Chapter 10

Discalimer- I own nothing

Dralx-Ahhh, so true-there are not enough books out there with satisfactory cliffies. I should send a letter to Randomhouse. Thanks, I try to touch on everyone in the story so one plotline isn't completely dominant.

Elfgirloflorien- Sadly, I don't have a Ian-esque protective older brother to buy me expensive satellite phones-I only have an older sister whose clothes I get to steal. I, do, however, have a younger brother who I will one day probably bail out of jail. Yipeee.

Kestrel: Wow, three reviews in a row! I was jumping up and down (while seated, which was kinda awkward) I haven't seen Chitty Chitty bangBang since I broke my elbow when I was nine- but I remember that really catchy theme song it had. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang…..something something something Chitty Chitty Bang Bang we love you" Everyone need an addiction-why not goldfish! I love making little stories while I eat them, but that's just me. Unfortunately, I decided not to have any serious whumping in this chapter because I'm saving up for the dramatic action scenes closer to the end. I agree with you-compared to what they've done to Charlie in the Numb3rs fandom Riley has escaped curiously unscathed. I literally fell out of my chair at the "borg" comment-I really don't know why I found it so hilarious, but I just did. However, you never know. Riley could very well be a Borg. But a very sexy one.

Pinkey the Brain-Yay! I'm so happy that you're opinion of the fic changed. Make sure to tell me if you think it's going downhill at any time!

Ali- Seriously, your reviews are like my personal cheer-up of the week. Yay for really positive reviews!

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Chapter Ten

Claire looked around at the grim faces seated in her study in an impromptu conference. She had just shared the news of Robinson's murder, a blow that she was still reeling from.

"We should go home." she stated quietly

"Go home?" Riley asked incredulously. "Claire, the crazy pyro who killed your teacher is at home! We're safer here."

"You know, with the victim killed so elaborately, not to mention horrifyingly. it was probably meant as a message to you." Ben mused.

"A threat to stop looking for the treasure." Abigail agreed.

"Well, it worked." Claire said bitterly. "I feel sufficiently threatened. At the moment I'm going to do whatever he wants."

"Claire," Riley said slowly. "You are thousands of miles away. On a boat. In the middle of the ocean. He would have to be freaking Poseidon to get to you here."

"Riley, I don't think you're seeing the bigger dilemma." she snapped "Robinson was burned to death as a message to me. If I don't come back, he's going to keep on sending me messages in the form of people I'm close to. You can guess that that particular group of people happens to be very small. I have no parents or friends, and I don't know my other professors very well. That leaves my brother. And if Ian's life is on the line, let's make it clear that if the psycho wants us to go home, we're going home."

Claire's voice has crescendoed as she went on, and when she finally stopped she realized that she was full-on yelling.

"Whoa…apparently they don't give stress management classes at Harvard." Riley quipped quietly, wincing as Ben kicked him under the table.

"Claire," Ben reasoned. "Your brother has a huge advantage over your professor-he knows that he's in danger. He can take precautions to ensure his own safety."

"You forgot to mention that he's a trigger happy super-criminal. The Hulk couldn't take out that guy." Riley jumped in.

Claire found herself slightly smiling despite her attempts not to.

"Well…there's that." she admitted.

"Plus, isn't he working with that hot FBI agent?" Riley continued. "She can shield him from bullets and stuff." He smirked, obviously thinking that he wouldn't mind being "shielded" by Agent Dawes.

Claire's smile disappeared. "Way to be a sexist pig, Riley." she said darkly

"Anyway," Ben continued. "Robinson also could have been killed to get information."

Claire nodded. "Ian said that it could have been some kind of torture."

"Ouch." Riley winced.

"So we can assume that Robinson told him everything he knew. Exactly how much was that?" He questioned turning to Claire.

"He only knew the clues up to Nassau." Claire explained quietly. "The last one I found recently and hadn't had time to tell him yet."

"Alright, so if his killer is following us, then we can assume that once we get to Nassau, then we're reasonably safe, because he doesn't know where to look."

Claire shook her head. "He doesn't know exactly where to look, but he can take a pretty educated guess. Blackbeard had a headquarters on Nassau-It's obviously the first place anyone would look, and unfortunately, that's where my clue leads us."

Riley groaned. "Couldn't that Blackbeard guy have been a little more creative?"

"His headquarters obviously isn't the location of the treasure." Claire replied scathingly. "It's just the place where we need to look for the next clue. It's quite logical really. By that time, Blackbeard was already considered quite a legend, so even after he died the building would be preserved."

"Wait, the next clue?" Riley asked. "I thought you knew the location of the treasure."

"I will, once I find the clue inside his headquarters." Claire shot back.

"Well, apparently you're going to have to do it quickly, since we'll have a crazy arsonist serial killer on our heels." Riley snapped.

"Can you two have a normal conversation without getting into an argument?" Abbie said exasperatedly.

Riley and Claire both grumbled under their breath and left the room.

"Ben," Abigail began nervously, "You don't think this is going to be like last time? We almost died."

Ben shuddered, remembering when his wife's life literally hung in the balance, and he had been forced to drop her.

"Hey, it's not going to be like that." he reassured her, holding her against him and kissing her forehead. "None of us are going to die. Unless, of course, Claire and Riley annoy us to death with their incessant arguing."

Abbie chuckled into Ben's shirt.

"I can hear you, you know!" Riley called from his room.

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"We've tracked the guy Robinson was emailing to an internet café a few miles from here. That's probably where Mr. Deachat emailed him from." Dawes updated him quickly as she cut across traffic in the black FBI sedan.

"My hacker couldn't get any information on the guy by tracing the email address." Ian admitted "It was one of those free accounts, so no information could've pulled from the address. Did you have any luck running his name?"

