A/n-SQUEEE LOTS OF REVIEWS! I apologize for the short chapters, but I'm leading up to a nice bundle of…well, I'm not going to tell you. I'll let you all sweat it out! MWAHAHAHAHA! Left everyone with a nice cliffie there, didn't I? I'm quite proud of it…I honestly didn't know that there was so many Riley fans out there!

Disclaimer-Evil laughter is fun! I still don't own National Treasure because despite the fact I'm a 4.0 GPA sophomore (well, sophomore once school starts…) I couldn't have come up with the complex storyline in the movie. All I own is the DVD. Oh, and Riley who's tied up in my closet (with all of my LOTR elf clones. How does he stand it?).

PS-I'm worried about getting Ben and Abi in cannon. If they're a little OOC (or a lot OOC), please don't bite my head off…

"He should've been back by now," Abigail said, her voice heavily lacquered in worry. They had been sitting in front of the Urban Outfitters for nearly 45 minutes, waiting for Riley to return from the Franklin Institute with the next clue. So far, he was yet to show.

"I know," Ben muttered, his face creased in worry. Riley should've been back nearly an hour ago. He had a good idea what might've happened to his friend, but he hoped that for Riley's sake he was wrong. Unfortunately, Ben was not often wrong.

"Should we go look for him? Maybe he got lost?" Abigail mused. Ben stood.

"We're going to the Franklin Institute," Ben said. He hopped in the car, and motioned Abigail to follow. He pulled out of the parking spot, hoping fiercely that when they arrived at the Franklin Institute, they would find the young man puzzling over the last clue, having lost track of time.

They had no such luck. After arriving, Ben and Abigail searched the entire place, and most of the surrounding outdoors, also. There was no sign of Riley.

"Where could he have gone?" Abigail asked Ben, as they sat on one of the benches across from the Institute.

"I don't think he voluntarily went anywhere," Ben said grimly, "Ian's no fool. He probably found out about the Silence Dogood letters. I think Riley was in the wrong place at the wrong time,"

"Now what?" Abigail asked, worriedly.

"We could find out the Ottendorf Cipher while we're here. I'm sure Ian has it already if he's got Riley," Ben looked up. There was something on the next bench from theirs: a pad of graph paper, a set of Post-it notes, a newspaper, a few other odd pads and such. It looked as if someone was going to return. That was odd; there were few other people in the park. Maybe they had been left there…? Ben stood up, walked to the bench, and began rifling through the objects.

"Ben, that's somebody else's stuff! What are you doing?" Abigail demanded. Ben held up one of the Post-it notes. It had a grid containing the four codes from the Ottendorf Cipher and the four corresponding letters on it.

"This isn't somebody else's stuff. It's Riley's," Ben said, grimly. He picked up the newspaper, and was surprised to find writing along the outer edges of the reverse side.

"The vision to see the treasured past comes when the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of pass and stow," he read, "That's got to be the next clue!"

"Then Ian didn't get it," Abigail said, "But he still has Riley. And I bet I know where Ian's going to turn up next," Ben nodded. They were off to Independence Hall.

Earlier…

"Hello, Riley, remember me?" Riley stopped in shock, abandoning the newspaper. He turned slowly to face Ian and several other members of their old group.

"Ian," Riley said, trying to stop from shaking. This man had nearly killed Ben and him on the Charlotte, broke into the National Archives only to lose the Declaration to Ben (it didn't stop him from shooting, however). Riley didn't want to end up dead, and he knew that Ian would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. It was one of the reasons Ben had asked Ian to volunteer to find the treasure in the first place.

