Captured
Chapter 2
Another Adventure
A/N: If this story isn't my best writing, it's because National Treasure isn't the easiest category to write for. I'm much better at dialogue - but I can't do script-form on here, so I must accommodate my idea in novel form. Like I said, be patient with this one, it's gonna be good. This chapter goes a little fast...kind of brief too....but I decided to have stuff happen in this chapter.
That night, Ben made his way into his sons' bedroom. He approached the two beds holding Tom and Andy, and when he was sure that they were sleeping, he began looking around the large, decorated room. Every inch of the walls were covered with posters, souvenirs, tour tickets, maps, and magazine and newspaper clippings. On some walls, there were stained wooden shelves that held models, picture frames, and figurines. Ben picked up a wooden one of a Civil War drummer and ran his finger across its hat emblazoned by the army musician's mark.
"Nonsense..." he whispered to himself, guilt running through him. "How could I have said that?"
---::---
-May 16th-
"Alright, Mr. Howe, you're free to go." A woman sitting at a desk behind a window held out an orange ticket to Ian, who took it.
"Thank you," he replied.
"Just take the hall to the right and exit."
"Thank you," he repeated, and began walking with the man next to him. "Eleven years and you finally bail me out, Powell."
"It cost me a pretty penny, I can assure you that," said Powell, one of Ian's faithful henchmen. The blonde-haired man looked much different than he had. He was in need of a decent shower and clothes, and his hair and grown past his shoulders by now.
"Think of all the pennies we'll have once we get Gates," Ian said smirking, "He's the idiot that got me arrested and almost killed. I've figured it out, Powell."
"What do we do?"
"We take the girl."
---::---
-May 17th-
"The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson between June eleventh and June twenty-eighth of the year 1776. Now, The Declaration was signed in order to - yes, Mr. Gates?" Tom put his hand down slowly and looked at his teacher, Mrs. Wimbhold.
"Did you know that we're not even sure if the edition of the Declaration we have in the Archives is really the original copy?"
"Yes, Mr. Gates. It is said that Jefferson drafted more than one copy of the document. This is the sixth time you have interrupted today."
"Andy did four times! I only did twice!" said Tom.
"I did not interrupt four times! You interrupted four times!" said Andy.
"Okay, whatever," said Mrs. Wimbhold impatiently. The fifth grade teacher rubbed her forehead and continued.
---::---
"It's blue, Riley."
"I don't think so, it's more of a light purple," Riley whispered back.
"It's blue."
"It's purple!"
"It's bl - why am I arguing with you about the color of the skirt on the woman in front of us?"
"You tell me." Riley looked at his watch, and then up at the bustling scene. "Wow, sure is busy today.." The two stood behind the 'Please Wait To Be Seated' sign at a local restaurant.
"Mm.."
"So, have fun last night?"
"Hm?"
"I'm assuming you and Abigail..."
"Riley. I'm not accepting comments such as those as appropriate."
"I'm just wondering."
"Then stop wondering."
"I can take you gentlemen over here," the hostess said, and sat them down at a table near the window.
"I have to get back to the zoo soon," said Ben looking at his watch. "This better be fast."
"The watch or the food?"
"Both, actually," Ben said, looking out the window. Riley snorted. "It's great how you refer to a college as a "zoo". It must be so hard being a History professor." He rolled his eyes.
"Lunch is only forty minutes, Riley. I have to get back downtown in about twenty. Occupy me with more interesting conversation in the meantime." There was a pause where Ben stared over a plastic holder with the Specials in them, at Riley.
"Alright...how are things with Tom and Andy, then? Doing okay?"
"Yeah, I guess...they haven't talked much. I'll apologize after they get home from school. Abigail gets home early today - about now. I'm going to call her, just to check up on her." Ben extracted his phone from his pocket and dialed his home number. He sat listening to the ringing for a few seconds, hung up, and tried again. "Hm...she's not answering."
"Try again."
"I just did," said Ben hanging up for a second time.
"She's probably still on the road."
"Probably." The pair ordered and chatted through their meals when they arrived at the table. Soon they were through their lunch, and Ben drove back to the college and opened the door to his classroom two minutes late. He placed his glasses on his nose and went in front of the twenty-three students.
