National Treasure
Into The West
Chapter 14: The Sword and the Stone
The plane came to a rather rough halt at the far end of the tarmac of Walker Field airport, the morning sun still low in the sky. Patrick looked ahead of him to find the operator he'd been speaking with over the radio who had guided him into the airfield. He spotted two men coming towards them on a small vehicle, which looked as though it was for towing airplanes back and forth between the tarmac and the pole sheds which lined the edge of the field. Patrick waved to the driver, who waved in return.
"Good Morning, Mr. Kingswood!" The man greeted loudly as Patrick opened his door. "Welcome to Colorado!"
"Thank You, Thank You." Patrick said as he stepped down to the ground. On the other side, the other attendant rushed over to help Emily down to the ground.
"Here, let me give you a hand, Mrs. Kingswood."
"Thank you, sir." Emily said as the man helped her to the ground. Next to him, Riley leapt from the plane door to the ground, keys in hand to unlock the cargo compartment underneath the tail of the plane.
"So, did you enjoy the flight, Sweetpea?" Patrick asked to Abigail in a fatherly manner.
"Yeah, Dad." Abigail responded, pulling her knapsack from the plane after clambering down to the ground. "Davis, do you need a hand?"
"No thanks, Sis. I've got it." Riley called from behind the plane, pulling four large packs from the cargo hold. They both looked over nervously as Patrick handed the field manager his license and paperwork for the plane.
"My, My. All the way from Cincinnati?" He exclaimed surprisingly. "That's quite the distance."
"It's worth it to have the family together." Patrick said with a smile, putting his arm around Emily as she stepped to his side.
"Oh, yes." The field manager said, snapping his fingers in a recollective tone. "Your son called and said he'd be picking all of you up in the parking lot."
"Great, I can't wait to see him." Emily said. "It's been a while since we've seen him."
"Yes, he mentioned that." The manager said, signing off on the papers and putting them into a folder he had. "Do you need any help?"
"We got it from here." Patrick replied as they each picked up their packs, distinguishable by the nametags that had been sewn onto them. As Riley tried to pick his up, his arm strained under the weight. Abigail rushed to help him before the two managers noticed. "Thanks, Jen." Riley breathed, panting under the weight of the pack.
"No problem." She said, gently slapping him on the shoulder. "Wait a minute, did they just say I called Patrick?"
"No, Davis." Patrick responded, watching the field manager tow the plane across the field towards one of the hangers. "That was your brother."
"What Brother?" Riley whispered to Abigail. Abigail looked to make sure nobody was around before telling him.
"Special Agent Tyler Androsky." Abigail responded, picking up her own pack. "He's a Security agent from Providence, Sadusky assigned him to come along."
"Mom! Dad!" A man yelled from across the parking lot. Patrick and Emily looked to see a black SUV with Oregon license plates crossing the parking lot before coming to a stop in front of them. The driver's side door opened and a man climbed out. He was a bit taller than Riley, with a firm build and short black hair, also just like riley's newly acquired haircut.
"Hey, Jack!" Patrick exclaimed, giving the man a great big hug. Emily scrambled up behind Patrick and as soon as he was out of the way, she excitedly gave him a really tight hug.
"Hey, Sweetheart." She said as she wrapped her arms around his shoulder.
"Hey, Mom." He replied, returning the hug. Tyler looked over to his two siblings, standing awkwardly nearby.
"Jenny?" He asked humorously. "Wow, I like the new hair."
"Thanks." She replied with a smile as the two hugged. His attention turned to Riley.
"Hey, little brother!" He exclaimed, slapping Riley roughly on the shoulder. "How've you been?"
"I've been alright." Riley replied nervously as he hugged his new brother.
"So, shall we head off?"
"Yeah."
"Sure."
"Alright." Were some of the responses as the five Kingswoods loaded their things into the truck. Tyler slammed the back door shut as everybody climbed in. Patrick sat in the front passenger seat, While Abigail and Riley climbed into the back, Emily in between them. As soon as he closed the door, he turned to his passengers, speaking in a different tone of voice.
