Part 5
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Anne asked, sitting back in the van.
"Yeah. I've got it covered. You just stay here and help Riley watch the monitors."
"Joy. You get to do all the fun stuff." She sulked but smiled at him and wished him luck.
"Ben are you sure we should do th-" Ben slammed the door in Riley's face.
"I hate it when he does that…" Anne laughed, putting on her headset. She fiddled with a bag of extra clothes.
"Did you really need to bring that?" Riley asked.
"Um… yeah. It's always good to have extra clothes."
"Can you hear me?" Ben asked.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Same here, Benny boy."
"Told you not to call me that!"
"Ha…Benny boy."
"Shut up Riley."
"Where are you now, Ben?"
"I'm in the bathroom."
"How do you look?" Anne asked.
"Not bad."
"Mazel tov." Riley complimented.
"For you." They heard Ben say after a minute or two of silence.
"Oh, Mr. Brown."
"Dr. Chase."
"What are you doing here?"
"Is that that hot girl? How does she look?"
"Nice Riley."
"Well she is hot. Not as hot as you of course but- did I just say that out loud?"
Anne giggled and covered her mouth.
"Yes, thank you. You know, I really couldn't accept something like that normally, but... I really want it." They heard Abigail laugh.
"Well, you needed it." Ben agreed.
"Come on, Romeo, get outta there."
"Hi. Here you go." A new voice said.
"Who's the stiff?" Riley asked.
"Hi there." Ben said.
"Oh, Doctor Herbert. This is Mr. Brown."
"A toast, yeah?"
"Oy…" Anne said.
"What?"
"He's not so good at toasts."
"To high treason."
"See?"
"That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and - Oh! Oh, my personal favorite, had their entrails cut out and burned! So, here's to the men who did what was considered wrong in order to do what they knew was right… what they knew was right. Ahh, well, good night."
"I rest my case." Anne said. Riley laughed.
"You're pretty cool, you know that?"
"Thanks." She said, looking up at him.
Riley leaned down closer to her. He wasn't bad looking, kinda cute really. Wow…he's got pretty eyes.
"I'm in the elevator." Ben said.
"That's great Ben." Anne said, slightly annoyed.
"OK, I'm going to turn of the surveillance camera. Ready? In 5…4…3… Ben Gates, you are now the invisible man. Give me the letters of her password. Hit me." Riley said.
"A…E…F…G…L…O…R…V…Y."
"Anagrams being listed. Top results, a glove fry, a very golf, fargo levy, gravy floe, valey frog…"
"Valley Forge." "Valley Forge." Anne and Ben said simultaneously.
"Valley For- I don't have that on my computer."
"That's because it's a computer."
"We're in."
"Ben pick it up." Riley urged.
"Calm down Riley. It's under control."
The feed went out.
"I stand corrected."
"I lost my feed. I lost my feed, Ben. I don't know where anyone is. I have noth- Ben, I have nothing. Get out of there. Get out of there now."
"Ben listen to him for once."
"I'm taking the whole thing. I'll get it out in the elevator."
"What are you talking… Is it heavy?" Riley asked.
Anne heard gunshots over the headset.
"Ben?!"
"Who's shooting? Ben, you still there? Ben?!"
"I'm in the elevator. Ian's here."
"Stop sounding calm and get out of there!" Anne nearly shouted.
"Stop yelling in my ear."
"Sorry."
"Let's get ready for Ben." Riley said. Anne took off her headset and climbed into the passenger's seat, leaning back.
"Start the van." Ben said. Riley turned the car on.
"Uh Ben… the mean declaration lady's behind you." Riley said.
"Hey." Abigail called.
"Oh, it's you." Ben said casually.
"Ben…" Anne muttered angrily.
"Mr. Brown, what's going on? What's that?"
"A souvenir." Ben replied.
"Really?" Abigail didn't sound convinced.
That's when the security alarms went off.
"Oh my god…" Riley and Anne groaned.
"Oh my god, you did not… Give me that!" Abigail snatched the Declaration from Ben.
"Take it, it's yours."
"Security!" Abigail shouted.
"Go!"
