Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella.

Chapter Six: With Targets On Our Backs

" Put these in your ears. They're discrete earpieces so I can talk to you. Oh, and here are some tiny microphones so you can talk to me." Riley said handing Ben and I each a pair. I slid the tiny earpiece into my ear and then clipped the microphone onto the inside of my 'uniform' collar. Ben looked at me.

" Ready?" He asked.

" As I'll ever be…" I muttered. I had been riding in the back again, so Riley and Ben climbed into the back of the van and I slid the door open. Ben and I hopped out as Riley began to pull a headset on.

" Ben, are you sure that we should-" Riley began to ask but was cut off by Ben closing the door.

" Does this thing work?" I asked, hoping the microphone picked it up.

" I can hear you, so yeah, it does." Riley said. I rolled my eyes. Ben and I began to walk across the street, and Ben pressed a finger to his ear, adjusting his earpiece.

" Riley, can you hear me?" Ben asked.

" Unfortunately, yeah." Riley deadpanned. I giggled and Ben rolled his eyes as we crossed the wet street. " We're all set in here." We came towards a side door, obviously used for workers and such. A guard stood outside, talking to two people, giving them directions. As we walked up to the guard, we smiled and showed him our ID cards, which were clipped to our uniforms and he nodded and gestured inside. As we entered the door, we stopped at the metal detectors and x-ray belt things. We each removed our utility belts and set them on the belt. We each walked through, grabbed our belts and made our way towards the bathrooms. Ben tapped my shoulder and I looked at him.

" I also took some of your shoes from your house and left them in a bag outside of the women's bathroom." Ben admitted.

" Thanks. I'm not sure I want you having that key anymore… cause if the shoes are gone, you're buying me a new pair." I told him before we each parted to the separate bathrooms. My shoes had been tucked in a small corner, surprisingly untouched. I grabbed them and went into the bathroom. I made sure no one else was in the bathroom and then removed the jumpsuit, tossing it into the trash. I readjusted the microphone so it was hidden again. I quickly tied the halter back around my neck, straightened out the skirt and back and then put on the white heels Ben picked our of my closet. I slid them on with a sigh, seeing as they were a bit tight. I hadn't worn those shoes in years. I pulled my hair down, fixed it so it fell around my shoulders and looked in the mirror. I had thankfully not taken off my necklace with a blue pendant on the end of it, so the outfit was fairly good.

" Ben, how do you look?" I heard Riley ask.

" Not bad." I heard Ben say.

" Mozeltov." Riley said. I exited the bathroom just as Ben walked out of the men's bathroom, dressed in a tuxedo I didn't know he owned. He stopped and looked at me.

" You look really nice." He told me. I blushed.

" Thanks. Come on, let's just get this over with." I said gesturing towards the party. Together we walked out, and as we passed a serving man, I took a glass of Champaign, and Ben took two. I shook my head. We searched the crowd for Abigail and Ben didn't even say when he saw her, he just walked away. I had to half jog in order to keep up. We walked up behind her.

" For you." Ben said. Abigail spun around and looked down at the Champaign Ben was offering her.

" Oh! Miss Jackson, Mr. Brown. What are you doing here?" She asked taking the Champaign.

" Is that that hot girl? How does she look?" Riley asked. I shut my eyes in annoyance and opened them again, Ben and I ignoring him.

" I made a last minute donation, a pretty big one." Ben lied with a nod. Abigail looked at me.

" So did I. Paul and I have known each other for a long time, and are both very big supporters of the Archives." I said with a nod.

" Are you two here together?" Abigail asked curiously. Riley began to laugh a bit. Ben and I laughed as well.

" No, we're not." I assured her.

" We're good friends. Just friends." Ben added. She nodded.

" Getting back to that subject, thank you for that wonderful gift!" She said to Ben.

" Oh, you did get it? Oh, good!" Ben said with relief.

" Thank you. You know, I could never accept something like that normally, but um… I really wanted it." She admitted with a laugh. I rolled my eyes and walked a step or two away as the two laughed.

