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Chapter 3
Ben, Abigail and Riley were now in Patrick's car heading for Philadelphia. Ben was driving, Abigail was in the passenger seat, and Riley was laid out in the backseat the best way he could with the declaration.
"Your dad has a sweet ride," Riley yawned.
"I think we should change clothes. We look kinda conspicuous, don't you think?" Ben asked Abigail.
"I would love to go shopping too, but we have no money," Riley stated sleepily.
"Here, I took this from his house. He usually tucks a few hundred dollars somewhere between those pages." Ben informed Abigail.
"Common sense. How appropriate." She pointed out.
"When are we going to get there? I'm hungry. This car smells weird," Riley mumbled.
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When they got to Philadelphia, Ben was a little apprehensive about Riley going off by him self to get the next clue at first, but Riley persuaded him to let him go. So now Riley sat outside the Franklin Institute after getting some kid to go in and get the next clue. The kid came back with four letters to the clue.
"S, S, A, N, D," the kid told him.
"Okay. Now you're sure this right?" Riley asked as he wrote down the letters.
The kid gave him a look that said 'Yes I'm sure.'
Riley continued writing down the letters.
"No N," the kid stated pointing to Riley's N that looked like an R.
"That is an N," Riley defended.
"Doesn't look like an N," the pointed out.
"Okay you know what? Last one okay," Riley made known handing the kid a posted note, "one more dollar."
"Thank you," the kid thanked taking the posted note and dollar.
"Go get the last four letters," Riley instructed.
As the kid took off, Riley went to work looking over the clue.
"The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses over the house of Pass and... Pass and what?" Riley asked himself.
He looked to see if the kid was coming, but saw a bus pull up. It had the Liberty Bell on it.
'Pass and Stow. That's it!' Riley thought to himself.
Riley gathered up his stuff and took off. He didn't even notice the kid come back out and the blond man that followed him.
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Riley walked up the stairs of Urban Outfitters and saw Ben and Abigail paying for their new clothes. They saw him approaching.
"Did you get it Riley?" Ben asked.
"Oh I got it," Riley replied, "the vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses over of the house of pass and stow. Now Pass and Stow of course referring to the..."
"Liberty Bell," Ben and Abigail finished for him.
"Why do you have to do that?" Riley asked frustrated.
"Well, John Pass and John Stow cast the bell," Abigail replied.
"Okay so what does the rest of this mean?" Riley asked.
"The vision to see the treasured past must refer to a way to read the map," Ben made known.
"I thought the cipher was the map?" Riley asked.
"No the cipher was a way to find a way to read the map," Ben justified.
"And the way to read the map can be found where the timely shadow crosses in front of the Liberty Bell," Abigail stated.
"Crosses in front of the house of the Liberty Bell. Independence Hall," Ben added.
"And the timely shadow...it's a specific time," Abigail pointed out.
"What time?" Riley asked.
"What time? What time? Wait..your gonna love this," Ben stated walking to the cash register, "excuse me can I see one of those 100 dollar bills I paid you with?"
"No," the cashier replied.
"Well, I have this diver's watch, it's called a submariner. I dive with it. It's actually quite valuable. You could use it as collateral," Ben handed the woman his watch.
"Whatever," She scoffed taking the watch.
Ben turned to Abigail, "On the back of a hundred dollar bill is an etching of Independence Hall, based on a painting done in the 1780's…."
"Hello?" The clerk asked annoyed.
"Thank you," Ben thanked taking the bill, "and the artist was actually a friend of Benjamin Franklin. It's wonderful. Hold this," He handed the declaration to Abigail. Then gave her a look.
"I'm not going anywhere," Abigail smiled putting the tube on her shoulder.
"Now if we look at this clock tower," Ben began picking up a water bottle and looking through it, "we might find this specific time."
Abigail looked over Ben's shoulder.
"What do you see?" She asked him.
"2:22," Ben replied.
"What time is it now?" Abigail asked.
"Almost 3." The clerk answered looking at Ben's watch.
"We missed it." Abigail sighed disappointment in her voice.
"No we didn't. We didn't miss it because…" Riley paused, waiting for Ben, or Abigail to say something.
They looked at him in interest. "Wait, you don't know this? I know something about history you guys don't know!" He smiled.
"I'd be very excited to learn about it Riley," Ben told him.
