Treasure Hunters: A National Treasure Fanfiction

Chapter Nine: Our Evil Plan is Working

No warning, just blank. Ben was gone, the Declaration was gone. It was all gone.

"I lost my feed," cried Riley in disbelief. This couldn't be happening now.

"What?" demanded Ben.

"I lost my feed Ben!" Riley cried, fiddling around with the wires. "I don't know where anyone is, I have nothing. Ben I have nothing," he cried in a panic. He tried every key, but nothing helped.

"Ben get out of there!" cried Alex, also panicking. "You've got to get out of there now!"

Moments later they heard a grunt from Ben. "I'm taking the whole thing with me. I'll finish getting it out in the elevator."

Riley and Alex sat in tense silence, waiting for an update. They both winced when a sudden sharp sound cut through their earpieces.

"What was that?" asked Riley.

"Wait, are those, gunshots?" cried Alex, realizing that sound wasn't from the headpiece at all, but from the other end of the line where Ben was.

"Who's shooting?" asked Riley. "Are you still there?" Nothing.

"Ben!" cried Alex, panic-stricken.

"I'm okay, I'm in the elevator. Ian's here. There was some shooting," came Ben's stressed voice.

"What?!"

"I hate that guy," mumbled Riley.

Nothing was said for a while.

"Ben?" Alex finally said. "Ben?"

"Where are you?" Riley added in a sing-song voice.

"Stop talking." Finally, Ben emerged from the building. "Start the van." Riley and Alex threw down the equipment and climbed into the front seats of the van as Ben made his way over.

That was when Riley noticed Doctor Chase stalking across the street, looking very determined and slightly scary. And she was headed straight for them. "Uh Ben, t-the mean Declaration lady's behind you."

"It's Doctor Chase Ben!" hissed Alex.

"Hey," said Doctor Chase. Riley and Alex sunk down in their seats, listening to the conversation between her and Ben through both their earpieces and clearly from just outside the van.

"Oh, it's you. Hello." Ben always did a good job of sounding calm, but one could definitely catch a nervous edge to his voice just now.

"Mr. Brown what is going on here?" she demanded. "What's that?"

Both Riley and Alex shot each other a glance. Oh no!

"I-it's a souvenir," said Ben.

"Really?" She did not however, sound convinced.

"D-did you have a nice time at the party?" Ben asked, trying desperately to change the subject.

Oh yeah, now's a good time to try and be charming and flirtatious, thought Alex.

"Stop chatting and get in the van," Riley hissed to Ben through clenched teeth.

"Yeah." Before she could continue, she was interrupted by the Archive's alarm being set off, blaring into the night.

"Oh my God," sighed Riley.

"Oh my - oh my God," cried Doctor Chase. "You did not - give me that!"

"Take it, it's yours," Ben cried, before throwing open the van's back door and jumping inside. "Go!" he cried.

"Security! Over here!" Doctor Chase began to yell. She began heading back towards the building.

"What, we can't just let her take it!" protested Riley.

"We can now go!" shouted Ben.

"Security!"

"Wait, wait, stop!" cried Ben, watching as a catering truck pulled up in front of Doctor Chase, a couple of men jumping out. Shaw and Powell.

The three watched them struggle to wrestle the Declaration from Doctor Chase's grasp, but soon gave up and hauled her into the truck.

"Oh bad," said Ben. "Oh bad, bad, bad!" He practically threw open the door and jumped out of the van, ducking behind it to avoid another gunshot.

"Alex get down!" Riley cried, they ducking just in time as a shot hit and smashed the window on Riley's side.

The shooting ceased abruptly and with that, the truck sped off.

"Go, go!" shouted Ben, jumping into the back of the van. Riley stepped on it and took off after the truck.

"Once we catch them what are we going to do?" he asked.

"I'm working on it," answered Ben.

They took a sharp turn in pursuit of the truck.

"Ah, Riley!" cried Alex, hanging on for dear life as they drove over a bumpy part of road and skidded around the corner.

"Hang on!" he replied.

Then, suddenly, the three watched in horror as the back door of the truck swung open sharply, Doctor Chase hanging off of it, the Declaration clutched in her hand.

"Oh no."

"Oh God."

"Holy Lord!"

There was more shooting. Once it passed Ben opened the back door, hanging onto the seat belt, leaning out and reaching for Doctor Chase. "Abigail! Come on, jump!" They grabbed hands and with one last scream, she jumped and he pulled her into the van. Then he slammed the door and Riley took a turn away from Ian's truck, finally ending the chase.

(I love that chase scene! Especially when the truck's bouncing around through the construction site, so funny! Thanks so much for reading, and I'm also writing another National Treasure story separate from this one with another added character, her name's Alice and she's Abigail's sister and she gets taken by Ian and crew during the car chase - I'm thinking of posting it so let me know if you'd be interested :) thanks!)