Alright I've got a week to finish this story! Woo! Let's do this thing! Here ya go! Disclaimer, EXCEPT for Maddie, Lexi, and the baby.
Lexi POV:
I woke up in our bed. I looked up. Where were my feet? I gasped, and wiggled my swollen ankles. My stomach was huge! I felt like a monster, this big. "Whoa! Riley, what time is it?" I rushed the words out. "Time to go back to bed." He mumbled. "No, I can't. We need to find the key word!" I shout throwing on a pair of dark boot-cut jeans, a teal cardigan, and white tank, and black fuzzy boots with two big buttons on the sides. "Ben's, gonna kill us for being there at…seven in the morning!" He shouted surprised at the time. "Don't yell at me, we were looking at that page for hours! Now get, up!" I was too excited, and angry at the same time to even know what I was doing. I ate rice again, this time with strawberries. Why did this taste so good? Because I'm pregnant, oh yeah. "Lexi!" I heard Riley call from up the stairs. "You're pants are in the dryer!" I called pouring his cereal. "Thanks, babe." He pecked my cheek running into the laundry room. The next thing I knew I felt a weird sensation. Vibration? NO!
"Riley!" I shrieked. "What? What? I'm here!" He yelled running into the kitchen. "I felt the baby kick!" Before it'd tap, but this was a total full out kick! YES! "That's great!" He kissed me, his hands making their way to my big belly. I started to giggle, kissing him back. "Come on, let's go…" He whispered. "Let's." I giggled. We got there at seven thirty-six. Of course Ben was up, and Maddie arrived minutes after us. "Hey!" She greeted. "Hello." I smiled.
"Bacon." Riley murmured, typing the word in. "Keep, working." Ben went to check on his depressed father, while we kept checking. "Birth." Maddie grinned. We rolled our eyes, and typed it in anyways. "Nope…how about…death?" She guessed. "Death?" Riley grimaced. "I don't know, it's like…it's the opposite just try it." She shrugs. He types it in anyways. I wonder what the key word was…ugh it was all fuzzy just like the first! Grrr…
"Um…Ben? Maddie just got the key word!" I shrieked, in a shrill.
"Try d- what?" He asked. "I found it!" She squeaked. "Seriously? Its death isn't it?" Ben entered the room with his father, looking dumbfounded that Maddie randomly guessed it out of all things.
"Yeah…" I groaned. "Aren't you-?"
"Yes! I'm proud of you so, shut up!" I exclaimed at my best girlfriend. "Touchy…" She muttered. HELL YEAH I'M TOUCHIE, I'M PREGNANT! THIS MEANS HORMONES! I bit back the words. "Laboulaye… Laboulaye?" Riley asked. "What's that?"
"Who's that, Riley. Laboulaye's a person. Edward Laboulaye a French sculptor, made the statue of liberty." I informed him, I took an art class with our friend Jessica in high school. "Lexi's right. Where's the phone?" Ben asked. "I don't know, son. I can't find anything in this mess." Patrick complained. I smiled and rolled my eyes, "It's just temporary until I find a new place." Ben replied. "How 'bout you find the old one? I like her." Patrick suggested. I rolled my eyes again. "Here." I hand him the phone which I almost sat on. "Abigail we cracked the cipher, it's Laboulaye." He informed her. "Or maybe there was a treasure map like Thomas Gates said there was, and Laboulaye had it. We only got a partial on the next word. L-A-D, lad... ladder...L-A-D."
"Aladdin?" Riley asks. "Thank you, Abigail! Laboulaye Lady. Do you know what Laboulaye was planning right around the time Lincoln was assassinated?"
"She hung up." He put the phone down, still excited. "How, rude." Maddie shook her head. "She took your call that was good!" Patrick still wanted Abigail to take him back. "Laboulaye Lady. Simple. The Statue of Liberty." I smiled. "Yes, but which one?" Patrick asked. "Wait, hold on. Which one? What do you mean- like there's more than one?" Riley frowned. "One on Ellis Island, one in Luxemburg Garden, and one in France." I explained. "Oh." Maddie and Riley said in sync. I laughed at that. "But he only considered one, his lady." Ben noted smiling over to us.
