Oh my gosh, I know it's been about a year and a half since I updated. I'm not even going to pretend to promise that I'll start posting with more regularity because I don't do well when I promise. Here's chapter 4 though, I hope y'all enjoy it!

Ben turned left and then spoke, probably to Riley. "Dead end."

As they turned right, the three of them came face to face with a maid. Ben began to use his English accent again and Lydia tried not to grimace at how horrible it was. She knew she could have a better English accent and she'd never even tried to use a British accent. "The flowers... petals... stamens." Lydia breathed a sigh of relief as the maid ignored their entire group and kept walking. The three of them began to walk down the hall the other way and finally, entered the queen's study. Lydia had to resist the urge to take a couple of pictures for her scrapbook.

Lydia's Dad took in a breath as he saw it, "That's it." His voice was reverent. They approached the desk with care and Ben quickly surveyed it. "We're looking for...writing, patterns in the carvings. Could be anything." Abigail and Lydia's Dad got under the desk, and they looked at the underside.

"Hey, look at this." Abigail spoke quietly. "Malcolm Gilvary, 1880."

Lydia slipped her ear wig back in as Riley spoke. "Malcolm Gilvary. He didn't make furniture. He made Chinese puzzle boxes."

"Oh..." Ben realized something.

"What?"

"I think these drawers work like tumblers in a safe."

Lydia sat on a couch and glanced around, trying not to feel like she was interfering with something intimate. She had the sudden thought that maybe it would have been better for her to work with Riley and for her dad and Abigail to do this on their own.

"OK, four drawers... Four-digit combination?" Abigail guessed. "What about a year?"

"It might be 1876." Lydia suggested shrugging, "That's the year on the statue."

"One." Ben started pulling drawers out, "Eight. Seven. Six."

Apparently Lydia's guess had been correct because there was a loud click and something popped out of the Queen's desk. Lydia got up and hurried over to the desk, in her hurry she didn't see the chair leg and she stubbed her toe on it. Biting back swearwords that would make her father blush, she finished limping over to the desk as Ben and Abigail huddled around the side.

Ben quietly pulled a hidden drawer out and they all sucked in a breath as they saw the clue. It was wooden, and it looked like someone had cut it in half, as there was a jagged edge on one side.

Lydia's brow furrowed and she leaned forward, was it her or did this look loads older then the Civil War? Ben must have been thinking the same thing for he spoke, his voice a whisper.

"Uh-oh. New rules. These markings, like Incan or Aztec. I have never seen any symbols like this."

"I did, in my history text book; they're only on one page." Lydia remembered something she'd seen in her History text the week before when she'd been reviewing for a test.

"I mean, this looks centuries older than Civil War."

"It is," Lydia informed the group, "I seem to remember the date on the picture in my textbook was like, in the 1400's."

"What do you think it means?" Abigail asked.

"Well, I doubt it has anything to do with the plot to assassinate Lincoln." Ben murmured. Lydia nodded in agreement.

Riley spoke, his voice urgent. "Mayday. Mayday. Lydia, Ben, Abigail, get out of there."

Ben stuck the clue into the back of his pants and Lydia darted around the desk to grab Abigail's purse, "Don't want to leave his behind." She said, holding it out to the woman as they left the Queen's office.

The fire alarm started going off and Lydia sent a prayer of thanks up that Riley was doing something that would cause mass confusion. It would help them get out of the Palace without the guards catching them.

They slowly made their way down to the main floor of the palace and joined Riley as they walked out of the Palace. There were Police men and fire engines around and the group of four quickly walked across the street to get away from cameras and anyone who might recognize them. The last thing they needed was an officer detaining them. As they continued walking, a group of dog walkers passed them and Riley, in true Riley fashion managed to get tangled in the leashes. Ben and Abigail kept walking as Lydia tried to help her friend get untangled. Once untangled, they hurried to get caught up to Ben and Abigail.

"Thanks for waiting for me." Riley said to Lydia as they hurried and caught up with Lydia's father.

"No problem," Lydia said, they had to jog to catch up to Abigail and Ben, and Lydia had the sudden urge to grab Riley's hand as they jogged. Lydia shook her head, why did she have that sudden urge? She ignored it as they caught up to Ben and Abigail.

"Can I see the thing?" Riley asked, he held his hand out and Ben gave him the clue.

Riley looked at it confused, "Wait. I went to Buckingham Palace and all I got was this old piece of wood?"

Abigail, Lydia and Riley all stopped walking and stared at the clue, "Look at the symbols. I've never seen anything like this." Abigail spoke.

"I have, but they were in my Ancient American History-" Lydia started to speak, but Ben burst past them, running.

