Chapter 4: Santa is Real
"This better work." Riley says. "How does it look?"
"It's working. It's working." Ben answers after a few seconds. He's getting the fingerprints from the champagne glass Abigail was holding.
Jennifer is standing around chatting with Abigail, trying not to show how nervous she is. They were stealing the Declaration of Independence after all! But she tried her best to remain calm.
"Okay I am going to turn off the surveillance camera. Ben Gates, you are now the invisible man." Riley says, making Jennifer smile.
"What are you smiling about?" Abigail asks her.
"Oh nothing." She says innocently.
"Sure." she says, obviously not satisfied with that answer. Luckily one of her coworkers walk over and start talking about some office party coming up for someone's birthday.
"Give me the letters to her password." Riley says.
"A, e, f, g, l, o, r, v , y." Ben says.
Riley lists off a bunch of random phrases with those letters in it that was generated by his computer but Jennifer immediately realizes what the answer is. "Valley Forge" She says, turning away from Abby so she didn't hear.
"Valley forge? I don't have that on my computer." Riley says.
"It's valley forge, she pressed the 'e' and 'l' twice." Ben explains, typing in the password.
After a few moments of silence Jennifer hears Riley screaming to Ben "I lost my feed Ben! I don't know where anyone is. Get out of there, get out of there now."
"I'm taking the whole thing with me. I'll just get it out in the elevator. Jenny, go to the van now! I'll be there soon." Ben says, .
"Sorry Abigail I have to go." Jennifer says, giving Abigail a quick hug.
"Why so early?" she asks.
"Hot date." She responds, smiling.
"Remember to use protection." she calls after Jennifer.
"What?" She asks, acting scandalized.
"Wear a seat belt. What were you thinking of?" She asks, smiling mockingly. All of a sudden Jennifer hears a gun shot and she clutches her ear.
"Who is shooting?" Riley asks, freaking out.
"Ben you still there?" Riley asks as Jennifer walks quickly out of the building and towards Riley.
"I am in the elevator. Ian's here. He was the one shooting." Ben explains.
"I hate that guy." Riley says.
"Join the club." Jennifer sighs, climbing in the front seat of the van and looking towards Riley. His face is completely red so she puts her hand to his forehead. "Are you sick?" She asks.
"No, I'm fine." he coughs.
"Good." She smiles and he turns around. She takes out the earpiece and waits for Ben to show up. Riley climbs into the drivers seat so she moves to the back, giving Ben room to jump in.
"Where are you Ben? Where are you?" Riley starts singing.
"Stop talking. Start the van." Ben says as he's walking towards the van.
"Ben, the uh, mean declaration lady is behind you." Riley says into the headset. Ben opens the back door of the van, hands Jennifer the Declaration, and then heads back to Abby.
"Stop chatting and get in the van." Riley says.
The alarms go off and Jennifer hits her head against the side of the van in frustration. "We are so screwed." Jennifer mumbles to herself.
Suddenly, Jennifer hears Abigail shouting for security and she jumps out of the van.
"Abigail, it's not what you think!" She shouts running up to her.
"We have to go." Ben says, trying to pull Jennifer towards the van with him. All of a sudden, Ian pulls up.
"Well hello." He says, Shaw pulling out a gun and pointing it towards Abby. "Hand me the Declaration." He says and Jennifer immediately realizes that Abby doesn't know it's a fake.
"Abby give it to me." Jennifer says when Abby declines. Hoping to just give it to them since it's a fake. It's never that easy. When Abby hands it over to her, they see some security guards stepping outside of the building and Ian grabs Jennifer and jumps onto his van with her.
"No!" Ben yells, pulling Riley towards their own van when Ian's van drives off.
Abigail follows them and when Ben tries to prevent her from coming with, she yells at him. "No! Those guys just stole my friend and you're going to let me come with." Ben agrees, yelling at Riley to drive, and they quickly follow Ian.
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Jennifer doesn't know what to do. If she gives it to Ian then he'll look at it and know it's fake. But then again, she doesn't want to get shot, obviously.
"Just give me the Declaration, Jennifer." Ian says, smirking.
"No?" Jennifer says, turning it into almost a question in her confused state. What do I do?
