National Treasure

Into the West

Chapter 36: Through the Ages

"Alright, Ben." Dr. Sanders said calmly to Ben as she stood by his side. "We've applied the drugs which will serve as a substitute to the anesthesia, and in a few moments you should lose all sensation from the collarbone down." She said, cracking a smile in an attempt to calm his nerves. Ben nodded in understanding while he continued to stare up into the ceiling and off into space. Underneath the operating table he was laying on, he'd felt a small prick of the needle going into his spine, in between his shoulder blades. Just as Dr. Sanders had told him, he felt his body slowly going numb from the neck down. It was a rather strange feeling, and an eerie one. It was very similar to what he had felt right after being shot, just before he died. Almost out of instinct, he waited for his vision to go blurry and his breathing to slow down, but both held firm as he realized the truth to his surroundings.

"Don't worry," One of the nurses said as she walked by. "It's supposed to feel strange."

Ben nodded again, still staring off into space. Now, the only sensation he could feel below his throat was his lungs expanding as he breathed, and that was hardly considered a feeling at all at that point. As he stared at the ceiling, he waited anxiously for them to let him turn his communicator back on. Just to hear her voice would calm his nerves so much, he was sure of it.

"Well, Ben, what do you say we get you back in touch with the others?" Dr. Sanders said, having heard what he and Riley and Abigail were about to attempt to do.

"Yes, please." Ben said in an eager yet groggy tone. She gently reached over and pressed the switch on his earpiece, a beep in his ear telling him it was on and functioning.

"Abigail? Riley? You guys there?" Ben asked eagerly.

"I'm here, Ben." Abigail's voice said over the communicator.

"Me too, Ben." Riley's voice added.

"Alright." Ben said with a small sigh of relief. Hearing their voices did help him to relax a little bit, which was a big plus considering what he was about to face. "Here's an idea of how we can start this. Let's create an outline of everything we need to include in this."

"Yeah, that a good start, Ben." Abigail said. "I'm pulling up files with all the information and resources that we need and Riley will be doing the typing."

"You up to make your fingers smoke, buddy?" Ben asked.

"Lock and Load, Brother." Riley said in a low tone.

"Alright, People." One of the lead surgeons said, stepping to Ben's side all geared up for action. "We're coming to the time." Ben glanced around nervously as the surgeons all stepped into place as if part of a baseball team getting ready for a big game. "Are you with us, Ben?"

"Yeah. I'm here." Ben said as he glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Just try to relax, Ben." Dr. Sanders said in a calm tone. "Take deep breaths and stay awake and alert."

Ben nodded, staring at the clock. He noticed how all the doctors had their eyes on the clock as well, all waiting for the precise moment to begin the operation. He held his breath for a few moments just before they began working. The time was 18:30:04

18:37:39

"Well, Ben, where do you think we should start?" Abigail asked as she sipped on an iced mocha as she tried to stay focused. "I was thinking the best place would probably be with Merez and his men."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Ben said between heavy breaths. Abigail could hear monitors beeping and surgeons talking in the background, but knew her mission was to keep Ben focused on Sophie's story.

"Alright, I'll see what information I can pull up on that part of the story."

"I'm one step ahead of you, Abs." Riley said. "I've already got a general layout of the story of how Merez and his men found the treasure, got it over to North America, and I'm right up to the point in the story in which that guy in the mountains gets his hands on the map and sets off for Wales."

"Wow, really?" Abigail asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are you getting all your facts straight?"

Riley said nothing, only looking up from his computer for a brief moment and giving her one of his John Wayne glares.

"Sorry." Abigail whispered. Riley concealed a heavy belch by clenching his teeth together as he finished his fourth can of Pepsi. For security reasons, the two of them had been given use of a conference room on the fourth floor to use for their studies. Patrick and Emily had taken Armando and the girls to a nearby hotel so they all could get some much needed sleep. One of the doctors had even given Patrick some prescribed sedatives for Emily, just in case. She remembered how worn out and worried Emily was when they left for the hotel, she looked as if she hadn't slept in months. Glancing out the window, Abigail looked out onto the desert. She saw before her eyes a golden sunset behind the city which began to glow in the evening shadows. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that same star appearing in the darkness. Deep in her mind, her thoughts resonated of Sophie, how maybe perhaps she had seen that same star many times.

