Part 9

Anne, Abigail, and Riley took off running, seeing Shaw and Shippen behind them. Ducking into a market place, they split up again, Anne ducking behind a large magazine rack. Looking around, she couldn't see anything.

"Hey, doll." She heard. Turning, she saw Shippen.

"You wouldn't fire that in a market place, would you?" she asked weakly.

"You wanna find out?"

"No." she suddenly brought her knee up into his groin and left him sprawling on the floor.

"Riley!" she shouted.

"Anne, you okay?"

"Ran into some trouble, Shippen'll be down for a while."

"Good," Riley said hugging her. "I like being on the good side of Benjamin Franklin Gates."

"Let's go find Abi." Anne laughed.

The three ran from the market, almost knocking over thing in the process, and out towards the car. Anne noticed that Riley wasn't with them and looked back to see him stuck behind some businessmen. Abigail moved to avoid a bicycler and tripped, the Declaration tumbling from her grasp. Right into the busy street.

"No!" Anne shouted, running after it. She almost had it when Riley's arms went around her waist, pulling her back. She looked up to see the Declaration fine but in the hands of none other than Ian Howe. His face went dark when he saw Riley holding her. He opened his mouth to speak but then turned and walked off.

"Now what?" Anne asked as the rounded a corner towards the car. She was stopped by the sight of Ben being handcuffed. "BE-" she started to shout but Riley clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Shh. We're no good to him in jail."

They retreated back behind the corner, Riley still holding onto Anne.

"Now what do we do?" Anne asked, leaning her head back on Riley.

"Riley do you know how to get in touch with Ian?" Abigail asked suddenly.

"Excuse me?"

"Do you?"

"Well yeah but-"

"Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Anne asked.

"This way!"

Anne and Riley glanced at each other.

"Where are we going?" Riley asked.

"That way." She replied.

Apparently 'That way' meant New York City, as Riley and Anne found out. They now sat in a café on Broadway, Riley being clever on his laptop and Abigail calling Shaw.

"Ben, please." She said as sweetly as anyone could talking to someone like Shaw. "Hi sweetie, how's your day going?"

Anne stifled a giggle and Abigail shot her a look.

"Turns out helping someone escape from FBI custody is a criminal act. He's the only criminal we knew. So we called him and made a deal."

Another pause.

"He's not getting within three feet of her Ben, we'll make sure of that."

Anne looked up at the phone rather than Abigail and smiled.

"Riley's over here doing something clever with a computer."

"I'm tracking him through the… Hey!" Riley repeated himself as Abigail pressed the phone to his ear. "I'm tracking you through the GPS in Shaw's phone. They take a turn anywhere we don't want, we'll know it, so…" Abigail didn't let him finish.

"Haha… wow." Anne laughed.

"If Ian tries to double cross us, we can call the FBI and tell them right where you are. And where to find Ian."

Pause.

"Right across the street from where we're hiding. At the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway."

Another pause.

"Simple. 'Heere at the Wall'. Wall Street and Broadway. Ben, there is a catch. We made Ian believe that he could have the treasure. It was the only way we could get this far."

"He's here." Riley said.

Anne looked up, happy to see Ben. Ben and Ian talked, traded, then Ian pointed to a car.

"What's going on?" Anne muttered. Ian left and Ben looked defeated. He motioned for them to come over.

"Anne," Ben began. "Don't worry but they've got Dad."

"W-what?"

"I've got everything under control so-"

"Obviously not!"

"Just calm down. Follow me."

"Daddy!" she called, hugging her father.

"I'm okay. You alright?"

"I'm fine Daddy." She hugged him again. They filled in a pew and waited while Ben and Ian talked. Ben motioned for them to come over. "What are we looking for?" Anne asked.

"Parkington Lane?"

"A street inside a Church?" Ian asked.

"No inside… beneath." Ben said.

"Basement." She said.

As they headed for the stair, their father stopped them

"Look. Cooperation only lasts as long as the status quo is unchanged. As soon as this guy gets to wherever this thing ends, he won't need you anymore. Or any of us."

"So we find a way to make sure the status quo changes in our favor." Anne said.

"How?" he asked. Anne glanced at her brother.

"I'm still working on it." Ben said.

"Well, I guess I better work on it too, then."

After a few minutes of searching, everyone heard Riley yell.

"I found it! Parkington Lane… It's a person!"