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

within inches of cutting through him.
    He was so distracted by the fish while he flipped over and over that he didn’t see or hear it.   And so she quickly kicked over to him just as another harpoon sliced through the water.  
    This time he saw and heard it; it carved between them and speared one of the turtles.   Blood entered the water, which would call other beasts neither wanted to deal with.
    Already she was running out of air and was certain he was as well.   She pointed beneath the hut, they dived down as far as they could, but in the whirl of bubbles they left in their wake, the gig was up.   Dozens of harpoons started to pierce the water.   One cut clean through her hair, severing a lock of it.   Alex came beside her, put his arm around her and together, they kicked furiously until they were in the large pocket of air beneath the hut.
    “They’ve found us,” he said.
    “How?   Nobody know I live here.”
    “Somebody knows.”  
    “That impossible.”
    “Obviously not.”   He looked up.   “Grab onto one of those beams and pull yourself up.   They’re shooting harpoons.   One of them could get lodged into our legs.”
    They each scrambled up.
    “I’ve heard no boat,” Carmen said.   “You know that’s the only way to get out here.   Otherwise, we’re isolated.”
    “They could be scuba diving.”
    She shook her head.   “The harpoons came from above.   They drove down into the water, not horizontally.   They must be shooting at us from the shoreline.   We need to get to the other side of the hut and into my boat.”   She reached down and dipped her head into the water.   “You’ve got your sharks,” she said.   “The turtle brought them out.   Right below us, they’re tearing it apart.”
    Another harpoon was released and this time it was clear that it was shot from the shore.   But instead of going into the water, the harpoon went straight through the house, smashing glass and sailing through open windows before it splashed into the water on the other side of it.
    “They’ve seen my boat,” she said.   “That harpoon went through the hut.   How are we going to get out of here?”
    “We shield ourselves with the boat.   We take it off its moorings and paddle out as far as we can until we can get inside it and get the hell out of here.”
    “You’re telling me that we get in the water with those sharks?   I need you to slip your goggles down and have a look into the water.   Then tell me what we do.”
    He stared at her for a moment, then he lowered the goggles and dipped his head into the water.   When he emerged, his mouth was set.   “There must be a hundred of them down there.”
    “I’m assuming the turtle’s gone.”
    “The blood isn’t.”
    “Actually, that could work in our favor.   If they see blood rise to the surface, they might think one of us was hit.   Maybe dead.”
    Another harpoon shot through the hut, shattering more glass.
    “We’ve got to get to the boat,” he said.   “It’s our only chance.”
    “They’ll run out of harpoons,” she said.   “We could wait them out until nightfall.”
    “Carmen, it’s morning.   They’ll find a way to get out here.   We don’t know if they have guns or rifles.   They came here to kill us, not frighten us.   We can’t stay here.”
    “I can’t believe they’re doing this,” she said.   “We warned them that if they came near us, we’d treat them exactly as we treated Laurent.”
    “What if it’s someone else?   Someone you’ve crossed in the past?”
    “It could be.   I don’t know.   None of this makes sense.   You know how careful I am.   I don’t understand how anyone knows I have a place here.”
    “It doesn’t matter now,” he said.   “We get to the boat, you slip on the other side of it, I remove it from its moorings and then, once I’m with you, we paddle it out as far as we can.   Then, when their harpoons can’t touch us, we get inside,