"Wilkinson. He's the one who's after the treasure."

Abigail, Riley and Lydia all started running as well, they didn't want to be left behind.

They got to the car and Ben and Riley went to the front passenger and driver's side, while Abigail and Lydia got into the back seats. Ben turned the car on, as Lydia put her seat belt on. She screamed though as the back window shattered and as she fell forward to keep from getting hit, she heard Ben shouting:

"It's a gun! Get down!"

She felt a weight on her back, something was pushing her downwards and she tried to twist to see what it was. Abigail had thrown herself over Lydia's back, shielding her from any bullets.

"Stay down Lydia."

"You'll get hit!" Lydia objected, just because she didn't like the woman right now that didn't mean she wanted Abigail to get shot.

"Only if they have really good aim." Abigail responded, Lydia tried to get down a little further in her seat so Abigail wouldn't get hit. She could hear shouting and she strained to hear each of their voices to make sure that her family hadn't been hit.

"Hang on! Keep your heads down!"

They swerved and drove for what felt like ages, Lydia know they hadn't driven long but it felt like a much longer time. She felt a jolt and then heard the sound of breaking glass and hoped no one had gotten hurt because of her father's driving.

"What the…." Riley's quiet comment made Lydia look up. She could see that the screen for the back up camera had activated and her dad had been using that to drive. Ben had come to a complete halt and a dog was sitting there staring at the camera, tongue hanging out panting happily.

Ben shifted gears and started driving the correct way now, so Lydia and Abigail sat up properly.

As they drove, Abigail and Lydia looked behind them to see if the car was still following them. "Ben, they're getting closer."

"What is their problem?" Riley asked, he kept turning to check to see if Wilkinson was still behind them.

"They're bad guys, they probably have more problems then the Rolling Stones have issues." Lydia shot back.

"Go left! Go left!" Abigail ordered.

Lydia knew she was safe while her dad was driving, he was quite a good driver. But it felt like the car was careening and she hated the feeling of not being in control.

"Hold on." Ben said, the car turned sharply and Lydia fell into Abigail's lap. "Sorry!" Lydia said, struggling to sit up.

"Turn, turn, turn!" Riley shouted, they were closing in on a bus and Lydia knew if they didn't turn at the right time, they would hit the bus.

"Watch out!" Lydia couldn't tell who shouted but Ben started turning too late, and too quickly and he skidded through the turn. The entire passenger side of the car hit the bus and windows shattered. Lydia felt her head connect with something solid and everything went dark.

When she came to, the car was still driving and Abigail was jostling her, trying to wake her. "Lydia?" the woman sounded worried and Lydia tried to force a smile but it was hard as her head hurt.

"I'm fine, just hit my head." Lydia tried to brush it off.

"Go. Go, go, go, go!" Lydia could hear Riley saying, the car lurched forward driving again, Lydia tried to shake it off, but her head hurt so bad! She could feel Abigail's hand on her shoulder. And she turned to the woman, forcing a smile.

"I'll be fine, really." She ignored the phone that was ringing, "I just need some ice and Ibuprofen."

The phone kept ringing and Riley spoke from the front seat. "What is that? Someone's phone."

Abigail finally turned away from Lydia and spoke. "It's him."

"You have his number in your speed dial?" Riley asked. Lydia raised an eyebrow at the tone of Riley's voice, why shouldn't Abigail? She and Lydia's dad weren't together she was at perfect liberty to get anyone's phone number and put it in her cell phone.

"Oh, shu..." Abigail said, frustrated, Ben grabbed Abigail's phone and answered the call.

"This has to end before someone gets hurt." There was silence on Ben's end of the line before the older man spoke again. "Tell that to my father." They turned down a street, slowing down considerably.

"Why are they standing in the middle of the street?" Riley asked. Lydia groaned quietly and closed her eyes, maybe less light would help her head. She could hear the rest of the occupants in the car speaking but tuned them out as she tried not to concentrate on the pain.

Lydia didn't know how much time had passed, but Abigail's voice beside her brought her back to the present. "They're still behind us."

"This phone have a camera?" Ben held up Abigail's phone.

"No. No, it's broken." Abigail caught the phone as Ben tossed it into the back seat and turned to Riley.

"All right. Give me the plank." Riley passed the plank over and Ben spoke again. "Hang on. We're going to run a red light."

We're all going to die. Lydia thought. That or we're not going to be allowed in England again.

"Riley, hack into the London Police database and get a picture from that traffic cam." Ben ordered as he put the plank down.

"Okey-dokey." Riley sounded frustrated and Lydia's brow furrowed, maybe it was just the pain speaking but it wounded like Riley was mad, was something wrong?

