National Treasure
Into the West
Chapter 7: Thurgood Lane
Abigail felt her throat tighten as she tried desperately to calm her nerves. Barely a few moments had passed since the call with Ian ended, and neither she nor Riley had no way of telling where he was. She did, however, have a hunch to where they were going. Heart racing, she immediately stood from her chair, shutting off the lights in her desk. She knew this was bad, and would most likely get worse if they didn't act, and fast. As she crossed the room, she noticed Riley frosen in a still stand in front of the large window, staring out into the yard, now shrouded in the darkness of the night.
"Abby?" Riley asked from the window.
"Yeah?"
"We need to get out of here." He said. "Now."
"Why?" Abigail asked nervously.
"They're coming."
"Who's coming?" Abigail asked, hurrying to the window. She looked out into the darkness and could barely see the faint glow of headlights coming from along a certain point on the driveway.
"Oh God." Abigail gasped.
"We need to go, now!" Riley hissed.
Abby hurried to the closet in the corner and grabbed one of Ben's old satchels, trying hard not to make a sound. She carefully returned to the desk and placed the diary and the papers with the decoded messages into the bag. When she closed the bag and reached for her coat, the power suddenly went out, plunging them into total darkness. The entire mansion went quiet.
"Riley?" Abigail whispered. She listened carefully, and heard a metallic clang come from somewhere downstairs, followed by glass breaking. Somebody was in the house.
Within moments, Abigail felt Riley's grip on her arm. As the two of them stood closely together, Abigail opened the drawer to Ben's desk and pulled out an emergency flashlight. Riley had his coat under his arm and his cell phone in his pocket. For a brief moment, Riley felt his coat pocket, making sure the hidden object inside was still where it was supposed to be. Abogail slowly reached for her bag, which she had packed for the trip earlier that day, and swung it over her shoulder.
"Come with me." Abigail ordered silently and sternly as she pulled Riley across the room. Riley snatched his backpack from its resting place on the sofa where he had been lounging earlier as they walked. They could hear voices coming from the main stairwell, inching closer and closer. Abigail swung the shoulder strap for the satchel over her head and let the bag hang from her arm as she and Riley reached the opposing wall. Riley listened closely for the voices of who sounded like two men with very thick Brooklyn accents. As Abigail listened, she could feel her chest tighten as she felt herself moving into panic mode.
"This is it." Riley whispered in a high pitched tone. "We're gonna die."
"No we're not." Abigail said, shaking off her nerves. Riley looked towards her to respond to that comment, but was shocked to see that Abigail had pulled the wall open, revealing a hidden door.
"Go!" Abigail hissed. Riley scrambled through the door and Abigail pulled it closed behind her. She peered through the crack as the door closed, and could see the lights from two flashlights shining on the red carpeting in the hallway outside the library. She pulled the door closed and gently shoved the locking pin into place. They froze in silence when they heard somebody cuss,
"Where the hell are they?"
"I dunno, but the boss said they should be here."
"They must be, there's two cars out front."
Riley began to breathe heavily, thinking foolishly of the safety of his precious ferrari, as Abigail turned the light away from the secret door and towards the passage. They silently hurried down the corridor, extending the full width of the second floor before coming to a spiral staircase. Abigail kept feeling for her bag and Ben's satchel, making sure she had everything she needed to get out of there. Riley coughed slightly, his breathing constricted within the dark corridor. The air was dry and dusty, as nobody had been in there in a long time. As they began their descent down the staircase, Riley looked around puzzledly at his surroundings.
"Abby, I know this might not be the right time to be asking this, but where in the hell are we?"
"Thurgood Lane." Abigail responded. "Ben showed me the way. It was an emergency escape passage from during the revolutionary war." The two of them quietly descended down into the darkness until they were twelve feet underground. "It leads to an underground tunnel which surfaces out in the woods, near the river."
"How come he never told me about this way?"
"Don't you already have enough ways of sneaking in to the house?"
"True." Riley said, nodding. "Now, how are we going to help Ben?"
"We need to get to Colorado and find him." Abigail said, stopping for a brief second to catch her breath and wipe the sweat from her forehead. "I've got the key to my savings account, once we find an ATM, I can get some money out and that way Ian can't track us by means of that."
