Author's Note:
Once again it's been a while. This was a fun chapter to write, what with the chase and all. Also having them run around Independence Hall was fun. Remember way back in the day when there was only a rope keeping people from where the Liberty Bell was? Then that deranged guy hit it with a hammer and now it's behind glass. Oh well. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and to everyone who reviews this one!
Chapter 11:
"Imagine," our guide said, "it's impact back in the eighteenth century. It could have been seen for miles around, which was exactly it's purpose. Because it served as a beacon, as it were."
Our guide had been waxing nostalgically about the good old days before indoor pluming for about ten minutes, which was ten minutes too long in my opinion. This was the type of activity that was best suited for people like Ben and Abigail, but it was not so much my cup of tea.
"Finally," I sighed when Ben and Abigail broke away. Riley and I followed, trying to look casual and not like we were doing anything illegal in the slightest. When we came to a stairway there was a rope going across it. A sign which read, 'No admittance. Employees only.' Hung from the rope.
It took the four of us all of two seconds to step over it and continue up the stairs.
"If they'd really been serious about keeping people out they would have made it more difficult," I reasoned aloud as we hurried along continuing up to the top floor. The door to the interior of the clock face wasn't even locked.
"Good stuff," Riley said looking around as we walked through the inside of the famous clock. We opened a door and climbed up onto the roof. "What bell is this?"
"It's the Centennial Bell," Ben answered, "it replaced the Liberty Bell in 1876." He checked his watch.
"Is it time?" I asked. Ben nodded and we all looked to see where the shadow would fall.
"There it is," Abigail said.
"Who wants to climb around on the roof?" Riley asked.
"Not me," I answered, "I have a horrible sense of balance."
"All right," Ben sighed, "I'm going to go down there and you all meet me in the signing room. Okay?"
"All right," Abigail said to Riley and I, "let's go."
"3:22," Riley reminded us as he followed, "my idea."
"I could have good ideas too you know," I spoke up.
"If it's about food maybe," Riley chuckled. We bickered back and forth. To Abigail's credit she didn't try to strangle us, though she did tell us to knock it off so we wouldn't attract attention once we'd reached the main level. We tried to look inconspicuous as another tour group came through. It was as they were leaving that Ben reappeared.
"Hey," Riley greeted him, "what'd you score?"
"I found this." Ben held up a battered pair of glasses for our inspection. The dirt and the dust betrayed them as old. The fact that instead of two clear lenses there were six multi-colored lenses betrayed them as weird. Riley took them to examine. "Some kind of ocular device," Ben pointed out. "The vision to see the treasured past? Let me take this." He took the Declaration and went to unroll it.
"You know for the laughing stock of the historical community you're pretty good at this treasure hunting thing," I told Ben.
"Thank you Maggie," he said looking as if he wasn't sure if it was a total compliment.
"They're like early American X-Ray specs!" Riley exclaimed.
"Benjamin Franklin invented something like these," Abigail informed us.
"I think he invented these," Ben replied.
"So what do we do with them?" Riley asked.
"They were invented by Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers," I said in an excited voice, "so obviously we're going to sell them and make a bundle!"
"No," Ben said giving me a glare. "We look through it."
"Or that?" I grumbled.
Together Ben and Abigail unfurled the stolen document that was going to land us all in jail forever while Riley looked around the room through the Franklin glasses. I looked around, nervous that another tour would march through and catch us in the act. Suddenly Ben let out a deep sigh.
"What?" Riley asked.
"It's just," Ben explained, "that the last time this was here it was being signed."
For some odd reason I got the mental image of the two being reunited by a talk show host on some television show. It would be an interesting concept.
"Now all we need to do is dig up the corpses of everyone who signed and the band will be back together," I commented.
"Ben there's another tour coming so let's move this along," Riley said. "Maggie stop being crazy, it's distracting." I pouted while the others carefully turned the Declaration over and Ben put on the spectacles. When he looked through them he gasped.
"Whoa," he breathed. "Wow."
"What do you see?"
"What is it?" Riley asked. "Is it a treasure map?"
"I am not crazy," I told them.
"It says 'Heere at the wall' spelled with two E's." Ben announced. "Take a look." He held out the spectacles and all three of us reached for them. Abigail won and put them on.
"I guess they didn't have spell check back then," I observed, "although I always got the impression that the founding fathers were smart."
"Things were spelled differently back then sometimes," Ben pointed out.
"Sure they were."
