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After leaving the exhibition halls and the XD Theater behind us, I was drenched in sweat from the exertion and tension.
My nerves were stretched to breaking point, and so were the others.
Unfortunately, we hadn't found anyone yet, and time was running out. If we didn't leave the ship in the next hour, the Amazons waiting outside would follow to get us out.
We had to avoid that if possible since a second group could mean too much noise, and, above all, they had no one who knew her way around the museum ship.
Tensely, I peeked between the last bars and recognized the so-calledLeadership Gallery, which was located at the end of Hangar 3.
Searching for Charly's straw-yellow hair, I looked around the hall, but again, there was no soul to be seen.
Sighing, I turned to my brother, who hung his head, disappointed at my expression. Then he pulled me very close to him.
"Do you have another idea?" he whispered in my ear. His face briefly brushed my cheek, and I felt he was as drenched in sweat as I was.
I shook my head silently. I had set my hopes on the XD Theater since there were no windows and no one could look in from the outside. But we had not found them there either.
"Maybe in the supply deck one floor below us?" I whispered uncertainly, but I already knew that was out of the question. During one of our overnight parties on board, we had once snuck all the way down to the lower decks, and I remembered a large kitchen and a couple of smaller dressing rooms. Not a space where you could hide that many women.
Chris seemed to think so, too because he immediately shook his head.
What had we missed? We had passed all the exhibition areas from Hangar 1 to 3, and the grids had always been at such intervals that you couldn't have missed a corner. But apparently, we had missed something. Or did we finally realize we had been mistaken and no one was hidden here?
Suddenly, Alex and Rick joined us.
“What about the Lutnick Theater?" my fiancé asked quietly, and at that moment, I could have slapped myself in the head. The theater was located in Hangar 1, to the left of the entrance through which we had come on board. It would be the ideal place to hide a lot of people. For one thing, it had room for 245 guests, and for another, it was an enclosed space. But the very best argument was that there were only two entrances to the theater hall, which could be easily controlled.
We could have saved ourselves so much time if I had crawled to the left and not to the right at the beginning. Guiltily, I gazed at the men and nodded contritely.
Instead of turning back, we continued following the course of the ventilation system, which ran along the other side of the ship and led us back to Hangar 1.
Without stopping at the bars to look around, we made much faster progress and quickly reached the ventilation access thatcontinued into the theater. Here, we had to be extremely careful again because if people were there, any movement could attract attention.
With a pounding heart, I approached the first grid. If there was no one to be seen here, the mission would have failed, and we would have to search for another place where prisoners could be hidden before further transport.
Cautiously, I peered through the narrow cracks and immediately slapped my quivering hand in front of my mouth to offer no room for the exclamation of shock.
Down there, a picture of misery and inhumanity emerged. Hundreds of women sat crammed together in that room, some more dead than alive.
We had finally found them, and yet, at first, I would have loved to run away screaming at the sight. My eyes widened in horror as I turned to Chris and Alex. These images would haunt my dreams for a long time to come.
CHAPTER 46
Chris, Alex, and I were lying in front of the bars, searching for possible guards. But nowhere could we discover any. We had expected many kidnapped women, but what we found here was beyond our imagination. How were we supposed to get them all out of here?
It would have been difficult with the fifty people we were expecting, but there were undoubtedly five hundred young women below us.
Some even looked too weakened to crawl through a shaft. Others were so severely injured that they probably could not be moved.
I had not found Charly yet. But I did not give up hope. She had to be here somewhere. And Anne as well.
Quietly, I turned to the two men as Rick squeezed between us.
"We have to crawl to the back of the theater. The auditorium slopes toward the last rows, making it easier for us to climb out of the ventilation shaft there. Also, the doors are far enough away that if a guard comes in, we'll be back in the ventilation system before he's made his way through the crowds," I whispered, and my brothers nodded in agreement. Alex lookeddown critically and eyed the condition of the hall, eventually agreeing with me as well. He had to be very angry with me if he no longer trusted my judgment. Sadly, I observed him, and before turning to the others, I thought I saw a flicker in his eyes.
We signaled to the Amazons and Jack and Jordy that we would crawl on. Carefully, I pushed myself along the shaft and looked through the following grate in search of my best friend, but again, without success. After two more, we had reached the end of the hall. The distance between us and the floor was only about eight feet here.
Rick handed Chris the tool, which he used to loosen the screws on the grille, lift it off, and lean it against a wall in the ventilation system. He then nodded at me. With a pounding heart and an oppressive feeling in my chest, I very slowly stuck my head through the opening to scan the surroundings. The intense stench of blood and feces came towards me. So strong that I felt sick to my stomach.
