Well, here's chapter 13! Told you, I'd be quick about it. I just hope it's a good enough chapter for you guys… It's mostly recaps of the movie, but I promise the next chapter will be more original!

Well, enjoy!

-OoOoOoOoO-

Kathleen

Abigail, Riley, and I stood together outside the Library of Congress as we waited for Ben. Actually, we sat at the bottom of the stairs, but it was the same thing. Nicole had still decided to stay at Patrick's claiming that she had a stomach-ache, though I didn't believe her.

I had a feeling that it was more because of Ben than anything else, but I didn't really want to argue with her. I could understand why, since he had been giving her the cold shoulder lately, which was obviously upsetting to her. I think the problem was that Ben wasn't totally out of love with Abigail, which seemed to be the source of the problem.

Anyways, I was pretty bored as we sat there, waiting. Riley had pulled me onto his lap, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck. There was a tense silence hanging thick in the air, so all we could do was nervously wait and hope Ben hadn't been caught. Of course, I knew he hadn't been caught, but I couldn't divulge that information, so I tried to appear as nervous as the others.

"He's here." Riley murmured, and I could feel his throat vibrating slightly as he spoke. I got to my feet, allowing Riley to stand up too. We waited for Ben to reach us before we started up the stairs.

"We're close." He affirmed. He paused, staring at us a moment. "Where's Nicole?"

"She's back at the house." I answered quietly.

Ben quickly turned back to his father's car, commanding him to go back to the house and stay with Nicole. Then the four of us walked into the Library in what I also liked to call the 'Dramatic Walking-In Scene'. I tried my hardest to not ruin the moment by also trying to appear very serious, but it was kind of hard for me, and I almost cracked up laughing once, though I was able to contain myself.

Riley grasped my hand, leading me along up through the library to the door with the keypad. Ben was just about to punch in the code when I spoke up.

"We've got to stop doing things like this." I muttered, and everyone gave me a confused look. "Breaking into all these places we shouldn't." I clarified. Ben nodded gravely and opened the door.

"What did the President say the code was?" Abigail asked.

"2-3-4-7-8-6." Ben recited quickly. I stood still for a moment, wondering what I should do. Then I proceeded to stride over to the shelf and I stared for a moment at exactly where it was.

"Here." I motioned to Ben. "It's here."

We both counted the numbers until our fingers met and Ben's face fell.

"Maybe someone checked it out..?" Riley murmured. I rolled my eyes, looking up at the combination lock.

"Ben, look at that." I pointed. He took a sharp breath, beginning to pull the books off the shelf and empty them into Riley's arms.

"It's a lock." Ben said, excitement playing across his face. "The location is the combination."

"The location's the combination." Riley whispered to himself and I nodded happily to him. Ben dialed in the numbers and a drawer slid out. And the drawer contained the President's Book. Riley hurried to set down the stack of books on the table. Ben carefully took the Book out of the drawer.

"I was right." Riley spoke quietly.

Ben grinned, giving Riley an acknowledging nod. "Well done, Mr. Poole." A slow smile spread across my face as I realized that it was one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Ben opened the Book, clearing his throat as he turned the pages, Riley peering over his shoulder eagerly.

"Area 51!" He whispered excitedly.

"Shhh!"

"It's the Kennedy assassination."

"SHHH! We don't have time." Ben told him.

Riley nodded. "It's true."

"There!" I slid my hand between Ben and Riley, stopping Ben's quick page flipping.

"April, 1865. Queen Victoria sends Pike two coded missives. The first is received, contains information regarding New World treasure: The City of Gold."

Riley's excitement seemed to fade a bit. "The Queen wanted to help the Confederacy?"

"Well they needed cotton from the South, and a divided America would've been weaker and easier to take back." I explained quickly. Ben nodded quickly, reading the next passage.

"'The second missive was thought to contain a Play-fair cipher suggesting contact with Laboulaye, who'll hide clues before his death.' That's the cipher that was on the page that Thomas tried to burn."

