Kurt found himself sitting in a window seat of an airplane that night, Finn on the aisle and to his luck, Blaine right between them in the middle. Rachel had protested. She had wanted that seat for two reasons, one to flirt with Finn – who was married – and the other to talk Kurt’s ear off. She’d ended up between Puck and Santana who wouldn’t take crap from her at all. Quinn, Mercedes, and Brittany sat behind them and Sam was on his own in the window seat behind Kurt. None of them knew where they were going. Except of course, the mole.

“I just wanna sleep,” Kurt muttered as he stared out the dark window, head resting on the back of the seat.

Blaine looked at him. “Go ahead and sleep beautiful. I’ll wake you up when we land,” he said. The compliment had them both blushing. Blaine took his hand and squeezed it. “Go on, sleep.”

“Thank you,” Kurt said, allowing his eyes to flutter shut. He was jolted awake again only a moment later by Rachel.

“How can you sleep?! We don’t have any idea where we’re going! We all should be on edge right now! You’re too comfortable. You must be the mole!” Santana clamped a hand over Rachel’s mouth.

“Zip it man hands! He has a right to be tired. Hell, I’d be dozing too if I didn’t have you to keep in check.” There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the group.

“Maybe you’re all the mole than!” she shouted.

Kurt turned an angry eye on her. “Or maybe you’re the mole and you’re just trying to desperately to get the rest of us to stray off your path. Now if you don’t mind, please shut up so I can sleep.”

Well, that was on suspect off everyone’s list. Rachel couldn’t be the mole. She was too blatantly obvious. Or maybe that was just her strategy to throw everyone off.

---

“Good evening players,” Will said as the ten of them came to a stop in front of him. “Welcome to Venice, Italy. This is the Hotel Antiche Figure. It is where you will be staying for the night. But just one night. We leave tomorrow morning. There was a collection of groans. “So here’s the deal. You can stay in as I know the lot of you are tired, or you can go out. However, you must return by midnight or cost the group five thousand dollars. And you must stick together, with the exception of two people or be penalized another thousand dollars for every person separated from the group. Now, for these two people, I will offer the chance for a gondola ride. However, it will cost you two thousand dollars, one grand per person. And it has to be two or no deal.”

The others conversed with Rachel claiming she deserved it after the way they had treated her on the plane. But no one volunteered to go with her. Finally, Kurt piped up.

“I think Blaine deserves the gondola ride because of the ordeal he’s already been through.” Everyone seemed to agree with that.

“All right Blaine,” Will said. “Anyone specific you want to go with you?”

Blaine seemed to think about it for a moment. “Kurt,” he said. The pale man blushed but no one seemed surprised.

“Kurt, do you accept?” Will asked. Kurt nodded. “Very well, that’s two thousand dollars from the group pot, bringing you down to eighteen thousand dollars. Now remember, if just one person returns after midnight, that’s another five thousand dollars gone. One thing I haven’t told you yet. Whatever money you lose goes to the mole.” They all collectively gasped.

“Is that new this year or something?” Rachel spat.

“Yes,” Will replied. “Kurt and Blaine, follow me. The rest of you, have a good night.”

---

Later, in the gondola, Blaine was studying the map Will had given them. He was good with Italian but apparently not good enough because it was ten minutes to midnight and they were nowhere near the hotel.

“All these canals look the same,” Kurt said, throwing his hands up in frustration. Blaine placed a hand on his arm.

“Calm down beautiful, we’ll figure it out, I promise.”

Kurt looked at him. “You know, if we lose five thousand dollars to the mole, the rest of the team is going to hate us tomorrow.”

Blaine laughed. “We’ll deal.” That caused Kurt to smile and they looked at the map. Suddenly, Kurt pointed.

“Look, Hotel Antiche Figure. Show that to the guy rowing the gondola and tell him that’s where we want to go!”

Blaine did as Kurt had said. Unfortunately, they were almost all the way across Venice so they came in twenty minutes late. Will was waiting for them.

“Hi guys,” he said.

“Hi, they replied.

“Well, you guys are twenty minutes past curfew. You want to tell me what happened?”

Kurt and Blaine both visibly cringed.

“We got lost,” Blaine said.

Will raised an eyebrow. “Really? Blaine, I thought you were fluent in Italian. You shouldn’t have had trouble reading the map or speaking with the gondola operator.” Blaine blushed. “Not to mention, I pointed out the hotel on the map when I gave it to you.” Blaine looked at Kurt and Kurt blushed too, shrugging.