"Good idea." Riley stated, thinking about how that almost caused their downfall when they stole the Declaration of Independence. As he recollected about their past pitfalls, He and Abigail reached the start of the underground tunnel. Suddenly, they heard a large crashing noise coming from back up the stairs, from the Library, causing them both to jump in surprise, followed by a loud, banging noise, as if somebody was trying to chop through the wall with an axe.
"Did they break through the door?"
"I'd rather not wait and find out." Abigail whispered as they both picked up the pace to reach the end of the tunnel. As they sped through the tunnel as fast as they possibly could, another aspect of the situation dawned on Riley, and it scared the living daylights out of him.
"Abby?"
"Yeah?"
"I think we've got another problem."
"I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to hold it in for a while, we've got bigger fish to fry than your small bladder."
"Not that, Patrick and Emily!"
Then it dawned on Abigail as well. If Ian had his knuckle headed thugs after her and Riley, than he probably had them after Ben's parents as well. Now it was more urgent than ever that they get out of there, and fast. Within seconds, Abigail found herself breaking into a sprint, reaching behind her to grab Riley's arm to be sure as to not lose him down there. It seemed as if they'd walked for a mile when they finally came to a narrow staircase leading upwards.
"Riley, I need your help to open this." Abigail said hoarsely as she shined her flashlight onto a large wooden door hanging over the stairwell that had been cut into the ground. Abigail unhooked the old iron latch holding the door closed and they both gently pushed it open. As it swung outwards and off to the side, Riley saw they were in the dense birch forest to the north of the estate. Carefully and quietly, the two of them rushed to get the door closed, just in case someone did find access to the tunnel. As the finished closing the door, Riley could hear the faint but ominous sound of flowing water. "What's that noise?"
"The Potomac River, of course." Abigail Responded, breathing heavily. "Come on, this way."
Riley hurried behind Abigail as they rushed towards the river's edge. They quickly plowed through bushes and past the large bunches of trees before reaching the water's edge.
"Hey, they're over there!" A voice called from out of the darkness. Both Abigail and Riley looked back to see a barrage of small lights coming through the woods.
"Oh, God, Run!" Riley snapped as he pushed Abigail forward. "What are we going to do now?"
"We can use Betsy." Abigail said, leading Riley to a dock near the water's edge. Tied to the dock was a small, light blue speedboat with a gas motor. "I give you the Betsy Ross."
The two of them scrambled onto the dock towards the boat, the wooden decking creaking and bumping underneath them. Abigail jumped into the boat, letting her bag fall into the protection of the hull and frantically tried to start the motor. Meanwhile, Riley quickly untied the white cords holding the boat to the dock, cursing under his breath. Just then, two gunshots rang through the air, a bullet pierced through the wood flooring of the dock barely two feet from where Riley was standing. Abigail screamed as wood splinters flew through the air. Before Riley could get into the boat, the engine kicked into full throttle and began drifting away from the dock without him. Abigail's heart pounded faster when she saw a group of dark shadows emerging from the woods.
"Riley! JUMP!"" Abigail screamed as Riley dodged another bullet which struck the dock. Riley focused his eyes on the boat and leapt into the river, where he vanished into the darkness. He went down deep in the dark water for a few seconds, the shock from the cold water knocking the wind out of him. When he surfaced, he saw one of the mooring lines from the boat hanging in the water. As bullets shot into the water around him, Riley made a reach for the line. Just as he grabbed it, he was suddenly struck with a stabbing pain as a bullet ripped through his left arm.
"RILEY!" Abigail screamed. She ducked behind the metal rim of the boat, which had floated about thirty feet from the dock. As she saw two men jump into the river after them, she quickly grabbed the end of the line Riley was holding on to and tried to pull him in. As she desperately looked for him to surface, she saw three men run onto the dock, one of whom jumped into the water after Riley. She ducked down into the boat when more shots were fired from the dock, screaming as sparks erupted from a bullet's impact with the metal rim of the boat.
"Abby, Go!" Riley suddenly shouted from the water, his voice muffled. "I've got the line, now go!"
"But Riley-" Abigail protested, but Riley kept shouting. "GO!"
