Disclaimer: Do I need one anymore? I don't own anything from the movie. Everything else is mine.

A/N: Ha! For once, winter was helpful. We had a snow day today (no school!!!!!!!!!!), and if this wouldn't have happened, then I wouldn't have been able to update until sometime next week. So, yay for snow! Even though I had to avoid snowplows to bring you this update… Trust me, it takes skill. Lol! I was also listening to songs from the musical Sweeney Todd when I wrote this chapter, which surprisingly helped it along. Who knew Johnny Depp could sing? All right, anyway… Thank you to momiji'sunusedhalo, Supernaturalfreakisabookworm, daisyduke80, Thuraya Known, fantomfairy, Harm Marie, Miss Fenway, Halo (I put something in here that you will like!), and Majestik Moose for your wonderful reviews. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 6

Abigail loved ancient Greece, which was the reason that she began with that exhibit. She had studied the subject since she was in high school and was anxious to see how the museum portrayed it. She had only been to the museum once before, but she had never seen this exhibit. It must have been new. Abigail studied the riddle carefully as she moved through the hall with the statues of the ancient gods and goddesses in it, pretending to be looking at her copy of the museum map. Though she knew what the words meant, she had no idea what she was supposed to be looking for. She stopped briefly to inspect what could possibly be an early manuscript of Homer's Iliad before moving on to leave the exhibit.

Her mind was suddenly captured when she entered a maze that resembled one in ancient Greek lore that was believed to hold a Minotaur at one of the dead ends. Abigail smiled as she moved through it, trying to find her way. What a clever way to make the exit of the exhibit. She wasn't scared, but she could see how the high, cracked stone walls could be intimidating to an unfortunate ancient Greek that had to go through.

She rounded a corner and gasped with surprise, but then laughed aloud when she saw the dominant statue of a convincing Minotaur. If this was the real thing back in ancient times, Abigail knew that she would be killed on the spot. With the excited smile still on her face, she turned around to find the actual way out.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Ben sighed as he moved past the statues of buffalos as they raced across the sandy plains, having the feeling that he wasn't going to find any sort of clue in this exhibit. Why did he have to choose the floor with all of the animals on it? His bored mind then wondered how Riley and Abigail were doing.

Then, he noticed that an older boy was picking on a younger one as they stood in front of the same exhibit he was, and an idea came to him. Right behind the last buffalo in the stampede, and right in front of the boys, was a fake curled up rattlesnake. He remembered that whenever his dad would bring him to the museum, he would find the "secret" button and push it, making the snake's tail rattle and scare anyone standing near it. He might as well not break the tradition while he was here.

Ben walked over to the edge of the exhibit where a plastic rock formation was. He sat on the bench beside it, watching the boys and waiting for the right moment to push the button.

The younger boy finally seemed to be tired of the older boy's teasing, and he angrily slammed his hand down on the metal bar that went around the exhibit. As soon as this happened, Ben pushed the button.

The older boy stepped back in and cried out in surprise when the rattlesnake's tail sounded while the younger smirked with satisfaction. Then, a woman came up to them with a bunch more kids behind her and scolded them from leaving the group. The older boy followed her, sulking, but the younger one turned to face Ben. Seeming to know that he was the one who had made the rattlesnake move, he smiled in a thankful gesture before following the group. Ben laughed a little as he got to his feet and looked at the map, seeing what the next exhibit was going to be. Great. Animals of the deep.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Riley stood before the entrances of two exhibits, one he knew, though they didn't have signs, that led to the dinosaurs and the other to ancient Egypt. Out of all the exhibits on the second floor, he had narrowed it down to these two. Why? Because the dinosaur exhibit had been his favorite when he was a kid, and his dad loved the ancient Egypt exhibit. If he had left behind some secret clue, Riley knew there was a good chance that it was in one of these two.

Taking a deep breath, the techie walked into the dinosaur exhibit. What it basically was was a curing, dimly lit hall with life-size dinosaur statues on both sides at unequal increments. If a person stepped right in front of one, a light on the ceiling would fall on the dinosaur, and it would make a noise, the one that the dinosaur most likely would have made if it was alive. It was a very fun exhibit.

Riley smiled when the Velociraptor lit up on his left, making its shrieking call like in the Jurassic Park movies, while a young kid lit up the Tyrannosaurus Rex behind him and making it roar. Moving on and ignoring the majority of the rest of the dinosaurs as he studied the riddle, he soon made it out of the exhibit without finding anything. Like he knew what he was looking for anyway… But that only left him with one more option. The ancient Egypt exhibit.

He sighed, mentally preparing himself for the memories to come flooding back to him as he stepped into the hall. Moving through the sand, irritated when it got in his sandals and in-between his toes, Riley went up to the side wall of the accurate-looking pyramid and went through the small doorway, quickly descending the stone steps.

He found himself in a cool, stuffy room with nothing in it except for a few bricks that were supposed to resemble the real thing. Wondering if he was actually going to find anything in this exhibit, Riley moved through the small, narrow hallways he knew so well that led to the Pharaoh's burial chamber. He had never been fond of this exhibit since it was so closed and cramped, and he remembered the time he had gotten lost inside of it when he was a young kid. He waited inside of one of the small side rooms for an entire, panic-filled hour until the museum security finally found him and carried him back to his father. That was how he had developed his mild claustrophobia.

Soon, he entered the larger room that was designed to recreate the burial chamber where all of the Pharaohs were buried, the only thing that was out of place being the glowing red exit sign above the a door that led out of the exhibit. Riley's eyes traveled around the room as a group of people entered, moving from displayed jewelry and perfumes to the real preserved mummy in the corner, and finally to the Hieroglyphics wall.

