Author's Note - Thank you to all who reviewed or read. You all rock!!

Chapter Three- Not That It Shouldn't Be Done, But It Can't Be Done!

"Is it really so hard to believe that someone is going to steal the Declaration of Independence?" Riley asked as he, Alyssa, and Ben exited the FBI building, they had been back in Washington D.C. for 3 days now. They where all dressed nicer than their usual outfits because they have been going from one building to the next trying to convince people their story was true.

"The FBI gets 10,000 tips a week. They aren't going to worry about something they are sure is safe." Ben said to Riley as they all walked down the street.

"But anyone that can do anything is going to think we are crazy. And anyone crazy enough to believe us isn't going to want to help." Riley said.

"We don't need someone crazy. We are one step short of crazy and what do you get?" Ben asked.

"Ian?" Alyssa commented jokily.

"Obsessed?" Riley asked.

"Passionate?" Alyssa said.

"Exactly!" Ben said with a smile.

"But even if we find someone that is passionate they will still think we are crazy." Riley said

"Well there is the whole fact of how to two are presenting what we know." Alyssa commented in an offhanded tone.

"Oh and how is that?" Ben asked.

"Like a couple of treasure hungry insane idiots." Alyssa stated with a smile.

"Oh and you think you can do better?" Ben asked with an eyebrow raised.

"As a matter of fact I do. So I call the next person we visit." Alyssa said.

"Fine." Ben said as they started off towards their next stop, the National Archives.

All three of them where sitting outside of an office waiting to speak with a Dr. Chase when Ben noticed a pamphlet about the National Archives Gala. "Excuse me." He said as he reached for one and put it inside of his jacket pocket.

"Dr. Chase will see you now Mr. and Ms. Brown." The secretary said.

"Thank you." Alyssa said as they walked towards the door.

"Brown?" Riley whispered.

"Our family name doesn't get a lot of respect in the academic community." Ben whispered back to him. Riley just nodded.

"So you are cutting down by the man." Riley said as they entered and saw the Dr. Chase was a woman. "A very cute man." When Alyssa heard this she rolled her eyes.

The woman looked up from her desk. "Good afternoon lady and gentlemen. Please have a seat." She said

"Hi." Riley said.

"Abigail Chase." The woman said and stuck her hand out.

"Marie Brown." Alyssa said with a smile and shook Abigail's hand. "This is my brother…"

"Paul Brown." Ben said and shook her hand as well and then took a seat.

"Nice to meet you both." She said and looked at Riley.

"Bill…" Riley said.

"Bill Fredrick. He's my brother's assistant." Alyssa said quickly but calmly covering up for Riley.

"Nice to meet you as well Mr. Fredrick. So how may I help you?" Abigail asked the three.

"Well your accent… Pennsylvania Dutch?" Ben asked and Alyssa and Riley rolled their eyes.

"Saxony- German."

"Oh." Ben said

"That's interesting but back to the point…" Alyssa started but was interrupted by Riley.

"You're not American?"

"Oh I am American I just wasn't born here." She said then looked at Ben. "Please don't touch that!" she said to him he was looking at what seemed to be a coin collection.

"Sorry. Neat collection. George Washington's campaign buttons. You're missing the 1789 inaugural though. I found one once." Ben said.

"Well that's very fortunate of you. Now you told my assistant that this was an urgent matter." Abigail said.

"Yes it is. Sorry about my brother. He's a regular history buff. Anyway what we have to say might seem well… a bit farfetched but please just hear us out first." Alyssa said.

Dr. Chase raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her chair. "Alright I'm listening." She said and Alyssa began taking a more subtle approach then her brother had who had just said 'There's a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence and someone is going to steal it.'

"Me, my brother, and Mr. Fredrick here along with a couple of my brother's old buddies went on well let's call it a history expedition and after certain events. We have come to the conclusion that some people may believe there is in fact a encryption on the back of the Declaration of Independence and will indeed try to steal it. That person does have a criminal record and may just in fact succeed if you and your staff don't take immediate action to help prevent the situation." Alyssa said attempting to sound clam and she did for the most part of her speech.

