Treasure Hunters: A National Treasure Fanfiction

Chapter Ten: Post-Chase

Poor Doctor Chase, obviously shaken and probably in shock, was shouting in the back of the van, Ben trying to calm her. However, she seemed more concerned about the Declaration than the fact that she had almost died.

"Are you alright?" Ben demanded for seemingly the hundredth time.

"Those lunatics-"

"You're not hurt are you?"

"You're all lunatics!"

"You hungry?" Ben tried.

This worked. "What?" she demanded, now actually paying attention.

"Are you alright?!" Ben asked for the final time.

"A little on edge from being shot at but we'll be okay, thanks for asking," Riley piped up from the front seat.

"Yeah well I'm not alright," cried Doctor Chase, finally answering Ben's question. "Those men have the Declaration of Independence!'

"What - she lost it?!" cried Riley.

"They don't have it." Ben opened the long cylindrical case he'd put the Declaration in, showing her its contents and taking it back before she could grab it. "See, okay? Now please stop shouting." Riley and Alex both breathed a sigh of relief from the front seat.

"Give me that!" Doctor Chase demanded.

"You know something: you're still shouting. And it's really starting to annoy. You would do well, Doctor Chase, to be a bit more civilized in this instance." Ben sat down.

"If this is the real one, what did they get?"

"I told you, a souvenir. I thought it would be good to have a double, and I was right. I actually had to pay for both so you owe me thirty-five dollars, plus tax." Ben gave her a little smile.

"Genius," said Riley.

"Who were those men?" demanded Doctor Chase.

"Just the guys we tried to warn you would steal the Declaration," said Alex.

"And you didn't believe us," Riley added accusingly.

"So we did the only thing we could do to keep it safe," Ben finished.

There was a moment of silence, broken quickly by Doctor Chase's shout of, "Verdammt! Give me that!" She reached for the Declaration case again, only to have Ben snatch it back out of reach.

"You know something? You're shouting again," Ben informed her.

"Pretty sure she was swearing at us too," said Riley.

"Yeah well," said Alex. "We probably deserve it."

"And now that you have the Declaration what are you going to do?"

"We told you, we believe there's a map on the back of it-"

"Right, the 'invisible treasure map'," Doctor Chase said mockingly. "There is no map on the back of the Declaration of-"

"Well how would you know? If it's invisible?" Ben countered. This shut her up. "We're going to find out."

She realized what this meant. "You can't seriously intend to run chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of a moving van." She sounded appalled.

"We have a clean-room environment all set up," Riley stated proudly. "EDS suits, a particulate air filtration system, the whole shebang. That's where we're headed now."