Author's Note: I am sorry for the long wait. My computer got a virus and I lost everything, then had a small case of writer's block. Good news though, Chapter 9 is under construction as I speak, eh type.

I'm still not entirely happy with the way I wrote some of the characters in here, they seem to OOC. I'm sorry for the previous chapter, I submitted it while half-asleep, and evidently didn't pay attention to anything in it.

But here is my revised version, which is much better, I think.

Marion barely saw Adrienne, when she arrived from the airport at 1:00 am, before Adrienne collapsed into bed. All that she got out of her was some vague mumbling about a city of gold, Grant Stone, some ancient writing and something about love. Marion attempted to connect the dots between the four subjects and concluded that the late hour had gone to Adrienne's head. Marion didn't see her the next morning either, rushing off to Professor's Applebee's class before Adrienne was up. You simply could not be late to Prof. Applebee's class. Not if you wanted to graduate with a good grade, that was.

"I swear, I had it coming in! All you said was it was due today, not this hour!" Marion protested. Prof. Appleton didn't budge.

"Marion, this is the third time. You can not turn papers in at the end of the day. I don't allow that. You should know by now."

"The paper is currently at home, on my table where I printed it out last night." Marion said through clenched teeth.

"Add three pages and turn it in tomorrow." She turned back to her desk, filing papers. Marion took a deep breath, like her yoga teacher had instructed, and shut her eyes briefly.

"Thank you Professor." She said sweetly and walked out.

"I hate her!" Marion yelled as soon as she was outside the office.

"We're on the right track." A man that Marion recognized as Patrick Gates muttered.

"Come on Dad." Ben Gates sighed.

"I think I'll stay here, out of the line of fire." Riley said nervously, sitting in the chair outside, obviously having had experience with college teachers before.

"Bad day, Marion?" Abigail asked, following Ben into the office.

"Oh, no. It's been perfect." Marion said sarcastically, to busy worrying how to retype her paper, and add three more pages of information on it.

"Hey, did you get your car back?" she asked suddenly, turning to Riley.

He scowled. "No. Evil taxes. You're a student here?"

"Yes. Two more months and I'm out." Marion couldn't resist jumping up and down happily, before putting on a more serious face. "So, what happened to my sister? I barely saw her."

"What normally happens to Adrienne?" Riley asked curiously.

"Any thing that can go wrong, usually does. That criminal guy didn't show up again did he?"

Riley looked strained. "What guy are you referring to?"

"Ian Howe. The one in the treasure hunt! I still don't see how he got away with not going to jail. If he truly was being blackmailed, he still didn't have to kidnap my sister! He can't be trusted."

Riley began squirming uncomfortably in his seat, as Marion continued her rant. To his utter relief, Marion completely forgot her initial question.

"What are you majoring in?" he asked, eager to change the subject. Marion snapped back to the present.

"World History and Chemistry."

"History? Adrienne have any influence on that?"

"Some. The Chemistry came out of nowhere, though." Marion sighed. "How fast can you type?"

Riley looked suspicious. "Why do you need to know?"

"I printed my 13 page report out, then deleted it. I have to re-type it and add 3 pages on it."

"You deleted it!" Riley's face was a mask of utter horror, as he jumped out of his chair. "You never do that! That's the worst mistake you can make in college!"

"Yes, I know." Marion snapped back. "You going to help me type it or not?"

"Do you always grab random people to help you with your homework?"

"Do you always yell at people you barely know?"

There was a sudden silence.

"We probably look pretty stupid, standing here yelling at each other, when we barely know each other." Marion said, breaking the silence.

"No kidding." Riley shifted from foot to foot. "Listen, you stored it on your laptop, right?"

Marion nodded.

"Then even though you deleted it, it still should be on your hard drive. I can find it, for you." He offered.

"Wonderful." Marion said happily, her good humor restored.

Ben and Abigail were waiting outside the college, when Adrienne finally made her appearance. Patrick Gates was just leaving, holding the carved plank tightly, as he set off to have it tested.

"You're here, where's Ian?" Abigail asked, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"He's at the National Archives, slightly upset." Adrienne replied, her cheeks flushed from the wind.

Ben frowned. "Why? Does it have to do with the Declaration?"

"No, just his previous plan to steal it. They changed the system, though, so he never got to predict if he could have gotten it or not." Adrienne explained, as they set off down the sidewalk.