"Now for formal introductions." He said in a lower voice. "I'm Tyler Androsky."
"Yes, Agent Sadusky told us you'd be meeting us here." Patrick replied. "I'm Patrick Gates, and that's my wife, Emily."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Tyler responded, Shaking Patrick's hand, and then Emily's. While they were waiting at the stop sign for traffic to clear up, Tyler turned around quickly.
"Dr. Abigail Chase, I'm presuming?"
"Correct." Abigail said, shaking his hand.
"And Mr. Riley Poole?"
"That's Me." Riley responded, shaking his hand.
"Yeah, sorry if I hit you kind of hard." Tyler apologized. "I must say it was a brave thing you did, taking a bullet like that."
Riley nodded, cracking a smile.
"Now, what's this Sadusky told me about a treasure map you guys found?"
The newly formed family unit pulled into the local McDonalds for some cheeseburgers before heading to the east, looking for the location on the river to start looking. Tyler informed them that the best place to start would be would be at a boat landing just outside the village of Molina. Abigail stared up at the majestic silhouette of the Grand Mesa as they drove out of Grand Junction.
"The Endless Wall." Abigail stated. Her thoughts switched to Ben as she stared at the rugged wall of stone they drove alongside through the countryside. From the hush of silence which drew over everybody, Tyler could tell what was going on. Sadusky had informed him under terms of strictest secrecy of their situation, and the grim predicament that the famed and recently presumed-to-be late Ben Gates was now in.
"I can't imagine what you're going through sir." Tyler said nervously to Patrick, who looked back at the young agent, pausing for a few moments.
"Do you have kids?" He asked.
"Five." Tyler responded. "I've got a daughter in college, three teenage sons, and a little girl just starting second grade this fall."
"My, that's quite the crew." Emily remarked.
"It's a lot." Tyler said. "My wife somehow manages to keep them all in line without going insane."
Patrick nodded, thinking of the troubles he and Emily had gone through when Ben was growing up. He often wondered that it may have been because of that, Ben had grown up not being able to maintain many relationships. Aside from Riley, he hadn't had too many friends in High School or College. Abigail was the first woman Ben had been with who hadn't run screaming from him as if she was on fire after three days.
After about an hour, Tyler pulled into the boat landing, secluded in the shade of some large oak trees.
"There she is." Tyler remarked. "The Colorado River."
"Um, I don't mean to be a nitpick," Riley stated slowly and nervously. "But we don't have a boat."
"The raft's in the back." Tyler said, pointing towards the back of the truck. "It just needs to be inflated, won't take too long."
While Tyler and Riley got the raft inflated, reverting back to their aliases outside the truck, Abigail stood on the edge of the river. With the map in hand, concealed within her sketchbook, she repeated in her head the second clue. She'd seen the drawing of the snake and how it fit over the river on the map. The black serpent appeared to have a bunch of white speckles all over it, the most well defined of which appeared under magnification as a clearly defined Diamond-shaped object. She could see it had been drawn to look like a diamond, as it spanned nearly the full width of the serpent.
The serpent of fire shows the way, westward leading in the light of day
Eyes with no sight can see with no light, only hindered by the Lord's own might
"That could mean just about anything."
"Jenny?" A woman's voice asked from behind her. "What are you looking at?"
"Oh, just the map, Mom." She responded. "I just can't seem to figure this out."
"Here, let me look." Emily said, Abigail holding it off to her side so Emily could see.
"The serpent of fire shows the way, westward leading in the light of day." Emily stated. "That of course refers to the river itself."
"How can we be sure that it's the Colorado?"
"When did the legend say that Merez and his men first came into these mountains?"
"Sometime in the 1620's."
"It would have been about eighty years prior to their arrival when Coronado's expedition took them through the southwest searching for you know what."
Abigail smirked at the comment, knowing of his wishes to find Cibola.
"One of his men, Melchior Diaz, named this river Rio del Tizon," Emily stated. "The River of Embers."
Abigail nodded, remembering hearing Ben talk about that once. "Now for the second part of the riddle."
