Disclaimer: Just look at previous chapters to know that I don't own anyone!

A/N: AH!!!!!!!!!!! 60 reviews! I can't believe this story has taken off so much. You guys are the best! I'm also sick, so seeing all of these reviews really helped! Thank you sooooooo much! From the weather that we're having right now, it appears that we will have another snow day tomorrow, so I may be able to update tomorrow also. But, just in case, I bring you another long chapter. Thank you so incredibly much to fantomfairy, Supernaturalfreakisabookworm, PropheticIllusion, daisyduke80, Miss Fenway, Majestik Moose, Harm Marie, angel-death-dealer, momiji'sunusedhalo, Lo, and last but not least Halo for your wonderful reviews. I feel better already. Hopefully this chapter will make you laugh but also provide some excitement after that emotional rollercoaster of a chapter I posted. Enjoy!

Chapter 8

Upon the urging of Ben, Riley called the police to report the break-in even though nothing of value had been taken. Officers arrived at about a half hour later to search the apartment for evidence since it wasn't an emergency. A very concerned Abigail had come up soon after they had made the discovery since Ben had called her cell phone.

"I'm sorry that this had to happen to you, Riley," Sadusky said, sitting down next to him on the couch. "You've had a rough day with your father's funeral and all, and now this. It's not even one in the afternoon yet. What next?"

"This really isn't that bad, Sadusky," Riley muttered. "I mean, nothing I care about was taken, even tough this is robber Heaven because of all the technology."

"And none of that was taken?" Sadusky asked in disbelief.

"No, none at all. No batteries, no wires. Nothing."

"What was taken?"

"Just a couple of maps for the museum downtown."

Sadusky shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense…" Then, he patted Riley on the back and got to his feet when he was called over by a couple of the officers that were with him, telling him that they couldn't find anything that would give them a suspect.

"Ben, you know what happened here, don't you?" Riley quietly said to his best friend. "Whoever was in here had to be looking for the envelope. That's why nothing else was taken."

"Then it must be the same person who killed Andy and Cathy," Ben muttered. "They just don't know that you're staying with me. The riddle will be useless anyway. We've already found out where the clue is."

Riley suddenly looked at him nervously. "In the museum."

Ben instantly caught on to what his best friend was saying. "That's why the museum maps were taken."

"We have to get there as soon as possible for the clue, Ben."

"I know. We will."

Sadusky glanced behind him, catching some of their conversation. He knew then that Riley and Ben knew more than they were letting on. Then, he saw that the treasure hunter had met his gaze and was staring at him intently.

"Go and grab a change of clothes, Riley," Ben said without averting his gaze from the agent's. "Then we'll get out of here."

Xxxxxxxxxx

After Riley, Ben, and Abigail changed their clothes at the Gates' estate, the three friends drove to the nearby pizzeria to have lunch. They entered the crowded building, surprised to see that the red-haired girl from the funeral was standing behind the counter. She smiled politely when she saw Riley.

"Hey, Kiddo. You and your friends can have a seat. Be with you in a moment."

"Thanks, Kristi." Riley found an available table and sat down, Ben and Abigail following. "So, what should we get on our pizza, guys?"

"Anything but anchovies," Abigail said, looking over the menu. "I hate anchovies…"

"Fine with me," Riley muttered, looking at the menu as well. "We should probably get a family size since there's three of us…"

"So, that would automatically require a family size?" Abigail asked. "Will we eat it all?"

Ben glanced at his wife. "It's Riley we're talking about," he said.

"True."

Riley pretended to look offended. "Hey. I don't eat that much," he said, a hurt expression on his face.

Abigail grinned. "Sure you don't."

"Have we figured out our toppings yet?" Ben intervened before the friendly banter could turn ugly.

His wife sighed. "No. The only thing we've decided is that we don't want anchovies," she answered.

"How about sausage and pepperoni?" Riley suggested. "Everyone likes sausage and pepperoni."

"I'm not too fond of pepperoni," Abigail replied, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed. "Not that you care anyway…"

Riley also leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "You're right. I don't," he told her. "Then you can just give me your pepperoni. Deal?"

Abigail smirked. "Deal. How does sausage and pepperoni sound to you, Ben?"

"Great," Ben said with a smile. "Sausage and pepperoni is my favorite."

Riley grinned triumphantly. "Awesome. You rock, Ben."

The three waited for a few more minutes before Kristi came to their table, carrying a notepad. "All set? What can I get for ya', Ri?"

The techie took a deep breath at the sound of the hated nickname as he looked up at his brother's girlfriend. "We would like a family size sausage and pepperoni please," he ordered. "Oh, and three medium Pepsis."

"All right," Kristi muttered as she wrote it down on the pad. "You're not going to the dinner for the family?"