"You can't do it?" Ben asked.

"No, I can. I just don't like that you assume that I can." Riley said.

Even through the pain Lydia could see the humor in what Riley had said and she and Abigail laughed. "Why, thank you, Riley." Abigail spoke.

"Dad, they're still following us." Lydia said, she closed her eyes as another wave of pain washed over her.

"I know." Ben said, they began to drive over a bridge and Ben finally tossed the plank out of the window. The cars behind them stopped following them and Ben was able to finally slow down some.

They slowed down even further and finally turned down a street. Ben parked the car and the four of them looked at each other. "Let's go home." Ben suggested.

Lydia breathed a sigh of relief as she sat down in the airplane. "Finally."

"You feeling better?" Riley asked, he shoved a bag in the compartment above them and sat down next to her, moving the backpack to his feet.

"Yeah, sort of." Lydia said. "My head still hurts a bit, even with the pain meds. I'm just glad I didn't have a concussion or anything like that."

Riley smiled, "me too."

"Where are Dad and Abigail sitting?" Lydia asked, looking around. The plane was nearly full, where were they?

"They got some on the other side of the plane." Riley said, "I volunteered to sit next to you so they'd be stuck together for an 8 hour flight."

Lydia chuckled, "Maybe they'll decide they miss each other, and get back together."

"That's what I was hoping." Riley said, he gestured to his backpack, "I've got some Doctor Who episodes on my computer, want to watch after the plane is up in the air?"

"Sure." Lydia smiled. "I've never seen the show, can we start from the beginning?"

Riley nodded "Yeah."

Closer to the front of the plane, Ben and Abigail put their carry on bags away and sat down. "I thought Riley was going to sit next to me." Abigail said, trying not to make it sound like she would prefer to sit next to the younger man.

"He decided to sit next to Lydia, I think they're crushing on each other."

"About time you noticed." Abigail said, "Lydia's had a crush on Riley since the first treasure hunt."

"Really?" Ben asked.

Abigail nodded, "She won't admit it unless she and Riley are together, but she's always had a soft spot for him."

"Well, let's hope this flight is what it takes for Lydia to realize that Riley is better for her then Dylan is." Ben said. "Dylan seems like a nice young man but Lydia is so much more mature and so much more..." He trailed off trying to think of a word.

"Less awkward?" Abigail suggested. "From what I've seen on facebook he seems like a nice guy just..."

"Not for Lydia." Ben finished her sentence. Abigail nodded without saying anything. Silence reigned between them for a moment.

"Why is Riley better for Lydia though, aren't they kind of far apart in age?"

"So are we..." Ben started.

"Yeah and look how well we are going." Abigail responded.

"But they're friends first, which I think will help with the age difference. Lydia hasn't seen Riley since she graduated high school, not in person at least. But every couple of months I catch her on Riley's facebook page. She's either posting something or just facebook stalking. She's read his book, I caught her the other day re-reading it. And if you look at her while they're together you can see she's genuinely happy to see him and be around him. While she likes Dylan and is happy around him, it's not the same." Ben said.

Abigail moved so she could see Lydia and Riley. The two younger members of the party were sitting 10 rows behind them and Abigail could see the two of them talking. Lydia burst into giggles as Riley said something. Lydia shook her head. Riley nodded emphatically and Lydia said something that Abigail couldn't hear. She turned back around and sat in her seat properly.

"Annnnnnd..." Ben drew the word out. He clearly thought his next bit of information would convince Abigail that Lydia and Riley were going to get together. "I caught them holding hands on the flight here."

Abigail jerked her head behind her to look at Lydia and Riley again. "Do you think they're together now?" She asked, "Cheating on Dylan doesn't sound like Lydia."

Ben shook his head. "No, I know Lydia wouldn't cheat on Dylan with Riley. Riley doesn't like to fly and I caught them holding hands right after lift off. They weren't holding hands romantically, but, Lydia's not a touchy person unless she really cares for somebody. If she didn't care for Riley she wouldn't have let him hold her hand."

Riley snuck a glance at Lydia as they finished the first episode of Doctor Who. "What do you think?"

"I liked it, it looks like a cool show."

"How do you think things are going up there with your dad and Abigail?"

"Well, neither one of them have come back to ask if one of us could switch places with them so I things must be going pretty good." Lydia said. "Do you know what happened between them? I mean one day things seem fine between them, the next my Dad's moving in with my grandpa and they're separating the furniture."

"From what I can tell, it's a communication issue." Riley said, "I hope they are able to work things out, they were great together."

"I hope so too." Lydia said. "Abigail was great for my dad. Still would be if they both got their heads on straight."

