Author's Note: I don't own the characters from National Treasure- they belong to Jon Turtletaub and Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. Don't own the characters from The Mummy, either. Those belong to Stephen Sommers and Universal.

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Chapter 7: Blast From the Past

"Looks like there's only two of them," Ben noted from his position under the windows. He stuck his head out again to make sure. He turned to Natalie. "These are the guys that have been following you both?"

Natalie nodded. "They used a GPS dot in Riley's bag." She snuck a peek across at the hangar. "After we found it, they must have just decided to wait for us here- we had to show up eventually."

"Any ideas, Ben?" Abigail asked her husband.

He was deep in thought. He held up a finger, telling his wife to give him a second. "I wish I knew what happened to the agents on board," he admitted. "Natalie, were they armed? Could you see any weapons?"

She closed her eyes, picturing it. "No," she said. "I don't think so."

"So we can probably make the assumption that the FBI and Treasury guys still have their sidearms, they're just unconscious." Ben deduced. "So if we can get to them first..."

"Then we have the advantage," Abigail finished. "We could take them by surprise."

I don't really care how we do it, let's just do it fast before something happens to Riley! Natalie thought.

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Riley felt like he was dying.

Okay, he didn't exactly know how dying felt.

But he was in pain.

A lot of it, actually.

Everything from his head to his waist and down his arms ached. A combination of his busted shoulder, side effects of the knockout gas, and the fact that he hit cement like a ton of bricks as soon as he inhaled it. His shoulder was screaming at him in protest.

He heard talking and opened his eyes slowly. No sense in giving his eyes a shock, too. He spotted the two men who had been chasing him and Natalie all night trying to figure out how to open the cargo bay.

The cargo bay was configured with a keypad. Instead of being able to manually open it from the cockpit, it required a six-digit passkey. Ben knew the code, and so did Riley.

And Riley wasn't going to give it to them. He just hoped Ben showed up before these two guys made him change his mind.

One of them turned. Riley quickly closed his eyes, hoping to make them think he was still out. He heard footsteps. They stopped inches from his head. Riley tried to slow his breathing.

A foot slammed into his ribs made all thoughts fly from his mind. His eyes shot open and he gasped in pain. So much for trying to pull one over on them. "Hi, guys," he said. "Nice to run into you boys again. Good to see you found the place."

Their response was another foot slammed into his side. Riley yelled again. "Ow! All right, already, I get it! What do you want?"

"We want the passcode," one growled at him. He hauled Riley to his feet by his shirt collar. "Give it to us, and we will let you and the other men live."

"Somehow I doubt that," Riley said cynically, and instantly regretted it. The blow to his stomach keeled him over, and he gasped for air. How am I supposed to give the code to them if I can't even breathe? He was jerked upright again. His vision swam. His shoulder was killing him.

One of the guys, Riley thought of him as Scarface, because he sported this jagged-looking scar from his nose to his ear, dragged him around to the back of the plane. "Mr. Poole, the code, please." He leaned close to Riley's ear. "Next time I won't be as polite," he whispered menacingly.

Right then, Riley knew what he had to do. "Okay. Okay, I'll give it to you."

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The breeze wasn't much, but it helped calm Natalie's nerves. She was outside, ducked down behind a stack of packing crates. About a hundred feet ahead of her, she could see the hangar. She could also see Riley. And it about broke her heart when they decided beating him up was the best way to get the code. Hang in there, Riley, she thought, we're coming for you.

She was all for the guns blazing, direct approach, but that wasn't Ben Gates' style. Instead, she was waiting. And waiting. And still waiting, while Ben and Abigail tried to figure something out.

She closed her eyes and winced as a punch was landed to Riley's gut. Natalie had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. As she watched, Riley was forced to his feet and around to the back of the plane.

Damn you, Ben Gates. Hurry up!

A hand touched her shoulder, and Natalie jerked around. Ben and Abigail were both there. "How's he doing?"

"He's getting worked over quite nicely- where have you been?" Natalie demanded.

Abigail smiled. "I think she likes him."

"As a matter of fact, yes, very much so." Natalie figured it didn't make much sense to start lying to him now. Not if she was going to be seeing more of him in the future.

Ben was slightly taken aback. Out of all his friends (and it wasn't many, what with Ian being in federal lockdown and everything), Riley was voted least likely to ever have a girlfriend. It would appear that Ben was going to have to change his rankings. "Don't worry; we'll get him out of there in one piece."

You'd better. "I believe you," Natalie said. "Now, what are we going to do?"

Just then, she heard it.

"Okay. Okay, I'll give it to you."

She looked over at Ben. Ben's jaw dropped. "Scratch the plan," he said. "We're gonna play it be ear."

Great.

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Riley clutched his shoulder with one hand. Painstakingly, he lifted his other hand so it was flush with the keypad. "You know, Ben knows the code. He might've changed it. And if he did, I'm not gonna be able to let you all in."

"Then he better not have changed it," Scarface's partner said.

Riley grimaced as pain shot up and down his arm again. He raised his finger to punch in the numbers. Ben. Hurry up! Carefully, he typed in 7-7-2-0-0-7. His finger hovered over the YES key. Then he pressed it.

A short bzzz sound emitted from the keypad. It almost sounded annoyed. "Huh..." Riley turned to his captors, extremely nervous. "Guess he changed it."

The cold barrel of a gun found its way to Riley's ear. "You'd better start thinking like your friend, then," Scarface hissed.

"Hey!"

Riley knew that voice. "Ben!"

Ben stepped forward, the Treasury agent's gun in his hand. "Drop the gun," he warned. He looked at Riley. "You all right?"

"No," Riley replied. "Everything hurts, and oh yeah, there's a gun pointed at my head!"

Behind them all, the other man pulled a gun from somewhere in the folds of his robe. Then he heard the sound of a gun being cocked in his ear.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll drop that gun right now and hit your knees," someone else said.

Riley took a chance and turned around. He smiled, though it pained him. "Natalie!"

She smiled. "Hello, darling. How's your day going?"

"It's been better," Riley admitted. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Can we do this later?" Natalie said. "Not that I don't love the apology."

"Oh, for crying out loud," the man who was Scarface's partner finally said. He tugged off his head covering.

Abigail's eyes widened. Ben swore.

Natalie kept her gun on the other man. "Who are you?" she demanded.

She soon got her answer. "Ian!" Riley breathed.

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Hi all! Thanks fo reviewing! SORRY it's taken me forever to update! Two chapters to go!