"No, I don't think that I could handle it," Riley told her truthfully. "So instead, I went out for pizza with my two best, not to mention rich, friends."

Kristi laughed a little. "I would have gone, but I had to work," she replied. "Dustin and Nick are there though. Oh, and ignore the price on the menu. You get the cute little brother discount." She winked.

Riley blinked in surprise. "Are you serious?" he called after her as she walked away. He had eaten here many times and had never gotten the cute little brother discount. "You rock, Kristi!"

Ben pretended to be hurt. "I thought you said I rocked."

The techie sighed. "Ben, do me a favor and never say that word again," Riley muttered, acting ashamed. "It just doesn't work coming from you."

"So what is this that she called you?" Abigail said teasingly. "Ri?"

Riley glared daggers at her. "Call me that one more time, and I will make your life a living he-!"

"We didn't say we wanted soda, Riley," Ben interrupted before the word could be finished, clearing his throat. "Why did you order Pepsis?"

"Well, because you can't have pizza without something to drink, you both like Pepsi, and I'm thirsty," Riley told him as though it was obvious. "Also, you're rich, so I figured that you could pay a little extra. Then again, we're not paying full price since we get the cute little brother discount."

Ben laughed a little as he shook his head. "You're just lucky that I'm feeling sorry for you, Kid," he said. "You're really beginning to push it."

Riley rolled his eyes. "Sure, that's why you're being so nice. You feel sorry for me."

"Yeah, that's about right."

"Ha. I love you too, Ben."

Abigail looked from Ben to Riley and back. "So, do we have any plans for the museum tonight?" she asked quietly. "A time or something?"

"Yeah, Riley and I do," Ben answered just as quietly. "Not you."

Riley sighed and gave his best friend the oh-boy-here-we-go-again eye roll.

"What?!" Abigail hissed angrily, glaring at her husband. "What do you mean not me? I'm going with you."

"No, you're not," Ben told her sternly. "It's too risky. Besides, Riley and I have worked together on something like this before."

"Sure. Drag me into the argument," Riley muttered with mock enthusiasm, pouring a little salt on the table and trying to balance the saltshaker on it.

"Benjamin Gates, I am a part of this family," Abigail said. "I'm going with you."

"Abigail Gates, no you are not coming with us," Ben replied. "I already told you that it's too dangerous."

"Riley Poole gets to go," Riley put in cheerfully, attempting to break up the argument. Abigail glared at him.

"Shut up, Riley."

"Stop complaining, Mean Declaration Lady."

"Keep your smart mouth shut, Ri."

"Shut up, Abi."

"Both of you shut up," Ben whispered angrily as Kristi approached their table with the pizza and sodas.

"There you go. Is there anything else I can get for ya'?" she asked.

"No thanks, Kristi. We're good," Riley answered. "You will get a tip from the cute little brother."

Kristi smiled and ruffled his hair a little before walking away to take another table's order. Ben and Abigail both reached for a piece of the pizza, which ended up being the same one, and the treasure hunter's hand ended up on top of his wife's.

"You are not going, and that is my final answer," Ben told her, taking another piece of pizza.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"I thought you said, in exact words, 'you are not going, and that is my final answer,' Ben," Riley muttered from the back seat of his best friend's car.

"I did," Ben said quietly, not looking back at him as he drove down the empty road. "Is it my fault that she threatened to call my dad and ruin our one chance at seeing what your father left behind?"

Riley rolled his eyes. "You know, I thought that a man's wife was supposed to obey her husband," he commented, stressing the dreaded four-letter word.

"Well, she never actually said that in the wedding vow…"

Abigail smiled innocently from the passenger seat. "You make everything sound so dramatic, dear," she told him sweetly.

"I'm still mad at you," Ben replied firmly without falling for her kindness act. "I'm not talking to you."

Riley sighed. "You just did talk to her, Ben." His best friend was hopeless.

Ben swore under his breath, and Riley's eyes widened. "Did I just hear a naughty word come out of the mouth of Benjamin Franklin Gates?" he muttered in awe.

Abigail nodded. "I think you did. That's what I heard…"

"You know, I can just drop both of you off at the next street corner and go to the museum on my own," Ben told them with irritation.

Riley laughed. "Nice try, Ben, but you need me," he said with a triumphant smile. "I am the only one who knows exactly where that clue is, and if you want to get in and out of the museum as quickly as possible, you need me with you." Then, his smile turned into a smirk. "You can drop her off, though," he added in an afterthought, gesturing to Abigail with his head.

"If you do that, your father will be getting a call at," Abigail muttered, looking at the car's electric blue clock, "three in the morning. I don't think he'd be pleased about that, Ben."

The treasure hunter sighed in defeat. "All right. Can we just try to get along then?" he asked. "And both of you, stop being so irksome."