" Come on Romeo, get out of there." Riley urged.

" I have been wondering though, what that engraving indicated. The pipe that Big Foot took." Abigail said. Ben and I glanced at each other. We were saved from answering however, by some dude who walked over with another glass of Champaign for Abigail.

" Hi." He said with clear confusion.

" Oh, Doctor Herbert, this is Mr. Brown and his friend Miss Jackson." Abigail introduced.

" Hi." He repeated.

" Hi there!" Ben said with a cheery tone to his voice.

" Who's the stiff?" Riley asked in confusion. I hand to stifle a small giggle.

" Here, why don't I take that," Ben said liberating Abigail of her Champaign glass. " So you can take that off his hands."

" Thank you." She said taking Dr. Herbert's offered glass.

" A toast, yeah?" Ben asked as we all raised our glasses slightly. " To high treason." I gave him a look that I hope he received because it was my 'what the Hell do you think your doing Benjamin' face. Abigail and Dr. Herbert all gave him a look as well, and I could almost sense Riley being confused as well. " That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration." Ben added with a nod. I shut my eyes and hoped he wouldn't continue. If he did, I would have to smack him later.

" Ben…" I muttered

" Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and… oh! Oh, my personal favorite, had their entrails cut out and burned!" Ben said with a laugh. I shook my head and covered my mouth. He honestly failed at any kind of party conversation- even I, the Queen of Disastrous Parties, could do better. Abigail glanced at me. I shook my head apologetically. " So, here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right. What they knew was right." Ben said looking into Abigail's eyes, and she stared back at him. After an awkward moment I cleared my throat. As Dr. Herbert, Abigail and I all sipped our Champaign, Ben gulped his whole glass down. Oh, Ben…

" Well…" I said.

" Good night!" Ben said with a smile.

" Good night…" Dr. Herbert said perturbed.

" Good night." Abigail said as we walked away. When we were a good distance away from them I smacked Ben's arm harshly.

" Stupid! Ben, that was stupid! That is not what you talk about at parties, yes it's true, but it's not party talk." I scolded.

" I don't think we were trying to make an impression." Ben said setting his glass down on a table, holding onto Abigail's. I dropped mine into a convenient trashcan before Ben emptied what Champaign was left in the glass into a water fountain and we slipped into the Men's bathroom. We walked over to the handicap stall, pulled down the changing station, and Ben shook out a plastic bag.

" Will this work?" Ben asked.

" Mm-hm." I hummed. He gently slid the glass into the bag and pulled out a small bottle of iodine solution. He dropped some onto a cotton ball and opened the bag.

" This better work…" Riley muttered through the earpieces. Ben squirted something else into the bag and tossed the cotton ball in before sealing the bag.

" How does it look?' Riley asked. We watched as Abigail's fingerprints appeared on the glass in a purplish color.

" It's working… It's working." Ben said and he smiled at me.

" Unbelievable. Good job, Arabella." He said.

" Why thank you." I replied with a smile. Ben pulled on the thumb of a plastic glove and carefully pulled the glass out of the bag.

" Careful… one wrong move and this is all down the drain." I told Ben.

" Thanks for that thought." He muttered as he carefully pressed his thumb on the thumbprint and gently rolled the glass off the glove, leaving the print behind. Ben smiled. He looked at me.

" I'm going to try and get in, go back to the van to help Riley." Ben told me. I nodded.

" Good luck." I said before we both left the bathroom and I ran towards the side door. I ran down the stairs, almost falling a few times in my heels, but managed to run across the street back towards Riley's van. I yanked the side door open, sliding it back and jumped in, sliding it closed. I looked at Riley and he was just staring at me through his glasses, which I was beginning to love even more every time he wore them. They just made him look so cute…

" What?" I asked when I noticed he was still staring. He shook his head, blushing and took the earpiece and microphone.

" It's just that you look kinda… even more hot in that dress…" Riley muttered. He turned away from me and looked down at his computer screen I blushed.

