Taranto was gorgeous. Well, staring at concrete walls for years automatically made anything look significantly better than it probably did, but even the experienced agents who were with me were looking around us and admiring the architectural wonders of the city and they had been to dozens of other countries.

We got two hotel rooms between the eight of us. Both had two twin beds and carpet space for two people to sleep on the floor. James, Owen, Axel and I were in one. Blitz, Cal, Lucky and Lautaro were in the other.

Yeah, that's right. Owen and James in one room. Whatever idiot (Axel) had decided that was gonna get socked by me later tonight.

We arrived at midnight like Flagg said we would. The city was beautiful lit up. Taranto was mainly a port city, so it was surrounded by the glittering clear water of the Ionian Sea. Italy's main navy base was here in Taranto, which dictated the city's commercial and economical trends, and was probably why Basilone lived here. We weren't staying in the Old Town, but it was only about 10 feet across to the building on the other side of our hotel, which seemed pretty medieval and old-timey to me. Coffee stains crept up the walls of buildings and plump greenery clotted exactly where it was supposed to in flower boxes and atop planted trees in the city itself. Some roofs had clay orange half-round shingles. Strategically placed lines of rocks clashed with the bright blue color of the water. Old castle-like structures, with domed tops and arches and faded brick patterns were nestled among the modern buildings fitted with glass that reflected the blended colors of the sky and ocean. Everything was stunning.

But scenery wasn't why spies came to places like Taranto.

-

I saw Axel's eyes dart to the upcoming convenience store across the street. Blitz and then the rest of the boys began to snatch glances at it too.

"Are you guys plotting a robbery or something?" I asked quietly. "Because I don't remember this being part of the plan." The eight of us made plans for any and all scenarios as soon as we landed here, but going into some random drug store wasn't part of any of them.

"Relax darling, we're just gonna go in and get some more... supplies." Blitz's mischievous grin made me progressively narrow my eyes. Blitz, Axel, Lucky and I were in one group to go check out the navy base from the outside. James had stayed in the hotel to try and hack into Basilone's bank records. Lautaro, Cal and Owen were at Basilone's old house. Our aliases were Argentinian so we all had to speak Spanish with South American accents whenever we were out in public. Or in my case, not speak at all because like hell I knew what a South American accent even sounded like.

We all crossed the street and entered the store anyway. Each boy went their separate ways, as if they knew exactly where to go to get what they wanted immediately upon entry. I stuck with Axel as he roamed down the aisles of the small shop. His multicolored eyes landed on some small silver boxes decorating a whole end of a rack.

"Condoms?" I stated dully, looking down at the box. "Seriously?"

He gave me a look, part sheepish and part smug, but otherwise didn't say anything. He kept the box.

At least he was responsible.

We walked around some more, me trailing behind him. He picked up some cigarettes and then I followed him to the counter.

As he pulled some Euros from his back pocket I spotted some colorful boxes more for my target audience just to my left. A small smile crept up my face as I cleared my throat and begun in Spanish, "If your money can pay for your...recreational supplies then I'm sure you wouldn't mind getting some tampons too," I cooed innocently.

Axel's hand froze just before he handed over the money to the cashier. I smiled sweetly at him and tilted my head a little while handing him a box of the said female product. "For me, of course." I batted my eyelashes ever so delicately.

His face paled a little but eventually he leafed out more cash to pay for my request.

"Couldn't help but notice you froze in there Lawrence," I noted as Axel and I left the store. He gave me an annoyed look as we crossed the street and leaned up against the opposite building to wait for the other agents.

"Did you really need these or were you just playing?" He asked me, rustling the plastic bag he was now holding.

I smiled. "Just playing. I stopped getting my period after the whole experimentation thing. You know. Stress, anxiety, physical mauling."

I laughed when his cheeks blossomed more pink and he looked away.

"Do you even know how the female menstrual cycle works?" I asked him.

He actually coughed. "No, no, I don't."