LATER THAT NIGHT:
My back was killing me. But I sat on the couch with Riley once we were home. "So, can you travel?" He asked me. "Because there's no way I'm going without you." He warned. "It's perfectly fine, as long as we don't stay too long." I answered. "OK…you seem tired." He started to rub my shoulders moving next to me on the couch. "I am…" I murmured closing my eyes. "Then let's go upstairs. You'll hurt your back down here." He whispered. "Fine…" I grumbled. We packed just before going to bed. In the morning we flew out to France with a weeks worth of clothes. We finally found something, weird weren't some cops supposed to come in this part? Weird. We typed in the message to Maddie's French translator; really it was just a normal translator app. "So…the Resolute Desk?" I asked. "Pack it up, we're going to London."
I slept through the flight. "So how are we going to get through Buckingham Palace and to the Resolute Desk in the queen's office without getting caught?" I asked.
"We get caught." He replied smiling all-knowingly. I hated it when he said those things, you feel all non-smart because you don't know! "Huh?" Maddie asked mouth full of strawberries, which I started to pick at myself. Riley sighed. "We have to go through security to get to the queen's office. So if we get into that holding place, I can get the doors open and guide you, to the queen's office. Then we can look for the clue."
"OK." Was Maddie's reply. "I'll wait for you from where you set up. Maddie can go with Ben." I sighed sleepily. I've been really tired with all this traveling. "I think it'd be better if I stayed with you Lexi."
"I'll go on my own, that'll work out better." Ben agreed. "Ok, let's-"
Ben's phone rang. "Dad?" Ben asked. There was some talking on the other end, from Patrick obviously. "Call the police I'm coming home." He said. I gasped. "What happened?" I whispered. Mitch broke in, and cloned Patrick's phone that's what happened, I suddenly remembered. "OK. We're in London. We're going to Buckingham Palace. We have an appointment with the curator tomorrow afternoon." He said. "Bye."
"What happened?" Maddie asked. "His house was broken into." Ben sounded surprised.
"Someone else is…after the treasure." Riley whispered disappointed. "Of course, there's someone after the treasure Riley. That's the…axiom of treasure hunting." I said sadly. Maddie nodded, "You're right." Riley said. Ben sighed, "We should get going. Faster this goes the better." He said.
We went in to Buckingham palace with our earpieces, and Riley having his equipment all set up. "Abigail?" Ben asked, thrown off. "Abigail?" I repeated frowning. "Abigail…" Maddie grumbled. "Of course she'd ruin everything." Maddie narrowed her eyes. "Drop her. Loose her." Riley panicked. "Is she really there?" I asked. "What are you doing here?" Ben asks. "Your dad called me. Said your next clue was here." I hear Abigail. "I want to help." Abigail says. "That's very nice, but it's a bad time right now." Ben says trying to lose her. It appears to not be working.
"A bad time, right now?" Abigail says. "It's a bad time." Ben says.
"OK, I just flew all the way to London to offer my help..." Abigail starts. "Stick to the plan Ben, we don't want her." I warn.
"You don't need it?" Abigail asks. "You're the one making a scene." Ben whispers.
"I...I'm not making a scene right now." Abigail snaps.
"We want to make a scene."
"Well then, fine! If that's what you want, let's have it out now!" Ben yells, catching everybody's attention. "Oh, jeez. This'll be good." Maddie sighs. "Let me guess? It's the wrong time. It's the wrong place. I'm wrong again! Wrong about us, wrong about Thomas Gates, wrong that you'd like the Queen Anne chair!" Ben yells. "You're wrong to assume I'd like the chair." Abigail shouts. Wow, either she's a total drama queen, or she catches on fast. "You see? Everybody, listen to this. This is more interesting than that. She thinks that even when I'm right, I'm wrong! Isn't that right? Abigail, just because I answer a question quickly doesn't make it wrong." Ben says. "Not if the answer's something we need to figure out as a couple. That's what couples do!" Abigail snaps.
"Sir. You and your miss's, take it outside." A security guard says. "Now look what you've done. You've brought the little Bobbies down on us! You take the miss's outside. I'm staying right here." Ben snaps. "This is…interesting." I murmured. "Ben!" Abigail yells. What's he up to now? "Whee!" Ben says. My eyes widen. What the hell is he doing now?
"Good afternoon, sir." Another security guard says. "Hello." Ben does a fake English accent.
"Been drinking, have we?" He asks. "Just a nip." Ben smirks. "Popped down to the pub for a pint! Bit of all right! Going to arrest a man for that? Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whiskey?" Ben was quite entertaining. I snuck out of our hiding place for just a moment and saw Abigail looking at Ben's earpiece smirking. She caught on by now, at least. "Enough." The guard snaps. "Bangers and mash. Bubbles and squeak. Smoked eel pie." Ben snaps.
"Sir!" The guard yells. "Haggis!" Ben says.
"That's it! Dismount the banister!" He says. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!" Ben yells. Dismount the banister? He slid down the stair rail thing? Wow, he sure knew how to make a scene. By now the guards were taking Ben and Abigail to the security thing place. I had a feeling England wouldn't really appreciate us coming back for a visit. "Here they are, standing in a row! Small ones, big ones, some as big as your head!" Ben yells. "That…was…brilliant." I grinned. "Amazing." Riley agreed. "What's wrong with being right?" Ben asks. "Nothing. You should try it sometime." Abigail says.
"You're saying that I'm never right?" Ben asks. "I did not say that." Abigail says.
"Hoo! So I'm wrong again." Ben says. "Now, see, there you are correct." Abigail says.
"Capital. Topper." Ben says. "Your mother told me about you." Abigail warns. They continue to fake fight. Or real fight. I don't know, but it sure was funny to watch. "In here, please." A guard says.
"Why don't you just make a list of what's OK for me to say or not write something..." Ben snaps. "What's right or wrong...?" Abigail snaps.
"You two lovebirds, stay. Right?" The guard says. "No! No, no, man. Don't leave me in here!" Ben yells. "Jeez!" Maddie and I squeal in sync. Ben could really be loud! "What is going on?" Abigail asks. "I'm sorry for getting you roped into this, but you were excellent." Ben says.
"Thank you. So were you." Abigail says. "When did you figure out it was a fake argument?" Ben asks.
"When'd you figure out I was arguing during the fake argument?" She asks. "The middle. Where "l assume I'm right." Riley, get us out. Which I don't get. If I'm right, after I assume I'm right, then I'm correct." Ben says.
"When you get to a conclusion without asking, and you happen to be right, you got lucky." Abigail says. "I get lucky a lot." Ben says.
"So where does that leave me, Ben?" Abigail asks. "You guys are so great together." I smirk. I hear Ben groan quietly.
"Want to know why I'm here?" Ben asks. "Uh-huh." Abigail says.
"Think there may be a clue on the Resolute desk in the queen's study. Does that help?" Ben whispers. "I just don't understand why it's difficult for you to include others in your decisions. Just because you may know what my answer is going to be doesn't mean you don't have to ask me." Abigail says.
"Door number one, opening."
"OK. Let me try this out. Abigail, would you like to come with me, please?" Ben asks. "Yes. Thank you." Abigail says.
"Ridiculous. You're staying. It's too dangerous." Ben says. "I'm coming!" Abigail says.
"Door numbers two." Ben says.
"Door two, coming up."
"You're not coming." Ben says. "I'll call security." Abigail threatens. Oh, no.
"You should be near a service elevator."
"What are you doing? Are those for the queen?" Abigail asks. "Queen's not here. There's no flag flying. Queen's at Windsor." Ben says.
"What are you doing?" Abigail asks. "Seeing the desk, without you. Bye-bye." Ben says.