Riley slowly wandered over to the wall with tons of Hieroglyphics, smiling as he looked at all of the different symbols. He had some knowledge of the ancient language, such as the fact that rulers and gods and goddesses had their own symbol that represented them. He wished that he ruled a country and got his own letter in the alphabet…

Then, his eyes widened in surprise when they landed on a symbol he knew wasn't ancient Egyptian. Someone with an untrained eye wouldn't have noticed it and would have probably passed right over it, but he knew this symbol well. It was smaller than the rest of the Hieroglyphics and a little off to the side, but much more detailed. Riley stepped closer to the wall and knelt down, starting at the hawk holding a goblet in one hand and a sword in the other that was toward the bottom of the wall. It was the crest of his ancestors. He looked down and saw that the same symbol was in the upper right hand corner of the riddle that Ben had photocopied for him.

The techie quickly took out his cell phone and flipped it open, setting the camera and hurriedly taking a picture of the symbol before anyone noticed. He knew deep in his heart that this was the clue, not only because he knew his dad so well but also because the man who was in charge of building this exhibit, Daniel Richards, was a good friend of his dad's. This was it.

He quickly stood up, knowing that he had to tell Ben and Abigail about his discovery, but he bumped into someone in his haste. Riley turned around immediately while muttering an apology, but he stopped in surprise when he recognized the blond-haired man. "Nick? What are you doing here?" he asked when he saw his brother's best friend. "I thought you hated museums."

"Just looking," Nick answered casually with a shrug. "Same as you I would expect."

Riley nodded, knowing that wasn't exactly the case. Nick wasn't looking for what he was. "Well, it was nice seeing you, but I should probably get going," he told him. "I have some people to meet."

"All right. See you later, Ri."

"I hate that name," Riley thought to himself as he quickly moved to the door with the glowing red exit sign above it and left the exhibit, feeling Nick's eyes on his back intently. "Why must he and Dustin call me that?" He knew that his brother hadn't called him that hated nickname recently, but he had all the time while they were growing up. He remembered asking him one day if he would like it if he called him Dust. That hadn't settled too well…

When he was out of the exhibit, Riley sat down on the bench and took out his cell phone again. He quickly dialed Ben's cell number, hoping that he wasn't in an exhibit as a group of kids on a school field trip stopped right in front of him. To his relief, his friend soon picked up.

"Riley, what is it?" Ben's voice sounded distant on the other end.

"I found something," Riley answered, having to talk a little louder because of the large group of kids in front of him. Noisy kids…

"Really? What?"

"I'll tell you when I see you in person," Riley replied, his eyes darting around him for a sign of someone who could overhear him, especially Nick. "Grab Abi and meet me in the café on the first floor. We can all have lunch or something."

"All right. I'll see you there in five to ten minutes," Ben replied.

"See you then." Riley flipped his cell phone closed, ending the call. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He didn't understand why he was feeling so wary about Nick. He had known him for a long time since Dustin had been friends with him since middle school, and out of all of his brother's friends, Nick was the one who had always been nice to him. Everyone else regarded him simply as "Dustin's annoying kid brother". But something felt off about Nick, he just didn't know what. Then, knowing that he should probably meet Ben, he got to his feet and went down the escalator to head to the café.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"All right, so what did you find?" Ben asked as he took a sip of his soda.

"It was in the ancient Egypt exhibit," Riley answered, taking a bite of his sandwich before he took out his cell phone to find the picture. "Here you go."

He, Ben, and Abigail were sitting at a small table in the café that Riley had suggested for lunch, but the younger man was the only one that could truthfully be considered to be "eating lunch". Riley had two ham and cheese sandwiches, a small cup of soup, chips, and a soda. Ben had chips and a soda, and Abigail only had a cup of hot tea, snagging a chip from Ben every once in a while. Abigail had mentioned her surprise more than once about how Riley could eat so much and not gain a pound. She soon declared that it was not humanly possible and officially named him to be an alien from Jupiter.

Ben took the cell phone his best friend was offering him and looked at the small picture that he had taken on the Hieroglyphics wall. He then took out his museum map and the riddle, seeing that the same symbol was on the photocopied paper. "I think you're on to something, Riley…"

"It was on a wall filled with Hieroglyphics," Riley continued, unwrapping his second sandwich since he had finished his first one. "The average person wouldn't notice it unless they knew they were looking for it. It's blended in so well."

"I've been to the ancient Egypt exhibit once when I was young," Ben muttered as he handed Riley back his phone. "I remember the Hieroglyphics wall. There has to be something behind that symbol since I don't think the wall itself is the clue, but we'll have to get a better look at it when there's no one else around."

Riley cringed when he heard the statement. "Does that mean that we have to do something that's not exactly legal?" he asked quietly so no one else in the café would hear him.

Ben nodded. "Yes, Riley. It does," he answered so quietly that Riley and Abigail had to lean forward on the table to hear him. "If we want to find that clue… we'll have to break into the museum."

A/N: Okay, I know that was kind of a short chapter, but it was important. The next one should be longer. I already have a lot planned for it. And FYI, the rattlesnake button mentioned toward the beginning of the chapter does exist at a museum close to me. My friend and I have pushed it so many times! Every time we go there as a matter of fact. Also, the part where Riley is looking at the Hieroglyphics and wishing that he could rule a country and get his own letter in the alphabet is not mine either. That is in the special feature "Riley's Decode-It Game" on the National Treasure DVD. Play it if you haven't. Even though it's set for younger kids, it's very amusing! At least to me. Thanks for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated. Thanks!