Mask Of Joy

Chapter 1

Annabeth's POV

5th of April 2016

Annabeth readjusted, for the hundredth time, the fake black rimmed glasses on her nose, as she read the levels going up in the near full elevator she stood in. She tapped her hand against her thigh as she eagerly waited for the doors to open. The five other people in the elevator didn't look that excited.

The three men all wore grey suits, but the similarities stopped there. One was shorter than the other two, and one was blonde while the other two were brown. They looked between their late twenties and early thirties. She felt quite uncomfortable as one of them kept starring at her.

The two other people were women who were in their early thirties and wore tight dresses. Annabeth guessed those two were invited to the public announcement on the last level of the skyscraper.

She hadn't been invited, naturally, but Grover managed to find a place for her by making her a reporter for one day. Thankfully with a little help, she found the right disguise to pass as one.

She had decided to put her curly blonde hair in a reverse bun with two loose curls that framed her face. She wore a jam coloured trench coat over a short light grey t-shirt with a pair of skinny blue jeans and ankle high boots. She also took Percy's old reading glasses to pass the look. (Here's the link: )

The thought of Percy made her loose her focus. For just one second, her mask slipped and she had a series of images of Percy when they were young, laughing and mucking around with each other. She smiled sadly as she remembered their kiss. She could still taste his salty lips on hers.

She shook her head and let out a long breath, closing her eyes to stop the tears that threatened to fall. Focus Annabeth. Now wasn't the time to think of him.

The tugging in her stomach stopped and the elevator doors opened with a ding! She walked out onto the top floor of the skyscraper. There were about a hundred people taking, regrouped together over the entire room. The ceiling was a glass dome that was about three stories high. The sun shone through it, but the sun's brightness wasn't as strong, so she could look up at it for longer than three seconds without getting blinded.

"Annabeth?" a voiced called in her left ear. "Are you there yet?"

"Yeah," Annabeth whispered as she made her way towards one of the metal staircases that led to the second level that over looked the hundreds of people in front of the stage.

She tried to blend in with the few people on the second level leaning on the railing and at the same time keep her distance from them so they couldn't hear her talk to Grover.

"Okay, well you know what to do, remember?" Grover said in her ear. She didn't answer back as a waiter walked past with a plate full of glasses of champagne. She took one to blend in not stand out as and she took a sip. Mm it didn't taste too bad.

"Yes Grover," she whispered. "Now please go check on Butch and see if he's in position. If things go south….-"

She was suddenly cut off by everyone's cheering and clapping as a man walked on stage. He had sleek black hair, tan skin and pure white teeth. He was the target: Mr. Ellia.

"My dream was to create the world's most energy-efficient smart building that leaves no negative footprint on the environment." His voice carried around the room thanks to the mic at his lips. "Our new headquarters features climate-responsive technology."

There was a screen behind him that showed a 3D model of the skyscraper that was cylinder shaped, while another screen showed a drawing animation of the building, "Solar panels extend from the building when touched by light."

Annabeth had to admit she was impressed by what she saw. The architecture of the building was very impressive. The architect must have been quite talented.

"And the geothermal HVAC system was designed using laminar air flow," he said getting technical in his words. "That creates completely particle-free clean air in our environment."

The man a couple of feet beside her started applauding and everyone followed suit. She had a hard time clapping due to the glass of Champaign in her hand.

The crowd silenced as Mr. Ellia spoke again: "All of this was made possible using the input of the world's top architects and designers."

There was more applause before he raised his hand and the crowd slowly turned silent, "Now are there any questions?"

Almost immediately, five hands shot up from the front of the crowd. He smiled before he picked a woman on the far left, "Yes."

"I've been looking into your private funding," the woman said. "And you seem to have a lot of benefactors for a research institute."

"The world is changing miss," he said smiling at her. "Technology's gotten sexier." The crowd reacted with giggles and laughs.

She didn't give in to his smile. "Yeah, but your benefactors – I can't seem to find any of them."

"Very simple reason for that." He said as he leaned closer to the mic, "I killed them all and buried them in my backyard."

There were some small chuckles from the crowd at his joke as he smiled. Annabeth didn't buy his joke as she took another sip of her drink.

"How big is your backyard, Mr. Ellia?" the same woman asked.

He made a face like he wasn't sure, "At the last count, Wyoming."

Everyone chuckled as he smiled again when a man came on stage and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and the man left.

"Alright now if there aren't any more questions," he said. "Please, I invite all of you to tour the building and please, enjoy the food and drinks. Thanks for coming!"

There was another round of applause as he walked off the stage shaking hands at everyone he recognized as he made his way towards the elevator. Here I go, she thought as she tipped her head back and drank the last of her champagne.

There was a passing waiter and she put her empty glass on his plate before she made her way down the metal staircase, passing people who spoke and laughed with each other and were basically enjoying themselves.

