The National Archive Building
Mia sat in the back of Riley's van reading Inkheart, eating a sandwich and waiting for her Dad and Riley to come out of the FBI building. She rolled down the window; even in April the van could still get fairly warm in the sunshine. They had been back for less than 72 hours and they had already been to the Department of Homeland Security, and now the FBI building. Dad had decided that Mia should wait in the car or she could stay at the apartment, seeing that a sixteen year old probably wouldn't be taken very seriously. She had decided to go with sitting in the car so she would know the minute they got out what had happened. As she stared out the window she saw her Dad and Riley coming out of the building. She jumped out of the van and headed their way.
"How did it go?" she ask when she got close.
"Is it really so hard to believe that someone's gonna try to steal the Declaration of Independence?" Riley asked Ben, ignoring her question. Ben almost seemed to shrug the question off, though Mia could tell he was upset.
"No good?" she asked, hope draining from her.
Riley looked at Mia and said, "We got farther with the Department of Homeland Security."
"The FBI gets 10,000 tips a week. They're not gonna worry about something they're sure is safe," Ben informed the duo.
"Anyone that can do anything is gonna think we're crazy. Anyone crazy enough to believe us isn't gonna want to help," Riley voiced his frustration. Ben stopped and looked at Riley and Mia.
"We don't need someone crazy. But one step short of crazy, what do you get?" Ben asked.
Riley paused then stated, "Obsessed."
Mia looked at her Dad. "Fervent?"
"Close, Mia. Passionate," Ben told them.
…...
It had been about an hour since Ben and Riley had gone to see a Dr. Chase. Mia didn't really get what this Doctor guy could do about it, but anything was better than nothing. Besides she was content to take pictures at the National Archive Building while they had their meeting. She hadn't taken a lot of pictures of buildings, and needed some practice. Not that taking pictures of buildings was her favorite thing. Her preference was people. People and nature. Not buildings and not animals.
Eventually she gave up and started doing a paper about New York. It was one of many papers she had to do for school about the states. She was doing her best, but she figured even with all the work she had put into it her Dad would probably only give her a C. C+ at best. History just wasn't her thing and her Dad just didn't seem to get that. She gave up on that also and was heading for the front door when she saw Dad and Riley heading her way.
"If it's any consolation, you have me convinced," she heard Riley say.
"It's not." Ben said rather abruptly.
"Hey," she called out. "How did this one go?" Riley semi-rolled his eyes and Ben just shook his head.
"What did he say?" Mia asked, disappointment in her voice.
"She," Riley replied. "And this time we got to the pipe. But she still didn't believe us."
"That's not so bad...about the pipe I mean," Mia commented quietly, then lamented, "But still nobody believes us."
"I was thinking, what if we go public, plaster this story all over the Internet? It's not like we have our reputations to worry about," Riley suggested. "Although I don't think that's exactly gonna scare Ian away." The three stood in front of the Declaration's display case and stared at it. Mia saw a wistful look on her dad's face.
"180 years of searching, and I'm three feet away," he whispered. He looked at Mia, then turned to the declaration, "Of all the words written here about freedom, there's a line here that's at the heart of all the others. 'But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security.' Beautiful, huh? People don't talk that way any more," Ben told the two younger people. Mia nodded, but didn't say a word.
"Yeah," Riley muttered. "No idea what you said."
"It means, if there's something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action," Ben explained, and then quietly added, "I'm gonna steal it,"
Mia eyes got huge and Riley did one of those weird laugh/cough things and then said, "What?"
"I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence," Ben repeated himself determinedly, then turned and headed out of the building.
"Uh...Ben?" Riley said. He turned to follow Ben, stopped when he realized Mia wasn't coming with them, turned around, grabbed her wrist, and practically pulled her out of the building.
…...
Mia sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial next to Riley feeling like someone had punched her in the stomach. She could barely hear Riley trying to talk some sense into her Dad's head. "This is... huge. It's prison huge. You are going go to prison, you know that?"
"Yeah, probably," Ben answered, not seeming fazed.
"Prison would bother most people," Riley seemed like he was going to cry.
"Ian's gonna try to steal it. And if he succeeds, he'll destroy the Declaration. The fact is, the only way to protect the Declaration is to steal it. It's upside down. I don't think there's a choice," Ben explained to Riley and Mia, as he sat down.
"Dad... what... how could this possibly help us?" Mia asked.
Riley stood up, agitated."Ben, for God's sakes, it's like stealing a national monument. OK? It's like stealing him," Riley gestured at the statue of Abraham Lincoln. "It can't be done. Not 'shouldn't' be done. It can't be done. Let me prove it to you."
…...