Ben looked shocked. 'Ok so not fair! Why didn't I get the public speaking gene?' he thought.

'Why didn't Ben just say that, I thought he was suppose to be the smart one of the operations.' Riley thought with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Well then I think I better put you three in touch with the FBI…" Dr. Chase said and started to pick up the phone.

"We've been to the FBI."

"And?" Dr. Chase asked.

"They assured us that there is no possible way the Declaration can be stolen." Ben said.

"There correct." Dr. Chase said putting the phone down.

"Well me, my sister and our friend her are less certain. However, if we were given the privilege of examining the document we would be able to tell you for certain if it where in any danger." Ben said

"How?"

"Well we believe the encryption might be real." Riley said.

"An encryption of what?"

"Uh, a cartograph." Ben said.

Dr. Chase's eyes widened a little. "A map? A map of what? You know I almost believed you there for a second." She said. The last part more to herself then to them.

"The location of… of items of historic and intrinsic value."

"You mean a treasure map?" she asked him to make sure she has heard correctly.

"That's where we lost the FBI." Riley said.

"You're treasure hunters aren't you?" Abigail asked while leaning forward her arms resting on her desk.

"More like treasure protectors." Alyssa said.

"Well Mr. and Ms. Brown I have personally seen the back of the Declaration of Independence and I promise you the only thing there is a notation that reads original Declaration of Independence dated…" Dr. Chase started

"…of Independence dated 4 of July 1779. Yes ma'am." Ben said finished her sentence.

"But no map." She finished.

After a long and uncomfortable silence Ben finally said. "It's invisible."

"Oh… right of course an invisible map." Abigail said.

"And that's where we lost the Department of Homeland Security." Riley commented. Alyssa looked at him with a, 'Will you shut up' face.

"Ok now Ms. Brown since you seem to be the one with slightly more sanity intact please tell me what led you to assume there is this invisible map." Dr. Chase said and both Ben and Riley looked offended.

"We found an engraving on the stem of a 200 year old Miashawn pipe." Alyssa said.

"Which was owns by freemasons." Riley added.

Abigail seemed mildly intrigued. "May I see the pipe?"

"We don't have it." Riley said.

"Did Big Foot take it?" Dr. Chase asked sarcastically.

"No the man I told you about earlier who might steal the Declaration of Independence did." Alyssa snapped annoyed by Dr. Chase.

"Yes very well. It was nice meeting all of you." Abigail said and started to look at papers on her desk as if saying we are done.

The three of them sighed and exited the office and walked down to the display room of the National Archives building. They all moved to stand in front of the declaration.

"Hey if it's any consolation you had me convinced." Riley said.

"It's not." Alyssa said.

"You did a lot better than I did." Ben said.

"Yea I know." Alyssa said instead of what he expected which was a 'Thanks you did well too.' "You didn't do to mad yourself." She added.

"Hey I was thinking, what if we go public? Flash this story all over the internet. It's not like we have our reputations to worry about. Although, I don't think that's exactly going scare Ian away." Riley said.

"Hey I do have a reputation… ok not so much since everyone knows me as Ben Gates little sister who has a firmer grasp of reality then he did. Ahh forget I said anything." Alyssa said and Ben smiled at her and put his arm around her shoulders as they looked at the Declaration.

"180 years of searching and here we are 3 feet away. Of all the ideas that became the United States, there is a line here that is at the heart of all the others. But when a long train of abuses and years of patience perusing invariably the same object, evinces a design to re duce them under absolute despotism, it their right it is their duty to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security." Ben said.

"People don't talk like that anymore." Alyssa stated.

"That was beautiful… huh… but I have no idea what you just said." Riley said and Alyssa laughed at Riley.

"It's ok, I only understood half of it." She said then thought about it. "It means if something is wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility take action." She said then whispered, "Like when grandpa made us knights…"

Then both Alyssa and Ben looked at each other then at Riley. "We're going to steal it." They said at the exact same time.

"WHAT?!" Riley asked.