"We'll drop you off if you just hand it over nicely. We'll even give you the pipe. You can take it back to Ben." Ian says, leaning too close to Jennifer for her comfort.
She backs up against the door and decides to just give it to him. "Here." She tosses it to him. "Now drop me off."
"Sorry honey, I lied." He says and motions to Shaw. He aims the gun at her and Jennifer grabs at the handle of the back of the door. She ends up holding on and swinging into the street. Luckily, Ben's car pulls up next to her.
"Holy lord!" Jennifer hears Riley say. Ben opens up the side door of the van and holds on to the seat belt, while leaning out of the vehicle.
"Jennifer, jump!" He shouts. Shaw shoots at Jennifer, luckily just missing and hitting the van. She jumps.
Ben catches her and pulls her into the van with Abigail's help. She sits down next to Abigail, slightly shaken.
"You alright?" Ben asks worriedly.
"I think so" she answers quietly.
"You're not hurt are you?"
"You're all lunatics." Abigail says, more scared about the whole situation than Jennifer seems to be.
"My friend was taken, shot at, and now those men have the Declaration of Independence. No, none of us are all right" she announces.
"She lost it?" Riley asks, looking back at Jennifer.
Ben explains how it was just a fake and that the real one was actually in the van, while Jennifer tries to stop her hands from shaking. It was surprisingly scary being kidnapped by a murderous British guy.
"Give me that." Abigail says, lunging for the real document in Ben's hands.
"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 says nerdily.
"If this is the real one then what did they get?" Abigail asks.
"A souvenir. I thought it might be a good idea to have a duplicate. Turned out I was right. Actually I had to pay for both the souvenir and the real one so you owe me 35 dollars plus tax."
"Genius." Riley says. Jennifer can't help but smile at this. She leans against the side of the moving van and closes her eyes, suddenly feeling tired.
"Who were those men?" Abigail asks.
"Just the guys we warned you were going to steal the declaration." Ben answers.
"And you didn't believe us." Riley finishes.
"We did the only thing we could do to keep it safe." Ben adds.
"There is no treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. " Abigail says slowly, as if she was speaking to idiots.
"And there is no chance that anyone could steal this either." Ben says, shaking the container holding the Declaration. "I leveled with you 100 percent. Everything I told you was the truth"
"I want that document Mr. Brown"
"Okay my name's not Brown, it's Gates. I leveled with you 98 percent." Ben admits.
"Wait a minute, did you just say Gates? Gates? You're that family with the conspiracy theory about the founding fathers."
"It's not a conspiracy theory."
"Per se." Riley finishes making Jennifer laugh again.
Ben and Abigail turn to look at Jennifer so she says, "Don't let me interrupt your fight."
"I take it back. You aren't liars, you're insane." She says.
"Oh man, I'm hungry." Jennifer says after an awkward silence. Everyone looks at her strangely. "Fun fact." She says after tiring of the creepy stares. Ben goes on to explain that he wants to run tests on the Declaration to find the map.
"You can't seriously intend to run chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of a moving van." Abigail says. Riley informs Abigail of the clean room environment set up back at Ben's place.
"We can't go back there Riley." Ben says.
"Why in the world not, Ben? We have to." Riley asks, turning from his seat to look at him.
"I bought the Declaration with a credit card." He says.
"A credit card slip? Dude, we're on the grid. They are going to have your records from forever; they are going to have my records from forever." Riley says, starting to get worried. "What do we do?"
"We need those letters." Ben answers. "You know what, get off the road. Take a right." After Abigail asks to what letters he is referring and him ignoring her, Jennifer tells her that they are the Silence Dogood letters. Eventually, the group pull over at a park. Ben jumps out of the van and begins to pace. Jennifer continues to lean her head back against the side of the van and starts dozing off before she hears Ben and Abigail's conversation.
"You have the original Silence Dogood letters? Did you steal those too?" She asks.
"They are scans of the originals. Quiet please." Ben says.
"How did you get scans?"
"Well I know the person who has the originals. Now shush"
"Why do you need them?"
"She really can't shut her mouth can she? Now look, I will let you hold onto this if you promise to shut up please." Ben says, after handing Abigail the Declaration.
