each other and eventually swam toward one another.   After spending four weeks with him here, if this wasn’t love she was feeling, she wasn’t sure what it was.
    “What are we having for dinner?” he asked.
    “Whatever you poke with your spear.”
    “So, it might be you on the menu?”
    “You’re hilarious.”
    “Whatever keeps you happy.”
    “Did you get the goggles?”
    “I put them on the edge of the dock.”
    “Want to explore?”
    He swam over, snatched the goggles and tossed one of them to her.   They put them on.   “Think we’ll see sharks again.   It’s been days.”
    “You never know.”   She spit a jet of water at him.   “But in case we do see them, just know I’m getting out of the water this time.   You won’t trick me into hiding behind some reef like you did last time.   They came too close.   They freak me out.”
    “They’re just black-tipped reef sharks.   They have zero interest in us.   Where’s your sense of adventure?”
    “That would be you.   In the bedroom.   And believe me, it’s more than enough.”
    They dived beneath the surface, which now looked pristine to Carmen with the goggles in place.   Scores of black fish she wished she knew the names of were swimming in schools along with brightly colored yellow fish, sea turtles, iridescent blue fish with happy yellow tails, the occasional manta ray, a few massive bat rays and, near the bottom, the choral reef that sustained so many of them.   She looked up and on the other side of the hut, and saw a gathering of other fish lingering along the bottom of her speed boat.
    She fanned out her arms, lifted herself to the surface to take a breath and then dived down again.   Apparently, their presence was now known, because within seconds, each was surrounded by dozens of curious yellow- and black-striped fish, which were their favorites because they were gentle, beautiful, curious and fearless.  
    Carmen looked across at Alex, who was floating among them, turning in circles while they followed his rhythms.   She was about to do the same when what looked like a harpoon shot into the water and came