"I see Ben was right; he did know something I didn't know back on the Charlotte," Ian said, smiling slightly, "And he still had something I didn't. The map. Tell me the next clue, Riley, and I'll let you go," Riley forbade his eyes to flicker to the newspaper. He bit his lip and shook his head. He heard the click of somebody pulling the hammer of the gun, and was only slightly surprised to see one pointed at his chest. Riley began to tremble, "Pity, Riley, pity. Now, get in the car," he said, gesturing to a SUV parked not to far away. Riley obediently walked to the car. None the less, as soon as he turned, Ian pushed the gun into his back. Riley could feel the cold muzzle of the gun through his shirt, and he trembled harder. This wasn't the same as Shaw pointing the gun at him in the Charlotte; he knew Ben wouldn't have let them shoot him. This wasn't the same as being shot at in his van, as he was an excellent driver and could evade the gunman's line of sight. Having a gun pressed up against the small of his back, knowing that with a slip of a finger, he would be dead…there was no comparison.

Upon reaching the SUV, Riley stopped, closing his eyes. He rubbed his hands, trying to get them to stop trembling before he reached for the car door. He never had the chance as Ian brought the butt of the gun to his temple and he collapsed to the sidewalk, unconscious.

Upon reaching Independence Hall, Ben turned to Abigail, "You wouldn't happen to have a hundred, would you?" Ben asked. Abigail stared at him, perplexed.

"I think we have one of your dads left," she said, pulling one out. Ben flipped it over, revealing the picture of Independence Hall on the back of the bill. He looked around, and upon spotting a young woman holding a water bottle he strode over to her, a confused Abigail in tow.

"Excuse me, can I borrow that for a moment?" Ben asked the woman, pointing to her water bottle. She nodded slowly, handing it to him. He showed the bill to Abigail.

"See, this picture is a replica of a painting done by an artist who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin," he said, using the water bottle as a magnifier to read the time on the clock, "Thus, the clock should point out the time when the shadow crosses over the house of pass and stow," Abigail nodded, realization hitting her. The young woman shook her head, obviously thinking that the two of them were insane.

"What time?" Abigail asked, peering over Ben's shoulder.

"2:22," he said, slowly.

"What time is it?" Abigail asked, looking at Ben's watch.

"About 3:10," the young woman said, cautiously.

"We missed it," Ben said, glumly.

"What do we do, wait until tomorrow?" Abigail asked.

"No. If Ian has Riley, he may also know the clue. Ian's smart; it won't take him long to figure out that he has to go to Independence Hall. We have to beat him to whatever it is we're trying to find here," He handed the woman her water bottle back, and she gave a small thanks and left almost insultingly fast. However, Ben and Abigail didn't notice.

"Then we should go up there," Abigail pointed to the tower where the Centennial Bell was hanging, "And see if we can at least guess at where this thing is hidden," Ben nodded, having obviously been thinking the same thing. Suddenly they were interrupted by the muffled jingling of a cell phone. Ben reached into his pocket, having forgotten he'd had it. He looked at the incoming call.

"It's Ian," he said, looking meaningfully at Abigail. Ben answered the phone, "Ian,"

"Ben," was the reply, "A little bird told me that you have the next clue. I have a proposition. Let me have the clue. We don't have to be rivals, Ben. I know for a fact that there's at least one person who'll benefit greatly from our partnership,"

"What did you do with Riley, Ian?" Ben demanded. Abigail gave a worried glance, wondering what the conversation could possibly be about. Surely, Ian was trying to weasel his way into getting the treasure, and was probably going to use Riley to do so.

Ian continued as if Ben had never spoken, "I know you're at Independence Hall. I suggest you stay there for a bit. You may have some visitors," The line went dead. Ben looked at Abigail with a grim expression on his face.

"We need that next clue, Abigail, and we need it now," he said, and took off running towards Independence Hall.

Just another post script: Yes, the store that Ben and Abi are shopping at is called "Urban Outfitters", and yes, I'm sure that Ben has a cell phone. When Ben is arrested in the movie and Ian calls him on the cell phone, I'm assuming the phone is Ben's. Thus, Ben does have a cell phone. The end of the post script. PLEASE REVIEW, CHAPS AND CHAPETTES!