"You guys get taught how to break someone's spine but not basic anatomy," I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, makes perfect sense."

"Well there's a difference there: I want to know how to break someone's spine. I don't want to know about periods."

I shook my head and crossed my ankles, once again losing confidence in the male gender. "Boys," I muttered.

"Sorry. Mom," he teased, hitting my lightly with the bag.

I gasped. "Son?" I widened my eyes and stared into his irises, still trying to deduce what color they were. "I thought I'd lost you all those years ago!"

Axel chuckled. "Glad to see your sarcasm works internationally."

"I'm still reeling from the fact that you are confident enough in your ability to get laid while we're working night and day on this mission."

Typically Harrison would have taken up a suggestive comment like the one I'd just made, spinning it into a confident smirk or some quick big-headed comment, but Axel didn't, instead going with a light eyebrow twitch and careful dusting of color across his cheeks.

I gave him a fake mad look. "You guys know nothing about women."

Axel snorted. "And you do?"

"As one, yeah, I'm aware of a couple things."

"Okay," Axel turned completely to me. He leaned his shoulder on the building instead of his back and crossed his arms again. "Lay it on me. What's something I should definitely know about the female species that you think I don't already know."

I mimicked his position and leaned towards him. "For one, when you make it visible that we're treading on your fragile masculinity with our natural body processes, we're gonna get a little pissed off. Second, contrary to popular belief, we often want the same thing guys want in relationships. Third, underestimation is the worst possible thing you can do to a woman besides shaming her out of feeling confident that she does something better than you do."

Axel raised his eyebrows. The sunlight shone on his face and it made the brown in his eyes seem more golden. "Is that all?"

I looked up at him with genuine pity. "Oh sweetie."

Axel looked like he was going to respond with an equal quip but just then Lucky and Blitx exited the drug store and walked over to us.

"Oh my god you did not waste 10 bucks on fucking sunglasses did you?" Axel asked, nodding at the new pair of black sun shades clipped to the neckline of Blitz's white t-shirt.

Blitz let out a loud breath. "Please Lawrence," he pulled his new shades off his shirt and slowly slid them on his face. "I look fucking irresistible." He stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth and nodded at me in a very fuckboy way.

"You mean irresponsible?" I raised one eyebrow, wildly unimpressed.

"Eh, that too," he shrugged.

Lucky cleared his throat. "Unlike some people, I actually got the necessities." The Mongolian opened the plastic bag in his hands with a flourish and revealed five or six colorful bags. I plucked one with a light pink casing out and looked it over. Bonelle jelly candy.

"Oh hell yeah!" Axel grabbed it out of my hands and tore it open.

"Hey I bought that give it back!" Lucky started to wrestle Axel for the bag of Italian candy.

"It's one piece!"

"You have to ask first!"

"Can I have one?"

"No!"

Blitz and I watched Lucky and Axel proceed to elbow and kick each other over the fruity jellies. "Don't get between a sugar-deprived man and his candy," Blitz advised as the fighting got more intense.

"I will cut you!" Lucky threatened.

"But I'm hungry!" Axel moaned.

"You had the chance to buy your own!"

"I wasn't hungry until I saw them!"

"So you weren't horny until you saw the condoms?"

"No, no, he was horny before that," I crossed my arms.

Lucky kneed Axel in the gut and the American finally relinquished the candy with a whimper. Lucky smugly took a wrapped candy out from the back he now victoriously sported, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth. He chewed it for a while, eyes scrunched up in contemplation as he savored the flavor. "Smooth."

Axel pouted and I pat him on the head. "There there. You still have your protection for the sex you won't get."

He narrowed his hazel eyes at me. "And you have your things for the thing you don't get."

I stared at him. "Say the word tampon. I dare you."

The agent licked his lips.

I rolled my eyes, but snatched the bag of jelly candies from Lucky's unaware hand and sprinted off in the direction we had originally intend to go before the boy's made their little pit stop. I laughed as I heard feet pound the stone ground immediately after I had bolted, accompanied by each boy's various shouts of complaints. Italy is fun, but having actual friends is more so.