"Irksome?" Riley repeated in disbelief as he laughed a little. "Who even uses that word anymore?"

"Riley…" Ben muttered threateningly.

"Okay, sorry. Geeze…"

Ben sighed with relief when he finally reached the museum, parking on the street across from the beautiful building. "Do you know how we can get past the front gate, Riley?" he asked, eyeing the infamous yellow bar that blocked the lot off.

"Hold on a sec," Riley muttered, pulling out his laptop from under the car seat. He turned it on and began to type in a few things. "All righty. One… two… three."

Right after the word left his mouth, the yellow bar slowly rose up from its resting position. "I hacked into the security database computers," the techie explained as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "I still wouldn't bring the car into the lot though. Give me another minute to disable the security cameras."

Abigail and Ben exchanged dumbfounded looks while their younger friend typed away. After another moment, Riley smiled triumphantly. "All right. We're good to go," he announced. "It's three-fifteen now, so we should get in there. The cameras will be up and running again in fifteen minutes."

"Let's hurry then," Ben said, reaching for the flashlight that he had brought, but Abigail grabbed it first. The treasure hunter sighed when he saw that his wife wasn't going to give it up, and he got out of the car.

"That's why I'm glad I brought my own," Riley muttered to himself as he climbed out of the car as well, a flashlight in one hand and his laptop under his other arm.

The three of them walked away from the car as Ben locked it behind them and entered the parking lot across the street. Riley typed a few things into his laptop as he walked, and the yellow bar slowly went back down to its original position. "All right. There should be a security door at the first wall we come to," the younger man said, bringing up the museum's floor plans on the screen. "It's unlocked, or at least it should be. That's how the security people get in and out without setting off the alarm at the front entrance."

"Thanks, Riley." Ben suddenly stopped them and pushed them into the shadows against the wall. Five security guards were leaving out of the door that Riley had just described, going on their fifteen-minute break. That meant that there was only one security guard left in the museum.

"That was close," Abigail whispered once they were out of earshot.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to bring you along," Ben replied. "Now, come on." Riley and Abigail followed Ben as he ran to the door the security guards had just left through, finding with relief that it truly was unlocked.

"They're only going to be gone for a short time," Riley commented as he closed the door behind him. "They're probably thinking, 'what's going to happen in fifteen minutes? It's not like someone's going to break in or anything…'"

Ben held up his hand to silence his friend, and both Abigail and Riley turned on their flashlights. They saw that they were in a small, stone, side room that was on the main floor of the museum, a flight of winding metal stairs on their left. "Come on. We need to get to the second floor," the treasure hunter whispered, leading the way up the stairs.

Abigail and Riley both tried to immediately follow him, but ended up bumping into each other. "Ladies first," the younger man muttered. Abigail gave him a smile and started up the stairs after her husband, Riley following close behind.

"I need some light," Ben said, gesturing to a door on the first landing they came to. Abigail raised her flashlight, revealing a sign on the wall that read FLOOR 2. The treasure hunter pushed open the door, and with his two friends providing some light in the completely dark room by their two flashlights, he saw that they were in the main exhibit hall on the second floor. A Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton greeted them along with a statue of the Egyptian god Anubis, and a blue whale skeleton hovered over them on the ceiling.

"You don't think that everything's going to come alive like in Night at the Museum, do you?" Riley asked in a joking way, even though he sounded slightly nervous.

"Don't be silly. That's just a movie," Abigail answered.

"Riley, where is the ancient Egypt exhibit?" Ben said anxiously. "We must be close judging by the Anubis statue." They had limited time, and every second was precious.

"Um, I'm not exactly sure where we are," Riley muttered, looking at the floor plans on his laptop. "But I would say it is on the far wall in that direction." He shifted the computer to his left arm and pointed left with the flashlight that was in his right hand.

Ben nodded. "Let's go, then." The three of them began to quickly run in the direction that Riley had suggested, trying to be as quiet as possible as they kept an eye and ear out for the lone security guard. Not running into anyone, they soon reached the far wall and saw that there was not one but two exhibit entrances.

"You know this museum well, Riley," Abigail said. "Which one?"

Riley looked to one and then to the other. "Let's try this one," he finally replied, pointing to the one on the left.

"Lead the way," Ben told him. Riley sighed and entered the exhibit with his two friends close behind. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes, and Riley frowned. "Weird. We should be hitting sand by now…"

Suddenly, a light flared on from the ceiling on their left, falling on a scary-looking statue as it shrieked. Riley cried out when he realized they were in the dinosaur exhibit, seeing that he was eye-to-eye with the Velociraptor, and fell to the floor, pushing himself backward away from the display. Then, another light came on behind him, and the techie looked up and saw the head of the Tyrannosaurus Rex directly above him as it roared. He shouted out again and scooted toward the middle of the hall, resting against Ben's leg. Abigail had covered her mouth with her hands, trying to calm her breathing. The sudden lights and statues had nearly given her a heart attack.