"Good afternoon. Sorry for being late, i was meeting a friend for lunch." Ben hung up his coat and clapped his hands together.
"You've all finished your Declaration of Independence Analyzation papers I hope?" There was a scattered shuffling of papers and the class took out their long reports from their bags, except for Cody Brinchel, who was busy studying her crush standing at the front of the room in front of the map of the United States..
"Cody, your report?"
"Oh, yeah...right..." Cody took her paper out and set it neatly on her desk, smiling at Professor Gates.
"So," started Ben, sitting at his desk, "When I call your name, please step forward and present to me your paper, and I'll make sure everyone has indeed done the entire thing. Grant, James." James stood, went to the desk, and set his paper in front of Ben, who flipped through it, smiled, and handed it back to him. "Thanks, James. Harvey, Megan." Megan stood and dropped her paper in front of Gates. He examined it, and again gave it back to her. "Brinchel, Cody." Cody smiled, elegantly walked to Ben's desk, and carefully put her report in front of him. He placed his fingers on it to pick it up when - the Battle Hymn of the Republic began playing. Ben removed his cell phone from his coat pocket and picked up.
"Ben Gates," he said.
"Hello, Ben."
"Who's this?" The man on the other side gave a small chuckle.
"The legend writ...the stain affected...The key in silence - "
"Ian?"
"That's right, Gates." Ben looked up at Cody's disappointed face, covered the microphone of his cell, and spoke to the class.
"I need to take this, everyone just please stay in your seats. Thanks." He got up, went out the door, closed it, and uncovered the mic.
"Are you out?"
"Yes I am, in fact."
"Enjoy your stay in the iron pen?" There was silence from the other side, then Ian spoke again.
"Gates, I have a proposition to make to you."
"Shoot."
"Ten thousand dollars. At the very least."
"Why?"
"Well, I'm the one that got sent to prison, but I did, after all, help you find the treasure."
"I see what this is about. You want credit. Even though you were the bad guy."
"I wouldn't consider myself the 'bad guy', Gates. Just someone who really does deserve more credit for the finding of the treasure, really."
"Sorry, Ian. All you did was make it difficult. I'm going to have to say no." He moved the phone from his ear and touched his finger to the 'End' button, just as Ian spoke again.
"I have your wife, Gates." Ben froze and lifted it back to his ear.
"So you think you can bribe me all the time by taking the people I care about as hostages?"
"It seems to work, don't you think?" This time, Ben was silent. "The longer you stand there like a goon, the longer the girl stays with us. You want that?"
"Let her go, Ian."
"Not without the money."
"Fine. Ten thousand dollars. In cash."
"Good. Very good. Now here's what you're to do..."
---::---
Ben dismissed the class and locked up his room. He jumped into his car and sped to his sons' school, which he entered, and went to the Main Office.
"Hi, I'm Ben Gates. I need to pick up my two kids from school - Thomas and Andrew."
"Is this important?" asked the school secretary. Ben considered the question and nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty important."
"Go down the main hallway, make a left, and it's the last classroom in the hallway."
"Alright, thanks." He took off down the hall, nearly knocking over a frightened-looking third grader, and flung Mrs. Wimbhold's door open. The entire class looked around at the door, along with the teacher, who frowned.
"Hello, Mr. Gates."
"Hi, uh, I need to take Tom and Andy."
"Good! Thank you! And where ever you're off to, take your time! Please!"
"Come on, guys, let's go." The twins shoved their books into their desks and met their dad at the classroom door.
"Where are we going, dad?" Tom said.
"Nowhere, come on," said Ben impatiently.
"We can't be going nowhere, dad. That's impossible," said Andy.
"Yeah," said Tom, "So where are we going?" Ben looked down at his children and sighed. "The Amazon."
"The Amazon Rainforest?" Andy said excitedly.
"Excuse me." Ben looked up at Mrs. Wimbhold coming up the aisle. "If you're leaving, go. You're disrupting the class."
"Well Excuse me." Ben said sarcastically, shuffling the twins out the door and into the hallway.
"Are we really going to the Amazon Rainforest, dad?" Tom said.
"The river," Ben replied, taking his cell phone out.
"How come?"