"Ben, how are you doing?" Abigail asked, snapping herself out of her daze.

"So far, so good." Ben said, still taking heavy breaths which Riley and Abigail could both hear very clearly over their headsets. "How far have you guys gotten?"

"Right now, we're looking at putting together how the story came to be, how the treasure was found, how Merez and his men got it all to North America, and how Sophie came to be involved in this." Riley explained, typing furiously as he bounced back and forth between web browsers.

"Hey, you guys." Abigail said, looking at something on her computer. "I think I may have found some useful information on Merez and his men."

"Really?" Riley asked.

"According to what I just found, it has been told by people back in Spain that Merez's fleet simply vanished." Abigail said as she read information on Juanto Merez. "However, there's another website on here with history on the pirates of the Iberian Peninsula."

"Bingo." Ben sighed. "What did you find?"

"According to several historians, roughly around 1622 several ships went missing off the coast of Portugal." Abigail said. "Several people thought it to be very odd as no storms had raged the seas."

"I'm assuming one of them was Merez's ship?" Riley asked.

"Yep." Abigail responded. "But that's not the best part of what I have found."

"Please, go on!" Ben stammered eagerly.

"Apparently, four ships from a band of pirates went missing around the time that Merez and his men went missing." Abigail said as she read. "This says that this particular group of pirates raided dozens, perhaps hundreds of ships passing through the straits of Gibraltar and the Irish sea."

"Wait a moment," Ben said, interrupting Abigail. "Four ships? I always thought it was only two that Merez and his men found."

"It may have been more." Abigail responded. "This also tells us a great fact of the treasure."

"Yeah, that it may have been collected from almost every reign of power in Europe at that time, perhaps the whole Eastern Hemisphere." Riley added.

"I think you might be right, Riley." Abigail said. "That would explain the extreme measures Merez and his men took to protect the wealth from the King of Spain."

"Just as the Freemasons had." Ben added. "They felt it their duty to protect the treasure."

Abigail nodded, still glancing out the window occasionally at the darkening sky. "We've got a lot of work to do, boys."

19:24:51

"He's still stable though, right?" Patrick asked in a worried tone, wincing as he gently rubbed the brace on his knee while looking at his watch.

"Yes, he is, Patrick." Abigail said over her cell phone. "I just spoke with him and he says he's doing fine."

"Alright." Patrick said with a deep sigh. "I still keep thinking that he may just be putting on a smile for everybody."

"I'm thinking that too." Abigail said in a similar tone. "But there's not much we can do at this point in time."

"I know." Patrick said softly, his nerves tied and twisted into precarious knots. "Thanks for keeping me informed, though."

"I'll keep in touch." Abigail said, followed by the click of her hanging up the phone. Patrick breathed another deep sigh as he looked down at his phone for a few moments before setting it on the table next to the bed. Glancing around at his surroundings, he felt his stomach twisting and turning inside of him. He should be there for his son, be there by his side while he fights for his life. He just prayed having Abigail and Riley in at least direct contact would help him find the strength to endure what he was going through. As he kept praying silently in his mind again and again, he glanced to his left, to the other bed. Armando's calm face stared back at him as the boy slept, completely exhausted from the day's events. Two close family friends of theirs had arrived at the hospital earlier that day after hearing word that he and the girls were safe and sound. They had gone out to their house and retrieved a few of their things, a fresh change of clothes and some assorted belongings for each of them. They had also gone with Armando to the county coroner's office, to properly identify his Grandfather's body. In compliance with his will, Joe Salinas would be cremated, a decision which was hard for Armando to face. In addition, he'd been told of his father, and how he had been killed in the terrorist attacks of 2001. It was a harsh blow, as Armando had always thought so negatively of their father for abandoning them, something he would most likely regret for the rest of his life. He said to them after he was told of it that he would tell Anita and Josephine about their father's death.

Patrick concluded that Armando had not told them yet, as the two girls slept soundly next to him on the bed, curled up together under the sheets. Meanwhile, at his other side, Emily was sound asleep, much to his relief. Although he didn't want to admit it, he was surprised that she had not yet gone off the deep end during this whole ordeal. He gently rested his hand on her shoulder as he lie next to her in bed. He tried to rest, to conserve his strength as he knew the next few hours could change so much.