" Oh… thanks." I said with a brief smile, sitting down next to him. The next few minutes were composed of awkward silence. I shivered and rubbed my arms, remembering that I didn't bring my clothes to change back into. Riley glanced at me before searching around him. He grabbed a blue zip-up hoodie and draped it around my shoulders. I smiled at him. " Thank you."

" Anytime." Riley assured with a nod and a small smile.

" We're in the elevator." We heard Ben say.

" Okay, I'm gonna turn of the surveillance cameras. Ready? In five… four… three… now." Riley said putting the pencil he was toying with in his mouth, typing a few things. " Ben Gates, you are now the invisible man." We could see him on the small window that was the current video coming to us from the Archives, and on the left was what the guards were seeing, and that was nothing. Ben walked over to an elevator and pulled on a pair of white gloves. He tapped something and a keyboard appeared.

" Hit us with it." Riley said.

" A, E, F, G, L, O, R, V, Y." Ben told us. Riley pulled up something else up on his computer and typed in the letters.

" What are you doing?" I asked Riley.

" This system will run these letters and come up with possible words and phrases. It's pretty cool." He said with a nod. " Anagrams being listed…" Tons of anagrams popped up. " Okay… Top results; A glove fry, a very golf, fargo levy, gravy floe, valey frog. Also; ago fly rev, grove fly a, r fly ga, ara fly gov, elf gov ray-" Riley listed.

" Ben. Is it Valley Forge?" I asked picking up the 'valey frog' thing.

" It's Valley Forge." Ben agreed.

" Valley Forge… I don't have that on my computer." Riley said searching the possibilities again.

" It's Valley Forge, she hit the 'e' and the 'l' twice." Ben said as we heard some clicking.

" Valley Forge?" Riley asked me.

" It was a camp sight during the American Revolution. You see, after a bunch of pretty tough battles with the British, the Continental Army came to Valley Forge on December 19, 1777. The conditions around winter were tough though, they ran out of food so they had for scavenge for it and there were few blankets and their clothing wasn't all that warm." I explained. Riley stared at me.

" Whoa. You really are just as historically knowledgeable as Ben." Riley said. I smiled.

" We're in!" Ben said. We smiled as we saw Ben walk into the preservation room on the screen, still having the empty room play for the security guards. Ben pointed to the camera and smiled.

" Hello." Riley said. We watched as he uncovered the Declaration. " Ben, you are doing great." Riley complimented. Ben began to remove the screws out of the housing for the Declaration. " Pick it up, Ben…"

" Be careful." I added.

" I am, I am." Ben mumbled.

" You've got about one -" Riley was cut off when he froze because the video we were watching Ben through, went fuzzy and grainy. Riley clicked a few things.

" What happened?" I asked. He kept clicking, but nothing happened.

" I lost my feed!" Riley said in a panic.

" What!" Ben asked in alarm.

" I lost my feed, Ben!" Riley repeated checking the wire connections. " I don't know where anyone is, I-I have nothing, Ben! Ben, I have nothing." Riley was in full-on panic mode.

" Get out of there!" I ordered.

" Get out of there, now!" Riley joined in.

" Get out of there!" We both yelled at him together.

" I'm taking the whole thing! I'll get it out in the elevator!" Ben told us.

" What are you talking- is it heavy?" Riley asked. I gave Riley a look.

" No duh!" I said punching his arm lightly.

" I was just curious!" Riley defended himself. There was a very long, extremely tense moment, and extremely quiet moment as we waited to hear something from Ben. Then we heard three very, very, very loud gunshots. Riley and I jumped and looked around the van.

" What was that?" Riley asked. We heard another shot. " Who's shooting!"

" Oh my God, this bad… bad… very bad…" I muttered running my hands through my hair. There were a few more shots, then nothing.

" Ben, are you still there?" We heard nothing but a drill. " Ben?" Riley asked, panic creeping into his voice again.

" I'm in the elevator… Ian's here… He was, uh… shooting…" Ben told us. Riley looked off for a moment.

" I hate that guy…" He all but growled.