"I'll tell you when we get there. Yeah, Riley? Meet me at my house pronto. We've got a problem."
---::---
"He's got Abigail?" Riley said, beginning to panic. Ben was speeding down the thru-way at almost 80 miles per hour. Tom and Andy were both in the back, hanging onto their seats desperately.
"Mom?" Tom said, wide-eyed.
"Yeah."
"What's the point? Just for ten thousand dollars?" asked Riley, grabbing onto the handle on his door as Ben passed three cars.
"I have a feeling he wants more than the money."
"Are you giving it to him?"
"No. I'm getting my wife back."
"He's not going to give her back without the money. You do know that, right? WHOA - OH MY GOD!" A fairly large blackbird whizzed over the top of the car, just missing the windshield. Riley turned around in his seat and watch it fly off. "You're a maniac, Ben! Slow down!"
"I can't. No time. We have to get to the dock."
"The dock? We're driving to the shore?"
"Not the shore, Riley. The helicopter docking field."
"Helicopter? Unless you have a hell of a lot of money in that pocket of yours, we're not going to be able to get any helicopter."
"We're not paying for it, Riley."
"We're stealing it?" Andy said, nearly falling out of his seat, and quickly buckled himself up to compromise.
"That's the plan," Ben said. "We're going to - DAMN!"
"WHAT?" Riley jumped.
"I missed the exit."
"...Oh. Well, calm down, we've got two ten year olds in back."
"I know. I have to turn around."
"Turn around? Are you out of your mind?"
"Maybe." Ben looked in his rear-view mirror. He merged into the right lane, made sure the left lane was completely clear, made a U-turn into it, and began speeding in the opposite direction.
"BEN LOOK OUT!"
"I see it, Riley."
"YOU'RE GOING TO HIT IT!" A small sports car was heading straight for them and just missed them as Ben turned right and drove over the median into the other side of the road.
"There's the exit up there...don't miss it this time," Riley said trying to calm down, and putting his hand to his chest in hope of slowing his heart rate.
---::---
Ben pulled underneath the branches of a large tree. The tree was part of a forest that circled a large clearing. On the other side of that clearing was the area that housed over a hundred helicopters. Ben, Riley, and the twins climbed out of the car and began making their way across the field. Ben was at the head, with Riley following along behind, and the twins in the wake of him.
"This is insane. There are thousands of guards here. How are we going to get out alive?"
"We'll manage it. We managed to steal the D - " He stopped.
"Ben, just tell them," said Riley. The group stopped walking and Ben turned around to face Tom and Andy.
"What did you steal, dad?" Tom asked. Ben didn't answer, so Riley answered the question for him.
"The Declaration of Independence." The twins looked at each other, then at their dad.
"Why?" Andy said blankly.
"It was for a good reason," Ben said, then began walking again. Riley looked at the kids, then followed him.
A/N: It was getting long and I don't want the chapters to be too long for the sake of readability. Heh...next chapter comin' up! (after 5 more reviews.)
REVIEW REPLIES:
caty: haha I know I was trying to think of something for their names all day....came up with those! I'm glad you like em! Thanks for reading, i hope you stick around for the rest!!
Galaxy3: Ah, my faithful National Treasure fic reader. I'm glad you liked this chapter! I have a good next one already written!! I need 5 more reviews to post it though. Also, I have 2 more ideas for 2 more fics. Watch Keep Going for the next chapter, where I'm releasing a preview of one of them. The other is just a funny idea I had and shouldn't be more than 5 chapters. I'm glad you like everything lol!
Wolfgirl54: I can always count on you, Clark. Ha. You need badly to see National Treasure, my friend. You, being a Nic Cage fan, might die from the heat coming from the screen if you know what I'm on about. ;- Thanks for reviewing!
DragonTamer: You're right about hard to find good ones...there are only a few up. Thanks for the review and the read and stuff!
Christina Miller: LOL YAY! THANK YOU!!! I've had it written for a few days now! and 3 is done too hahaha. THANK YOU SO MUCH! enjoy reading!!!!
Liz: Heh...I told you, I'd think about it ;- Thanks for the comments on my names lol. National Treasure's still up at McKinley, I've been watching it!!! Hopefully Mrs. Springborne sets it up!