"Ben you know what you have to do." Riley says.
"I know what to do. I am just trying to think of anything else we could do. "
"Well not to be a nudge, but you do realize how many people we have after us. I mean we probably have our own satellite by now. " Riley says and gives Ben the look. "It took you all of two seconds to decide to steal the Declaration of Independence. Why are you having such difficulty with this?"
"I didn't think I would have to personally tell my dad about it." He says before Jennifer hears Abigail shuffling and Ben yelling after her. Jennifer opens her eyes to see what was going on and sees Ben chasing after Abigail. He catches her and takes the Declaration back. They start having a tug-of-war over it and eventually end up getting really close.
"Awww." Jennifer coos. Riley proceeds to give her a weird look. "They like each other." She says, like its the most obvious thing in the world. After a few seconds of him staring at her like she was crazy, it gets a little windy so she starts looking for where she left her jacket. Riley climbs in the back with her and hands her the coat. Ben and Abigail come back so they head to Mr. Patrick Gate's home-- Ben's father.
Riley parks a few blocks from his house. He doesn't want to tip off the authorities… and the satellite he thinks is following them.
They all walk up to the house. Jennifer starts lagging behind because of her heels. Why did I have to get such high heels? Jennifer stops for a second and pulls off her shoes.
"What's wrong?" Riley calls over, staying back with Jennifer.
"Nothing. The shoes were killing me." Jennifer said, blushing. She held the shoes in one hand and held the dress up and off the ground with the other. Riley takes the shoes from her. "Thanks." She smiled at him, glad that she had a free hand.
They reach the door quickly, right as Ben rings the doorbell. "Where's the party?" Mr. Gates asks, after seeing Abigail, Ben and Jennifer dressed nicely.
"Well uh I'm in a little trouble." Ben says.
"Is she pregnant?" Patrick asks.
"Well if she is are you going to leave the woman carrying your grandchild standing out in the cold?" Ben asks.
"I look pregnant?" Both Abigail and Jennifer ask, turning to Riley for an answer. He shakes his head, looking embarrassed. While walking in, Jennifer pulls Ben aside and asks him "Why did your father ask if she was pregnant, has this happened before?" He just shakes his head at Jennifer and walks off with her shouting after, "Is that a yes or a no?"
"Well have a seat. Make yourselves comfortable. There is some pizza. Still warm I think." Mr. Gates says, so Jennifer heads over to the pizza and grabs a piece. Riley follows.
"Dad, I need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben explains to him. "It is about the treasure."
"And he dragged you three into this nonsense?"
"Literally." Abigail says.
"We volunteered." Riley says, motioning to both Jennifer and himself.
"Well un-volunteer before you waste your life." He says, giving her a weird look. "Where do I know you from?" He asks Jennifer after a second.
"It's me, Jennifer." She says, smiling and slightly surprised he recognized her. He walks over and gives her a hug.
"Your a good girl, get out of this nonsense while you still can"
"Knock it off dad." Ben says angrily.
"Sure, sure I know. I'm the family kook. I have a house, a job, health insurance. At least I had your mother for however brief of time. At least I had you. What do you have? Him?" He asks, motioning towards Riley.
"Look if you just give us the letters we're gone"
"You disappoint me Ben." Mr. Gates says, shaking his head.
"Well maybe that's the real Gates family legacy. Sons who disappoint their fathers"
"Get out. Take your troubles with you." Ben goes over and whispers something to his father while Jennifer leans over Riley and grabs another piece of pizza. She can feel Riley staring at her.
"What?" She asks, looking at Riley. He just shakes his head and then she hears the conversation at the other side of the room get louder.
"No, no, but we found another clue that led us here" Ben says, trying to convince his father.
"And that will lead you to another clue. And that's all you'll ever find is another clue. Don't you get it Ben? I finally figured it out. The legend said the treasure was buried to keep it from the British. But what really happened was the legend was invented to keep the British occupied searching for buried treasure. The treasure is a myth"
"I refuse to believe that." Ben says, making Jennifer smile.
"He's probably right. You don't even know if there is another clue." Abigail says critically making Jennifer scoff.
