National Treasure - A Rewrite

Chapter Four: A Bold Declaration

After an incredibly good pizza they went to see The Declaration of Independence as planned.

Riley, in all honesty, wasn't sure how looking at it was going to help their current situation. No one believed them and he was beginning to think that it was almost an impossibility that Ian would be able to steal it. Sure, there had been cases of famous paintings being stolen with incredibly tight security but this was apparently the most important document in American history. Riley didn't really get why they would put something so important on display and not in a safe in another safe in a concrete block deep under the Pentagon but he supposed some people liked to show off. Wasn't that the point of museums?

Riley had never been that keen on museums, unless of course they were those interactive science museums or a good computing museum. Ben seemed to enjoy them though and as such in the years they had been together he had been to a couple with Ben...even if part of that was trying to avoid Ian and his friends.

They went straight over to The Declaration of Independence, Ben having that serious look he got when thinking hard about history.
"If it is any consolation, you had me convinced," Riley said, hoping that would help at least a little.
"It's not." No, Riley somehow didn't think it would be.
"No, I'm saying, what if we go public? Blast this story all over the internet," Riley suggested, it wouldn't be hard to do. "It's not as if we have our reputations to worry about. Although, I don't think that's exactly going to scare Ian away." Although, Riley supposed that might not matter. Enough public pressure and people in charge would have to do something, if only to save face.

"180 years of searching and I'm three feet away," Ben said, seemingly not even having registered what Riley said. "Of all the words written here about freedom, there's a line that's at the heart of all the others. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." Riley drew a blank. "People don't talk that way anymore." Thank heavens for that, that may as well been Latin for Riley.
"Beautiful. Huh...No idea what you just said," Riley admitted.
"It means if there's something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action," Ben explained. That...kind of made sense. It also though seemed to be a way people could explain acts to people they didn't agree with. Maybe not the best idea.

"I'm going to steal it."

Riley thought he was joking for a moment. Steal it? Ben looked dead serious though and the amusement became panic.
"...What?"

"I'm going to steal The Declaration of Independence." With that Ben walked off.

Riley froze for several moments.
"Heh...Ben? Wait!" he called and ran off after him ignoring the judgmental looks.

They stopped on the steps outside.
"This is huge," Riley said tensely, sitting down. "It's prison huge. You are going to go to prison, you know that right?" Life in prison probably.
"Yeah probably," Ben said. Riley had hoped for more of a reaction.
"So that would bother most people," Riley commented. Then again Ben had shown over and over again that he was not most people.
"Ian's gonna try and steal it. And if he succeeds, he'll steal the Declaration," Ben explained calmly. "The fact is the only way to protect it, is to steal it. It's upside down." Personally Riley would have taken it being stolen over jail but maybe that was just him. Ben sat by him, his presence somewhat comforting in the tense situation. "I don't think there's a choice." Riley... did not agree.

"Ben...For God's sakes," he said, rising. "It's like stealing a national monument. It can't be done. Not shouldn't be done. It can't be done." Probably at least but he was not going to admit there could be a chink in the armour when Ben was clearly losing it. "Let me prove it to you." Proof always worked for smart people like Ben.

They got to the library and Riley made sure he had all the information to hand.
"Okay Ben," he said. "Pay attention. I've brought you to the Library of Congress." It was much more of a Riley place than a museum. "Why? Because it is the biggest library in the world. Over 20 million books and they're all sating the exact same thing. Listen to Riley. What we have here is an entire layout of the achieves. Short of builders' blueprints you've got construction orders, phone lines, water and sewage. It's all here."

He got out one piece, feeling far more like a teacher than he would have liked.
"Now when it is on display it is surrounded by guards and video monitors and little families from Iowa and little kids on their eighth-grade field trip. And beneath an inch of bulletproof glass is an army of sensors and monitors that will goof if anyone gets too close with a high fever." He turned the page, hoping the impossibility was sinking in. "Now, when it's not on display, it is lowered into a four-foot thick concrete steel-plated vault...Which just so happens to be equipped with an electronic combination lock and biometric access-denial systems." There! He had to see it was impossible!

"You know, Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly 2000 times to develop the carbonized cotton-thread filament for the incandescent light bulb." As interesting as that was Riley really hoped Ben was going somewhere with his little anecdote.
"Edison?" he asked when Ben paused, not sure what else to say to fill the silence and received a small nod.
"When asked about it he said, 'I didn't fail, I found 2000 ways how not to make a light bulb'. But he only needed to find one way to make it work." He turned a book around. "The Preservation Room. Enjoy. Go ahead." Riley scanned it.

"Do you know what the Preservation Room is for?" Riley did not.
"Where they make delicious jams and jellies?" he joked dryly.
"No," Ben said missing the joke. "That's where they clean, repair and maintain all the documents and the storage housings when they are not in display or in the vault. Now, when the case needs work they take it out of the vault, directly across the hall and into the room across. Now, the best time for us-" of course Ben knew Riley wouldn't let him do this alone if they went forward – "or Ian to steal it would be during the gala this weekend when the guards are distracted by the VIPs upstairs. But we'll make our way to the Preservation Room where there is much less security." Genius. Ben knew it too, he looked incredibly smug.

"Huh. Well..if Ian...Preservation...Hm. The Gala. This might be possible."
"It might." Ben agreed.

And just like that Riley was somehow helping Ben plan for something that would likely have them both in jail. Ben would go in and he would do his tech stuff from outside. The plan was a good one, Riley could admit it, although he wished they had longer to plan than less than a week. One thing that neither of them had discussed much – although Riley had tried to bring it up – was what if Ian did try something at the same time? Sure, he wouldn't know that it wasn't in the vault but surely he would register there was less security?"

Still, Ben seemed confident in his plan and Riley trusted him completely, entirely and he doubted that would ever change. He just wish he stopped getting butterflies in his stomach every time Ben would give him a smile or sometimes if he would simply make eye contact. He was sure nothing could come from his feelings after all.