Mia and Ben sat opposite of Riley at a table at the Library of Congress. Ben was reading a book, Mia was leaning on the table; her mind going a billion miles a second.
Riley looked up from his book. "OK, Ben, pay attention. I've brought you to the Library of Congress. Why? Because it's the biggest library in the world. Over 20 million books. And they're all saying the same thing: listen to Riley." Ben looked up from the book he was reading, seeming somewhat bored. Mia had a feeling that whatever Riley was about to say would make her feel worse than she already did. "What we have here, my friend," Riley continued, "is an entire layout of the archives. Short of builders' blueprints. You've got construction orders, phone lines, water and sewage - it's all here," Riley flipped the book over so Ben and Mia could see it. "Now, when the Declaration is on display, OK, it is surrounded by guards, and video monitors, and little families from Iowa, and little kids on their eighth-grade field trips. And beneath an inch of bulletproof glass is an army of sensors and heat monitors that will go off if someone gets too close with a high fever." Riley flipped a couple pages in his book, "Now, when it's not on display, it is lowered into a four-foot-thick concrete, steel-plated vault... that happens to be equipped with an electronic combination lock and biometric access-denial systems."
"You know, Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly 2,000 times to develop the carbonized cotton-thread filament for the incandescent light bulb," Ben interrupted.
"Edison?" Riley asked, confused.
"What does..." Mia trailed off.
"When asked about it, he said, I didn't fail, I found out 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb. But he only needed to find one way to make it work. The Preservation Room. Enjoy. Go ahead," Ben flipped the book he had been reading over for Riley to look at. "Do you know what the Preservation Room is for?" Ben asked the college graduate.
"Delicious jams and jellies?" Riley guessed lamely.
"No," Ben replied flatly. "That's where they clean, repair and maintain all the documents and the storage housings when they're not on display or in the vault. Now, when the case needs work they take it out of the vault, directly across the hall and into the Preservation Room. The best time for us, or Ian, to steal it would be during the gala this weekend when the guards are distracted by the VIPs upstairs. But we'll make our way to the Preservation Room, where there's much less security," Ben leaned back in his chair as Riley looked at the book Ben had handed him. Mia looked at her Dad.
"What gala? And how is it that you have a way for everything?" Mia asked her dad accusingly.
Riley flipped through the book. "Well, if Ian..." Mia jumped up and ran around the table to look at the book with Riley. "Preservation... The gala, huh? This might be possible," Riley concluded, looking up at Ben.
"It might work..." Mia whispered looking up at Ben.
Ben nodded solemnly, "It might."
…...
Mia pulled her cello out of the case. It had been a while since she had played, with the trip to find the Charlotte and all, plus there was plenty of emotion built up in Mia that she had to do something with or she would probably explode. She did some fine tuning, then began playing. She didn't even notice how much time had passed until she heard someone knock at the door. She stopped as she glanced up at the clock. 7:27 pm. "Come on in."
"Okay, Mia, whats eating away at you?" Ben asked walking into her room, and sitting down on her bed.
Mia tried to sound chipper, "What do you mean, Dad?"
Ben tapped her sheet. "Your music speaks volumes when you keep silent; all sad or depressing music, and its all you've been playing since we got home. Sweetie, I know. Something's wrong. Tell me, please."
Mia laid her cello on its side and took a deep breath. "The Declaration of Independence? I mean honestly. The Declaration of Independence? You said yourself, not even a week ago that it's the most important document in our history! How can you decide in 20 seconds to steal it? I know, you proved it can be done, but really, do you think it can work? And I do agree, "it might be possible." But might is the key word in that sentence. I mean I want to find the treasure as much as you, but... really? The Declaration of Independence? And did you even think of what would happen to you if your plan doesn't work? If we get caught?" Mia was practically yelling, and talking very fast, making it hard to understand her. "You would go to jail, probably for the rest of your life! I'd have to move in with Grandma, or Grandpa and you know I can't stand him! But even if it does work, then what do we do?" Mia was in tears looking at her father.
Ben was quiet a minute, seeing his daughter as a little girl again. When she would get a cut she'd run to him and ask for a kiss, but a kiss on the cheek doesn't fix this kind of problem. He pulled her onto his lap, and let her cry for a minute or two, then said comfortingly, "Mia, you know I would never do something to hurt you. I don't know how this is gonna work, but we have to try. To keep it safe. But I will try as hard as I can, so that nothing will hurt you, Amelia."
Mia sniffed a few times then said quietly, "Yeah... I know, Dad. I'm sorry I yelled at you. Forgive me?"
"Always." Ben whispered, kissing Mia gently on the head.
…...
45 hours later, 4:30pm
Mia ran to get the phone; she had just gotten back from running and from the sounds of it, Dad wasn't anywhere around either. She got to it just before it went to voice mail, "Hello, Mia speaking." She said breathlessly.