-

"That's a big-ass boat."

"It's a ship, actually."

"Technicality."

"Flagg didn't give us any recon info on the boat itself did he? Like say, how we're supposed to get inside?"

"He gave us enough money for strippers who charge by the hour, but not at least a spare private's uniform?"

"Did you seriously check if the strippers here pay by the hour?"

"Of course I didn't check. I just know. Who the hell do you think I am?

"Tourist trap my friend. 'Course they do."

"I know what we're doing tonight."

"You're all such fucking idiots."

"Aw, I'm touched."

"The jetlag gettin' to you mate? That was hardly even an insult. Step up your game Hoffmann, come on."

"I make eight guards doing rounds. Coming around the bend every two minutes and 22 seconds."

"Oh that's refreshing. At least one person is doing their job, thanks Lucky."

"Oh it's no problem. I can take them out from here, just give the word."

"Lucky, do you not remember that massive debate we had earlier about bringing guns on this little stealth incursion?"

"Still pissed about that."

"You can't shoot them is what I'm saying."

"He'd have to vault across to the boat."

"And?"

"It's like 15 feet across."

"More like 17 feet."

"But you still don't see a problem?"

"Not really, no."

"Lucky stay put, wait for the signal. Oakleigh, don't even try and argue with him. Ackley, Peréz, keep holding your positions on the outside. Strider, stay sharp on the cameras. Lawrence, Bowman, on my mark."

These ear pieces were amazing. I could pick up every tint of Blitz, Cal, Lucky, Lautaro, and Owen's real accents.

Owen was a good mission leader, I'd give him that. A really good one. This was still my first mission, so it wasn't as if I had anyone else to compare him too, but he set up the plan to get us into the military vessel where Basilone's old office was quickly and flawlessly. He assessed every possible outcome and narrowed down the parameters while taking into account the mission objectives and organized priorities, and all the small recon we had collected from this morning. I hated to think it, especially since James was my friend, but I could see why the Director got so upset when his protégé stepped too far out of line.

So far the two quarreling ex-lovers hadn't picked up where they left off yelling at each other. Axel and I seemed to be the only people to sense the awkwardness that was still very present, since the rest of the group was like the entire agency and didn't know Owen was the one James had broken the rules with. Things were calm. For now. But if we were all going clubbing tonight, which Owen had only allowed since lots of the sailors went to this one specific club and we still needed insight, things might be a little too fragile to handle any proding.

"3...2...1...now." Owen's voice interrupted my worrying over him and James.

I darted out from behind a rusty fishing boat and slid into the clear water. Cold rushed through my veins and I came up to the surface to grip the browning edge of the public dock I had slipped in from with both hands. It was slimy with green seaweed and stunk of fish. I could already feel the salt coating my hair.

No sooner had I clawed the stray wet strands out of my face did I feel something solid brush against my jeans underwater. I muffled a screech as Axel's head, hair stained darker brown by the water, bubbled to the surface next to me.

"What the hell!" I whisper shouted at him through my teeth. I shoved his head back into the water with annoyance. He darted an arm out the ocean to grasp the edge of the wooden dock like me and pulled himself back up to the surface.

"Sorry," he whispered back once his head had came back up again.

We were about 17 feet from the military vessel and the ramp that attached it to the dock. Various workers were scattered across the deck hauling cargo on and off and wiping down the equipment. Guards patrolled the dock at the top of the ramp and another group of soldiers were doing rounds around the top of the boat.

Axel used his other hand to flick his wet hair off his forehead. It defied gravity at his touch and spiked into the air in all directions, the slick locks glimmering in the direct sunlight. I concentrated on breathing and clutched the dock even closer. "You don't like the water." He eyed how the algae-infested wooden dock was now pressed right up against me as I clung even closer to it.

