Following the Treasure

Riley was still apologizing when he met them at Patrick's house. "I'm sorry, I had no idea that Emily would be kidnapped. Jacqui said it was for a research project."

"It's okay, Riley." Ben patted his friend's shoulder. "We don't blame you at all. And we don't blame Jacqui, either."

Abigail nodded, smiling reassuringly. "It's this Dr. Major we blame for this."

"Keep searching for information, please," Patrick added, pacing the room restlessly, clearly very anxious about the fact that Emily was missing.

At that moment, Riley's cell phone rang. Ben sighed and threw up a hand. "Riley, this isn't the time for personal calls."

"No, wait, it's Jacqui. Maybe she knows more." Riley flipped the phone open. "Jacqui, hi!"

Ben rubbed the bridge of his nose and sank onto the couch, muttering under his breath, "This is ridiculous."

"He has a point, Ben." Abigail sat down beside him, rubbing his back soothingly.

Patrick took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "The longer we take to figure anything out, the farther away they'll get!"

"Your brother brought it to you?" Riley's question broke into their discussion, startling them. "Did he say what it was for?" Ben caught Riley's eye and gestured for him to put it on speakerphone. Nodding, Riley found the adaptor to plug it into his laptop. "Hang on, Jacqui. I'm going to put you on speakerphone."

After a moment of silence while Riley plugged the phone in, Jacqui's voice suddenly filled the room. "--ting me on speakerphone? Why?"

"The thing is, we have a bit of a crisis out here and we think you might be able to help us." Riley glanced at the others, the glow of the computer screen glinting off his glasses.

A sound of worry emitted from the computer speakers. "A crisis? What sort of crisis?"

"Emily's been kidnapped," Riley explained, pausing when Jacqui gasped. "The men who wanted the writing on the animal skin translated did it."

"Oh my God." Jacqui sounded honestly distressed. "I'm so sorry! Jacob said they wanted it translated, I had no idea it was going to turn into something worth kidnapping someone over!"

The other three exchanged glances while Riley spoke quickly. "It's okay, Jacqui. We're not blaming you or anything. Can you tell us anything about your brother's friends? It's important."

"I'm sorry, I don't know much about them." The sound of pacing accompanied Jacqui's words now. "I don't see Jacob very often anymore. I don't know what he gets up to or anything."

Patrick leaned forward over the desk, unable to keep quiet any longer. "Did he say why he wanted the skin translated? What it was for?"

After a pause, Jacqui answered slowly, obviously startled that it hadn't been Riley who'd asked the question. "Only that it was for this research institute that he'd joined."

"Did he give you a name?" Ben hung over Riley's shoulder, addressing the phone directly.

"Yeah, the Mount Shasta Research Institute." Jacqui sounded less surprised.

They all looked at Riley, who quickly typed that into a search engine. After a few moments, he shook his head. "I don't think it exists, Jacqui."

"Oh, damn, this is all my fault!" The sound of pacing stopped and Jacqui sounded honestly distressed over the situation. "I shouldn't have given Jacob that information."

Riley glanced at the three of them hanging over him and gestured for them to back away. "Calm down, Jacqui. You are not responsible for Emily's kidnapping, okay? You just thought you were helping your brother."

"You do know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? " Jacqui retorted, vehemence in her voice.

Ben and Patrick exchanged amused glances. For a moment, Jacqui had sounded just like Emily or Abigail. Unaware of the exchange, Riley continued his conversation with Jacqui. "There's nothing you can do now. We'll get her back."

"How do you plan to do that?" She sounded skeptical. "You don't know how or when they'll get wherever they're going."

Riley actually smirked, tapping a few keys on his keyboard. "Either the 'bad guys' are really stupid--"

"Careful, Riley, one of those 'bad guys' happens to be my brother." There was almost a growl in Jacqui's voice this time.

A panicked expression crossed Riley's face as he realized his faux pas. "Right. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that Emily still has her phone, so I'm tracking them through the GPS chip in that."

"Okay, I'll take your word for it, since I don't know much more about using my phone than making phone calls and sending text messages." Jacqui sounded amused.

Riley grinned, seeming almost to preen. "Once we know for sure where they're going, we'll take the earliest possible plane there so we get there first and grab her."

"How did you know you could track her phone, anyway?" Puzzlement had entered Jacqui's voice now. "They could have easily ditched it or something like that."

Abigail leaned forward to answer the question, since Riley hadn't been present when they'd searched Emily's office. "It wasn't in her purse or satchel, so we figured she must have managed to grab it before she was taken."