"Hey! Mia! Your Dad around?"
"Sorry, Riley," she said still trying to catch her breath. "I think he said something about going to the library, or taking some pictures, or something. Why? What's up?"
"Well, I got the surveillance hooked up, so we're ready at that end."
"Okay, cool. You still had something you needed to make, right... that thing to set off the sensor on the Declaration's case?"
"Yeah. Still need to put that together."
"Want to do it here? I still need to make the black light ink. You can come over and stay for supper."
"Shouldn't you ask your Dad that?"
"Come on, Riley, you're more like family then anything else."
"Okay... See you in a while."
"Later, Riley."
…...
4 hours later, 8:17pm
Mia sat at the kitchen table watering down the black-light ink they needed. Ben was making a fake ID so he could get into the National Archive building.
"...Okay..." Mia smiled as pouring the last bit of water in the jar. "That should do it." she stuck her fingers in the jar and drew something on the table. She handed Ben a black-light flashlight. "The honor of finding it goes to you, dear sir."
Ben looked up from his computer, took the little flashlight his daughter was holding in front of him and turned it on. He shined it back and forth on the table where Mia had been sitting. He stopped when he found a little smiley face. "Good work Mia." She grinned then got to work on cleaning up her little mess from making the black light ink as Ben went back to working on his laptop. Silence came over the apartment for a while as Mia finished cleaning then flopped on the coach and started to read.
"I'll buy that." Ben said breaking into Mia's book after a while.
"You'll buy what? Me a new laptop?" Mia asked, grinning. She got up and headed over to where her dad was working.
"It's the ID, I'll need to get in the Archive, so I can get in the gala." Mia studied the real ID, that her dad had taken a picture of, and the one he had made.
"They look a lot alike," She paused, and looked at them for a while longer. "Well done Dad..." She drifted off.
…...
18 hours later, 2:09pm
"Mission accomplished," Mia said grinning as she hopped into Riley's van.
"We're in?"
Mia rolled her eyes at Riley's question as she tried to pull her bike into the van already full of stuff. "Of course we're in. Doctor Chase's secretary said she would give her the box as soon as she got back from some meeting. Speaking of lunch, do you have anything edible in here? I haven't eaten anything since supper last night." She started poking around as Riley shut his laptop.
He gave her a look. "We weren't speaking of lunch, and if that's done we have to go set off the heat sensor." He stood up and got out of the van parked in front of the National Archive Building, pulling his video camera from his jacket.
"I have an evil plan to pull off," he grinned as he pulled the van door shut behind him.
"So I should take that as a no on the edible food around?"
…...
20 minutes later, 2:29pm
Riley and Mia sat in the back of Riley's red van. They had everything done and now were waiting for the drama to unfold. Riley was in the back doing something with his "security" system, and Mia was sitting on the floor, leaning against the driver's seat and worrying about everything that could go wrong the next night.
"I mean, he could get killed, Riley! What if the ID he made doesn't fool the guards?"
Riley barely looked up from his computer, "The ID he made looks awesome."
"Okay, so if the ID works, what about your hacking system failing?"
"I've done this before Mia, it's - like my job." Riley retorted coolly. "So, you're not worried about your ink failing?"
"Hey! I've done that before. I wanted to be a spy when I was 13!" Mia snapped back. Riley was silent, looking absorbed in whatever he was doing.
"I'm sorry, Riley," Mia said quietly. "It's just... this could end really badly if everything doesn't go right as planed. I can't freak out around Dad, so... I guess I just do it around you 'cause you can handle it."
Riley looked up from his laptop, and saw a little girl scared about losing her Dad. He set his laptop on the chair he had been sitting in and knelt down next to Mia.
"Your dad's a genius, he'll make it work."
"But what if you're wrong, Riley? What if even he can't make this one come out the way he wants it to?"
"We've all done our best, Mia. I know stealing the Declaration isn't really the best idea, but your Dad's going to make it through this. We all will. Who knows, someday we'll look back on this and be glad we did it."
"I guess if we don't do this we'll never find out where the treasure is."
"Exactly, and if we don't find the treasure who knows what your Dad will do," Riley said with a smile in his voice.
"So you think it's worth it?" Before Riley could answer Mia's question they heard voices coming from Riley's laptop.
"Let's do this by the book. Hallway is secure." The pair looked at each other then scrambled for the laptop.
"Keep the document level."
"No problem."
"What have you got?"
"The heat sensor went off in the Declaration frame"
"I guess there's no backing out now," Mia whispered.
"Run full diagnostics, then I want them all changed out"
Riley looked up from the computer screen and at Mia and grinned, "Our evil plan is working."