“Guess things tend to slip out of your head easily when you’re distracted,” Kurt said, smiling over at Blaine. Will gave them a knowing look.

“As you know, you broke curfew and that’s five thousand dollars from the group pot, bringing it down to thirteen thousand dollars and the mole is now seven thousand dollars richer than he or she was when you landed.” They looked down at the ground in shame. “You have to tell your teammates tomorrow. Off to bed.”

Kurt and Blaine headed up their rooms and felt a bit shameful. The mole, whoever he or she was, was probably beaming by now, or would be when they found out that Kurt and Blaine had cost the group another five thousand dollars.

---

The ten of them filed in at breakfast the next morning with Will sitting at the head of the table.

“Good morning players.”

“Good morning!” the all replied.

“I trust you all slept well?” They nodded. “You have a good night?”

“Yeah!”

“Kurt, Blaine, do you guys have something you want to tell the rest of the team?” The two of them looked at each other and Blaine nodded. Kurt took a deep breath and set his fork down, picking up his napkin.

“Um…last night, Blaine and I kind of got lost in the gondola.” The rest of them looked at each other.

“You didn’t miss curfew, did you?” Rachel spat, eying them both suspiciously. Kurt and Blaine looked at each other.

Blaine let out a breath. “Unfortunately, we got back twenty minutes after midnight so…” He trailed off.

“Mole activity!” Rachel shouted. “How dare you cost us another five thousand dollars!"

Yep, she has to go. Looks like I have to do something to make sure she’s gone tonight, thought the mole, eyes watching Rachel go bat crazy.

“Will you shut up?” Santana said, throwing her napkin at Rachel. “Sheesh, can’t say I’m the only one but I’m thinking just about everyone here is ready to see you gone. You better not be the mole or I’m going to go nuts.”

Will stood up. “All right guys, if you’re done with breakfast, we need to hit the train station.”

The lot of them stood up and grabbed their belongings before heading out.

When they got to the train station, it was to find that an extremely long train was waiting for them. Will stood in front of it with his hands clasped in front of him. “Hello guys. Welcome to the train station. Now before we can take our journey to our next destination, I need one person who can eat, one person who doesn’t mind being alone, and one person who is a logical thinker. Decide amongst yourselves who these people will be.”

The ten of them deliberated for a few moments before coming to a decision, though Rachel sat, huffing.

“You have a decision?” They nodded. “Okay who’s my eater?” Finn raised his hand. “Okay Finn,” Will went on. He gestured for him to stand next to him. “Who doesn’t mind being alone?”

“That would be me,” Kurt said, walking over to join Finn and Will.

“And lastly, who is a logical thinker?” Quinn raised her hand. “All right than Quinn, join us. You three follow me and the rest of you wait here for further instructions.”

Will lead them onto the train and told Kurt and Quinn to wait for him in the first carriage while he walked Finn to the dining car. When they got there, Will stepped just inside the door. “Finn, you will see here that every single one of the tables in this carriage is laden to full with pies. If you can eat through half of them by the time we reach our next destination, I’ll add ten thousand dollars to the pot. If you eat less than half, you earn nothing. If you eat three quarters, I’ll add fifteen thousand dollars to the pot. And if you eat them all, you get twenty thousand dollars. Do not start until the train pulls away from the station.”

Finn nodded his head and sat at one of the tables, waiting. Will left the car and returned to Quinn and Kurt. He gestured for Kurt to remain there and Quinn to follow him. He lead her all the way to the caboose where there was a television screen and a large diagram of eight squares.

“Quinn, you are the logical thinker here. That screen is going to show you a series of puzzles that it is your job to solve. If you can manage to solve at least five of them by the time we reach our destination, I will add ten thousand dollars to the pot. Your time starts as soon as we pull away from the station.”

Quinn looked at the diagram and the screen and took a deep breath. She nodded and Will left the caboose. He returned to Kurt and gestured for him to follow him back off the train where he lead him to a smart car.

“Kurt, this is a map that gives directions to our final destination of Verona.” He handed him the map along with a GPS system. “If you can beat the train to Verona, the money that Finn and Quinn will be working to collect will not be earned and you will get yourself an exemption from the quiz and cannot be executed tonight. However, if they beat you, they will both earn money for the pot, a total of thirty thousand dollars is to be won between them and you get nothing. Good luck.”