20:07:14

Ben stared blankly into the ceiling tiles of the operating room as he thought of the road which had led him to the treasure. He couldn't help but think of what was in that cave beneath the lost city. How did they get all of it down there? Did the Navajo help them? How did Merez and his men form an alliance with the native peoples of the desert? There was so much to consider when putting such a writing together as they were attempting to do. The first piece of information which was relevant to the study of the treasure, just like with the Templar Treasure, was how a few brave men took this treasure of gold, jewels and history in their hands and decided that it was too much for any one person to have. Ben thought of how long it must have taken those men to haul all that treasure clear across the North American continent, which would not have been an easy task at all in those days. The next piece of information involved the Navajo Indians, and how this alliance that they had formed with Merez and his men could very well have been the first contact between the Natives of the southwest and the Europeans.

"Riley? Abigail?" Ben asked hoarsely. "We need to remember to collaborate on how the Navajo became involved in all of this."

"I was just thinking that, Ben." Abigail said, still typing and browsing through web page after web page with furious speed. "I haven't been able to find much online, so it looks like we'll need to contact some historians on this subject."

"We'll have to wait on that." Ben said. "Until the situation with this whole thing is a bit safer." Ben knew that Ian had dragged God knows how many criminals and mercenaries into this treasure hunt, and they had been told by Pete to keep this hush-hush until they could finish their investigation.

"Alright, so what is our overall master plan with this?" Riley asked. "Are we looking at a historical writing or a novel?"

"I think doing a two-in-one would be appropriate, don't you, Abigail?" Ben asked.

"I do agree." Abigail said with a sigh. "This story is just so rich with history, it will take us some time to untangle all the knots."

"Okay, how on earth do we cram all of this into one story?" Riley asked in a puzzled tone. "I'm getting a headache just thinking about trying to read it."

"Hang in there, kiddo." Ben said with a sigh. "We can do it."

Still staring into the light, Ben concealed within his mind his true thoughts of the present situation. He tried to keep his eyes fixed on the ceiling tiles and one of the fluorescent light fixtures nearby, while trying his hardest to ignore the sight of what was being reflected off some of the equipment around him. At one glance, he caught a glimpse of what was going on above the plastic sheet which was draped over his chest, where two surgeons were making some repairs to the entry and exit wounds to his lung that two of the bullets had made. As he kept taking deep, steady breaths, Ben could feel the tubes from the ventilator running down his throat from his nose, which was where the tubes entered his body. He knew it wouldn't be long now before they started the operation on the damaged blood vessel to his heart. He felt the bandages that were wrapped around his forehead becoming damp with sweat. He tried to stay calm, but it was becoming harder and harder as the seconds ticked by. Ben gently closed his eyes, letting his surroundings disappear from view. In his mind, he found himself back in the Lost City, at the edge of that river. Before long, the beeping of the monitors and talking amongst the surgeons and nurses faded away into silence and all he could hear was the sound of running water and the sounds of the Grand Canyon echoing through the cavern. In his mind, he could visualize himself standing before the opening to a dark tunnel. At the end of that dark tunnel was the treasure he'd been forced to risk everything to find. He was so close to finally seeing it, finally finding it for her, that he just couldn't wait to see it. In his mind he could picture the looks on the faces of Armando, Anita, and Josephine, how they must have lit up like Times Square on New Year's Eve. He was sure Tyler would get a kick out of seeing a real treasure for the first time as well. He wanted to share that moment once again with those he loved. With Abigail. With Riley. With his parents.

"Ben?" A woman's voice asked, snapping him out of his gaze into space. When his vision cleared, he looked up and saw Dr. Sanders looking down at him. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." Ben said groggily, blinking in the light.

"We have good news." She said with a weak smile. "Your lungs are healing nicely, so the first part is completed."

Ben cracked a weak smile, knowing the risky part would be coming next.

"Are you ready?" Dr. Sanders asked. His confidence restored, Ben gently nodded his head. As she stepped away from his side, Ben fixed his eyes again on the ceiling as the doctors announced they would be starting, listening to the clanging of medical instruments being handled and prepared.

"Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen." One of the doctors who was out of Ben's view announced. "We will now begin the procedure to repair a lesion to the aorta in order to prevent a traumatic aortic rupture."