He put his right hand through the loop at the end of the rope and wound it around his wrist three times after he sank below the water. Quickly, Abigail put the engine back into full throttle and took off into the night, dragging Riley behind her. One of the men from the shore got a hold of Riley's left foot, but in his anger over what they'd done to Ben, Riley furiously kicked the man in the jaw, sending him groping backwards into the murky water just before Riley felt the rope tugging at his arm. Meanwhile, Abigail was still trying to hide from the barrage of bullets which had been fired at the boat. She looked ahead of her and about a half-mile downstream was the Highway 15 bridge, with it's large cement pillars. "Hold on, Riley!" She shouted into the wind behind her as she saw Riley's head sticking out of the water, dipping underwater occasionally. As they sped on down the river, Abogail frequently switched her attention between the bridge in the distance, and the mooring cable which was pointed down into the water. After a few minutes, Abigail got the boat about 30 feet from the centermost pillar, beneath the shadows of the overhanging highway, before stooping the engine. Her heart pounding, her eyes darted around, looking for any sign of anyone who could help, or be a threat. She then frantically took the end of the line in her hand and began to pull Riley in. She looked into the murky waters nervously, her breathing becoming harder when she saw that the line Riley was holding onto was pointing directly straight down in the water. After a few moments of pulling, she shined her flashlight into the water and could see Riley's figure becoming clearer, along with a dark red cloud hovering around his arm. "Riley!" She exclaimed hoarsely as his still figure broke the surface. She took her friend by his right hand and frantically began to pull him into the boat. She tried to help him by rolling him into the boat sideways along the edge, remembering to steady herself so the boat didn't overturn. Right from the start, she could feel him trembling and noticed how pale he had become. He was shivering and grinding his teeth, hardly able to move his left arm. When Abigail finally got him into the boat, she quickly sprang into action. She desperately tried to think back upon any knowledge of first aid that she had. Only coming up with a first aid lesson she'd received in the girl scouts as a child, she quickly sought to help Riley breath easier. She quickly and gently removed his backpack, pushing it off to the side. She then removed his jacket, letting the sopping wet piece of clothing fall into a pile in the opposite corner. Once she had his jacket off, she shined the flashlight and got the first glimpse of the wound, a gruesome sight which caused her to gag briefly. The bullet had apparently bounced off the bone in Riley's arm, creating two gaping holes in Riley's forearm and almost completely blowing away the sleeve to his shirt. He was bleeding very badly, a pool of blood mixed with water forming underneath Riley's arm. She quickly took off her jacket and ripped the long sleeves off her shirt, tying them tightly around the massively bleeding wound. Dripping wet, his eyes were snapped tightly shut and his face was getting very pale. Abigail began to panic for a few moments, not sure of what to do, and had to force herself back into her right frame of mind. If she didn't find help soon, it would only be a matter of time before he slowly bled to death.
"Riley, I'm so sorry," Abigail began to apologize, working quickly to try to help him breathe easier. She unbuttoned the collar of the long-sleeved checkered shirt he was wearing, and then with a nail file she pulled from her pocket, she cut away a few inches at the collar of his t-shirt, clearing away anything from his throat which could constrict his breathing. Trembling as she looked along the shoreline of the river, frantically looking for help, Abigail prayed silently for a miracle. There was only darkness. She wanted to yell out and scream for help, but she hesitated, as she knew very well that Ian's men could be out there somewhere, waiting for her to do that.
"It wasn't your fault." Riley said, his teeth still clenched and choking over his own words. "We got away, that's-what's-important." He said as he began stammering because of the pain. His eyes stung from the water and he could barely breathe because he was shaking so much. He was beginning to go into shock. Abigail looked at Riley, and knew there was only one person who could help them. She quickly reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her cell phone.
"Abby, don't!" Riley stammered, coughing softly as he continued to try to regain control of his breathing. "Ian will know if we get the police involved."
"I'm not calling the police, I'm calling a friend." Abigail responded. "A friend of Ben's."
Abigail quickly put the phone to her ear after dialing a long number.
"Hello?"
"Pete?" Abigail asked frantically. "It's Dr. Chase."
"Dr. Chase, are you aware of what time it is?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry, but I need your help."
"Why, what's the matter? Ben trapped in one of the pyramids again?"
Abigail glanced around her, seeing if there was anyone in the vicinity who could hear her.
"Ian broke out of prison."
There was a pause of silence in Sadusky's voice. "I know."
Abigail's eyes widened. "You knew?" She stammered.
"I'm not supposed to be discussing this with you, because it's a high risk case."
"Well, now it's a VERY high risk case!"
"What's going on?" Pete asked with an irritated tone.
"Why, what's going on?" Sadusky asked, his tone of voice changing. "Is this about Ben?"
"Yes." Abigail responded.