"Eyes with no sight can see with no light, only hindered by the Lord's own might." Emily stated, staring into the murky waters of the river as she thought.
"What has eyes but cannot see?" She asked Emily.
Suddenly, it came to her. She realized an idea when she looked at the drawing from the diary. The Drawing.
"A Drawing!" Abigail exclaimed in a whisper. "It could be a marking of some sort."
"Very good, darling!" Emily said with a smile. Emily did understand that right away, thinking of all the glyphs she'd seen in her life.
"Now, what do you think it's on?" Abigail asked.
"Well, let's see." Emily stated silently. "What is in a river that would take God himself to move?"
Both Abigail and Emily were looking into the riverbed when they noticed the multitude of light gray and brown stones scattered along the sandy riverbed.
"Perhaps it's a rock we're looking for." Abigail said. However, when she glanced around at the massive amount of rocks in various shapes and sizes scattered throughout the river. "I think this might take a while."
"Not necessarily." Emily stated. "Look at the riddle. It's stating something it would take God himself to move. Perhaps it means a rock only God could move."
Abigail had never thought of that idea. Although there were a lot of rocks, not too many of them were big enough to prevent being moved by a few people or a bulldozer. They were looking for a rather large rock.
"Do you think that marking on the serpent might indicate where it is?" Emily asked.
"I think so." Abigail responded. "I'm thinking of another idea I had."
"Well, let's hear it."
"What is an object in a river which looks like a diamond from above."
"Of course." Emily stated, looking to the ground in a daze in her own thoughts. "A river with the momentum to carve something like the Grand Canyon can be capable of carving a multitude of things into the landscape."
"Boys!" Emily called, turning to see them walking towards the river with the raft in their hands. They were surprised to see Riley and Tyler now wearing matching brown leather cowboy hats.
"I picked these up at a thrift shop a few years back." Tyler said, referring to the hats. "We've got a large collection of trinkets and pieces of clothing for undercover operations."
"We may have found the location of the next clue." Abigail whispered as her two brothers approached her. "It's somewhere down the river."
"Jack, I know you've been here with your friends." Emily said, paraphrasing the story to cover the question. "We're looking for the northernmost point of the river North of the Grand Mesa."
"That, I believe, would be just down the river," Tyler stated. "Near Fleming point."
Riley and Tyler set the raft on the ground near the water's edge. As they loaded everybody's gear into the center to act as a counterweight, Patrick returned from Tyler's truck with five lifejackets in hand. They were all black with yellow reflective bands on the edges of the shoulder straps. They each put on their lifejackets before looking towards the raft.
"Any of you been river rafting before?" Tyler whispered.
"Nope."
"Never."
"I haven't."
"Nada."
"Alright then." Tyler responded, explaining how things would work. "Dad, you'll be up front." Patrick nodded and stepped to his seat at the pointed front of the raft, oar in hand.
"Mom and Jenny, you'll be in the center." Both women nodded, taking their seats.
"Dave, we'll be in the stern."
"The what?"
"The back."
"Oh, alright." Riley responded, cussing silently over his lack of nautical expertise. Tyler tossed the other two oars into the back while he and Riley, their jeans rolled up and boots replaced with water sneakers, pushed the raft off the shore before they both climbed in. Taking their oars in hand, they both piloted the boat towards the main current of the river, with Patrick's help. Tyler put some sunglasses on as the bright sunlight reflecting off the water was enough to blind a person. "Hey, Dave, I've got a few extra-" He began to tell Riley about an extra pair of sunglasses he had, but stopped when he saw Riley's wire-framed glasses, replaced by his old plastic framed ones, had faded magically to a darker shade.
"Transitions." Tyler stated. "Nice."
"Thanks." Riley responded as the two of them turned the raft into the current. The raft gave a quick jolt as they were swept into the rather swift current.
"Wait, what about your truck?" Emily asked.
"Robert's going to stop by in a little while to pick it up."
Emily stared in confusion for a moment.
"Your nephew, a.k.a. another agent."
"Oh."