"And you're sure they didn't just toss it in a different vehicle or something?" There was a distinct note of skepticism in the question.

Riley answered the question, a hint of wounded pride in his tone. "We already have a general idea of where they're going and the phone is going that way, so it seems likely."

"And where do you think they're going?" Jacqui's voice sounded exaggeratedly patient now.

Much to everyone's surprise, Patrick answered the question. "Think about the name of their 'research institute', Jacqui."

After a moment, Jacqui breathed the answer into her phone, "Shasta."

"Exactly." Riley looked very pleased with how quickly she realized the answer.

"I'll meet you there, then." The pleased expression on Riley's face faded at that simple statement.

He glanced at the others, panic in his brown eyes. "It'll probably be very dangerous."

"So? Are you trying to say that you can charge full speed into a dangerous situation, but I can't?" She sounded very annoyed.

Riley gave Ben a pleading look, but the other man simply held up his hands. Rolling his eyes, the younger man explained, "It's not that I want to throw myself into danger, but--"

"Is this because I'm a woman?" Jacqui sounded more than annoyed. She was angry.

When Riley opened his mouth, Ben held up a hand to keep him from saying anything. "She has a point. We can't stop her from doing anything."

"You're damn right you can't." She sounded pleased that Ben had taken her side. Riley, on the other hand, looked ready to murder Ben with his bare hands. "I'll head out to Shasta as soon as I get the time off from work and school."

Riley shook his head, almost frantic to regain control of the situation. "You can't blow those off! They're too important!"

"I'll just tell them I have a family emergency." Jacqui seemed completely blasé about it. "This is more important."

Abigail stifled a giggle, blue eyes dancing as they met Ben's. Very quietly, she murmured, "She has her priorities straight."

"Okay, let us know when you get there and try not to draw attention to yourself." Ben found Abigail's hand with his and squeezed it gently.

"I'll see you there. Thanks, Ben." Jacqui sounded quite satisfied with herself.

Glaring at Ben, Riley yanked the phone out of the speakerphone dock and stalked out of the room, speaking quickly into it as he went. Patrick addressed his son, "Why are you letting her join us?"

"For the same reason Abigail came along when we were looking for the Templar Treasure," Ben replied, smiling fondly at her. "She'd have kept insisting until we agreed."

Abigail frowned, playfully cuffing Ben's shoulder. "You had the Declaration and you were going to examine it for invisible ink. I couldn't just walk off without it!"

"Ben, if she's hurt in any way, you are going to pay for it." Riley had stalked back into the room and sat down at his laptop, his typing firm and a rare scowl creasing his features.

Amused glances passed amongst the other three. Riley was definitely smitten with Jacqui.

***

Emily woke to the sound of voices. They'd driven into the small hours of the morning, stopping at a house several states away from Maryland. It had been completely empty, echoing with each sound they made. Then the two other men had pulled four cots out of the trunk of the car, setting them up in the living room. Emily's had been placed furthest from the door, so she'd have had to get past all of them in order to escape.

It'd been some time before she'd been able to fall asleep, too worried about the others and whether they'd heard what she'd managed to record of the conversation, if it would be enough. Now she was awake and listened to the two voices. Neither had the British accent of Major, so it must be the two other men. The first sounded impossibly young and worried. "...Dr. Major never said anything about killing anyone."

"You do what you have to when you're looking for treasure." The other voice sounded older, rougher, more cynical. "She'll be fine as long as she's any use to us."

"What happens when she's not any use to us?" There was a hint of fear in the younger voice.

Dr. Major's crisp British tones cut into the conversation. "That doesn't concern you, Jacob." There was a rustle of paper. "Give Dr. Appleton her breakfast. She's probably very hungry."

"She's asleep, Sir." Jacob sounded puzzled.

"No, she's not. She's just faking. Now get moving." The last words came out almost as a bark.

A few moments later, a hand touched Emily's shoulder and shook it. "Come on, Dr. Appleton, you might as well wake up. "Roscoe won't be so gentle."

She rolled over onto her back, gazing at the man. He seemed to be very young, perhaps in his mid-twenties. His green eyes were wide and worried, light red hair ruffled as if he'd been running his fingers through it. "Thank you, young man."

"I'm sorry, doctor," he murmured, handing her a wrapped breakfast sandwich and getting up to help Roscoe dismantle the cots and take them out to the car.

They were on the road just half an hour later. Emily sat in the back of the car, studying scans that had been made of the animal skin, occasionally referring to the few books Major had provided for her. If not for the threat on her life, she'd have enjoyed the intellectual challenge of working out a new language.

End