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Heart pounding, Noa crept down the hall. Gagged and with her hands bound behind her back, she had to find a way to get free, find Juana and Valentina, and make it out of the temple alive with enough Aksum artifacts to prove their discovery.

She tiptoed on silent feet down the hallway, reaching yet another doorway. She slowly peeked her head around the corner, only to be grabbed by a pair of hands. Before she could scream, a hand was clamped over her already-gagged mouth. 'Be quiet,' a familiar voice hissed, and Noa twisted around to see Val behind her.

'Mmmph?' she exclaimed, before Val shushed her again.

'Be quiet,' Val hissed, before pull the gag out of Noa's mouth. 'What the hell happened to you?' She grabbed Noa and pulled her around, starting to undo the ropes binding her wrists.

'Regina and Renata happened,' Noa whispered in reply. 'Where's Juana?'

Val frowned. 'We got separated just a bit ago, thanks to the twins. They were chasing us down the hall and we ended up going different ways. I've been trying to find you and Juana without running into either of the Gomez's ever since.'

'Well, I just ran into them back there,' Noa said, nodding her head in the direction she'd came from. 'And lucky us, they've already gathered a bunch of artifacts.'

'I noticed,' Val said, a bit bitterly, before her expression brightened with a smirk. 'But I'll do you one better. Come check out what I found.' She led Noa around the corner, and pushed at a large stone slab that until then, Noa hadn't realized was a door. As Val pushed the door fully open, Noa gasped. Somehow, Valentina had managed to find a room with artifacts that were infinitely better preserved than anything Regina or Renata had found. Undoubtedly, this sort of room was what the twins had been looking for.

'I think our best plan is to grab as much of this stuff as possible, and get out of here with it,' Val said, pulling off her pack and going through the piles to begin sorting stuff in. 'Where's your pack?'

Noa's shoulders sunk as she remembered her backpack left abandoned ages ago at the first tunnel she'd came to. But... 'I've got an idea. You're going to think I'm crazy, but if it works...'

Val frowned, but turned to look at her. 'I'm listening.'

Noa crept back through the darkened hallway, to the room where she'd last left Renata and Regina. She peered out through the doorway into the room, where she spotted Regina on one side and Renata on the other, both clearly searching for hidden passageways. Perfect.

Quickly tying the rag back through her mouth, Noa crept through the doorway, past a pile of stones where she crouched down near where Renata was searching. Holding her hands behind her back, she poked her head above the stones and widened her eyes when Renata saw her. 'Oh, there you are,' Renata said gleefully, turning to face her fully. 'We were wondering if you'd show u-' she broke off with a grunt when Valentina, who'd snuck into the room after Noa, jumped at her from behind and forced her to the ground. Noa quickly jumped up and grabbed the other cloth she'd shoved into her back pocket, using it to gag Renata while Val tied her arms behind her back.

'She's going to come over here any minute,' Val hissed over Renata's muffled shrieks of anger.

Sure enough, they heard Regina's voice call, 'Renata?' as she started walking towards them. Quickly, they shoved Renata behind a stone slab and Noa lay down on the ground, still gagged and holding her arms behind her back, playing the bait once again. Regina rounded a pile of stones and spotted Noa. Taking advantage of her distraction, Val jumped on Regina from behind and had her tied up within minutes.

Noa pulled the rag from her mouth. 'That was surprisingly easy,' she said cheerfully, smiling down at Regina who glared and grumbled at her from behind her own gag. 'I don't doubt you two will get free eventually, but now, we're going to have to take your bags,' she said, as she and Val walked over to where the twins had left their packs. 'We'll see you when we announce this discovery!' Noa called over her shoulder as she and Val left the room, before they both burst into giggles.

As they were stuffing the packs with artifacts from the treasure room, they heard a sound from the doorway. Noa and Val both stiffened and turned, only to sigh with relief when they saw Juana standing in the doorway. 'I've been looking all over for you,' their guide exclaimed, barely paying heed to the artifact-filled room as she rushed toward them. 'Come, it's far past time for us to go.'

As they each grabbed a pack and followed Juana out of the room, Val bumped against Noa's shoulder. 'Worried about Regina and Renata?'

'Not much,' Noa answered truthfully. 'I know they're resourceful enough to get out of here, but not before we do first, especially with Juana. And with any luck, we'll get back to civilization with these things before they do.'

'Well, we've got their packs so they won't be able to carry much even when they do get free,' Val said with a smirk. 'Aren't you glad you did this with me instead of staying home in your office?'

Noa's mind flashed through everything that had happened, from being attacked by vines, captured by Renata and Regina Gomez, tickled by monkeys, running into absolutely unreal things in the temple, and finally breaking free with enough artifacts to prove their research correct. 'Well, it's definitely been an adventure.'