Chapter Eight: A Startling Revelation

Juni and Gerti finally collapsed on the ground, exhausted. They had gone so far into the maze, endured so many traps, and now they leant against the wall, hungry, tired and very thirsty.

Gerti leant her head on Juni's shoulder, focusing on her breathing. "How long?" she whispered.

"I don't know," Juni replied. "It's been a good few hours... I think."

Gerti listened to the sound of him uncapping his water bottle and sighed. She'd finished hers long ago. "Do you think we'll ever find it?"

"Gerti," said Juni, passing her the bottle, "I don't think there is anything."

"But Juni-"

"Drink," Juni said gently. "Gerti, I think this was all a set up."

"How can you say that?" Gerti asked, taking slow sips of water. "Your father gave us the assignment."

"I know," said Juni, "and I think that part was real. But I reckon someone has infiltrated OSS and hacked into the assignment. Nothing about this maze was real."

Gerti was silent. "We have to get out of here, Juni," she whispered.

Juni grabbed her hand and gripped it tight. "We will," he said. "There's got to be another way out. We've just got to find it before we run out of rations."

"Juni," Gerti bit her lip, "What if we don't make it out of here?"

Juni swallowed, but met her gaze. "We will, okay? We will."

"You wanted to see us, dad?" Carmen asked.

"Yes." Gregorio turned to face them. "Convenient that the two of you were together, wasn't it?"

Carmen flushed pink, glancing at Gary who was beside her. "Aren't you supposed to be at work, dad?"

"That's part of the reason you're here," said Gregorio. "Someone has taken over OSS."

"What?" the other two burst out.

"Just let me explain," said Gregorio tiredly. Carmen and Gary fell silent. "The whole organisation is in complete chaos," Gregorio continued. "No-one can get into the building because all access cards have been deactivated. The building itself is impenetrable."

"Well that was smart thinking," Carmen said sarcastically.

"Carmen," Gregorio said warningly.

"Sorry, dad," Carmen apologised. "So someone must've deactivated the access cards."

"They're probably in there right now," said Gary. "But you've got plenty of spies, sir. Why not just find another way in."

"That's not all, Giggles," said Gregorio. "The invader left a message." He pulled up an image on his computer.

OSS and the Spy-Kids project are mine.

"Juni and Gerti," Carmen breathed.

"I know." Gregorio sat down in his chair. "We're sending in reinforcements to track them down and bring them home. It would make sense for the OSS invader to have rigged their assignment."

"Who are you sending in?" Carmen demanded.

Gregorio looked at them both. "You."

A/N: Sorry that this is a very short filler chapter :/ I'm busy writing the next chapter which will hopefully be really long, probably will upload it sometime later this weekend :) Thanks for all your support,

Ginger xx