I hugged myself. "W-when will we get there?"
"Assuming Ben's theory is correct," Riley, who was sitting next to me, bit his lip, "and my tracking model is accurate, we should be getting very close."
I could feel my teeth clattering loudly as he continued, "But don't go my me; I broke a shoelace this morning."
Everyone in the vehicle looked at him like he was nuts. Even Ben raised his eyebrow at him through the rear-view mirror. I just laughed. Well, as much as you can laugh when the temperature is -20 degrees celsius.
Riley bit his lip again. "It's a bad omen."
"Should we just turn around and go home?" Ian sighed in his British accent. As much as I loved his accent, he annoyed me so much. I glared at him.
"Or we could just pull over and just throw him out here," Ben joked.
"Don't be so pessimistic, both of you." I glared at Ben.
"Oh, Riley; you aren't missing that windowless cubicle we found you in, are you?"
"Oh, no. Absolutely not."
Riley's computer beeped.
"Shoveling time!" I grinned and I jumped from the snow plow. "Six months of non-stop research and digging up useless junk; and I finally found it," I sighed heavily.
"Oh, yeah?" Ben bickered. "Try twenty years."
I thought for a moment. I had had enough of univerty and archaeology; even though I had only just started. Ben had been doing this for almost two decades, yet he never gave up. He was my role model.
"You're a true inspiration, Ben." I grinned. "When you become famous for rediscovering the Charlotte, don't forget me."
He chuckled for a moment. "Wait… rediscovering?"
"There had been letters sent to the vice-president at that time stating how they had uncovered The Charlotte. Not entirely sure what happened. They went missing shortly after that. I have been trying to find the legends and secrets that were passed down ever since I graduated."
Ben looked deep in thought, but Ian muttered, "You graduated half a year ago, Avalyn."
"Yes, I'm quite aware of that." I snapped. What was his problem with me?
He raised his hands up in mock defeat. That jerk!
"Don't worry about him, Avalyn. You'll get used to him eventually." Ben patted my back.
"I highly doubt that!"
"Look, this is a huge waste of time." A shivering Shippen told Riley. "How could a ship wind up all the way out here? This place is a wasteland."
"Well, I'm no expert." Riley said to him. Oh, here we go! "But it could be that the hydrothermal properties of this region produce hurricane force ice storms that cause the ocean to freeze, then melt, then refreeze, resulting in a semi-solid migrating land mass that would land a ship… right about here."
"Classic," I shook my head at Riley, who grinned sheepishly at me.
I heard an odd noise, and turned to look at Ben, who was staring at the snow. "Hello, beautiful." He whispered to the ground.
"Let's go find some treasure!" Ian clapped. Sheesh, these guys sounded like pirates!
We entered the ship's hold.
"Ahh, oh god! AHHHH!" Riley slipped and fell on top of me.
"You handled that well." Ben laughed as I got up and helped Riley back onto his feet.
"Handed what well?" I asked.
Ben pointed to a frozen skeleton. I screamed and grabbed Riley's arm. We were both shaking tremendously at this point. Ben just shook his head and walked up to Ian and Shaw.
"R-Riley…"
"Yeah?" We were still clinging to each other in shook.
"That's… that's a dead person!"
"Come on, Avalyn," Ian laughed. "You're a forenzic anthropoligist. You basically work will dead people every day."
"I'm an archaeologist and paleontologist. I study dinosaur bones; not dead humans!"
He rolled his eyes and walked away.
"Now why would the captain be guarding this barrel…" Ben muttered to himself. "I found something!"
"What is it?" Riley and I both asked at the same time.
"Jinx!" I pointed to him, grinning.
"There's no time for games." Ian rolled his eyes.
"I'm only 19. Leave me alone!"
"Shhh!" Ben told us. "Do you guys know what this is?"
"Is it a billion dollar pipe?" Riley asked hopefully.
"It's a miashawn pipe…" I walked up closer to Ben, glancing wonderously at the artifact that was only a few inches away from my face. Yes! I thought. I finally found something worthly for my report!
"Ah, it's beautiful…" Ian sighed.
"Is it a million dollar pipe?" Riley asked again.
"No, it's a clue… let me see that."
