Intervention

Roman mumbled some very unpleasant words under his breath as he hung up the phone, causing Pat to give him his "Dad Look." He sat down next to his friend on the steps of the National Archives building. "No one's taking us seriously."

"Of course not," Logan said, rolling his eyes. "Who would be mental enough to try and steal one of the most well protected documents in the country?"

"My brother." He sighed, googling another number. "Alright so we tried FBI, Homeland, and the police. Anywhere else we should try before going into the Archives?"

"CIA." Patton scratched the back of his neck, squinting in the sun.

"Right." Roman searched the number and typed it in. "Hello, hi, uh, I'm Roman Prince and I have reason to believe that my brother is going to steal the Declaration of Independence." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "And she hung up on me. Because I sound like an idiot."

Patton stood up. "Well that meeting with that historian dude is in twenty minutes, so we should be going in."

"I'll be exploring the monuments, then," Logan said, waving. "I've never been to D.C, you know."

The building was filled with people looking at the different documents and watching video presentations about them. Ro headed towards the office wing and asked for directions to the office of the historian they were meeting to talk to. His name was Dr. V. Quinn and he was supposedly one of the best in the field.

Roman nocked on the door and heard a faint "come in," so he opened the door as quietly as possible. "Hello, I'm Paul Brown, I have a meeting with you today?"

Patton looked a little confused, but Ro had decided it would be better to use a fake name. His family didn't have the best reputation and he already sounded ridiculous, so it was better not to introduce himself as a member of the Prince family. No one would take a treasure hunter seriously for something like this.

"Hi," the historian said, nodding from behind his desk. He had a dark purple streak dyed in his bangs and light freckles across his cheeks, though they were hard to see through the makeup he was wearing. "I'm Virgil Quinn, you can take a seat, Mr. Brown, and..." he looked at Patton slightly confused.

"Patton White."

Roman mentally rolled his eyes at the fact that his friend hadn't even caught on to the fake name thing. Pat wasn't very observant, but really?

He sat down in the leather chairs across from Virgil's desk. "I wanted to talk about something that my brother is planning to do, something illegal and that would concern anyone working at the Archives."

"Why... why would you come here instead of to law enforcement?"

"We did," Patton said, sitting next to Roman. "They didn't take us seriously."

Virgil looked confused. "Why not?"

"Because what he's planning to do is steal the Declaration of Independence," Roman said completely deadpan.

"The Declaration? You really think that someone's going to steal it?"

Patton mumbled under his breath, "that's where we lost the CIA."

The historian picked at his nails, and Roman noticed he hadn't stopped bouncing his leg up and down since they came in. "Why do you think he's going to steal it?"

"Because we believe it's the key to a treasure hidden by the founding fathers."

Virgil had taken a sip of coffee at that exact moment and nearly choked on it. "A treasure map?"

"That's where we lost the FBI," Patton added.

Roman sighed. "I know it's difficult to believe. But whether it's real or not, he's going to take it."

"I can assure you the security here is extremely thorough." He bit his lip. "Can I, um, ask why you believe there to be a treasure map on the back of the Declaration?"

"Long story."

"If that's all you wanted to discuss..." he looked extremely uncomfortable. One thing Roman noticed about him was that he wasn't a stuffy, formal historian in a tie looking over old books through dusty glasses. Virgil wore a black leather jacket on top of a plain grey tee shirt, which seemed somewhat underdressed for the fancy office he was in. "Um, I have other meetings this afternoon, so..."

"So if I have nothing else to say, we should go and leave you to your work," Roman supplied, running a hand through his hair. "It was nice meeting you, Dr. Qui—"

"Virgil. Just 'Virgil' is fine."

"Nice meeting you, Virgil," Ro corrected. "And thank you for meeting with us."

Patton and Roman quickly left the office and headed back to the rounded viewing room, where lines of people were admiring the documents that formed the basis of our government. Patton called Logan to fill him in, and they headed to the Library of Congress to meet up.

"So what's our new plan?" Logan asked when they arrived. He was sitting at a desk in the reading room with a stack of books, meaning he'd either been doing research or reading for fun. There was no way to tell with him, since Ro had once seen him read a math text book while smiling.

Roman sighed and looked at the other two. "I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence."