Hello there and welcome back! Here's another chapter for you, hope you enjoy!

Chapter Five

Lunatics!

"Lunatics! You're all lunatics!" cried Abigail. She had just finished reprimanding the driver for turning onto another road, thus losing Alice and the Declaration.

"They were shooting at us!" he'd cried. "I'd like not to die, thank you."

"Could you please stop shouting," Mr. Brown was now saying. "Now are you hurt? Are you alright?" He'd just finished explaining that he

"No I'm not alright! Those men have my sister and the Declaration!"

"No, they don't have the Declaration, it's right here, see." Mr. Brown shook the case.

"Who were those men?" she demanded.

"Only the ones who we warned you were going to try and steal the Declaration."

"And you didn't believe us," added the driver.

"Give it to me!" She reached out for it but Mr. Brown snatched it away.

"Again with the shouting."

"Verdammt! Give me that!"

"I'm pretty sure she's swearing now too," commented Riley.

"Yeah well, we probably deserve that."

"I want that document Mr. Brown."

"Okay, my name's not Brown, it's Gates. Ben Gates. And this is Riley, my friend."

"Gates? Did you just say Gates? You're that family that has the conspiracy theory about the Founding Fathers."

"It's not a conspiracy theory," he stated firmly. Then he turned to Riley. "Take a right up here."

"We can't just bring her along," Riley said.

"I'm not going anywhere until I get my sister back safely," she stated firmly.

Ben and Riley exchanged a glance. "You heard her," Ben said.

A few minutes later they pulled into a neighbourhood, stopping in front of a fairly large house with a spacious front yard.

"Park a couple of blocks away," Ben instructed.

"Now what are we doing?" Abigail sighed heavily. "How is this helping my sister?"

"Listen, I promise you we will get your sister back unharmed," Ben said.

She looked at him curiously. "How do I know I can trust you, Mr. Brown?" she added.

Right. After that whole scene. "When I was a kid I made a promise to my granddad that I would find the treasure. Now, thirty years later I'm still searching," he said, hoping it would do the trick.

She thought for a moment, considering. Finally she sighed. "Fine. Let's go then."

"You're all lunatics!" yelled the young woman. She had a thick accent which Ian identified as German. He'd heard her muttering in German as well.

"Just shut up!" yelled Shaw.

"Shaw!" barked Ian.

"Well you weren't the one who was abducted and hanging off the door of a moving truck just moments ago, were you!" she shouted back, sounding close to tears.

Ian wasn't paying much attention to her however, or tried not to, instead racking his brain for what to do now that they still did not have the map. After crumpling the fake map and giving an angered shout, he went to practically tearing his hair out. He'd been so close, so close, and now it felt as though he had been thrown back to the very beginning. And he didn't have time to start over.

Meanwhile, a panicking Alice searched around frantically for anything that could be used as a weapon of defence, which happened to be a nearby soup pot. She grabbed it and held it with both hands over her shoulder, ready to swing. It wasn't very heavy, but she figured that with enough force behind it, it could do some serious damage.

"Alright," she said, gripping the handle of the pot tightly, hoping that the shaking of her hands wasn't overly obvious. "Now you just heard it for yourself, I can scream. Just thought I would forewarn you."

The men stared at her and then the sandy-haired one chuckled. Then he reached into one of the bags and withdrew a roll of duct tape. "You were saying Love?"

That shut her up.

The men began discussing what to do next, now that they obviously had not gotten what they came for and ended up with something else, while she sank to the floor and sat in the corner. The sandy-haired one, who seemed to be in charge to some degree, looked very stressed. She heard the word 'Gates' mentioned a lot, and realized that it was a name.

Seeing as they were all distracted, she moved for the door again, now that they had slowed down some. Out of the corner of his eye Ian saw this. He quickly caught on and swiftly moved ahead of her, slamming his hand against the door, making her jump, holding the door closed. "Ah ah ah, you know what happened last time." Again, she sunk back, defeated.

"Now what are we going to do?" demanded Shaw.

"I don't know!" Ian cried.

"Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!" cried Alice from her corner.

They all turned to look at her, as if remembering her presence.

"Have you heard of the Templar Treasure?" the blond asked her.

"Ian," Shaw began to protest, but the blond held up a hand to silence him.

"The Templar Treasure?" repeated Alice. "The treasure of–"

"–Of all treasures," he finished. "Yes."

She nodded slowly. "I've heard of it. It was originally in Europe, wasn't it? Or at least it was at some point. That is, if it's real."

"Oh it's real," he said with determination.

"How do you know?"

"Because we've found clues leading to it."

Alice sat back, taking in this information. "Is that why you tried to steal the Declaration?"

Smart girl. "Yes. It is the next clue."

"So this is all just some big treasure hunt?" she cried. She sighed heavily and leaned back against the side of the truck. "Really?!" Guess Mr. Brown was right, or Gates, or whoever he is. As cool and exciting as that was, she had just been abducted and almost died because of it, and what if the legend of the treasure was just that, legend? And now she was caught up in this huge crime scene, with, just her luck, the criminals.

"It's evident you're not from here," the blond said suddenly.

She looked up at him. "Neither are you," she stated in response to his English accent.

He chuckled. "Not originally, no. What brings you here?"

"I am visiting my sister, she lives here. She works at the National Archives, that's why I was at the gala."

"What's your name?"

Should she lie? No, she decided, that would only complicate things more. "Alice Chase." Then she added, "You may call me Doctor Chase."

He chuckled at this. "Doctor?"

"Yes, I am a museum curator in Berlin."

"A history museum?"

"Yes." She thought she knew where this was going. "European history. So sorry, if you were thinking I could help you with your little treasure hunt. One, I know very little about American history, besides what I read on my way here to try and keep up with my sister. And two, I'm not going to help you–" She trailed off, hoping that it would prompt him to introduce himself and the others. It didn't however. "And even if I did help you I wouldn't be much help."

"Well, you knew the importance of this document, so I'd say you know enough."

A real-life treasure hunt… How cool is that!? No, stay focused. Here she was, abducted by crazy treasure hunters – with guns! She had to get out of here.

The door was once again clear, she noticed, no one guarding it. The truck had slowed some, and her captors were otherwise distracted… It was now or never.

In a moment she had leapt to her feet and dashed to the door.

"Hey!"

"Stop!"

But she barely heard the shouts over the thundering of her own heartbeat in her ears as she threw open the door.

She wasn't sure if the shouted 'stop!' had been for her or the driver; maybe it was for both. But the driver evidently thought it had been for him for he slammed on the breaks, this causing her to fall out the back, sending her rolling across the pavement. She felt a searing heat as the road scraped her arms as she fell.

That was all she remembered, lying there in the middle of the cold street, pain shooting up her arm and side of her face, the shouting of her captors slowly fading away.

So there won't be much from Abi, Ben, and Riley's side of the story, because this is mostly focused on Alice and Ian, but I just wanted to add that part in to show how determined Abi is to get her sister back, and her frustration about having to find the treasure taking priority for Ben and Riley. Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Thanks so much for reading! :)