Author's Note: This is my very first fanfiction! I hope you enjoy reading it and feel free to leave comments and reviews. Constructive criticism is always welcome!
Disclaimer: I love National Treasure, but sadly I don't own it. All of the characters are owned by Disney, and all credit goes to Jon Turteltaub, Jerry Bruckheimer, etc.
Chapter 1
His fingers flew effortlessly across the keyboard, the glow of his laptop illuminating the small, cramped space. The quiet was only broken by the steady tapping of his foot as Green Day blasted in his ears. He was in his own world. Sure, infiltrating mainframes and hacking security systems proved to be commonplace to him now, but with it always came a thrill, a sense of adventure.
His name was Riley Poole and he was a treasure protector.
"Riley!"
Started, Riley yanked out his earbuds and grabbed the forgotten headset on the shelf beside him. Slipping them on, he scrambled to keep his laptop from crashing to the floor. "Yeah, I'm here."
"Are we ready?"
Two more keystrokes and the security footage playing down the hall was forced into a loop. Now all the monitors showed were empty corridors and hallways. No one would know what they were up to.
Next was the security system and alarms. Lines of code flooded the screen. Riley was in his element. Quickly tunneling under the firewalls and breaking through the safeguards, he was almost halfway there in less than two minutes.
"Riley?"
Eyes fixed on the screen, Riley grinned. "Patience Ben, you can't rush genius."
Benjamin Gates. He was a very interesting man. Maybe that was why he had followed him on so many adventures, on so many dangerous expeditions. Riley had been in college when they first met. Ben was a guest speaker who had been giving a lecture on the Founding Fathers. Soon however, the topic shifted, taking on a more exciting tone. While most of the class had either dosed off or engaged in quiet side conversations, Riley had all of his attention on the front of the room. He was fascinated by the stories the man was telling. He could tell that Ben genuinely believed in the myths by the way he spun the tales with such conviction and wonder. History might not have been his forte, but he had felt some sort of connection, a hunger to be part of it all. Not long after, Ben and Riley started down the road to becoming best friends.
He was once again jarred to reality, this time by a female voice.
"Oh my god, we're going to get caught at this rate! Riley, please spare us the suspense."
"Well, since you said please…"
Abigail Chase was a strong-willed and stubborn woman. Riley wouldn't call her 'drop-dead gorgeous,' but she was pretty. When the three of them first met, she had thought that he and Ben were both out of their minds, and rightly so! After all, they had kidnapped her in the process of looking for an invisible map on the back of a national document. But hey, that was just another night for them, and soon, it was for her, too.
Finally the sensors were offline and all the gated off sectors and access points were unlocked.
Game on
"Alright Ben," People probably wondered why he went along for the ride, why he was always risking his life and freedom for the far-fetched fantasies of one man. The answer was simple. Riley owed Ben everything. If not for the brave historian, Riley would most likely be forgotten in some cubical at some company where the closest thing to excitement would be the restocking of the vending machines. Instead, he found himself in a cramped storage closet helping his friends break into a museum at two-thirty in the morning. And he was enjoying every second of it. "You've got the green light."