" Remind me never to meet him then." I said leaning back in my chair. My heart was pounding from the turn events had just taken. First Ben is almost exploded, now he's being shot at. He was certainly becoming a trouble magnet. After hearing nothing from Ben for a while, and faintly hearing fancy music, I pulled my earpiece and microphone off and gave them to Riley, who tossed them into a small little box he had next to him. He pulled his glasses off, putting them into his tan coat pocket.

Riley kept his headset on as he climbed into the driver's seat and I climbed into the passenger's side seat. We waited nervously for Ben to exit the building.

" I hope he makes it out…" I said.

" So do I, but I hope Ian doesn't find us before Ben can get out here." Riley admitted, sliding down in his seat slightly. He gripped the steering wheel and began to tap against it. " Where are you, Ben?" He sang quietly. I rolled my eyes at him. " Where are you?"

" Stop talking!" Ben snapped. We looked out the window and saw Ben walking towards us. " Start the van." Riley quickly turned the ignition.

" Oh, no." I said. When Riley looked at me with worry, I pointed towards Abigail, who was following Ben.

" Ben, the uh… the mean D-Declaration Lady is behind you." Riley informed Ben. I slid into the back of the van and sighed. This was not going well…

" Hey!" We heard her say.

" Oh! It's you!" Ben said trying to be casual. " Hello."

" Mr. Brown, what's going on?" Abigail asked. I shook my head. Ben should not have given that toast, because right now we were the ones committing high treason… " What's that?" Please, please, please, please tell me she didn't spot the Declaration!

" Souvenir." He said.

" Really?" Abigail said, her voice hinting at sarcasm.

" Stop chatting and get in the van." Riley muttered agitatedly through his teeth. I begged in my mind for Ben to think of something else to say to get out.

" Did you enjoy the party?" Ben asked.

" Yeah…" Abigail muttered. Suddenly, a blaring alarm sounded and a light flashed on the side of the Archives.

" Oh God…" Ben I managed to hear Ben say.

" Oh my God…" Riley sighed slinking farther down into his seat, covering his eyes.

" Oh dear sweet Lord…" I muttered. So now we had not only this Ian guy after us, now we have the FBI on our tails! We might as well paint targets on our backs!

" Oh my God!" Abigail yelled. " You did not! Security! Over here! Give me that!"

" It's yours! Take it!" Ben said before running around the van and jumping into the passenger side. I looked through the windshield and spotted a rather large catering van. In the front, I saw a blond man dressed in black. He looked so familiar… wait! He was that guy I ran into on the day I was walking home!

" That guy… I know him…" I muttered.

" Go!" Ben said. Riley began to frantically try and move the van. Suddenly Ben and I both saw the catering van peel into the street, almost hitting Abigail before it screeched to a stop.

" Oh bad…" Ben muttered as he watched a man jump from the van and grab Abigail. " Oh bad, bad, bad!"

" Who is that?" I asked.

" That blond dude in the front is Ian!" Riley explained as Ben jumped out of the van.

" That's Ian!" I all but yelled. I ran into him before! Oh no, that means he'll recognize me at some point…

Ben wasn't able to go around the van, seeing as one of Ian's men began shooting at us. Ben ducked, I heard a headlight be taken out, Riley's outside mirror was blown off, and the window shattered. Riley and I covered our heads and I shared at him in shock. Ben jumped back into the car as Riley brushed the shattered glass off of himself, and I had to shake it out of awkward places in my dress.

" Go, go, go!" Ben ordered. The catering van took off down the street and Riley began to speed after it. Abigail was in danger, and there was no way, control freak or not, anyone was getting hurt. We sped after Ian and his men, praying nothing could get worse.

Afterword: There we go! The action begins! And * GASP! * That English blond man Arabella ran into earlier in the story was Ian? Who knew! XD I would love to thank those who have reviewed: Phillipfan24 and Neverlandlover and GracefulWolvesInTheNight. Your reviews are all appreciated and they keep me writing! I'd love more reviews! Thanks!