"The one that we have." Riley added.

"Exactly. '1880. Resolute Desk arrives in Washington sent by Queen to President Hayes.'"

Ben held up the picture of the plank to show us all, and I caught my breath.

"The missing plank from the White House." Abigail marveled, taking the picture from Ben.

"That's amazing." I said softly, peering over her shoulder. "Remarkable."

"The last entry from President Coolidge: 'Found a plank in secret desk compartment. Plank photographed and then destroyed. Borglum commissioned to destroy landmarks in sacred Black Hills mountains.'"

"Mount Rushmore!" I exclaimed a little too loudly. Ben and Riley both shushed me and I shrank back a little, stepping away from the table.

"He carved it to protect Cibola." Ben whispered.

"Mount Rushmore was a cover-up." Riley mumbled to himself, appearing surprised. Suddenly sirens began wailing in the distance and Riley and I flew to the window. "There's my tax dollars at work coming to arrest me." He said bitterly.

"They're not coming for, they're coming for me. Go to the car, all three of you."

"No, Ben -" Abigail attempted to argue, but Ben shook his head.

"Go!" He said more forcefully. I felt Riley's hand clasping mine, pulling me along as we escaped.

We went down farther and farther into the depths of the Library, following Abigail the whole way.

"How do you know where you're going?" Riley asked quietly as we hurried down a hallway.

"I used to date a librarian here." Abigail replied. She walked ahead of us a little ways, and Riley suddenly sprinted after her.

"Was it cool?!"

"Riley, slow down!" I said as loudly as I dared. He was still pulling me by the hand. I imagined at that moment that Ben was walking ever so carefully across the glass ceiling.

"How are we going to find Ben?" Riley asked as we burst through the door to the outside.

"I don't know." Abigail admitted. As we turned a corner, we ran right into two FBI agents, causing Abby and me both to let out a shriek.

"Who are you?" One of the agents demanded, and Abigail quickly produced her badge.

"We work here!" She spat out quickly. "They told us to evacuate."

"And her?" He inclined his head toward me.

"She's a friend." Abigail explained, and I gave her a thankful look.

"I don't know what's going on in there, one second I'm reading a nice book…" Riley tried to sound frightened, and to tell the truth, he probably was.

"Alright, you three can go." The agent nodded, giving Abigail her ID badge. "Be ready to give them your ID when you exit."

The three of thanked him, quickly getting into Abigail's SUV.

"Start the car." Riley said quickly. "Put it in gear." I peeked in the rear-view mirror and saw Ben crouching behind the car. The agent became suspicious of our hesitation.

"Come on, it's clear, let's go!"

"The trunk!" I whispered to Abby, and she hit the button as soon as she took off. I heard a thud in the back, telling me that Ben had landed in the trunk.

"Drive, drive, drive!" Ben shouted, and I found that I had a white-knuckled grip on the door-handle. The barricade slowly began to rise.

"I don't think so!" Abigail cried out, and car bounced over the barricade, jarring everyone around.

"That did not turn out the way it was supposed to!" Riley said loudly.

"How'd they find us so quickly?" Abigail sounded confused.

"I'll tell you how!" Riley exclaimed. "The President is a tattle-tale!"

Even this caused me to giggle a bit, though I hid my laughter behind my hand. Riley gave me a strange look, and I smiled sheepishly at him, causing him to start smiling as well.

"How'd the President feel about being kidnapped?" Abigail gently teased.

"He was OK." Ben replied breathlessly. We started on our way back to Patrick's house, and I had a sneaking suspicion that the next morning we'd be taking a flight to South Dakota.

-OoOoOoO-

Nicole

I sat in Patrick's living room, bored out of my mind. I stared at the TV as I watched some random reality TV show that I didn't even really care about. I just needed a distraction, anything…

I had really wanted to go with Kathleen, but I opted out, fearing I might 'accidentally' hurt Abigail if I spent more than 5 minutes in her presence, which was the main reason for my locking myself in my room most of the time.