Abigail watched the shoreline, making note of how fast they were going. "It looks like we must be going about ten miles per hour."
"Thirteen to be exact."
"Yikes." Riley stated bluntly.
"Davis, knock it off." Abigail snapped. "He's a bit superstitious."
Before long, the river led them into a deep rocky gorge, with the Grand Mesa appearing in the distance. Patrick looked sharply ahead of them for the fork in the river, suggesting an island in the river. Meanwhile, Abigail showed Tyler the map and the diary pages, telling him the story of Merez and his men, of James Hughes and his three daughters, and the legend of Sophie's Treasure.
"Wow." Tyler stated after Emily informed her of Sophie's fate. "That's a shame."
"She was barely eighteen when she died." Emily said. "They say she was probably buried in a charity grave somewhere, which was why there was no record of her burial.
Tyler blinked wildly in shock as he'd heard of the terrible experience, even more shocked that a girl that young had gone through it-alone.
"I can see why Ben was so eager to find it."
Emily nodded slowly, her head down. Abigail put her hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"No, don't be sorry." Emily said, clearing her eyes with her hands. "This is what he wants me to do. I'm doing it. I don't mind talking about it."
Tyler nodded in understanding, knowing they had taken Ben's request as if it was his dying wish.
"From what I've heard about Ben, I think he wants to find this treasure to honor Sophie's memory." Tyler said, looking at Emily. "That's a very honorable action to make."
"I know." Emily said.
"Dead Ahead!" Patrick suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a parting of the current dead ahead of them. Tyler and Riley used the oars to slow the boat as best they could, trying to look for a place to tie up, hopefully in seclusion in case somebody was watching. They finally found a large tree with long branches hanging out over the water, hiding a shallow pool of calm water which surrounded the trees exposed roots. They struggled to drift into the pool, narrowly getting in before the raft would have smacked against the rocks the tree hid beneath it's branches. The second that the boat hit the ground, they all piled out and took off their lifejackets.
"We'd better split up." Abigail said, taking her sketchpad in hand. "We can cover more ground that way."
"I agree." Riley added, standing next to her.
"Alright." Tyler responded. "I'll stick with Mom and Dad, you two cover the north, we'll cover the south."
"Be back in twenty minutes, you two!" Patrick hissed as they took off.
"So, what are we looking for?" Riley asked, peering across the rocky flats of the Island. Abigail stood on a nearby rock and looked around.
"A large Rock." She responded. "Large enough so that it would be impossible to move."
Abigail continued to storm through the branches of the numerous trees that populated the Island. There were large flat rocks stretching across the landscape, almost like as if the island had armor plating.
"This was all underwater recently." Riley noted, pointing out the small pools of water which had collected in the small cracks and crevasse in the rocks.
"Every time it rains the water levels of the river rise." Abigail said. "Because the river is so narrow, it must rise ten or fifteen feet in some areas, at least."
"Jen!" Riley snapped quickly, pointing towards something through the trees. He pulled Abigail closer to him so she could see what he was pointing at. There, through the trees was a large rounded slab-like rock projecting about twenty forty feet from the ground. It was tilted at an angle, just tall enough to stand out from the rest of the landscape, but not tall enough for the rounded top to protrude through the treetops. As they slowly approached it, they seemed to notice that there was a ring around the base of it, indicating the height to which the water rose to on a regular basis during the rainy months. She reached into her vest pocket and pulled out Ben's watch to check the time. It had only been four minutes since they'd left Patrick and Emily with Tyler.
"If there is a clue, then it should be on the western face of this rock." Abigail stated as they quickly walked around to the other side, finding the flat face of what had once been apparently either the top or bottom of a horizontal slab.
"There's nothing there." Riley stated. "It's flat."
Abigail's heart began sinking into her stomach as she brushed her hand across the surface of the rock. It had to be here, but where? When she took her hand away, she noticed that the rock had a rather dusty surface.
