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Nevertheless, I pulled myself together. Even from this position, there was no security guard to be seen. Below me sat a group of young women, trembling and crying, holding on to each other.
I couldn't jump down like that. So, I had no choice but to draw their attention to me.
"Shh," I hissed in her direction. The blonde in the middle looked around, irritated. The second time her gaze met mine, I immediately signaled her to be quiet. Her face was beaten green and blue, her left eye was thickly swollen, and there was a gash on her cheek, with some of the blood already dried. It was such a disturbing image that I briefly closed my eyes to gather courage.
With my hands, I gave her signs that they had to slide so I could climb out of the shaft.
She quickly whispered something to the group, and now the other young women gazed up at me. None of them had beenspared the violence of the Brotherhood, and I did not even want to know what terrible memories were hidden behind the infinitely sad eyes.
They all began to move a bit to the right and left until a gap had formed under me. As I carefully slid out of the shaft legs first, I noticed that a chain reaction had been set off beneath me. As soon as I landed on the floor below, the eyes of all the women in the room were on me. Fortunately, they remained calm, but as a precaution, I put my finger to my mouth again. Then I bent down to the blonde woman.
“You must not be frightened, but we are here to save you. There are also five men among us who will not harm you,” I whispered, trembling. She nodded uncertainly. “Can you please pass this on?”
Again, a tremendous chain reaction started. Not a whisper was heard, and yet, while I crouched there between them, the whole hall was informed of our intentions.
As soon as the message arrived on the other side of the theater, I signaled Chris to come down next. Fortunately, he was not wearing his priestly robe. That might have caused panic among those present.
Right behind my brother, Rick and Alex also came down. While I was crawling on all fours further into the hall, the rest of the group followed. The Brotherhood had removed the theater chairs to accommodate the many people here, which made it easier for us to move around the room.
I consciously tried to block out what I saw, smelled, and heard as I crawled between the abducted women.
Suddenly, Aspasia pushed me and held me tightly. There was clearly concern in her eyes.
“How are we going to get them all out of here? Most of them can’t even get into the shafts with their injuries,” she whispered in my ear.
I had already thought about that, too. The entrance that led back into the welcome hall was only a few meters away from the theater. If we left the hall on the right side, we would be protected from view by a semicircular projection screen more than twenty-two feet long and eight feet high. But that also meant that no guards could be there, and those on the other side of the screen would have to be distracted. I quickly told Aspasia and Emma, sitting next to me, about this idea. The Amazons nodded grimly.
"That means we will split up," my friend suggested. "You, Myrina, will join Chris in sneaking the women off the ship through the right-hand door. The rest of us, meanwhile, will draw the attention of the guards on the other side outside of the theater."
I looked at her worriedly but knew that we had no alternative. Emma immediately crawled back to our troop, where the last Amazon had just jumped down from the shaft. Once there, she informed the others of our plan. Maggy was the first to give a thumbs up to signify her approval and made her way toward the left exit of the hall.
While everyone else followed her, Chris came up to Aspasia and me.
Suddenly, all the lights in the hall went out. Around us, the women began to scream in panic and crowded even closer together.
The screen on the opposite side of the theater was illuminated, and shortly after that, a giant face appeared on the screen. As if trapped by fear, it became eerily silent around us.
Grayish hair and piercing eyes made me freeze. John Adam Nash looked down on us as a projection.
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been expecting you,” he purred coldly, and a shiver went down my spine. Did hemean us? Confused, I gazed at Aspasia, who was observing the surroundings pissed off.
"Someone in our group betrayed us to the Brotherhood," she whispered.
“No,” I breathed, not wanting to believe it. Who could do such a thing? Everyone I trusted blindly. Everyone except Edward. I immediately turned to the Amazon with my suspicions.
“I know who did it,” I said frantically.
Astonished, she looked at me.
“Edward!” I voiced my accusation.
“What makes you think that?” she asked with narrowed eyes.
"Because his name …" I pointed my finger at the screen in front of us, "…. appeared in Edward's Koran."
Thoughtfully, Aspasia’s eyes flicked in Edward’s direction, who stood with a startled face by Maggy on the other side of the hall.
"It does make him suspicious, but let's not jump to conclusions. Besides, I'd like to hear from you later why you didn't tell me about this sooner." Frustration and disappointment were in her gaze.
