At seven in the morning, an FBI secretary got a call at his desk. He answered it with a bored, "Hello?"

"May I please speak to Argent?" The voice asked.

"What for?" The secretary asked, kicking his feet up onto his desk, causing a few papers to fall to the ground.

"That's information only for Argent to hear and know." The voice said.

"Sorry bud, I can't patch you through to him without dutiful reason." He lied. "You're gunna have to tell me, if it's so important."

The voice blew out a frustrated breath. "Tell him it's about case CS."  

The secretary's feet slammed to the floor, startling a few people nearby. "CS?"

"Yes. Tell him it's been reopened. We got an alert at Community Pride bank, when a boy and his dad came in. They opened the 173298 vault. The boy took pictures." The voice said. "Now, are you gunna let me talk to Argent or not?"

"I-I'll patch you through." The secretary's voice was hardly a whisper.

"Thank you. Also, if you would be so kind as to call the CIA, I would really appreciate it."

-

Lukes P.O.V.

Ashton and I sat in angry and awkward silence in my room as we waited for Calum and Michael to hurry up and finish translating the scroll.

I sat on my bed, pretending to play with the ends of my comforter. But in reality, I was sneaking glances at Ashton.

He was standing by the window, leaning against the wall on his shoulder. He was staring out the window, but he was facing away from me.

It was so horribly awkward. I wanted to say something to break the ice, even if it was just an insult.

"Hey Ashton."

"What?"

"Fuck you."

He sighed. "Luke, this is no time to be confessing your fantasies."

"Conceited sass monster alert." I snapped.

"Thanks for alerting us of your presence." He retorted and I fumed, but damn that was clever.

Michael and Calum came back then.

"Finally!" I jumped up quickly and made my way over to them, accidentally on purpose knocking my shoulder into Ashton, shoving him against the wall. "What's it say?"

"Erm..." They exchanged grimaces as Ashton rubbed his shoulder and came up to us.

"Well?" I huffed, impatient. "Tell me!"

"Um, we actually don't know what it says." Calum admitted.

"What?" Ashton asked, surprised.

"But you said you could decode it!" I said, my voice level rising.

"You managed to translate the first part of it!" Ashton told Michael. "Remember? After class?"

"Yeah, but that was different." Michael motioned for us to follow him, and  we did.

He sat down at the kitchen table. "Do you guys have a printer?" He asked me.

I nodded, confused. "Yeah, why?"

"It'll be easier to explain on paper." He said.

- 

A few minutes later, Ashton and I had our phones back and the four of us were sitting around the kitchen table, two papers laid in front of us. They were the front and back copy of the scroll, with both halves put together.

Michael picked up a pencil and held it up for us to look at. "Do you guys know what a scytale is?" He asked us.

I shook my head, but Ashton spoke up. "It's a simple system developed by the Spartans during the fifth century." He recited.

I rolled my eyes. "Ugh, don't you just know everything?"

"Yeah, and I can smell your jealousy from here." Ashton retorted. He took the pencil from Michael. "You take a piece of paper and wind it around a rod, like this pencil or a chopstick or something. Make the paper overlap. Then write a message. The only way to decode it is to have the right size rod."

"Okay, so what?" I snapped, angry that Ashton knew something I didn't.

"So, that's what the rest of the scroll is. It's a scytale waiting to be wound around the correct rod." Calum said. He pointed to the print out of the scroll, to a row of markings that looked like preschool writings. "This is the actual important part of the scroll, the rest is an example of what the scroll says after this part has been decoded." He explained.

"So, all we need is the right rod, and we find the treasure?" I asked, becoming interested again.

"We find the first clue to the treasure." Michael corrected.

"Okay, but what's the rod?" Calum asked. 

Everyone looked at each other in confusion. I took happiness in Ashton's not knowing.

"I'll tell you what it is." I spoke up, unable to keep the grin off my face.

"You know?" Ashton asked in surprise, and a little jealously, I might add.

"Of course I do, it's easy." I smiled. "At least it is for smart people." He scowled and I don't know how I managed not to laugh.

"So what is it?" Michael asked impatiently. "What's the rod?"

"Yeah, quit holding out on us." Calum pouted.

"Come on you guys, think!" I exclaimed. "What were the Spartans all about?"

"War and military." Ashton said instantly.

"Yeah." I glared at him. "And their favorite weapon to use was-"

"The spear!" Ashton shouted as the answer dawned on him.

"Also called the dory." I said. "Which was about one inch thick. So all we need to find is something thats one inch thick, cut out the part of the print out, and wrap it around the one inch rod." I leaned back in my chair, satisfied.

"Wow Luke," Michael said, sounding impressed. "Way to figure it out."

"Of course, he also didn't know what a scytale was though." Ashton mumbled.

Calum got some scissors and started to cut the scribblings part out of the print out of the scroll. "Okay, you guys go get some thing that's one inch."

"How about we use Luke's dick?" Ashton offered.

Michael snorted, not bothering to hide it. "Fucking savage bro."

I sneered at them both. "I know your desperate to see it, Irwin, but please, try to control yourself."

He glared at me and stomped into the next room to look for a one inch thick rod.

I went back to my room and started searching. A pencil was too small, my bed post was too big.

Ugh, this was surprisingly hard.

And then someone shouted from downstairs. "Hey, what about that?"

I hurried back downstairs, and saw the rest of them gathered around around the living room window. "What?" I asked.

"The curtain rod." Calum said. "That looks about one inch."

"Oh yeah." I grabbed a chair and pulled it down from above the window. We took off the drapes and measured the rod.

It was one inch around.

"Yes!" Michael cheered. He went back to the kitchen and grabbed the strip of markings Calum had cut out.

I held the pole steady and upright, while Michael wrapped the paper around it.

We waited anxiously, while he decoded it, since it was still in Hebrew. Sorry, Mishanic Hebrew.

Finally he sat back and blew the hair our of his eyes.

"Well?" Ashton prompted.

Michael smiled. "Boys, we have our first clue."

-

Ashton's P.O.V.

"What's it say?" Luke asked eagerly, letting go of the curtain rod.

I bent to look over Michael's shoulder as michael read off, "Willem Janszoon."

"The guy who discovered Autralia?" I asked in astonishment. "What's he got to do with anything?"

"And he discovered Australia in 1606, but the scroll dates way before that." Luke frowned. "How is this possible?"

"Hey guys, I think we've got bigger problems than an immortal founder." Calum said, nervously peeking out the window.

It was then that I became aware of the wailing sirens. I looked out the window too and gasped as government issued vans surrounded Luke's house.