Riley nodded in agreement and they began to watch another episode of Doctor Who.

Lydia slowly got out of her dad's car when they pulled up in front of her Grandpa's house. Her head still hurt a bit and she didn't want to move too fast.

Grandpa came out of the house, smiling as he saw Abigail. "Abigail!"

"Hey, Patrick." Abigail said, the two hugged and Patrick spoke again.

"Nice to see you two together again."

"Yeah, well, we're not." Abigail said, not trying to sound rude.

Lydia and Riley shared a glance, maybe the flight hadn't gone as well as they thought it had.

"Oh, I was hoping to get some of these boxes out of the house."

"Not sure why he hasn't done that," Lydia muttered to Riley. "I know he's got enough money in stocks and stuff to afford his own place."

"I think he's hoping Abigail will change her mind and let him move back in." Riley muttered back. Lydia nodded in agreement, she knew that her dad was still in love with Abigail.

After helping Riley bring the luggage into the house she went to the bathroom and pulled open the medicine cabinet. She grabbed a dose of pain killers out of the bottle of Aleve she grandpa had in the cupboard. After downing the pills with a gulp of water, she went to the office where Riley had pulled up the picture of the plank. Her grandfather was looking at it, trying to read the symbols.

Lydia walked up to stand by Abigail, she was standing behind Riley, the woman turned to her and asked quietly. "Are you feeling all right?"

"It's my head, Pain meds I got in London are wearing off, I'll feel better after I get some sleep." Lydia promised.

"Well, I can't read the whole thing." Grandpa said. "But I can tell you that these are definitely pre-colonial Native American markings."

"Easily 500 years old." Ben's question came out as a statement.

"Easily." Grandpa agreed. He peered closer at the computer, Lydia couldn't tell which symbol he was staring at, until he pointed to it. "I can identify one symbol. Look at this. Do you know what that is?"

Ben shrugged, clueless. "Sacred calendrical? I don't know."

"That symbol is Cibola." Patrick turned to the group. "That's Cibola."

"The City of Gold." Ben realized.

"Really?" Abigail sounded less then convinced. "The city of Gold?"

"Dad, Grandpa, the two of you have rarely been wrong on things, but I have to agree with Abigail." Lydia said, "The city of gold is a...story. There's less proof of the city of gold then there was of the Deceleration treasure." She looked between both her grandfather and father. "And I think we all know how little proof there was of the deceleration treasure before we found it."

"Give us half an hour before you write this off." Ben suggested, he motioned for Lydia and Abigail to move into the living room. The group followed Ben into the living room. They began to sit down as he looked through the bookshelves, obviously looking for a specific book.

He found it and quickly flipped through it. "In 1527, a Spanish ship wrecked on the Florida coast. There were only four survivors. One was a slave named Estebán who saved a local tribe's dying chief. As a reward, he was taken to their sacred city, a city built from solid gold. Later, when Estebán tried to find the city again, he never could. But the legend grew, and every explorer came to the New World in search of it. When General Custer's search for gold ended with his last stand at Little Bighorn, it became clear none would ever find it."

The pieces began to slip into place and Lydia's nodded in agreement as her Grandpa spoke. "Ben, can you imagine if the Confederates got their hands on the City of Gold... My God." But, Grandpa couldn't read the plank. Lydia knew only one person who could read the ancient language.

"I'm going to go talk to her." Ben said, and Lydia knew he'd put it together, who they'd have to talk to.

This should be fun, Lydia thought.

"And you're coming with me."

"No!" Patrick insisted, he began to move around the living room, hands fluttering nervously.

"No one else can translate it." Ben said.

"There are others. There are several others." Patrick said desperately.

"For ancient Native American? No one better." Ben objected.

"Who?" Riley asked, both Lydia and Abigail motioned for him to stay silent as they watched the exchange. Lydia began to giggle, this was going to be fun. The last time her grandparents had been in the same room together she'd been in high school, nearly 4 years ago.

"Look, Ben, I can't go with you." Patrick was nervously fluttering around the living room. "It's been, what? Twenty-five years?"

"Thirty-two." Ben shot back stubbornly. Lydia glanced back to her Grandpa.

"That long?" He asked more to himself then to anyone in the room. "There's a reason why we haven't spoken in 32 years." Patrick paused, "We have nothing in common."

"Me?" Ben gestured to himself.

"Hey!" Lydia spoke up from the couch. "What about me?"

"Yes, of course. And I'm sure she's just as proud of the both of you as I am."

"Who?" Riley asked again.

Abigail had kept quiet through the entire exchange and she turned to Riley, thoroughly amused. "Ben's mom."

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