"Ah," Abigail said quietly as she peered at the Declaration. "Wow."
"Why can't they just say: Go to this place and here's the treasure, spend it wisely?" Riley asked.
"I would totally do that," I grinned. "Except when they got to the place there would be no treasure, just a sign saying, Gothca!"
"Oh no," Ben moaned.
"Do you think they did that?" I asked. If this treasure hunt was all for nothing then I was going to need time to come up with a new plan to impress my former bosses at the F. B. I. to get my job back.
Abigail and Riley looked in the direction Ben was looking. There was a window there. They both echoed his "Oh no" sentiments and I asked impatiently what was up.
"It's Ian," Ben explained.
"Oh! That is bad."
"How'd they find us?" Riley asked.
"Well Ian has nearly unlimited sources," Ben pointed out, "and he's smart."
"I don't think we can get out of here without being spotted," Abigail said.
"We could set something on fire," I suggested.
"Just try and curb the crazy for a minute," Riley snapped.
"We don't want them to have the Declaration or the glasses," Ben said, thinking aloud, "but we especially don't want them to have them both together."
"So what do we do?" Riley inquired.
"We separate the lock from the key," Ben explained, "we're splitting up."
"Good idea," Abigail agreed.
"Really?" Was all Riley had to say.
"Maybe we can all meet at a nice restaurant for lunch?" I was ignored as Ben took the Declaration out of its holder and took the spectacles. He gave the Declaration itself to Abigail and Riley.
"Meet me at the car and call if you have any problems," he finished.
"Like if we get caught or killed?" Riley said.
"Yeah," Ben answered, "that would be a big problem."
"So that's a no to the restaurant idea?" I asked.
"Just come with me," Ben growled. I followed him. "Take care of her," he said over his shoulder to Abigail and Riley.
"I will," they both answered at the same time.
As bold as anything Ben and I stepped out of the building and walked through the courtyard.
"Aren't we going to run?" I asked as I noticed to goons following us.
"Not yet," he answered.
"How about now?"
"Wait…"
We came to a street. As we crossed it a bus drove behind us, keeping our pursuers from seeing us.
"Now," Ben hissed. We began to run as fast as we could. Probably faster then I had ever run before. It turns out that armed goons are a big motivation for exercising. We sprinted up in between a line of cars. They honked but luckily none of them hit us. Unluckily none of them hit the people chasing of either.
We left the street and came across a cemetery. Ben opened the gate and we darted in. One of them began to catch up. There was another part of the cemetery which was gated. Ben opened it and after I'd followed him in he shut it so the guy behind us couldn't get in.
It was then that they guy pulled out his gun. He got off about four rounds as Ben and I dived behind the headstones. He continued to shoot.
"How ironic," I said in a bitter tone, "we're going to die in a cemetery."
Then we saw the other guy. He'd managed to go around and get into the area we were in. He stepped towards where we were and aimed.
Ben and I threw ourselves out of the way, scrambled to our feet, and ran again.
"I hate running," I panted as we left the cemetery through a large brick gate. Ben stopped, posing himself around the corner of the gate. When one of the guys chasing us charged around the bend Ben whacked him across the face with the thing that had previously held the Declaration. I cheered as Ben punched him and the guy fell to the ground.
Just then the other guy chasing us caught up.
"Aww come on," Ben groaned as we started to run again.
"These guys are really annoying," I shouted. We turned a corner and hit a locked gate. With no time to force our way through we were forced to continue on the way we had been going.
The next gate we reached was open. There was some scaffolding there, which we started to climb. We hadn't been climbing for long when the bullets began to fly at us again. Reaching the stairs we began to climb, but heavy footfalls behind made it clear that we had not lost the guy pursuing us.
At the top of the stairway Ben got onto the roof of a house and began to run across it. I groaned and cursed, but followed him anyway.
"Lucky the houses are right next to each other," I panted.
Just as I said this we reached the end of the row houses.
"Crap," I sighed.
"Hey Gates," the man behind us yelled, "enough man!" Ben put his hands in the air and I followed suit. "Give me the document," he demanded.
"Give us the gun," I shouted back. The man chuckled, but not in a nice way.
"All right Phil," Ben sighed. He threw the empty document holder over to Phil. It slid, almost falling off of the roof. Phil managed to catch it and opened it up, revealing the fact that there was nothing there.
"Sucker," I called. Ben and I had already made our escape.
I was not so smug later when we reached Ben's car to find the F. B. I. waiting for us.