"No." Abigail snaps. "Don't do it Ben! Don't let her in!" Maddie warned.
"Abigail..." Ben sighs. "All right. Get in. Get in. Get in!"
"Hold this. Will you give me the flowers back, please?" Ben says. I wonder what she is holding. "Yeah." Abigail says.
A few minutes later. "What?" I hear Abigail says. "Wearing the perfume I bought you." Ben says.
"So?" Abigail asks. "So I think it smells kind of pretty." Ben says.
"It's the flowers, Ben." Abigail says. "No, it's not." Ben says. I sigh. "Ben, find treasure now, flirt with Abigail later." I clarified. "It's not flirting." Ben defended. "Yes, it is. Now focus." I snapped.
"Ok now left turn." I hear Riley. "Dead end." Ben replied. "I mean go right." He corrected himself. "Now don't you be loosing your grip too, Riley." Maddie joked. "Shut up."
"You see now that's flirting." Ben muttered. I rolled my eyes. "No it's not. It's- ok yeah it is." I had to agree. "There." I hear Ben say. "We found it?" I asked incredulously. "Yeah, we're good." Ben replied. "We're looking for..." Ben starts. "...writing, patterns in the carvings. Could be anything. Hey, look at this. "Malcolm Gilvary, 1880"."
"Hold on one second. Here we go. Malcolm Gilvary, well, he didn't make furniture. He made Chinese puzzle boxes."
I hear the clicking over a draw. "Oh..." Ben says. "What?" Abigail asks.
"I think these drawers work like tumblers in a safe." Ben says. "OK, four drawers...four-digit combination? What about a year?" Abigail says.
"Uh, let me see. Queen Victoria, born 1819."
"So you go one...Eight. One. Nine." Ben says. "Any luck?" I ask.
"OK... 1876 was on the inscription on the statue in Paris. Let's try that. One. Eight. Seven. Six." Ben says. I hear a little click of something then a pop. "Uh-oh. New rules."
"What did you find, Ben?" I ask. "These markings, like Incan or Aztec." Ben says.
"I have never seen any symbols like this. I mean, this looks centuries older than Civil War. What do you think it means?" Abigail says. "I doubt it has anything to do with the plot to assassinate Lincoln." Ben says. "What'd you find?" I was getting anxious. "Plaque sort of thing." Ben replies. I gasp. "Mayday, mayday get out of there." I say. "What? Oh." Riley says, noticing the guard noticed the detainees' disappearance. "Okay, let's make some noise. Uh-oh. God save the queen." Riley joked as the fire alarm went off. Good going, Riley! Riley runs to Maddie and my hiding spot and we walk out to meet up with Ben and Abigail. We walk through the crowd once we found Ben and Abigail. We head to the car. The four of us run into some dog walkers. Riley gets stuck behind. "Come on, Ri!" I say.
"Thanks for waiting for me. Can I see the thing?" Riley asks. Ben pulls out a piece of wood. "Went to Buckingham Palace, all I got was this wood?"
"Look at the symbols. Never seen anything like this. It's an incredible discovery." Abigail says. I turn and see Wilkinson. "Ben! Wilkinson!" I yell. Everyone turns and sees Wilkinson. We run to the car.
"I told yeah, I knew who was after the treasure!" I yell. "I'll drive!" Riley says getting into the car. Abigail and I get into the back.
"Riley, we're in England." I smirk. Ben gets in and starts the car. I look out the back window and see the barrel of a gun pointed towards us. "Um, Ben. GUN!" I shriek. "Get down!" Ben calls. Two shots blast through the windows but we ducked. "They're getting closer!" Maddie yells. "What's their problem?" Riley shouts. "Well we know who's after the treasure." Maddie shouts over the commotion. "Go left! Crap, go left Ben!" Abigail shouts. He went left. Someone bumps our car. "TURN!" I screech. I knew this was a bad idea! I should've stayed in America! Ben takes my advice to turn but swerves into the double-decker bus. "Everyone okay?" Ben checked. "We have to leave England. NOW!" I yelled. "I know, but we need to get them off our tail first." Ben answered calmly. "Then let's loose, 'em." Maddie muttered. We turn into an ally; somehow I've got a bad feeling about this. Suddenly Abby's phone rings, "It's him." She announces. "He's on your speed dial?" I asked. "Shut up." She rolled her eyes. "Well." Maddie shot her eyebrows above her forehead. She really knew how to hold a grudge. Abby hands the phone off to Ben. "Mitch this has got to end before someone gets hurt." He said. I could tell he was thinking about me; he even glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. Someone replies, and then Ben hung up after saying, "Tell that to my father."