"What? We can't just let her go!" Riley objected.
"We can, go!" Ben said. Then he spotted the other van. "Wait, hold it. Hold it. Bad, bad, bad, bad!" Ben tried to get out of the van but someone started shooting.
"That scum!" Riley exclaimed.
"Ben!" Anne shouted. "Ah!" she exclaimed as pain radiated up her arm.
"Go! Go!" Ben shouted jumping back in the van. Riley took off after the other van.
"Once we catch them, what do we do?" Riley asked.
"I'm working on it!" Ben shouted.
"Right turn, right turn." Riley turned sharply.
"Construction zone." Anne said.
"Skidding, skidding." Riley muttered. Anne looked over and saw the door swinging freely, with Abigail clinging to the top.
"Oh no." Ben said.
"Holy lord." Riley muttered.
"Grab her Ben!" Anne shouted.
"I'm trying!" he called back.
Seconds later, Dr. Chase and Ben were safely in the back of the van.
"You alright?" Ben asked.
"No, those - those lunatics..."
"You're not hurt are you?"
"You're all lunatics!"
"You hungry?"
"What?"
"Are you alright?" Ben repeated.
"Still a little on edge from being shot at, but I'll be okay, thanks for asking." Riley said. "You're bleeding."
"What? Oh." Blood was welling up under Anne's sleeve.
"You okay?" Ben asked.
"Yeah I think I got grazed." She said taking off her sweatshirt and holding it to the wound.
"Well, I'm not alright! Those men have the Declaration of Independence!" Abigail cried. Ben held up another case.
"They don't have it." Showing Abigail the document. "See? okay? Now, could you please stop shouting?"
"Give me that!" she snapped.
"You're still shouting, and it's really starting to annoy. You'd do well, Dr. Chase, to be a bit more civilized in this instance." Ben said smoothly. Anne laughed.
"If this is the real one, what did they get?" Abigail asked.
"Souvenir. I thought it might be a good idea to have a duplicate. Turned out I was right. I had to pay for both the souvenir and the real one, so you owe 35 dollars, plus tax." Ben said grinning.
"Genius." Riley laughed.
"Who were those men?" Abigail asked.
"Just the guys we warned you were going to try to steal the Declaration." Anne snapped.
"And you didn't believe us!" Riley agreed.
"We did the only thing we could do to keep it safe."
"Verdammt! Give me that!"
"You know something? You're shouting again."
"Pretty sure she was swearing too." Riley said.
"Well, we prolly deserve that." Anne laughed. "So are we gonna go check out that map now?"
"There is not an invisible treasure map on the Declaration of Independence!" Abigail cried.
"And there is no chance anyone could steal this," he held up the tube. "either. I level with you 100 percent. Everything I told you was the truth."
"I want that document, Mr. Brown!" Abigail snarled.
"OK, my name's not Brown, it's Gates. I level with you 98 percent." Ben admitted.
"Wait a minute, did you just say Gates?" Abigail asked. Anne nodded. "Gates? You're that family with the conspiracy with about the founding fathers."
"It's not a conspiracy theory." Anne said.
"Per se." Riley muttered.
"Shut up."
"I take it back. You're not liars. You're insane!"
"I resent that!" Anne muttered.
"How do you exactly plan to find this invisible map?" Abigail asked.
"Well… we might need to run some tests on it." Ben began.
"You can't seriously intend to run chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of a moving van." Abigail protested.
"We have a clean room environment all set up: EDS suits, a particulate air filtration system, the whole shebang." Riley said.
"We can't go back there." Ben replied nervously, glancing at Anne.
"What? Why not?" Anne asked.
"I paid for the Declaration with a credit card. I didn't have enough cash…" Ben began.
"WHAT?!" Anne shrieked.
"A credit card slip? Dude, we're on the grid! They're going to have your records from forever. They're going to have my records for forever!" Riley yelled.
"Not to mention they'll be all over me AND Dad!"
"I know, I know. It's only a matter of minutes before the FBI shows up at my front door… We need those letters." Ben said.
"What letters?" Abigail asked.
"You know what, get off the road, take a right." Ben said.
"What letters?"