Kurt nodded his head and got into the car. He prepared to leave when Will called out. “You cannot leave until the train has pulled out of the station!” Kurt nodded again and Will headed off.

The host returned to the rest of the group and clapped his hands.

“Okay, you seven, come with me.” He lead them to a small airport where a man was waiting with a plane. “In a moment, the train will leave the train station with Quinn and Finn on it. Both of them have been given a task to complete by the time the train reaches its final destination of Verona, Italy. If they can complete those tasks, a total of thirty thousand dollars can be won. However, Kurt has been given a car, a map, and a GPS. His task is to reach Verona before the train does. If he achieves that goal, he will receive an exemption and cannot be executed tonight and the group will win no money from the train tasks.”

There was a collective series of laughs and gasps. Rachel stared on angrily. “He doesn’t deserve to lose us any more money or an exemption!” They glared at her.

Will went on, yet again. “Behind you is a plane that is normally used for skydiving. Guess what the seven of you are going to be doing?” More gasps and some high fives.

“No way! I am not jumping out of a plane!” Rachel shouted.

A grin crossed Will’s face. “Then you better know your stuff. Here’s the deal, the pilot is going to take us up and fly toward Verona. I’m going to ask each one of you a question. If you get it right, you earn one thousand dollars for the pot and get to land in the plane. If you get it wrong or opt not to answer your question, you have to jump and parachute your way down to the ground. You will have trained skydivers with you. And you earn no money should you have to jump. However if you decide to forego receiving a question at all and just jump, I will give you five thousand dollars. Are we clear?”

They all nodded and boarded the plane. As the plane took off, the train left the station and Kurt’s car started down the road. Finn began eating pies and Quinn started working on solving those puzzles, Kurt stepped on the gas.

Within minutes, the seven players in the plane were high above the ground and nearing Verona.

“Okay guys, you ready?” Will asked. They all nodded their heads. “The first question is for Puck. How many eggs are in a baker’s dozen?”

It was obvious to the rest of them that there was no way Puck would know the answer to that. He was a football player and a stud by his own word but no way was he a baker by any means. However, they also thought that he was more likely to jump out of the plane.

“Thirteen,” he said almost immediately and shocked the rest of the players. How had a guy like puck known that?

“Correct,” Will replied. “That’s a thousand dollars added to the group pot. Mercedes, you’re next, do you want a question or do you want to jump?”

“Give me a question.” Will nodded.

“What is the Capital of Alaska?” Mercedes frowned. Damn, why hadn’t she paid attention to geography back in school? She should know this. It was kind of embarrassing that she didn’t. She frowned and looked back at the trained skydiver who she was to be jumping out with.

Biting her lip, she said, “Guess I’m jumping.” Will asked if she was sure and she nodded. Waddling awkwardly to the door of the plane, she had one last look at them all before the trained skydiver had them leaping out and the last the others heard was her scream as she fell into the air.

“Blaine, would you like a question or will you jump?” Will asked.

The curly-haired man grinned and pulled his goggles down over his face. “Forget the question. I lost five grand for us last night. I want to earn it back. I’m jumping."

“Okay. You’re just going to jump that banks you guys another five thousand dollars and brings your total up to six thousand dollars for this particular test.”

Blaine waddled forward, giving the group a thumbs up. “Let’s do this!” he shouted and he and the trained skydiver jumped from the plane. He whooped as they fell through the air and Rachel looked out after them.

“Okay,” she said. “I am not doing that.”

“Then it’s your turn Rachel,” Will said. “Are tomatoes a vegetable or a fruit?”

Rachel sighed with relief. This was easy. Considering she was a vegan, she knew the answer to this one. “Fruit,” she said shortly. She missed the groan Santana let out. The Latina was not above letting the rest of them know that she would love to have pushed Rachel out of the plane but seeing as she’d gotten her question right, she wouldn’t get that pleasure.

“Correct,” Will said with a smile. “And you don’t have to jump Rachel. “Santana, question or...”

“I’m jumping,” the Latina answered, cutting him off. Anything to get away from Rachel. She wasted no more time in jumping out of the plane. They heard her whoop just like Blaine did.

Will turned to the remaining players. Two more left to answer a question. “Sam, question or jump?”

The blonde man seemed to think about it for a moment. “I’ll take the question,” he said, giving a smile.