"There aren't any Drew Deachat's on the criminal record database. You know, we never got to question Robinson on this guy- he could be just a colleague."

"Well, right now it's the only lead we've got, right?" Ian replied.

"At the moment, yes. Hopefully the café be able to tell us something about him."

"Wired" Internet Café, was small and open, right by the street with circular tables pushed next to the streetside windows. Ian could see people working diligently on their laptops inside. The café was sandwiched between a clothes store and a pharmacy, nothing suspicious. As he and Dawes entered, a friendly-looking young man smiled at them from a booth in the back of the room. They headed towards him and Dawes sent him scurrying into the back room for his manger with a flash of her badge.

A tall redheaded woman entered with he man and introduced herself as Mariah.

"How can I help you?" she asked cautiously.

Agent Dawes pulled out Robinson's email record. "I have here a list of emails sent by a man we're looking for. He sent them all from here."

"I'm sorry," Mariah apologized. "Most of our customers use their own laptops, so we probably have no record of him." Glancing down at the record, she paused. "Wait…..I think I remember this guy. These are the dates and times sent, right?"

Agent Dawes nodded, looking hopeful.

"This oneman used to come in that time every Saturday." Mariah continued. "That's not unusual, we get a lot of regulars. But this guy always sat in that far corner over there. Even when the place was almost empty. I thought it was strange."

"Could you describe what he looked like?" Dawes questioned.

Mariah shook her head. "That was the other thing-he always wore a Red Socks cap pulled really low over his face, and his coat collar way up, even when it was warm out. I can tell you that he's about fiveten oreleven and has brownish hair, but that's it."

Ian sighed. Well, it was extremely vague, but it was a start. "Did this man ever meet anyone, like another man?"

She shook her head again. The young employee, who had been blatantly eavesdropping, jumped in. "The last time he came in here he was really jumpy though. And he kept looking across the street, Frankly, I was scared he was a terrorist!" he exclaimed eagerly.

Ian tried no to grin. Obviously the kid had an overactive imagination. The only thing that was across the street was an outdoor restaurant, Liberty something.
"-And there was a girl he was staring at!" the young man burst out.

"Ned," Mariah warned. "You honestly don't know that, don't go making accusations-"

Ned waved her away. "I remember, because, y'know, she was really pretty," he said, blushing slightly. "She was having lunch across the street with some people and he kept looking over at them."

Ian snorted. A guy looking over at a pretty girl? It didn't sound that suspicious to him.

Dawes, looking slightly interested, drew out a picture of Robinson. "Was this one of the people having lunch with her?" she asked.

Ned shrugged. "I don't remember." he answered. "I remember what the girl looked like, though, She was blonde, a little older than me, maybe five four or five….."

Ian had his wallet out at a speed that would make a cowboy proud. He pulled out an old picture of Claire that he carried around of her at her high school graduation.

"Is this her?" he demanded.

Ned nodded. "Yeah, but she was older, and her hair was a little shorter….."

His voice faded out as Ian was lost inside his own thoughts, which were basically screaming all kinds of profanities.

He grabbed Dawe's arm and pulled her out. "You need to run a full search on anyone named Drew Deachat, criminal record or not." he commanded. Dawes held back a remark and nodded. Ian ran his hand through his hair.

"We have a major problem."

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"So……….you have no parents?"

Claire turned to see Riley approaching her on the deck.

"It's nice to see you too Riley" she replied sarcastically.

"Hey I was just trying to make conversation. It was one of the first things that came to mind."

Claire simply stared out at the waves for a few minutes.

"My mother died in a car accident shortly after I was born." she finally stated. "My father killed himself when I was nine."

Riley winced, rubbing the back of his neck and wishing he hadn't brought the subject up. "That sucks. Sorry."

Claire shrugged. "Don't be. I never knew my mother, and my father and I didn't spend a lot of time together. It didn't affect me much when he died."

Riley came to lean on the against the railing next to her. "My dad's dead too." he said. "He had cancer."

"Sorry. What about your mom?"

Riley grinned. "She's fine, she has six other people to take care of her."

"Six?" Claire asked quizzically

"My brothers." Riley replied, staring out into the ocean.

"You have six brothers?"

"Yeah," Riley said, chuckling. "I'm the fifth. I was always the quiet one."

"You were the quiet one? Dear Lord, remind me to send your mother a sympathy card when we get home."

"I wasn't that bad, just extremely busy. Everybody was in everybody else's business." Riley replied.

"I wouldn't have survived two minutes at your house."

He laughed. "So, what, is that why you have no friends? Do you have leprosy or something? You can't be near people?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "You really suck at making conversation Riley. I don't have any friends because I like to keep to myself. I'm not a leper."

"You're addicted to goldfish." Riley pointed out.

"That doesn't make me a leper!" she insisted

Riley wasn't listening. He was staring out into the ocean. "Do you see that?"

"See what?" Claire asked

"That….. thing! Out there! You don't see that?"

"Okay, you're hallucinating and you're calling me a leper?" Claire said irritably.

"No! It's really there!" Riley insisted. "See that little green sliver?"

Claire squinted out into the horizon. Sure enough, a barely visible green disc appeared, miles away.

"Land Ho!" Riley yelled, waving his arms around like a lunatic and pointing as Ben hurried over.

Ben glanced through his mariner telescope. "Yep, that's Nassau. We should be there in a few hours."

Claire grinned and watched as the sliver of land grew slowly larger. The real adventure was just about to begin.

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Sorry it took me so long to update guys! Thanks for al the reviews! I broke 20! Yay!

Lets try to break 200! Er, just kidding. But review! It makes for better and faster chapters and happy authors!