When in Italy

Chapter 6

After we were done eating we watched SpongeBob for probably an hour because it was the only thing in English. My dad always told me I should always learn another language, but I just blew it off. I’m smart. After we had watched that, I went downstairs and grabbed my computer out of my suitcase. I went back upstairs sat next to Kyle and pulled up the internet.

“What are you doing?” he asked, watching my screen.

“Just lookin up this mansion, I’m tryin to see if there was any news about it. Like a theft, murder, hideout, that sorta thing.” I said.

“Can you pull up the town’s history and news records?” he asked.

“Oh yeah.” I said. I started typing and then came up to the website.

Like most towns, there was a pass code that needed to be entered before the site would let me see anything. Luckily, about 3 years ago, Kyle and I were at this training facility in Nevada. One of our tests was to figure out the code to a vault with your partner. That was when Kyle and I discovered a code that can unlock anything, as long as it’s on the internet of course. I typed it in, and just like usual, it opened up. I scrolled through the files, trying to find something.

“Wait, click that.” Kyle said pointing to one.

I clicked on it and an article and file opened up.  

“2 reported missing after Vineyard mansion closed.” I read aloud.

We read through the descriptions of the people and what the whole deal was. Apparently, some “angry neighbors” were upset that the mansion was owned by the city and claimed as a museum. So to take back what was supposedly supposed to be their home, they destroyed part of the mansion that had been rebuilt, stole almost all of the donations and money earned from the museum, and got two hostages.

 “Pretty recent, just about two weeks ago.” Kyle said.

“And no one in this city has tried to do anything?” I mumbled.

“It’s a small town, I bet the police officers don’t have the greatest training.” Kyle said.

We read through a couple more articles, but they gave us useless information or things we already knew. I sighed and sat back. I dropped my head back and  blankly stared up at the ceiling.

“I still don’t get why dad sent me here. He wouldn’t have sent me all the way to Italy just to rescue two hostages.” This mission was sounding worse and worse by the second.

“There’s more to it. There always is.” Kyle answered.

I started scrolling through a file and saw the pictures of the hostages.

“That guy! He’s the one who I was fighting with in the mansion!” I said thumping the screen.

“Who’s the girl?” Kyle questioned.

I studied her picture, she looked like one of those girls who was perfect and every guy loved her. The female version of Kyle.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged.

“She looks kinda like you.” He said.

No way I was nearly as pretty as her.

“Yeah, whatever. What I wanna know, is why did that guy try to get me to leave? If he’s taken hostage by some angry neighbors, wouldn’t he want to escape?”  I was confused.

“He’s probably agreed not to say anything to anyone. Or he’s under a deal not to leave. People make threats all the time.” Kyle said.

“We have to go back.” I said, already pushing the laptop off of me.