Disclaimer: I don't own National Treasure. I'd like to, I'd be very rich!
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"Don't know? You 'Don't Know?" Riley scoffed, looking almost disgusted. "You don't remember?"
"No…I just didn't get it."
"You're practically a history book!"
"Well it wasn't in English."
"Well that's just great." Riley collapsed dramatically onto the couch. He didn't want to admit he'd been so excited. He wanted Abigail and Ben to believe his life had some substance.
Then Riley became curious. "What language was it in?" He asked.
"We can't tell, the picture made the text fuzzy, and…" Riley sat up, felling a little hopeful.
"And…?" The kettle whistled and the coffee pot bleeped. Riley stood up and began pouring the drinks
"I broke my phone."
"How?"
"Birdbath, Cadillac incident."
"I don't even want to know."
"So this is where you come in." Abigail smiled.
"Set up my laptop." Riley was practically beaming, his back to hiss friends. They needed him, and the fact that he had been shut out for months no longer mattered to him. Abigail took out Riley's thin laptop and pressed the on button.
PASSWORD?
Inquired the screen.
"Riley what's your password?"
"I can't tell you that!"
"Why?"
"It's private. Press F4, Shift, Control, Alt, Delete, Enter."
'What will that do?"
"Just do it." Riley sighed
PASSWORD OVERRIDE? :
"What now?"
"12312000" Abigail typed the sequence in.
PASWORD OVERIDDEN
Proclaimed the screen in big, bold, black letters.
"So what do you think it was?" Riley came over and bent to put the coffees and tea on the coffee table.
"I think," Ben took a sip of coffee and Riley pulled his laptop close to him. "I think it was a letter. Written by an early president by the type of writing."
The trio sat in silence as Riley tapped away on his laptop. Riley's cell phone beeped and then out of his pocket a voice started talking.
'Um…Hi Riley, it's me. Just wondering if you're busy this Sunday. My parents are coming into town and they want to meet you. Call me back when you get this. Bye."
Abigail and Ben looked at Riley.
"How is Lucy?" Lucy was Riley's new girlfriend, the one he had met a few months ago after they had found the city of gold."
"Lucy?" Said Riley distracted by his imaging. 'Oh, she's good. Yeah, yeah! She's good."
"Thing's getting kind of serious?"
"Ben." Abigail said warningly.
"What? I was just saying that-"
"Here!" Riley practically screeched. He smiled suddenly and turned his computer around. Ben glanced at the screen.
"Perfect." He set to work copying the phrases onto a sheet of paper.
Abigail picked up a newspaper strewn across the sofa. It was ripped in half and the headline of an article was chopped off.
"Hey Riley look. Some kid genius. Must be related to you!" She joked. "Won some award." Riley had been taking a sip of his drink , and let out a choking, strangled laugh.
"Abigail, I'm one of a kind!" he flashed a winning smile and raised his eyebrows.
"Um…why don't you just show this to your mom again?" He asked Ben. "She could do it."
"I sent the picture to her and even from a fuzzy distance she said she didn't know it."
"Is it a code?"
"Maybe. But probably another ancient language. But…"
"But?"
"I think it could be flipped, backwards, or something…I can't even tell. It could be a code. Where would we get that equipment.?"
"Didn't we do that last time, with the languages and codes?" Riley complained.
Abigail, still reading the article, said suddenly. "Hey this kid."
"What?"
"Awards in science labs and endangered languages." Ben smiled at her.
"Well, this kid is what we need then. What's her name?"
"Riley ripped the name off, so-"
"I…I wanted an article on new laptop firewalls!" Riley said defensively.
Ben laughed, then grimaced.
"Where can we find the kid then?"
"Educational Institute for the Gifted and Talented. The article mentions it. In Marilyn." Riley paled a bit.
"No!" He said. Abigail and Ben stared at him.
"You can't do it?"
"The security on that place is tight. I've tried before. Can't even hack into to a get an appointment. crashed my whole setup, I lost every single file! It's impossible, totally impossible!"
"What can we do Ben?"
Asked Abigail. 'Can we sneak in?"
"No, guards and stuff.
It's the best school in almost the whole world!" Riley ranted.
Ben was watching Riley pace around the room a bit.
"Ben?"
"Why were you trying to hack them?"
"Information a college of mine, um…needed."
"Ben?" Abigail asked again.
"He can do it."
"What?"
"Riley can get us in." Riley stopped acting strangely.
"No!"
"Yes, you can, when you lie you start pacing. I heard you doing it over the phone when you told me that you weren't throwing a surprise birthday party for me."
"Well…yeah. I…I can." Riley flipped up his cell phone and hit a number.
"Hello, this is Riley Poole.
Actually yes!
Yes.
Hmmm…okay.
'Kay
Thanks.
Bye."
Riley flipped hiss phone closed.
"They're expecting us in tomorrow."