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Aspasia sighed, "Well, now we know that four men are waiting for us. Let's just forget about it. I trust Myrina. She's one of us, and I'm sure she would never knowingly let us walk into a trap."
Her unshakable trust in me gave me an unpleasant sting. Hopefully, I would not disappoint her. But I trusted Alex and believed in him just as much as this young woman here believed in me.
"Thank you, Aspasia," I whispered. My words were barely audible through Maggy's loud snorting. But the Amazon smiled at me knowingly. She knew what I wanted to say.
"Then let's walk briskly now that you two have settled the issue. Otherwise, we won't be able to find two or four men anywhere today," Maggy interjected sarcastically, setting a faster pace. I hurriedly followed them.
"Are we still walking in the right direction?" asked Aspasia, looking uncertainly into the tunnel ahead, which now seemed to be getting narrower and lower once again. Maggy rummaged for her compass and the New York City map.
We first had chosen the passage that led north from the Amazons' hideout. However, we could follow this direction foronly an hour because, after that, we continued west. So far, our tunnel had yet to develop any crossroads or junctions that would allow us to change direction. We only had to hope that in the next fifteen minutes, a continuation of the expedition to the west would become feasible since we had already been on the road for three-quarters of an hour.
Maggy placed the compass on her flat hand. Spellbound, we looked at the needle, which swayed right to left until it finally fixed itself.
"Apparently, this is still the right direction," Aspasia sighed, eyeing the narrowing tunnel with suspicion.
"Come on then! Let's go on an adventure!" Maggy shouted exuberantly, stuffing everything back into her backpack before continuing to walk with her torch raised. A gleam stole into her eyes. Maggy's enthusiasm was contagious, and with newly awakened vigor, I overtook Aspasia, with whom this spark had apparently not arrived.
"Tight spaces in the underground. As if I hadn't experienced that often enough. And yet, I'm claustrophobic. Why does this always happen to me? That could have been easily corrected when I was ..." she muttered more to herself than anyone else. Hastily, she broke off her soliloquy as soon as she realized I had heard her and walked on silently but with a contrite face.
There was something eerie about the way everything suddenly seemed to get even mustier and darker. Sweat dripped down from my forehead. Was that due to the stuffy air or the oppressive fear? My heartbeat was so loud by now that I feared each of its beats might cause the walls to collapse. The black in this tunnel almost swallowed the flame of our torch. Nevertheless, we followed its twists and turns until it unexpectedly widened in front of us, and we came upon a circular room from which several corridors continued in different directions.
Again, Maggy pulled the compass out of her backpack and pointed it at the left entrance to a new tunnel system.
"This one leads west!" she stated enthusiastically. "Come on! We should be there soon!"
"But where are the men?" I asked doubtfully. "They were supposed to meet us."
"The men are here!" I suddenly heard Alex's amused voice approaching us from the passageway.
"Alex?" I shouted with relief in the direction from which his answer had come and took a few steps into the corridor. Maggy and Aspasia did not follow me but stood unflinchingly on the spot where Maggy had taken out her compass. With determined faces, they looked at me. They would not run away, even though four men they did not know were approaching us. Would I have been as brave? I honestly didn't know.
"We're coming!" I heard my fiancé's voice again and now also caught sight of the glow of an approaching torch.
Shortly after, their silhouettes appeared on the walls, and finally, I saw Alex, Chris, Jack, and Edward trotting along behind them. He didn't seem enthusiastic but a little green around the nose.
Chris, who had followed my gaze, grinned cheekily as he whispered to me, "He's afraid everything might collapse. That's why we're so late. We had to literally drag him here."
Jack winked at me and chuckled softly. Alex was also about to laugh. I stared angrily at the three of them.
"You don't make fun of other people's fears!" I scolded, turning my back on them and walking towards Edward. I didn't like him. Maybe I even found him rather disturbing with his taciturn manner, but now I felt sorry for him.
"Are you all right, Edward? Don't worry about a thing. It's perfectly safe here. It's not so narrow and cramped up ahead, either." Energetically, I pulled him into the room where theAmazons were still waiting for us. Thoughtfully, they observed the men. It was almost as if they had X-ray vision. They stared at all four of them with narrowed eyebrows as if they could see right into their souls.
"Guys, this is Aspasia and Maggy," I tried to break the ice. "Amazons, may I introduce Alex, my fiancé, my brother Chris, and Alex's friends Jack and Edward."
The men were also staring at the two women. Distrust was so heavy in the air that I now feared for the strength of the tunnel construction.
"Hello," Alex broke the deliberative silence and held out his hand to Aspasia with his most charming smile. Stunned, the Amazon looked at it and finally grinned.
"Nice to meet you, Alex. Aspasia. And this is Maggy." The other Amazon just grumbled something that could pass for ahello. "She always takes a little longer to break the ice," the blonde woman informed the group, and Jack laughed.
"It's no different with Edward!" He also took a step toward the girls and extended his hand. "I'm Jack."
Prompting, I gazed at Chris, and when he didn't respond, I cleared my throat once, hard. He had always been a bit shy. A behavior he had only discarded within his church walls. This time, he made no exception and ignored my attempt to get him to introduce himself.
"And, as you can probably guess, this is my brother Chris. The priest," I said, rolling my eyes in annoyance at his antisocial behavior. He only raised his hand once briefly in greeting.
"So now that we've found each other, I suggest you show us the way to the training room. Aspasia would also like to know which way the Columbia University library is."