"Was Ian the one who killed him?" Sadusky asked urgently. "I did think that story of the accident on the bridge was a little fishy, considering the driving stunts he's done in the past."
"Um, well, yes and no."
"What do you mean yes and no?"
"He was responsible for the accident, but Ben isn't dead!" Abigail told him. "I just spoke to him barely an hour ago!"
"Oh, God." Sadusky said in a shocked tone. "So Ian has Ben."
"Yeah. He's after this treasure we've uncovered."
"Oh, God Dammit," Sadusky cursed. "ANOTHER Treasure?"
"But that's not important right now." Abigail said frantically as she could see Riley was beginning to slip out of consciousness. "Some of Ian's thugs broke into my house to get the diary with the clues to the treasure."
"What! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, but I need help." Abigail said as she bit her lip. "Riley's been shot!"
There was a brief pause. "I'm on my way, where are you?"
"We're in a boat on the Potomac River, underneath the Highway 15 Bridge, just downstream from my house."
"Alright, here's what you need to do." Sadusky instructed. "How bad is Riley?"
"He's been shot in the forearm, and he's bleeding really badly."
"Do you have something like a shirt you can use to stop the bleeding?"
"I already tried, its not helping very much."
"Okay, here's what you need to do. Pilot your boat along the shoreline to Leesburg, it's only about twelve miles downstream."
"Alright, I'll try." Abigail said calmly, still trembling. She glanced around into the darkness, every nerve in her body going ballistic. She knew she had to do this, so she shook off her nervousness. "Pete?"
"What is it, kid?"
"If Ian's sent his men after Riley and me, then he's probably going to send them after Patrick and Emily too."
There was another pause of silence while Sadusky rummaged around for something on the other end of the line. "Alright, I'll get a hold of the protection offices with the authorities in Philadelphia and have them get both Patrick and Emily to safety."
"Could you possibly have them sent here?"
"Yes, possibly." Sadusky answered. "Is there something else to this?"
"I need to see them." Abigail said sternly, finally able to stop shaking. "They should know."
"Of course." Sadusky responded. "Now, get your tail to Leesburg so we can help Riley."
Abigail agreed to do so as she hung up her phone and turned it off before turning back to Riley. He'd stopped shaking, but was now getting very pale and his breathing was getting deeper. Abigail shined the light onto the wound and saw the blood was seeping through her makeshift bandage even faster.
"Oh Jesus." She cursed silently as she scrambled back to the motor.
"Abby." Riley groaned in pain as Abigail looked back towards him.
"It's going to be okay, Riley." Abigail said to calm her friend. "We're going to get you some help."
Riley gently lifted his right arm and reached for his jacket, which lay sopping wet on the bottom of the boat next to him. Somehow he'd managed to hang onto it in the water and now he gently brushed his hand over the pocket, praying to God that it was still there. His heart jumped when he felt a small square object in the pocket. Although he promised Ben, he felt he might not have a choice.
"Abby." He said hoarsely. "Come here, I've got something to give to you."
"Can it wait?"
"No, it can't." Riley said softly, feeling his energy drain right out of his arm. Abigail let the motor idle for a few moments as she crept across the boat to her friend. Straining to lift up his arm, he stretched out his blood-soaked hand. Abigail reached out her own hand, thinking he just needed comforting for a second. Instead, she was surprised to see him press a small box into her hand.
"He told me-" Riley said, stopped briefly by a sharp pain in his chest. "He told me to keep an eye on that for him, and I think I best tell you now before-"
"Riley, don't think like that." Abigail said sternly. "I need you to fight, alright?"
Riley could feel his eyelids getting really heavy. Abigail now came to realize the bullet which struck his arm must have struck an artery, as there was now a failry sized puddle of blood beneath Riley in the bottom of the boat.
"You listen to me, Riley Poole!" Abby shouted sternly as she put the motor of the boat into the highest speed it would go at safely. "Hang on, I need you to fight for me, alright?"
Riley struggled to stay awake, but it was getting harder and harder every time he took a deep breath. As Abigail felt her eyes water, she became furious over her thoughts of Ian. If both Ben and Riley died because of him, she'd kill Ian with her own bare hands.
"Riley, I can't do this without you!" She shouted sternly. "Ben needs you!"
Riley could hear the thumping in his ears growing louder.
"Sophie needs you!"
Riley's eyes rolled up into his head and his head slumped back against the side of the boat.
To Be Continued…..
Coming Soon
Chapter 8: The Eagle's Tears