“Okay, the seven of you so far have earned a total of twelve thousand dollars, nearly doubling your current total.” They cheered and clapped before Will got serious again and looked at Sam. “Who was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence?” he asked.

“John Hancock,” Sam replied without a moment to think. Will smiled.

“That’s correct. Another thousand dollars to the pot and one more question to go. Brittany, it’s for you.”

The blonde girl nodded and pulled on her ponytail. Will looked at the card in his hand. Sam, Puck, and Rachel all glanced at each other, none of them really sure that Brittany would get this at all.

“Who is the Queen of England?” It was an easy question. Everyone knew the answer to that. Everyone except perhaps Brittany.

“Lord Tubbington,” she said immediately and the other three groaned. Will just looked at her.

“Who is Lord Tubbington?” Puck asked. Brittany looked at him as if she thought he was nuts for not knowing.

“He’s my cat.”

It was quiet it for several moments before Will seemed to pull himself together.

“I’m sorry Brittany but that is incorrect. The answer is Queen Elizabeth II.” Brittany shrugged and the skydiver with her pushed them forward. She seemed to barely notice when they jumped out of the plane. “Okay, good work guys. That’s a total of thirteen thousand dollars added to the pot. Three thousand from right answers and ten thousand from two automatic jumps. Let’s go meet your friends on the ground, eh?”

Back on the ground, Kurt had stopped to ask for directions, but finding few people who spoke English in the Italian countryside, he was left to just following the GPS and the map. “This is ridiculous!” he spat veering back onto the road and glancing at the map.

---

Finally, the plane landed and the train was pulling into the station, just after sunset. “Wait here,” Will said to the other seven contestants as he boarded the train. “Finn?” he said as he entered the dining car.

Finn was leaning against a seat, looking positively sick. A little more than half the pies were empty. Will smiled, clapping his hands.

“Well done Finn, that’s ten thousand dollars added to the pot to go with your teammates thirteen thousand dollars. Come with me, we’ll see how Quinn did.” As they walked on through the train, Finn struggling because he felt overly full, Will neglected to tell him that he may not have earned any money at all. That depended on whether Kurt had reached Verona before the train.

Quinn was still calculating something it appeared when they entered the caboose.

“Quinn?” Will questioned and the blonde looked up.

“Did we stop?” she asked. He nodded his head and she let out a breath. “I’m not even sure how I did.”

Will walked over to check her answers where she been recording them. After a moment, he looked up. “You were given a series of questions to answer before we reached Verona. I told you if you answered five correctly, I would add ten thousand dollars to the pot. Unfortunately Quinn, you got only four.” The blonde slammed a fist into her hand and Finn only groaned. “I’d like you two to come with me because there is one more thing about this test that you didn’t know.”

He lead them both off the train to where Rachel, Puck, Sam, Santana, Blaine, Brittany, and Mercedes were all waiting and gestured for them to go and stand with them.

“Now, on the train tasks, one was completed. Finn, you managed to eat half the pies for a total of ten thousand dollars added to the pot. Quinn, as you know you were one question shy of five, causing you to fail the task and out of a possible thirty thousand dollars available on the train part of the test, you banked only ten thousand. Was the mole at work here? Maybe, maybe not. Finn, Quinn, while you were on the train your friends here were answering questions up in the air. Blaine, why don’t you tell them how that went?"

Blaine grinned at Finn and Quinn. “Well, we were given the choice to either answer a question or parachute jump and if we jumped right off, we got five thousand dollars for the pot. If we got the question right we earned a thousand dollars. Wrong, we earned nothing and we had to jump out of the plane. Brittany and Mercedes both got their questions wrong. Rachel, Sam, and Puck all answered correctly and Santana and I just jumped from the plane.”

“In short, your friends earned a total of thirteen thousand dollars for the pot,” Will confirmed. Finn and Quinn cheered and clapped for their teammates. “That makes the combined total twenty-three thousand dollars added to the pot, which brings you up to thirty-six thousand dollars!” They all cheered. “However, Finn and Quinn, what you didn’t know was that Kurt, whom you selected as the person who liked to be alone was given a smart car, a map, and GPS system to find his own way to Verona. If he were to make it here before the train, he would earn himself an exemption and whatever money you earned in the train tasks would not be added to the pot.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Finn said, groaning. He looked around. “I don’t see him anywhere so I guess that means we won.” A slow smile crossed Will’s face.

“Don’t be so quick to judge. Kurt!”

