Chapter One: Past

Washington D.C. 1974

(Ben is 10, Bianca is 6)

Ben and I were visiting grandfather for the day while dad was at work. It was pouring down rain, thunder crashed against the roof. Ben grabbed a flashlight and then he and I snuck up to the basement. "Ben, we shouldn't be up here." I was frightened. I hated thunderstorms. We weren't supposed to be in the attic.

"Don't worry, Bianca; I'll be here if something happens." He replied protectively. We slowly crept to the other side of the room. He pulled the ladder the rest of the way up and climbed up it to reach the top self. He grabbed a book and came back to show me it.

"I found this the last time we were here." He said.

The thunder crashed louder than it did before. We looked up. "Grandpa." We gasped.

"You aren't supposed to be up here…Looking at that." He said.

"We just wanted to know." Ben said.

"You're both old enough I suppose. You should know the story." He said. Ben sat down on a box and grandpa picked me up and sat me on his lap. "Okay here we go." He said as he began the story. "It was 1832; on a night just like this, Charles Carroll was the last remaining signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also a member of the secret society known as the masons. And he knew he was dying. He woke up his stable boy in the middle of the night and ordered him to take him to the white house to see Andrew Jackson. Because it was urgent that he speak to the president." He told us.

"Did he talk to him?" Ben asked.
Grandpa shook his head. "No, he never got the chance. The president wasn't there that night. But Charles Carroll had a secret. So he took into his confidence the one person he could, my grandfather's grandfather, Thomas Gates."

"What was his secret?" I asked him.

He beckoned Ben to lean in closer and Ben did.

"A treasure." Grandfather whispered to us. Our eyes widened and we looked at each other.

"Whoa." We looked at each other and then back at Grandfather.

"A treasure beyond all imagining," He continued. "A treasure that had been sought over for centuries by tyrants, pharaohs, emperors, warders; and every time it changed hands it grew larger. Then suddenly" He snapped his fingers. "It vanished. It didn't reappear for more than a thousand years when knights from the first crusade discovered vaults for the ancient temple of Suleiman. You see the knights who found the vaults believed that the treasure was too great for any one man. Not even a king. They brought the treasure back to Europe and took the name 'The Knights Templar'. Over the next century they smuggled it out of Europe, and they formed a new brotherhood called 'The Free Masons' in honor of the builders of the great temple. War followed, by the time of the American Revolution the treasure had been hidden again. By then the masons included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Revere. They knew they had to make sure the treasure would never fall into the hand of the British. So they devised a series of clues and maps to its location. Over time the clues were lost and were forgotten, until only one remained and that was the secret that Charles Carroll entrusted to young Thomas Gates. Charlotte, the secret lies with Charlotte." Grandpa finished.

"Who's Charlotte?" Ben asked.

"Or what, it could be the name of something." I commented.

"Oh, not even Mr. Carroll knew that. Now look here, you both, is that the masons, among our founding fathers left us clues like these." He said showing us the back of a dollar bill. "The Unfinished Pyramid and the All Seeing Eye, symbols of the Knights Templar, guardians of the treasure; they're speaking to us. Through these" He was interrupted.

"You mean laughing at us." Dad said as he came through the door. Grandpa folded up the dollar. "You know what that dollar represents? The entire Gates family fortune, six generations of fools chasing after fool's gold." He said turning away.

"It's not about the money, Patrick. It's never been about the money." Grandpa scoffed.

"Come on Ben, Bianca, it's time to go. You can say your goodbyes." Dad said and he went downstairs.

"Grandpa, are we knights?" Ben asked. Grandpa put me down. I stood next to Ben.

"You wanna be?" He chuckled. Ben and I nodded. "Alright. Um…kneel." Ben closed the book and knelt down on one knee; while I, on the other hand, sat on my knees. I was in a dress, I couldn't do that. Grandpa put a blanket around each of us as a cape. "Benjamin Franklin Gates, Bianca Eva Gates, You take upon yourself the duty of the Templars, the Free Masons, and the family Gates. Do you so swear?" Grandpa said.

"I so swear." We both agreed. Grandpa nodded.