Ben heard murmurs and whispers around him as they prepared for the next step. Collecting his thoughts in his mind, he placed all his focus on the treasure, on Sophie's story, on the swift striking of the keys on Riley's laptop, and Abigail's dull murmuring to herself as she read information off the internet. They seemed to calm him a little bit, and he felt an ease of relief as his fears diminished. He would need that faith if he wanted to pull through the next step on his way to the treasures he was seeking; one treasure in the middle of the Grand Canyon, and another in a nearby conference room. Even at that distance, he could still feel the warmth of her hand gently rested on the side of his face, and that gave him every reason in the world to keep fighting.

21:17:40

"Hang in there, Ben." Riley said softly over his communicator for the fifth time. "Hang in there."

"You holding up alright?" Abigail asked, listening to what was going on in the background. She had the volume on her earpiece turned up loud enough so that she could almost hear what the surgeons conducting the surgery were saying. However, she kept switching ears every ten minutes or so, worrying if the sound might make her ears bleed.

"So far, so good." Ben said with a deep breath. Another sound Abigail was happy to hear was the sound of his deep breathing. "How are you doing?"

"We're doing great so far, Riley and I have a great outline laid out for the introduction to Sophie's story."

"I meant how are you doing, Abigail." Ben whispered. Abigail casually looked up at Riley without moving her head, and saw him looking at her with the same expression. Gently nodding his head, he removed his earpiece from his ear, giving them a moment of privacy.

"I'm doing alright, Ben." Abigail said calmly. "Riley is doing fine too, he's working on a twelve-pack of Pepsi. I just talked to your dad, he's fine, as is your mom. We're all fine."

She heard Ben exhale deeply in a certain tone of voice that told her he had more on his mind than he should have.

"Ben, you need to stay focused, do you understand me?" Abigail said in a calm yet stern tone. "Please, don't get yourself all twisted up in knots."

There was a brief pause, a void in silence filled with Ben's heavy, labored breaths.

"Ben, I want you to do something for me." Abigail said in her firm tone.

"Yes?"

"I want you to picture Sophie for me." Abigail said. "Picture what it would have been like for her and her family to hear about the treasure."

Taking another deep breath, Ben calmly wrapped his head around the visual image in his head of what Wales would have looked like in the middle of the nineteenth century. "Alright."

Closing his eyes, he visualized a small hamlet on the shores of Wales, along the Irish Sea. He could see in his mind images of the story he'd known so well. After setting in his mind the story of William, the California tradesman who had received the original map from the old man in the mountains, he pictured what life was like in Wales for the Hughes family. From the story, Ben could determine that the Hughes family were of the lower class, barely getting by amidst hard economic times in Britain. He could imagine the desperation in James' expression, in his eyes, the shear need of a father to fulfill his duties as a parent to provide for his children. Ben thought of the risk James took to pursue the treasure, but he then remembered that all forms of opportunities come as risks of varying degrees. That was a quality that Ben had come to admire in James, the ability to take action on behalf of those he loved. In his mind, Ben could also see Sophie and her sisters, and the excitement they could have held in the beginning of their adventure; the immigrant experience.

"Did you get all that?" Ben asked.

"Got it, Ben." Riley said as he typed away furiously at his friend's thoughts. On the screen of his laptop, the puzzle pieces to Sophie's story were slowly coming together. As he connected the facts and figures, he could see a great story forming before him.

"Keep going, Ben." Riley insisted. "We need to keep moving."

"Yeah." Abigail added.

"Alright, alright." Ben said as he yawned deeply, his eyes straining against the bright lights shining in his face. The next part of their journey took them to the high seas of the North Atlantic, a journey which in those days was done by the power of the wind, and could take several weeks to complete. He imagined Sophie and her sisters packing up their belongings into wooden chests and suitcases, tearfully saying goodbye to the only home they had ever known. He then pictured William leading James and the girls to a wharf on the coast, with a large clipper ship filled with immigrants waiting for them. He could almost see the glimmer of hope in their eyes; hope for a better tomorrow and a new life. For a brief second, Ben could almost feel the strong winds blowing against his face as he imagined the ship slicing through the choppy seas. He could see James and William talking about the map and examining it further. He saw James with a sample set of chemicals and a familiar looking diary he planned to give to one of his daughters, carefully and secretly planning out their journey into the west. Meanwhile, he saw the girls enjoying the adventure of the high seas. He saw Violet, ribbons in her hair, climbing up a few steps into the rigging and looking over the waves with some of the other children. He saw Nellie plopped down on the deck amidst a blanket spread on the floor, playing with her homemade dolls. Last but not least, he saw Sophie sitting atop a barrel against the wall of the deck house, a book in her hand. She looked just as he remembered she did from his vision. Deep in his mind, he was still pondering over whether or not he had just been dreaming, or if he had really spoken with her. His main piece of evidence to prove to himself that he had spoken with her was the fact that she knew precisely how many times Riley's heart had stopped after he was shot. Either way, he kept it in his mind as the truth, and as a secret. He scoffed gently at the thought of him trying to tell someone about what had happened to him, and then winding up in the psych ward for three days. That was, if he made it through this one final challenge.