At that moment Kurt came walking out from around the train building, hands in his pockets. Rachel glared and the others cheered and clapped and Finn merely groaned but more from the fact that his stomach was full.

“Congratulations Kurt, you made it here before the train which means you have an exemption and you cannot be eliminated tonight. Also, the ten thousand dollars Finn earned will not be added to the pot, dropping the day’s total to thirteen thousand dollars and leaving the pot with twenty-six thousand dollars. Really not bad for the start of the season.

“Now, if you all pile into the awaiting vans, we can head for the hotel and eat well. Tonight you face your first execution. Good luck.”

---

At dinner few people said much and Will tried to get them talking but very little was exchanged. They were all suspicious of each other and Rachel was still suspecting every single one of them of being the mole obviously. She wasn’t going to trust anybody.

Will raised his glass. “A toast to everyone here and to whomever is executed tonight. Kurt, you’ve earned the first exemption of the season so you’re safe and you cannot be executed. For the rest of you, good luck.”

One by one the players were taken in to take the quiz, ten questions about the mole.

Question one: What place did the mole arrive in back in Las Vegas?

Question two: In which group was the mole during the hostage rescue game?

Question three: What car was the mole in on the rollercoaster during the hostage rescue game?

Question four: Where was the mole sat on the flight to Venice?

Question five: Did the mole answer their question correctly in the skydiving game?

Question six: In what order did the mole answer their question in the skydiving game?

Question seven: What position did the mole arrive in the race to Verona game?

Question eight: What color is the mole’s hair?

Question nine: When is the mole’s birthday?

Question ten: Who is the mole?

When everyone had answered the quiz, totals were tallied and the question of who would be executed first was locked in and ready to go.

Dressed in their best the players filed into the lobby of their hotel, seats waiting for them. Will was standing in front of a table with a laptop on it. Beside the table stood a TV screen with a thumb print logo on it.

“Good evening. Welcome to your first execution. The person who scored the lowest on the quiz will be executed. In the event of a tie, the person who answered the questions the slowest will be executed. In a moment, I will enter your names into the computer. If the screen turns green, you remain in the game. However, if the screen goes red, you are the mole’s first victim. You will have to take your bag and leave the game immediately. Kurt, you earned an exemption, which means you cannot be executed tonight. Let’s begin. I’ll start tonight by going alphabetically.

“Blaine, you’re first.”

Blaine drew a breath as Will typed his name into the computer, locked eyes with him for a moment and pressed the enter key. There were a few tense moments before the screen flashed green and Blaine let out his breath in relief. Mercedes patted him on the shoulder.

“Brittany.”

The blonde girl looked on as Will typed her name into the computer. After a beat, he hit enter and again, there were a few tense moments before again, the screen flashed green. Brittany clapped happily.

“Finn.”

The tall man held his breath, much the same way that Blaine had as Will slowly entered his name into the computer. He locked eyes with the host as the enter key was pressed. After a moment, the screen flashed green once more and Finn visibly relaxed.

“Mercedes.”

Blaine gripped Mercedes’ hand as Will entered her name into the computer. The tapping of the enter key was heard and the wait was tense again. The screen flashed green and Blaine squeezed her hand. She smiled with relief.

“Puck.”

Arms crossed, the football player looked on with an air of calm as his name was entered into the computer. The pressing of the enter key and the wait. Another green screen cleared Puck to be back the following round.

“Quinn.”

It was getting down to the wire as Quinn realized when he entered her name, she now had a one in four chance of being the one to go home first. She shut her eyes, drawing in a few deep breaths. The screen went green once more and she relaxed.

“Rachel.”

Unlike the others before her, Rachel appeared quite confident as her name was entered. Her nose was up in the air as they all watched Will tap that enter key. Tension hung in the air.

Please let her be gone, let me have done enough somehow, the mole thought.

The moments seemed to drag out and then…the screen flashed red.

“Rachel, grab your bag and come with me,” Will said, standing up. Rachel did not to be very happy at all. In fact, she seemed positively fuming, though with her acting skills, she held herself together as well as she possibly could. “I’m sorry to see you go Rachel.”

She plastered a smile on her face. “It’s okay. I had a great time and I got to see a different part of the world and meet interesting people. I wish the others luck and I hope they nab that mole."

Will opened the car door for her and Rachel climbed in. “Good-bye,” he said and she waved as the car drove off.

Job well done, thought the mole. Time for victim two. Bring it on!