"Wait a minute." She Whispered, raising her hand to the rock again. She swept her hand back and forth across it several times in different spots she could reach. "The Water!" She whispered again, thinking back to the river's waters, so thick with sediment that they could barely see the bottom in only three or four feet of water. Her eyes quickly began to bounce around as she looked for some water. Behind her she saw a large pool in a crevice. She looked and saw the water was clear, the sediment settling in a thin layer along the bottom.
"Davis!" She said quickly. "If it's there, it might be under the sediment." She said, pulling a small water bottle from her pocket and filling it with water. She quickly ran back to the rock and squirted the water all over the face beneath the water line. "Let's start rubbing."
"Cool." Riley responded. "Is a genie going to come out and grant us three wishes?"
Abigail smirked at his response as they both began ribbing the coarse rock with their hands. The sediment began to come off, dripping to the ground and revealing the rock's true smooth surface. Abigail ran back and forth, filling it up with water and spraying down the rock to clear away the sediment.
"Wait, stop!" Riley exclaimed, stopping his finger in one spot. "There's something here." Abigail stepped forward and gently sprayed the area around Riley's hand as he rubbed his fingertips into the stone. Before long, a well defined groove appeared in the rock. They both smiled over their find, Abigail ran to grab more water and Riley kept rubbing. After about nine bottles of water and at least fifteen minutes of rubbing, it was clear. Before them on the rock, was a carving into the stone of a serpent.
"Just like in the diary." Riley noted.
"Except for one thing." Abigail added, pointing towards the slightly larger head of the serpent, now at the opposite end to the one in the book. This snake also had two clearly defined eyes, looking due west, towards the direction the Colorado River was flowing in. "The drawing in the diary led us to the river, then to the marking which will show us the direction."
The two of them were about to exchange a high-five before Abigail saw something rather funny looking on the rock's surface.
"Look." She pointed out to Riley an unclear recess in the rock. "Is it just me or does that look a little odd."
Abigail sprayed the spot with water and Riley dug at it with his fingernails. He could automatically tell it was softer. "There's something else here!"
The two of them continued to chip away at the thick layer of sediment, which before long revealed a square hole roughly cut into the rock. As Abigail sprayed it with more water, Riley soon began to pull handfuls of small stones out of the hole, which he let drop at his feet.
"Jen."
"Yeah?"
"There's something in here." Riley stated, his fingers feeling a foreign object lodged in the hole. He held his breath as he slowly pulled it out, catching it in his hand as it was released from it's mud filled prison. Abigail stood motionless for a few moments, stunned at what she was seeing. In Riley's hand was a small wooden box, about eight inches long and two inches wide, with a four inch rise. It had been wrapped in what looked like an old leather cloth, which was still intact. Abigail quickly sprayed her hands with the water bottle to clean her hands off and drying them with her shirt before gently taking the box in her hands. "My God" She gasped.
The box had been apparently hand carved, with rounded corners and ornate carvings of a large tree, the branches winding their way gracefully about the cover.
"Wait," Abigail stated, focusing on the side of the box. "There's writing here."
"What does it say?"
"I can't tell, it's-" She began to explain, but was interrupted by a finding which left her baffled.
"This is…" She stammered in a confused state. "This is in Dutch."
Riley's eyes widened at her remark. "What?" He remarked, with the same confused tone. As Abigail examined the scripture, she suddenly heard something in side the box shift around.
"There's something inside it." Abigail noted as she slowly unfastened the metal clip holding the box closed. When she opened it, it was as if somebody had knocked the wind clear out of her. She gazed down into the interior of the box. This was it, this was the next step towards the treasure.
"What's in-Holy Mary, Mother of God." Riley stammered, peering into the box. Abigail pulled a Kleenex from her pocket and slowly crouched to the ground, where she laid the box on the ground. She reached into the box's base and slowly picked up a metal dagger. It was obviously very old, patches of rust dotted the metal body and the blade. This blade shined brightly in the sunlight, as Abigail and riley looked upon this artifact they found. It was a sign of hope for them, for Sophie, for Ben.
The handle of the Knife was made almost entirely of solid gold.
To Be Continued
Coming Soon
Chapter 15: The Untold Story