I couldn't help it: I really despised that woman.

'Damn her attractiveness and that accent that Ben finds so appealing.'

I was mad at Ben as well, though I was still unclear as to why. Was he really still in love with Abigail? Well, I certainly thought so, and I didn't like it. I was so confused; I'd never acted like this just because of a guy. When things were ending, I usually just got over it. But not this time, and it was difficult for me. I tried to think what had attracted me to Ben in the first place.

'His brains, his bravery, his selflessness, his determination?'

Whatever it was, it all seemed to be over-shadowed by his annoying stubbornness. Even I would admit that I was stubborn too, but Ben was on a different level, and it frustrated me.

I was shaken from my thoughts by the sound of the front door opening. I jumped, peering over the back of the couch. To my relief, it was only Patrick walking back in.

"Hi." He held up his hand in greeting.

"Hi." I said slowly. "What're you doing here?"

"Ben wanted me to see how you were doing."

"Oh."

There were a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.

"You two having problems?"

"I guess you could say that." I pulled my blanket closer around me, uncomfortable.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Nah, that's OK. Thanks for offering though."

I stared blankly at the TV, switching it to the news. They blathered on about some unimportant story, though I pretended to be totally interested in it. Patrick sat in the chair beside me, still looking uncomfortable. His cell phone rang, and he answered it.

"Hello, Ben, are you OK?"

I couldn't hear Ben's response, but I knew what it was anyways.

"You can do that?" Patrick asked, surprised. He lifted the phone away from his ear, looking at the screen. "I got it." He paused again. "Why me?" He sighed. "OK, I'll go. See you."

He turned off the phone. "I have to go to Emily's office. Would you like to come with me?"

"Sure." I sighed, standing up. "Got nothing better to do." I slid on my shoes, and we went out into the car, taking off. I switched on the radio, and I recognized the song immediately.

"I love this song!"

Patrick looked surprised. "Most kids your age don't even know this song."

"Well, I'm just special that way." I grinned.

-OoOoO-

In seemingly no time at all, we were walking into Emily's office.

"Emily?" I called out quietly, and she stepped out of the back room, where I knew Mitch was hiding right at that moment.

"Patrick, Nicole, what are you doing here?"

"Ben sent us." I explained.

"He found the other half of the plank." Patrick said. I held out his phone so Emily could look at the picture.

"Ah, I see. Well, I'll help you, of course." She sat slowly on the couch. "' Islands... Islands of stone in a sea of grass.' That's what the Lakota called the Black Hills. 'Find where the moon touches the Earth and release the hummingbird.'" Emily's hand rested on Patrick's for a brief moment.

"Thank you." I said graciously. I stood to leave, but Emily placed a hand on my arm.

"Could you stay for a moment? I-I'd like to discuss something with you." Her arm was trembling, and she looked up at Patrick. "You go on, I'll take her home."

I stared at Emily with wide, fearful eyes.

"I don't know…" Patrick said warily.

"I'll take care of her, don't worry, we're just going to chat."

"Well, OK…" Before I could say anything, Patrick had slid out of the door, anxious to leave the office as soon as humanly possible.

"Emily!" I cried, desperation and fear lacing my voice. "You know he's here! You have to let me…"

Before I could even finish I heard the door shut and realized Mitch had been behind the door all along

"I'm sorry, he forced me…" Emily sounded truly repentant, and looked near tears.

Mitch gave me a crooked grin. "Why hello, it's nice to meet you."

"What do you want?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, I see it like this." I heard Mitch turn the door lock into place. "Why just take Emily hostage? Why take one when I can get two for the same price?"

I looked from Emily, who was visibly upset, to Mitch, who was continuing to grin, and my stomach lurched.

"Oh…Great."

-OoOoOoOoO-

Oh dear… Well, I want to apologize to Nicole's inspiration for having her be kidnapped. Sorry.

Please review, it makes me smile. (Most of the time, unless it's a sad review.)