"Ben…" I warned.
"Don't break it!" Riley told him.
"Ben, I'm on his side here. You don't know if it's a clue or not. This could be the end of the line. Maybe this is the treasure?"
"No, Avalyn. It can't be the treausure. It can't be what I've been searching for for twenty years… We are one step closer to the treasure, gentleman… and lady."
"I thought you said the treasure would be on the Charlotte?" Ian asked, looking annoyed and frustrated.
"Ian…" I started, realising what the riddle actually meant.
"What?"
"The secret lies with Charlotte…"
"Exactly." Ben stated. "I said it could be here, not would." Ben cut himself with a knife, and I almost puked from the sight.
"Not a fan of blood…" I covered my mouth in an attempt to stop myself from throwing up.
He scrolled the stem of the pen down a sheet of paper. A group of symbols and and old-fashioned writing appeared on it.
Ben and I read the words together.
"The legend writ;
The stain affected;
The key in Silence, undetected.
Fifty-five in iron pen;
Mr Matlack can't offend."
Ben started muttering words to himself, while I was wondering what the answer was.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when Ian asked, "Wait a minute, what do you mean invisible? An invisible map?"
"What?" I asked. I hadn't thought of the idea of an invisible map. "That can't be right…" I turned my head to the left to think.
"The stain affected could refer to a dye or reagent used to bring out a certain result."
"Like those invisible ink pens? Where you shine the light on it to see what it says?" I asked Ben.
"Exactly." He nodded. "Now, the implication was to make what was undetectable, detectable. Unless the key in Silence could be…"
"Prison." Shaw shrugged.
"Alburquerque." Riley piped up, obviously refering to the random call of words. "See, I can do it too. Snorkel."
"Poptarts." I giggled. "Heh… Snorkel is a funny word."
"Can't we all just be serious for a moment?" Ian groaned. I glared at him. We were just having fun!
"It's where the map is. Like you said, fifty-five in iron pen. Iron pen is a prison."
"But why say iron pen? Why not just say gaol or iron cells, or simply just cells? It doesn't make sense…" I bit my lip.
"People don't even talk like that anymore!" Riley groaned. What a great help he was.
"Avalyn's right." Ben nodded to me. "It could be since the primary writing medium of the time was iron gull ink; the pen is just… a pen. They why not say a pen; why say iron pen?"
"Because it's a prison." Shaw said, keeping his cool.
I thought for a moment. Fifty-five in iron pen… could it mean fifty-five people wrote on something with a pen? No, no that couldn't be right… Fifty-five people signed something? It would have to be important or a specific law and order for fifty-five people to sign one thing. It must have been something vital, something key to make the world a better place; something… "The Declaration of Independence!" I gasped at myself. "That's it! Fifty-five people signed the Declaration. Is it saying that there is a map or an invisible code on the back of it?"
"That would be clever, really. A document of that importance would ensure the maps survival. And you said several masons signed it, yeah?"
"Nine for sure." Ben told him.
"We'll have to arrange a way to examine it…"
"What?" My jar dropped open. "Are you crazy? Goodness knows what would happen if we told anyone that we think there is a map on the back of it!"
"She's right." Riley agreed. "You would have to be mad to think that anyone would let you examine it."
"Oh well. We could borrow it."
"Borrow it?" I asked. "Without any permission or consent from the US government? I came to America six months ago. I'm sorry, but I do not want a black mark on my record! I study at Harvards, for goodness sakes!"
"You're not American?" Riley asked.
"What? Are you a rascist?"
"No, I'm just, it's just… you're not American."
"I'm from Australia. Now can we please get back to the subject?"
"Avalyn; Ben. The treasure of the Knights Templar is the treasure of all treasures. Avalyn, do you want to ace you're exams? You need to find an artifacts from the 1800's, examine it and write a report to become an archaeologist."
"I'm already a paleontologist. I could always stick with that instead of getting my PHD…"
"You know you want to ace this. The only way you could do this is to find the Knights Templar treasure."
I bit my lip. "We don't need to find that. We already found that million dollar pipe."
"It's covered it blood."
"We could wash it."
