Chapter 6: Clue and Enemies

The next morning, we headed out to the New York City Center. As usual, Riley had his little hideout (again in the men's bathroom), while the rest of us went in. Only Ben and I had ear pieces in, so Abigail and Hannah had to follow our lead.

Our first plan of action was to make it down to the basement. Riley got us through the security doors and froze the security cameras while we went down there. Once inside, we began to look around. However, it wasn't too long before we found the altar; with a masonic symbol in the middle of two crosses carved into the wood. Ben opened the altar, and found that it also had Chinese puzzle box components, just like the Resolute desks. He figured this one out pretty quick and; like the Resolute desks, out popped a compartment with a plank inside. Ben picked it up and brought it to the light.

"The writing…it looks like it's Greek," Ben began. "At least we have the whole thing this time." We nodded at that. "We'll have to find someone to translate it when we get home."

"I can translate it," Hannah said. "I took Greek in college."

"Alright," Ben said, "but let's get out of here before our cover's blown." So with that, we grabbed the plank and all made our way back out of the basement. We met up with Riley, and made our way out of the building, heading toward the alleyway that we had to park our car in.

"For once, nothing went wrong!" Riley said as we walked through the alley. "Now can I see what you got from the altar?" I pulled out the plank and handed it to Riley, and Hannah and Abigail came over and showed him the markings in the wood.

"Remember me from the Library of Congress?" I heard an eerily familiar voice make. The hair stood up on the back of my neck as I turned to where the voice came from.

"Liam," Ben confirmed as I noticed he was staring in the same direction as well.

"Very good, Ben," Liam said with a grin. "I'm glad that you recognize me. I believe you'd also recognize my brother too, if I'm not mistaken."

That's when Ben and I stood straight up. The body structure, the hair, the accent, they were all so eerily familiar for a reason. This man, Liam, was Ian Howe's brother.

"Howe!" Ben shouted as we turned and sprinted for the car. Hannah, Abigail, and Riley also noticed Liam and his men, and they turned and followed us to the car.

"Oh no," Riley said during our sprint, "not this again!" As he said that, a gun discharged, and he rushed into the car, landing in the driver's seat, the rest of us piling in after him. "In coming bullet!" Riley yelled just before a bullet shattered the back window of the car. Luckily, we all ducked in time as Riley sped off down the alley, more gun shots pinging against the car. "Guess I'll be paying the damage price for this rental," Riley muttered as he attempted to speed down the New York alleyways. It wasn't long, however, before Liam and his men were following us. Riley fought to keep control of the car and avoid hitting people as we flew down the wet pavement; the night's previous rain making the roads slick. It was becoming readily apparent that it wasn't going to be long before we crashed at the rate we were going.

"Abigail," Ben said while not peeling his eyes off the road, "give me the plank." Abigail handed him the plank as Ben also asked, "Does anyone have a cell phone with a good camera in it?"

"I have an iPod touch," Hannah said as she pulled out her iPod. "Will that work?"

"If it has a camera, it's fine with me," Ben said as he took Hannah's iPod. He positioned the plank and snapped a picture. He handed the iPod back to Hannah. "You'll have to translate that when we get back to D.C.," Ben instructed. Hannah nodded. "Now we just have to hand over that plank to Liam and-"

Ben couldn't finish as a car missed a stop sign and hit the back end of our car. We began to spin across the road, Riley unable to regain any control over the car. We screamed as we ran into scaffolding. Thankfully, it didn't crash on top of us, though many paint cans did, and Hannah, Abigail, and I became covered in paint that seeped through the busted rear window.

"Everyone ok?" Ben said as he turned to look at the back seat. The three of us in the back nodded, and Ben turned to Riley who, though shaken, also nodded. That's when Ben looked up and saw Liam get out of his car, who apparently avoided the car that hit us (which had sped away by this point). Liam slowly walked over to us.

"Well Ben," Liam began, "that chase ended well, didn't it? We wouldn't want that to happen again, do we?" Riley violently shook his head. "Then I'd suggest you hand over whatever it was that you got from the New York City Center," Liam suggested with a grin. Ben glared at him, as he reluctantly handed over the plank. "Thank you," Liam said as he walked back over to his car and drove away. We sat in silence for a moment.

"I suppose now would be a good time to call a tow truck," Riley said a little shakily. We nodded as Riley pulled out his phone, found the local towing business, and called. It wasn't long after Riley's call that a tow truck came, and we were taken to the repair shop. We handled some legal matters about the accident there (or Ben and I did, Riley was too shaken), we paid for the repairs, and we got a taxi back to the hotel. There we washed up, and took another taxi back to the airport. We flew home on the next possible flight to D.C., landed, and got back to our car by midnight. So we picked up Chloe and the dogs, and we all drove to my house and crashed for the night, planning on translating the plank in the morning.