Ben honks the horn through out the alley. "Why are the people in the road?" Riley shouts. "It's a farmer's market." Maddie groans. "Darn organic freaks." She muttered. I rolled my eyes, she likes farmers don't get me wrong and she is organic but her older sister was the one that made her that way. She doesn't get along very well with her older sister. Or either of her sisters for that matter. "Why are they running?" Riley asked. I peered behind us. "MAYBE BECAUSE THE HUGE TRUCK BEHIND US!" I scream. "Does this phone have a camera?" Ben asks Abby. "No, it's broken. I hate the thing." She said. He threw it back to her. "Alright, give me the plank. We're running a red light." Ben said. "What?" Maddie exclaims as we run the light. How is that, that bad? We stole the declaration of independence for crying out loud! "Hack into the London police database and get a copy of that picture." Ben says to Riley. "Okey-dokey." Riley mumbles. "What, you can't do it?" Ben seemed surprised by my husband's reaction. "No, I can do it, I just don't like that you assume I can do it." He replied. I smiled, and Maddie and Abigail laughed. "Thank you Riley." Abigail smirks. "Ben, Wilkinson!" I warn as Mitch's car is next to ours. "Thanks." Ben thanked me. What? He pretended to hand the plank to Wilkinson. At the lasts second he throws it over our roof and into the water. Wow.
***********TO DC***********
The next day we were dragging our bags back into our house and drove back over with Maddie to Patrick's place. When we get there Riley gets his laptop out and shows Patrick the plank picture. "I can't read the whole thing, but I can tell you that these are definitely pre-colonial Native American markings." Patrick points out. "500 years old?" I ask.
"Easily. I can identify one symbol. Look at this. Do you know what that is?" Patrick asks. "Sacred cylindrical? I don't know." Ben says.
"That symbol is Cibola. That's Cibola." Patrick says. Ben closes his eyes. "The City of Gold. The City of Gold." Ben mumbles. Ben grabs a book from Patrick's book shelf.
""In 1527, a Spanish ship wrecked on the Florida coast. There were only four survivors. One was a slave named Estebán who saved a local tribe's dying chief. As a reward, he was taken to their sacred city, a city built from solid gold. Later, when Estebán tried to find the city again, he never could. But the legend grew, and every explorer came to the New World in search of it. When General Custer's search for gold ended with his last stand at Little Bighorn, it became clear none would ever find it."" Ben reads. I look over at Riley, who is just in awe about what Ben was reading. I grab his hand and smile. "Ben, can you imagine if the Confederates got their hands on the City of Gold...my god." Patrick says. He stands up.
"I'm going to go talk to her. You're coming with me." Ben says with a hopeful glimmer in his face. Patrick's eyes widen. "No!" He exclaims in horror.
"Hey. No one else can translate it." Ben snaps. "There are others. There are several others." Patrick says.
"For ancient Native American? No one better." Ben says.
"Who?" Riley asks. Abigail shakes her head.
"Look, Ben, I can't go with you. It's been what? Twenty-five years." Patrick says. "Thirty-two." Ben says.
"That long? There's a reason why we haven't spoken in thirty-two years. We have nothing in common." Patrick says coming back over to us. "Me?" Ben points out.
"Yes, of course. And I'm sure she's just as proud of you as I am." Patrick says.
"Who?" Riley whispers again. "Ben's mom." I whisper. Abigail nods with a smile. This is going to be awkward.