Ben obviously noticed the tension between us so he stepped in. "Ian, it has to be handed into a museum. I think we should just…"
"Ben, we all have our areas of expertise. You don't think mine is limited to writing Sheakstean, do you? Why, I've arranged a number of operations of questionable legality."
"I don't like where this is going…" Riley mumbled. I nodded, crossing my arms in confusion.
"I would take his word for it." Shaw told Ben.
"Don't worry; I'll make all the arrangements."
I couldn't have just let Ian and Shaw gang up against Ben like that. He worked so hard for all those years. He didn't deserve that at all.
"No." I said firmly.
"I really need your help here, too, Avalyn."
"I said no! Do you not understand how bad this is for all of us? We could risk a red mark on our criminal records. You don't understand how bad this is!"
"You can't just waltz in there and steal it!" Ben told them.
"This is like stealing the Mona Lisa!" Riley back me up too; thank goodness.
"Actually," I started. "The Mona Lisa was actually stolen in August 1911. Someone actually just waltzed in there a took it. He was captured, and now the Mona Lisa is hidden behind six inches of bullet-proof glass. True story."
"This isn't time for your little fun facts, Avalyn. This is a serious matter." Ian told me.
"You really don't get it, do you? You don't understand what I'm getting at?" He shook his head and I groaned in disappointment. "If they realise that you, or anyone, is planning to steal it, they will keep it locked up and hidden even more than it already is. Are you willing to put your life, and the Declaration, on the line just for some measly treasure?"
Shaw pulled out a gun, after Ian nodded towards him, and pointed it at Ben.
"Hey!" Riley put his hands up.
"What are you going to do? Are you going to shoot me, Shaw? Well, you can't shoot me. There's more to the riddle. Information you don't have, I do. I am the only one who can figure it out and you know that."
"He's bluffing."
"We played poker together you know I can't bluff."
"Tell me what I need to know or I'll shoot you're useless friend." He pointed the gun at Riley.
"Hey!" He said again.
"Quiet, Riley; you're job is done. Make another sound and I'll shoot both you're girlfriend and you!"
"Hey!" I was the one that said that this time.
Before I could say another word, I saw Ben light up a flare.
"BEN!" I warned once again. "Don't you dare blow up this ship!"
He ignored me. "Look at where you're standing. You shoot me, I drop this, we all go up."
"Ben…" Riley also warned.
"What happens when the flare burns down? Tell me what I need to know, Ben!"
"You need to know… how to shock and catch!" Ben tossed the flare at Ian, but he surprisingly caught it.
"Nice try though, Ben." Ian laughed, but then dropped the flare when his arm caught on fire.
"Get out, Shaw!" Ian pushed him as the room started to ignite.
"Come on, get over here!" Ben motioned us over.
Just before Riley could question what was happening, I caught on what Ben wanted us to do. "It's a smugglers hold. Riley, get i– ahhhh!"
Ben pushed me in before I could push Riley in.
We all gasped as we emerged from the wreckage.
"You know," I coughed, trying to get the snow, dust and smoke out of my lungs, "I'm pretty sure a ship blowing up while you're in it is also a bad omen."
Ben looked around, ignoring me. "There's an Inuit village about nine miles east of here. It's popular with push pilots."
My jar dropped open. "Nine miles? That's like…"
"Fifteen kilometres."
I sighed. "Crap."
"What are we going to do?" Riley asked.
"Start making our way back home."
"No, I meant about Ian. He is going to steal the Declaration of Independence."
"We stop him."
"Stop him?" I asked. "How are we going to stop him? We should just not get into this whole mess. Let the FBI handle him."
"They won't." Ben told me, shaking off the snow from his parker.
"What? What do you mean?"
"You don't know Ian. He won't give up."
"Neither will I. I won't give up on my PHD, Ben. I can't do this. I've keep a clean record for the two decades of my life. If I end that record now, I won't be able to finish my studies at Harvard. Then where will I go? What job will I get if I get kicked out of university, Ben?"
"You'll come work with Riley and I."
"I dunno, Ben…"
"If we find the Templar Treasure, you won't ever have to work again."
"That's true…" Riley agreed. "It's worth billions; trillions maybe."
There was a long pause, but I finally gave in. "A'ight. I'm in."