"Hold on one second. Let me just…" Riley took a deep breath. "just take in this moment. This is..this is cool," He smiled, "is this how you feel all the time? Except for now, of course…"
"Riley!" Abigail barked annoyed.
"Alright!" Riley yelled, "what I know is that daylight savings time wasn't established until World War 1. So if it's 3 pm now, in 1776, it would be 2 pm."
Ben smiled, "Riley, you're a genius."
Ben got his watch back and they were off.
"Do you know who the first person to suggest Daylight Savings time was?" Riley asked.
"Ben Franklin," Ben and Abigail replied.
Riley stomped his foot, looking disappointed.
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The three were soon in Independence Hall on a tour. They broke away from it, and headed for the bell tower.
"What bell is this?" Riley asked when they got up there.
"It is the Centennial Bell. It replaced the Liberty Bell in 1876." Ben stated.
"There it is," Abigail pointed out when she saw that the shadow was cast over a certain brick.
"Alright. I'll go down, and you meet me in the signing room," Ben instructed.
Ben went down there and put a hand to the brick. There was a Mason symbol on it. Ben pulled out a pocket knife and started chiseling away the concrete around the brick. Ben took out the brick. He shrugged and looked in the space where the brick used to be. There was nothing in it, but then he looked at the brick. The back was open and hollow. Ben reached in and grabbed something. He took out some spectacles. He put the brick back and took off.
As soon as he got to the signing room, Abigail and Riley approached him.
"Hey, what did you score?" Riley asked.
"It's some kind of ocular device," Ben held up the glasses, "the vision to see the treasured past? Let me take this," He took the document case from Abigail as Riley took the glasses.
"They're like early American X-ray specs," Riley joked examining the glasses.
"Benjamin Franklin invented something like these," Abigail pointed out, looking at Ben.
"I think he invented these," Ben corrected.
"What do we do with them?" Riley asked, still holding the glasses.
"We look through them," Ben stated.
"Here, help me," Abigail sighed.
As they got done unrolling the declaration, Ben sighed.
"What?" Riley asked, looked at Ben, confused.
"It's just that… the last time this was here, it was being signed," Ben smiled.
"Ben, there's another tour coming," Riley informed him.
"Turn it over." Ben stated.
Ben took the glasses and put them on. There were words on the back. It said 'Heere at the Wall.'
"What do you see?" Abigail asked Ben.
"It says 'Heere at the Wall'. Spelled with 2 Es. Take a look," Ben made known handing the glasses to Abigail
"Oh, wow," Abigail stated softly.
"Why can't they just say go to this place, here's the treasure, spend it wisely?" Riley complained.
"Oh no," Ben looked out the window.
Riley went over to the window and saw Ian's men.
"How they find us?" Riley asked.
"Ian has unlimited recourses and he's smart," Ben informed.
"I don't think we can get out of here without being spotted," Abigail pointed out.
"Well we can't let them have the declaration or the glasses. And we especially don't want them to have them together," Ben reminded.
"So what do we do?" Riley asked.
"We separate the lock from the key. Were splitting up," Ben made known.
"Good idea." Abigail nodded.
Riley looked confused.
"Really?" He asked.
Ben nodded. "I'll take this and those."
He grabbed the tube holder and the glasses.
"And you keep that." He gave Abigail the tube that held the Declaration. "Meet me at the car and call me if you run into any problems."
"Like if we get caught and killed?" Riley asked.
"Yeah that would be a big problem," Ben replied, "take care of her."
"I will," Riley and Abigail answered at the same time.
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Riley and Abigail were walking in the crowded street. Then they heard something behind them. They turned around and saw Ian's men chasing after them.
"Time to run," Riley pointed out.
"Riley you shouldn't be running. Your injured," Abigail reminded.
"It doesn't matter. I promised Ben to protect you and the Declaration and that is what I'm doing," Riley told her.
They dashed into a shopping mall. That is when they got separated. Riley took off to find a place to hide and find Abigail. He wasn't paying attention and ran into Victor. Victor grabbed him.
"Where's the declaration?" he asked.
Riley struggled to get away, but Victor held on. He put a gun to his back.
"Walk," he ordered.
Riley started walking as Victor put in a call in his walkie talkie. The next thing Riley knew he was in an alley and a black van came out. MacGregor came over and grabbed him, but Riley started to struggle to get away. That was when Victor grabbed his bad arm and Riley screamed in pain. The back of his skull exploded in pain and Riley's world became blackness.