National Treasure (Sanders Sides)

Chapter Five

Roman Does a Crime

Roman adjusted the earpiece he was wearing. "Can you guys hear me?"

"Yep!" Patton said happily, and Ro was pretty sure Logan had brought a pack of Chips Ahoy to keep him quiet in the van.

He straightened his tie before heading into the building. Logan had snuck him around the back with a fake ID card before he went around to the main room.

To get into the preservation room, he'd need a fingerprint from a high level employee. There were dozens in the building tonight, most of them holding champagne glasses. It shouldn't be too hard.

"Mr. Brown?"

Ro turned around to see Virgil Quinn among the party. He'd worn a nice tux and some eyeshadow, but was easily recognizable by the purple hair. He was also the only person that would have addressed him by the fake name he'd given when he first came to the Archives.

"Oh, hey, hi," Roman said, caught off guard. He looked as if he belonged wearing nice clothes, but he'd been recognized. Not good. "Nice you see you again."

Virgil raised an eyebrow and adjusted his hair. "What are you doing here?"

"Is that the historian guy?" Logan asked through the earpiece, "get rid of him."

"Tell him I said hi!" Patton said, mouth full of cookies.

Roman tried to ignore them and responded, "I made a donation, last minute. Big one, uh," he noticed an empty champagne glass in Virgil's hand and swapped it for his full one. "Let me take that, since the refreshments are on the other side of the room—"

"Thanks, but..." he trailed off as Roman disappeared into the crowd.

Quickly ducking into the nearest restroom, Roman pulled out the kit Logan had put together to get the fingerprints. Some kind of chemical or whatever that made it more visible, and then Roman transferred it to a rubber glove. Throwing away the rest of the stuff, he headed down the hallway.

"Just looped the security footage, you're good to get to the room."

"Thanks, Lo," Ro said quietly, making sure no one else was around.

The preservation room was in an employees only hallway, with an electric panel next to the wooden door.

He pressed the glove with the fingerprint against the scanner, sighing in relief when a keyboard slid out. "Just need to get the passcode." Looking at the keys under a pen black light, he read to most smudged letters out loud. If anyone came down the hall it would probably be a security guard, since everyone else was at the party. He still had the fake ID on him, but that probably wouldn't fly.

"Alright Patton just put them into a generator to get possible combinations, I'm checking the exit route."

Patton said quickly, "none of these make any sense. 'Vafe goryl,' 'Gale fory,' 'Vale forgy'—"

"Valley Forge," Logan said, "try Valley Forge."

Ro typed it in and heard the door click. "Thanks Specs."

The door swung open into the room. On a table in the center lay the case holding the Declaration. It was huge, probably half of Roman's height.