"I just don't like not being able to see what's under me. At least when we're on land I've only got every other direction to worry about something coming from."

The short sleeve of Axel's sopping brown shirt slid up to his shoulder so more of his bicep was exposed. I looked back down at the water once I noticed. "Well that's very optimistic," he noted.

"Aren't vacations brilliant when you're traumatized and emotional?" Blitz's accent still reached my eardrum even when I was wet.

"Lucky, you in position?" Axel said, ignoring the positive comment with a sigh.

"Yes. Are you guys?"

"Yeah. Hoffmann?"

"Ready. Strider, alarm systems?"

"I'll cut them once you guys make your exit."

"The cameras?"

"On it too."

"Did you mark their exact vantage points?"

"Yes. I'll tell you guys how to get into his office and back out while out of their line of sight."

"The guards?"

"I know their rounds through and through. I'll tell you when they switch and exactly where they are whenever you ask."

"There's no blind spots?"

"Damnit Hoffmann!" James finally snapped. "I got it. Okay? You do your field thing and I got your ass like always. Now go do your job before I decide to test out if this ship's underwater gun system is up to date."

Axel and I exchanged a look. That was only going to get worse. But on the bright side it was similar to Harrison, Axel and I arguing when we played agency capture the flag on the Street and only one person got shot then.

"Wanna go first?" Axel offered. He nodded to where the vessel was sitting behind me.

I turned in the water and peeked out from behind the the dock and to the targeted ship 17 feet in front of me. We were planning on entering the ship through the sliding bottom doors under the ship itself. Like glass bottom boats, except these ones weren't glass and they could slide open and closed. They were used so submarines could rise to the surface while still under a boat. James reported that they were open while the ship was docked and being loaded and unloaded. Lucky and Owen were going to meet us by swimming under the boat on the other side.

I curled my fingers into the wood of the deck, maneuvering myself so the bottom of my feet were ready to push off from it. I glanced up to the guards walking around the deck of the boat. As soon as they rounded the corner and out of sight I took a breath and ducked under the water and then pushed off with both feet towards the boat.

I swum with my fingers stretched out in front of me and my eyes open. I didn't have time to pop up and take another breath as I dove deeper and under the ship. It got very dark very quickly once the bright sun was cut off, but soon I saw light shining in front of me and I pumped my arms and legs quicker to swim towards it.

"When you surface they'll be a door just behind you on the landing," James said.

I focused on his soft, slightly southern-tinted cadence as my lungs started to burn and I tried not to look below me at the deep, dark, cold water.

My head broke the surface and I gasped in air. James was right, the doors had been open and I was now literally in the middle of the boat. Around me was a first and second deck on both sides, with stairs connecting them at the rear of the boat. Round steel railings separated them on the inside from the open doors in the middle.

Axel popped up next to me, and immediately turned to look behind us to find the door James had indicated. I couldn't see the green of his eyes very well in the dark light, so they looked more brown. Then they widened and he quickly ducked back under, grabbing my hand underwater and pulling me down before I even got a proper chance to take in a breath.

I squeezed my eyes shut as we treaded water trying to keep our heads under the surface. I didn't want to put my feet too deep in case I touched something and flipped out again. I gripped Axel's hand tightly and I tried to clear my mind of corrupt images of mysterious creatures that could be lurking under me. God I hated the water.

Finally we came back up and I stiffled a cough as a bit of the salty water got up my nose. Axel brought his hand that I was still clutching for dear life out the water.

"Ow," he said.

I let go. "Sorry," I whispered.

He smiled a little at me. "Nothing is going to eat you."

"Thanks Lawrence, that's exactly what I want to hear."

"James, we good?" He asked quietly, trying not to laugh. They were soldiers passing back and forth around us. He must have seen one and then pulled me underwater with him.

"Yeah, go now."

Axel and I launched ourselves out of the water and ran across the bottom deck while dripping wet towards the door James had pointed out. Axel yanked it open and I slid inside, then he followed after.