"Oh ye of little faith. Next you'll tell me there is no Santa Clause." Jennifer says through a mouthful of pizza.
"Well I can think of a way that we can find out. And we can find out right now." Ben says.
Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Jennifer gather around the kitchen table with Q-tips, lemons and the Declaration.
"Looks like animal skin. How old is it?" Ben's father asks, walking up behind us.
"At least 200 years." Ben responds.
"Really? You sure?" Ben's father asks, surprised at the exact answer.
"Now if this thing is in invisible ink how do we look at it?" Riley asks.
"Throw it in the oven." Patrick says.
"No!" Ben, Abigail, and Riley shout while Jennifer can't help but laugh.
"High sulfate inks can only be brought out with heat." He explains.
"Exactly." Jennifer nods causing everyone to stare at her. "Hey, sounds logical to me"
"It's very old. And we can't risk compromising the map." Ben says.
"You need a reagent." Patrick says, walking away.
"Dad it's really late. Why don't you get some rest?" Ben asks.
"I'm fine." Ben hesitantly wipes a Q-tip with some lemon juice and lowers it towards the document but Abigail stops him.
"I am so getting fired for this." Abigail says before wiping the Q-tip against the corner of the document.
"I told you. You need heat." Patrick says. Both Abigail and Ben lean over and breathe onto the document and a little symbol shows up. "See?" Ben's father says.
"We need more juice." Ben says.
"We need more heat." replies Abigail.
"Why in the world do you have all of these lemons laying around Mr. Gates?" Jennifer asks after a few minutes. He just shrugs his shoulders and then Jennifer hears Riley say.
"It's not a map. Is it?"
"More clues. What a surprise." Patrick says.
"That's why we need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben says. "The key in Silence undetected. Dad can we have the letters now?"
"Can someone please explain to me what these magic numbers are." Riley begs, after watching Ben copy down the numbers off of the back of the Declaration.
"It's an Ottendorf cipher." Abigail explains.
"Ah, the Ottendorf cipher. Good times." Jennifer says, nodding, and causing everyone to stare at her oddly.
"Riiight, what's an Ottendorf cipher?" Riley asks.
"Each of these numbers corresponds to a word in the key." Ben explains.
"So it's like that page number of the key text, the line on that page, and the letter in that line. So dad, where are the letters?"
"I don't have them." He says gravely.
"Where are they?"
"I donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia."
"Time to go." Ben says.
"I still can't believe that all this time no one knew what was on the back" Abigail mutters to herself.
"Back of what?" Patrick asks before grabbing the document and turning it over to read. "Oh my god. What have you done? This is the Declaration of Independence." Patrick says shocked.
"And it's very delicate." Abigail says, taking the document from Ben's father.
"You stole it?" Patrick asks, causing Riley to point at Ben.
"You saw the cipher. We had to." Ben says, gathering up the things.
"And that will lead to another clue. And that will lead to anther clue. And that's all you'll ever find. There is no treasure. I wasted 20 years of my life, and now you've destroyed yours. And you've pulled me into all of this." He says angrily.
"Well we can't have that." Ben says. Riley's duct tape comes in handy when they go and tie Ben's father to a chair for the FBI to find.
"I can't believe we're taking your dad's car." Jennifer says, climbing into the back with Riley.
"Your dad's got a sweet ride." Riley says, trying to lay down but she's in the way so he motions for her to join him.
"I think we should change clothes. We might look kind of conspicuous don't you think?" Ben asks.
"I would love to go shopping too but we have no money." Riley says, nuzzling his face into Jennifer's hair. She blushes.
"Here I took this from his house. He usually tucks a few hundred dollars somewhere between those pages." Ben says, handing the book over to Abigail.
"Common sense. How appropriate." Abigail states.
"When are we going to get there? I'm hungry. This car smells funny. Mmm, Your hair smells nice." Riley sighs. Jennifer rolls over for a second and props herself up on her elbow to kiss Riley on the cheek. She quickly rolls back onto her side facing the front, blushing a bright red. She sees Ben glancing through the rearview mirror and smiling at them before she drifts off to sleep with a smile on her face as well.