"We're going to steal the Declaration of Independence Riley. Keep up with the class." Alyssa said and started to walk out of the building with Ben when she saw Riley wasn't moving so she went back and hooked her arm through his. "Come on Riley, walk and talk I know you can do it." She said and as now all 3 them walked out of the building and where now on the long steps that led down to the street in front of the National Archives building.

Riley having registered what the two Gates had said ran to stand in front of them. "This is huge! Prison huge!! You both are going to prison. You know that right?" he said.

"Yea probably." Ben said as the all continued walking and started towards the Lincoln memorial with the big statue of him.

"You know that probably bothers a lot of people but for some strange reason it doesn't bother me that much." Alyssa said as they continued.

"I know the feeling." Ben said, "Ian's going to try and steal it and if he succeeds, he will 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 is a choice." Ben said as they all sat on the steps now in front of the statue.

"Ben, Alyssa, for god-sakes it's like stealing a national monument! It's like stealing him!!" Riley said and gestured towards the statue.

"No it's not Riley. The statue weighs thousands of pounds. Paper doesn't." Alyssa said and attempted to try and pat him on the head, he gently swatted her hand away.

"No! It can't be done! It's not that it shouldn't be done, it's that it can't be done. Let me prove it to you." Riley said and they all headed to the Library of Congress with Riley in the lead.

"OK, Ben, Alyssa, pay attention. I've brought you to the Library of Congress." Riley said while spreading his arms out as if to show them.

"Why? Because it's the biggest library in the world. Over a million books." Riley continued.

"Yes Riley we get it, this is where the books live please continue." Alyssa said.

Riley lightly glared at her "As I was saying over a million books, and they're all saying the same exact thing: Listen to Riley."

"Books talk? I had no idea and if they do they must be dumb ones to say that." Alyssa said with a smirk. 'I have no idea why I love annoying him. It's just to easy and entertaining.' She thought to herself.

Riley just looked at her in somewhat mocking shock. "So mean! Now what we have here, my friends, is an entire layout of the archives." Riley said pulling some books off of bookshelves. "Short of builders' blueprints. You've got construction orders, phone lines, water and sewage…it's all here." He said

"Now, when the Declaration is on display, OK, it is surrounded by guards and video monitors and a little family from Iowa and little kids on their eighth-grade field trip. 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.

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." Riley was saying as he picked up one of the books that lay on a large table. Thinking he had proved his point.

"You know Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly 2000 times to develop the carbonized cotton filament for the incandescent light bulb." Ben stated out of the blue.

"You're like walking encyclopedia with arms!" Alyssa said as she leaned against the table waiting to hear what her brother had to say.

"Edison?" Riley asked confused as to how the subject and fact had anything to do with the matter at hand.

Ben just continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "And when asked about it he said, "I didn't fail, I just found 2000 ways how not to make a light bulb.", but he only needed to find one way to make it work." Ben said and handed Riley a book he had been looking through. 'The preservation room. Enjoy. Go ahead. Do you know what he preservation room is for?" Ben asked while Alyssa and Riley looked at the book.

"Delicious jams and jellies?" Riley asked sarcastically.

"That's where they clean, repair, and maintain all the documents and storage housings when they aren't on display or in the vault. Now when the case needs work, they take it out of the vault and directly across the hall into the preservation room." Ben said.

"So you're saying that the best time for us or Ian to steal it would be during the Gala this weekend, when the guards are distracted by the V.I.P.s upstairs." Alyssa said just to make sure she understood the actually point of her brothers long rambling.

"Yes, but we'll make our way to the preservation room where there is much less security." Ben finished.

"Eh… I'm free this weekend. Count me in. I mean who else is going to save your butts when you guys end up in trouble." Alyssa said and both she and Ben looked at Riley waiting for his answer.

"Huh… well if Ian… preservation room… gala… this might be possible." He muttered. Both Gates took this as a 'yes I'm in'.

"It might." Ben said and they headed back towards Ben and Alyssa's apartment to make a plan as to how they where going to steal the Declaration of Independence."

Author's Note – Ok so I hoped you guys liked it. I really changed what was said in Dr. Chases' office but I wanted it to be slightly different than from what everyone else has. I hope you liked it thanks for all the reviews.

-Rebecca a.k.a. rnl1993