"Well, with Riley's hacking, they had to." Abigail said. "It's slightly embarrassing if a 20-something geek with a laptop can just infiltrate the system and change the records at any given time."

"Speaking of that, where is Riley?" Adrienne asked, stopping to look back at the swarm of people, hurrying across the campus grounds.

"He's helping a student, and should be out shortly." Ben said, continuing in his walk toward the parking lot.

"Your sister, to be exact." Abigail informed. There was a thumping of feet on the concrete behind them, and Riley ran up.

"Hey, where are you going! You said you'd wait for me!"

"I said we would wait at the car. That's where we are headed." Ben said calmly, slightly amused at Riley's reaction. Riley looked at the vast expanse of cars, stretching from the parking garage to the edge of the sidewalks. "You actually remember where you parked the car?" he asked skeptically.

Two minutes later and Ben finally gave in to Abigail's persistence that he just set off the car alarm, and save them the trouble of walking. Ben, convinced that he had parked in section G, and Abigail, utterly sure that it was in section H, finally looked through both sections and at no sign of the car, did set the alarm off. Adrienne, having taken a taxi, followed behind, unconcerned.

"I told you it was in section K!" Riley exclaimed, as the flashing lights revealed the location. "Does anyone listen to me? No."

"Ian. How nice of you to finally turn up." Ben greeted, flicking the alarm off. Ian was indeed, leaning against the car, apparently waiting for everyone to show up.

"What did you find out?" he asked, stepping away from the car.

"How did you know Ben was meeting Riley at the car?" Adrienne asked, puzzled.

"Ben's too predictable. I worked with these two for two years, they always meet at the car." Abigail tossed her purse into the passenger seat, before rejoining the others where they gathered by the end of the car.

"The engravings are incomplete. We have to get into the Oval Office." Ben stated. "I have to see the other Resolute desk. It has the other part of the plank."

"I hope you don't expect me to get you in." Ian said, frowning. "That would take more time than we have to spare."

"Oh, no. Abigail will do that." Ben reassured.

"I will?" Abigail looked like this was the first time she had heard of this idea.

"Or more precisely, your boyfriend will. Conner Landsky? White House curator?" Ben prompted. Adrienne grimaced at the thought of Conner. The guy was totally wrong for Abigail, but he was crazy for her. Ian caught her expression and raised an eyebrow quizzically. Riley mimed throwing up, gagging sounds included.

"Riley, stop it!" Abigail said angrily, turning on him. "Conner is a perfectly nice man." Riley rolled his eyes, making it clear he didn't believe her. Ian hastily backed away, stopping beside Adrienne.

"Ben, how am I supposed to get Conner to take me in there? And you too, I suppose." Abigail continued, turning back to Ben.

"The White House is having it's annual Easter Egg Roll. We'll just show up and say the right things." he explained. "You get Conner to take us into the Office, then distract him while I get to the desk. I'm sure it opens exactly the same way as the other one, so it will take less time." Ben said excitedly, oblivious to anything going on outside his explanation.

"And what if it doesn't?" Abigail demanded, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm sure the security will want to know why you are crawling under the president's desk."

"We could eliminate the security." Ian suggested. "Temporarily." he added hastily, noticing the glances he was getting.

"Well, why we're on that note, why don't we just knock Connor out to?" Riley said enthusiastically. Ian nodded jokingly. "Anyone else you want in unconsciousness?"

Riley was silent, pondering. "There was this person at Starbucks who poured coffee on my computer..." Adrienne began laughing, although she felt sorry for the poor person.

"Okay, Riley, stop. It was probably an accident." Ben said, half laughing.

"Ian, stop being a bad influence on him." Abigail scolded, taking him seriously. "Ben's bad enough with the criminal ideas."

"Who's idea was it to steal the Declaration?" Ben implicated, gesturing at Ian.

"Who was it that two days later, decided to do the same thing?" Ian threw back, refusing to be implicated alone.

"Uh, Ben..." Riley began, looking as though he hated to continue the topic. "You did steal it though."

Silence. Ben looked annoyed, as Ian stifled slight laughter.

"Can we get back to our next illegal act of sneaking into the Oval Office?" Abigail requested, sighing.

"Wait! I just thought of something." Adrienne interrupted. "What if there is nothing in the secret compartment of the desk?" There was silence all around.

"Where else would the rest of the message be?" Riley asked.

Ben nodded. "Either it is there, or it's not."