Ben laughed as he looked down on his panicked best friend. "Let's just say I'm glad that the security cameras are off," he said as he helped the younger man to his feet. "Now let's get out of here before security comes."

"I thought you knew this museum, Riley," Abigail teased as she led the way back out of the exhibit the way they had entered.

"Yeah, well, it looks different when it's dark," Riley protested in his defense once they were safely out of the exhibit, his voice a little higher than normal. "All right. It's definitely here…"

Riley directed his flashlight to the floor, making sure that they truly were entering the ancient Egypt exhibit this time. Seeing sand made him feel a lot better, and soon the three entered the pyramid and began to make their way through the narrow hallways. Ben noticed Riley's anxiety rise as they continued on, and he was instantly concerned.

"Everything all right, Riley?" he asked.

"I… have mild claustrophobia," Riley answered quietly, almost ashamed of the fact, "that actually developed from me being lost in this exhibit for an hour. I was little, and now I don't do so well in closed, cramped hallways, especially when they're dark…"

Ben placed his hand on the younger man's shoulder in a comforting way, and Abigail prodded Riley in the back from behind her husband with her flashlight. "Don't think about how small the hallway is," she coached him. "Just keep on going."

"Thanks, Abi. Being poked in the back is what I really need right now."

"I try."

The hall soon broadened out, and the three friends found themselves in the Pharaoh's burial chamber. The glowing exit sign cast an almost haunting red light in the room, creating strange shadows. Abigail moved her flashlight around the area, and Riley led Ben to the Hieroglyphics wall. "There's the symbol," the techie whispered, kneeling on the cold stone floor and pointing at the crest.

Ben knelt down beside his best friend, seeing which symbol he was pointing at. He placed his hand against the smooth, golden wall, wondering how they could get a clue from it.

"We have seven minutes in counting," Riley told him, checking the time on his laptop.

"I don't understand," Ben muttered, staring at the symbol intently. "There has to be a way behind this…" He got to his feet and walked to the end of the Hieroglyphics wall, running his hand over the smooth edge and wincing when his knuckles hit the rock wall around it. Then, he froze when he found that there was a small hole that his hand could fit into. The treasure hunter pushed on the golden wall, feeling it budge.

"Six minutes in counting," Riley continued his countdown.

"What did you discover, Ben?" Abigail asked, seeing her husband's triumphant smile.

"The wall is moveable," Ben answered, taking a deep breath, "but I can't move it by myself. Riley, help me."

Riley left his laptop where it was on the floor and handed Abigail his flashlight. "What am I, the flashlight carrier?" she demanded angrily.

"No, I don't think you've quite earned that title yet," Riley told her as he approached the wall. "Try pack mule."

"Would you two stop? We have five minutes," Ben muttered, checking his watch. "Hurry and help me."

"All right, your majesty," Riley said with an eye roll. "What else would you like me to do for you, my lord? Clip your toenails?" But despite his joking, the younger man helped his best friend push on the Hieroglyphics wall. It moved easier with their combined efforts, and they pushed it to the side to reveal a small safe on the rock wall behind it.

Ben stepped closer to it, seeing that the lock ran from zero to fifty. "Nice work on finding that symbol, Riley."

"Okay, here's our problem" Riley replied, ignoring the compliment. "The clue is right in front of us, we have about four minutes before security returns and the cameras go back on, and we don't have the combination to the safe."

"Sure we do," Ben told him after a moment, studying the symbol intently. "It's the location of the crest. Abigail, find the symbol and give me its position. The row its in, the column its in, and its point in that column starting from the top."

"Um, its in row ten, column fifty, point one," Abigail said.

"One?" Riley muttered. "How's that?"

"It's the only one in that column," Abigail explained.

Ben put in the three numbers, hoping that it was the right combination. After the third number, they three of them heard a soft click. The treasure hunter smiled as he pulled open the door of the safe.

Riley sighed when he saw what was inside. "Great. Another envelope."

Xxxxxxxxxx

Derrek, the only security guard in the museum at that moment in time, was relieved to see that the rest would be returning in only a couple of minutes. Nothing had happened in that short fifteen minutes, not that he had expected it to, but he had seen too many scary movies to want to be in the museum alone.

Suddenly, a loud explosion reached his ears. Derrek raced to the balcony, able to see from where he was on the third floor that someone had blown through the wall near the front entrance with explosives, and four people entered wearing all black. The security guard quickly took out his walkie talkie to contact the other guards while he reached for the gun on his belt as the alarms began to sound. "We have trouble. The museum has just been broken into."

A/N: Phew, that was a long chapter. The next one won't be as long, but it will be just as important. Thanks for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated. Thank you!