“I-is it safe. Is it safe to leave yet?” I whispered to my friend Matt as I took in deep breaths.

“I think so. Let’s just slowly get up and leave quietly. Don’t make any noise. If you hear anything stop and hide,” Matt responded. We slowly rise and start walking through the tunnel when--
“Woohoo! We are in Italy! What should we do first? Exploring or lunch? Hmmmm...” I rambled as Matt and I stepped off of the elevator in our beautiful hotel overlooking the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. I could stand there all day just gazing at the sparkling water and shining sun, but I can’t.
Matt rolls his eyes and says, “Katrina Lovenburg. To think you grew out of your old habits. Let’s put our luggage in the room and then eat. Calm down and don’t get too ahead of yourself. We’re on a mission right? Lets finish that first and then we can have fun. You know we have to keep these spy duties under control and do them properly. Our parents even assigned this project to us and we have to prove to them we are capable of being as good as they always seem to appear.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” I grumble as we get to our room. I swing the door open and immediately see a little brown box sitting on one of the beds. I go to take a step forward, but Matt grabs my arm to stop me from moving forward. Instead, he goes and picks up the box and opens it to find a...note? It is just a small, ripped piece of yellow paper.  “Matt, what does it say?”
He responds, “It says, ‘Be careful. I’m watching you both. You won’t want me to see you doing something that could affect my plans.Have fun in Italy. -T’. Okay who is he? Is he after the same thing we are looking for?”
“He probably is the person we have to get the stolen jewels from. This will be harder than I thought, so let’s forget the sightseeing and just eat. I mean we need fuel to be able to do this mission, right?” I ask as I twist strands of my hair between my fingers.
“Probably. Let’s go, but we have to hurry.” We leave the room and before I shut the door, I glance back and see a hooded figure move out of eyesight in the distance. I decide to not tell Matt about that yet.
Later that night, we start our mission and plan out what we should do first. “Okay. Let’s follow this path that goes into the tunnels from behind and work our way in because they wouldn’t expect us to go that way. It will take longer, but will most likely have less traps.”
“Sounds good,” Matt replies. We make our way to the tunnels in the middle of the night and once we arrive, the nerves and adrenaline set in. I tap my foot on the ground and constantly check behind my shoulder to see if anyone is coming. The tunnels are set up in an intricate grid so they are plenty of places to stay hidden, but the entire idea of getting stuck in there terrifies me. The tunnels are massive and if something happens to us, the only people who would dare to enter are our enemies. “Just stick to the plan Kat and we will be fine,” Matt warns me.
“I know. Same goes to you. We don’t want you to run away screaming like a little girl again,” I try to joke, but fail miserably. Quickly we get into the caves and suddenly a light flashes on us. We duck down behind a wall and wait until we hear footsteps walking away. I breathe a sigh of relief and we continue on our way, following diagrams that our boss gave to us that should lead us to the hidden jewels. The tunnels themselves are dark and damp, blocking much of my eyesight and creating a feeling of dread in my stomach, making me feel sick. Out of nowhere, hands grab me and on instinct I hit and kick the mysterious person and run away. Matt follows me and soon we are out of eyesight. “That was a close one,” I breathe.
“Yeah it was. Let’s see where we are now.” I look down on the map and see that we are very close to the jewels. We form a new plan and decide it would be best to stick together. We sneakily walk up while keeping close to the damp walls covered in grime and all of a sudden, I see the jewels. Deep down inside, I know this is too easy and something must be up. Using special goggles I look for any set traps and see none. We quickly approach the jewels, grab them, and start to run when an annoying alarm goes off.
“Kat! Run quickly and don’t look back. I’ll be right behind you,” Matt screams. I nod and start running. I see someone coming towards us from up ahead and so I turn a corner and hide. Matt stops right next to me.
“I-is it safe. Is it safe to leave yet?” I whispered to my friend Matt as I took in deep breaths.
“I think so. Let’s just slowly get up and leave quietly. Don’t make any noise. If you hear anything stop and hide,” Matt responded.
  We slowly rise and start walking through the tunnel when... I see an exit! “Matt! That way. There’s an exit,” I happily cry out in relief. We run as fast as we could out of the old tunnels and don’t stop until we see our hotel. “We made it back alive! We actually did it. Let’s forget the sightseeing all together. And just leave. I am so done with Italy.”
Matt laughs and says, “Sounds good to me.” We pack up our luggage and go to our agency’s private plane. Once we take off I notice a note lying on top of a seat. It resembles the one we found earlier in our room, which starts my foot tapping again. So, I tap Matt’s shoulder to show him. He looks confused as to why it is there so I decide to read it.
“Dear Katrina And Matt, nice try getting the jewels. Did you really think I was that stupid to just leave them out. I still have most of them. Better luck next time. Read the other note I left you for instructions of where to get the rest of the jewels, since you probably want them. Correct? I thought so. Only this time, you’ll need to give up some sacrifices. See you there. -T” We both sit there in shock. I glance out the plane window before we take off and see the same hooded figure that I saw after we found the first note.
“And the next adventure begins...” I murmur as I fall asleep from exhaustion.