"Ben? You still there?" Riley asked. "You still with us?"

"It's alright, Riley." Ben said groggily. "I'm still here."

22:31:04

Abigail stared blankly at the clock for what seemed like several minutes. She was speaking to Ben as the surgeons were placing a stint within his heart to keep the aorta from bursting, and they were only ninety minutes from completing the surgery. She'd already chewed clear through what was left of her fingernails while Riley finished typing his twenty-seventh consecutive page of data for Sophie's story. They had gotten through the story of how the treasure came to the new world, how Merez and his men allied with the Navajo tribes of the Grand Canyon and hid the treasure in a cavern deep inside the religious center, the lost city of Kokato. As for Sophie's story, they had reached the point up to where the story left off, which was the night that her father was killed by two stray bandits in the wilderness of the Colorado territory and Sophie disappeared into the west. In her mind, Abigail could see the look in Sophie's eyes as she watched her father die; shear terror, panic, rage, and hatred, all combined could drive anyone insane. Abigail shook her head in denial as the thought of someone going through something like that was too hard for her to imagine, almost to the point that she didn't hear the knocking on the door.

"Who is it?" Riley called.

"It's me, you guys." Pete responded as he cracked the door open slowly and stepped into the room. The darkness of the hallway contrasted with the brightness of the conference Riley and Abigail were using briefly blinded him. He shook his head to clear his vision until finally he stood before Riley and Abigail with a strange expression on his face.

"Pete?" Riley asked curiously. "What's up?"

Pete breathed a deep sigh as he prepared himself to tell them the news he carried. Abigail looked up from her computer and saw the look on his face, and almost instantly she felt a chilling feeling form in the pit of her stomach. "What is it, Pete?" Abigail asked, taking off her earpiece and turning it off so Ben couldn't hear what they were saying. "Is it Ben?"

"No." Pete said with another deep sigh. "Its Ian."

Abigail glanced at Riley, who in turn glanced back at her. Slowly rising from her chair, she looked at him with a stern expression on her face. "What is it, Pete?"

"He's escaped again, Abigail." Pete sighed. "He had some more men jump the transport which was taking him to the prison, we found both the guards with bullet holes in their skulls."

Abigail suddenly became very white, the chilling feeling in the pit of her stomach spreading throughout her entire body. "What?"

"He's escaped to Mexico." Pete said, unfolding a piece of paper in his hands. "He left this for you, Abigail."

Crossing the room slowly and nearly stumbling across the chairs in her path, she took the small piece of paper in her hands and read the short message.

"I will be back, Dr. Chase"

Letting the note fall to the floor, Abigail trembled gently with anger. In her mind, she was confronted with all that Ian had done to them, all the pain that he'd caused, she blindly reached to one of the chairs and ripped the cushion from the backrest. Holding it to her face, she screeched into the pillow as loud as she could for about ten seconds.

"Ian got away?" Riley snapped. Her eyes widening, Abigail turned in Riley's direction in shock after he revealed what had happened within listening range of a person who was undergoing open heart surgery.

"RILEY!" Abigail screeched.

"What?" Riley asked in shock, taking two seconds to realize he was still wearing his earpiece. It didn't take long before Riley could hear a commotion coming from the other end of the transmitters.

"Ben, are you there?" Riley asked. "Ben!"

Ben didn't respond. All Riley could hear was the doctors yelling.

"He's Crashing!"

"Get out of the way, charging-"

"Get that thing out of his ear!"

This was all surrounded by a high pitched tone coming from what sounded like a heart monitor. It was the last thing that Riley heard before he lost the signal.

To Be Continued…..

Coming Soon:

Chapter 37: Requiem