Reaching the end of the staircase, she never lost eyesight of Mr. Ellia who made his way through the crowd, stopping briefly to shake hands with random people.

A waiter past Annabeth and she quickly took a drink before she turned and accidentally bumped into Mr. Ellia spilling the champagne on his expensive suit.

Annabeth put her hands on her mouth fainting surprise, "Oh my god! I'm so so sorry! I was just taking a drink and I turned and everything happened so fast I- "

Mr. Ellia smiled at her and shook his head, "Don't worry, I have maybe a dozens of those back in my room."

He cocked his head as he looked at her. "We haven't met before," he said. "I think I would have remembered such a beautiful face, Miss…"

"Chase."

"Miss Chase..." He looked at her like she was some interesting specimen. "Sorry I don't recall you being on the guest list."

Annabeth looked back with a small smile and intertwining her fingers to make it look like she was nervous, "I'm sorry sir, I'm just a reporter who was hoping for an interview with you Mr. Ellia."

"A reporter, eh?" he raised his eyebrows at her.

She nodded, "Yes, sir."

"Please, call me James," he said putting a hand on his chest as he smiled at her. She smiled back. He looked at the elevator before he looked back at her, "It's kind of loud in here. Mind if we take this interview in my office?"

Perfect. She nodded and he led her towards the elevator that stood on either side of the double doors. Mr. Ellia pressed the button and the elevator doors opened. They stepped in and he tapped the twentieth floor.

Just as the doors closed, Annabeth, who stood to his right, grabbed the back of his head and banged it hard against the elevator doors. He stumbled back dazed before she elbowed him in the nose so hard, it broke and he fell to the ground unconscious.

Annabeth stood over him just as the elevator stopped its descent and the doors opened to reveal Butch looking at her. Butch Walker was a bulky man, easily two heads taller than she was. He had a shaved head and his face was like a pile of bricks. He wore an orange shirt that showed the rainbow tattoo on his biceps. His pants were grey and he wore boots.

"Ah I see you took him out. Here, let me take him."

She stepped out of the way as the big man grabbed Mr. Ellia by the collar and put him on his shoulder. He turned and walked down the hallway with Annabeth by his side.

"So," Butch said looking down at Annabeth because of the height difference. "What's next?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I seem to be the only one who remembers the mission." She sighed. "We capture Mr. Ellia, because we'll need him to open the safe in his office. A safe containing the list of TITAN hideouts, which will allow us to finish them off once and for all."

Butch nodded as they reached the end of the hallway, "It's about time we did, those bastards have been a pain since the start. I know how much they hurt you Annabeth, and I can't imagine what that mus-"

"Please," Annabeth cuts him off. "Please… I don't want to talk about it. Let's just finish this mission, the clock is ticking."

They stopped in front of a door that read: Mr. Ellia's office. Annabeth tried the handle, but it was locked. Typical, she thought as she bended down and pulled a paper clip and a wrench from her pocket.

She first bended the paper clip straight and made a slight upwards bend at the end. She inserted the wrench in the lower part of the keyhole and figured out which way the lock needed to be turned by turning it clockwise and counter clockwise until she felt a slight give. She applied a little pressure before holding the wrench in place.

While keeping pressure on the lock, she inserted the paper clip in the top part of the keyhole. She then felt around the keyhole with the paper clip until she located the pins. She knew that most lock's had an average of five pins. This one had seven, but it wasn't a problem. It just meant it would take slightly longer.

One at a time, she pushed each pin up with the paper clip starting with the one furthest away from her before moving to the next. She applied slightly more pressure with the wrench until she had all the pins lifted up and she turned the wrench fully. The door opened with a click.

She retrieved the wrench and paper clip and stood back up straight. She pushed the door open wider and a motioned a hand for Butch. "C'mon."

"Where did you learn how to do that?" he asked amused.

She smiled, "You tube."

He raised an eyebrow at her before he stepped past her and entered the room. Annabeth followed him inside and closed the door behind them. Mr. Ellia's office was fairly big and rectangular shaped with the desk in the centre of the room. There was a wall behind it and a painting of Mr. Ellia himself hanging on it. There were two big windows on either side of the wall that looked over the New York skyline with the Empire state building in the distance.

Butch dropped Mr. Ellia on his wheelchair before he slapped the man in the face. He blinked several times before he groaned and clutched his bloody nose. It was maybe broken. My bad, she thought.

He looked up at them with wide eyes, "Who-"

Butch didn't let him finish as he slapped him again and his cheek was turning bright red. Mr. Ellia glared at Butch, but he stayed quiet.

"Good," Butch said before looking back at Annabeth.

Annabeth nodded before she looked around the room and thought of where he could possibly have hidden his safe. Her eyes landed on the painting that hung on the wall and she smirked.

She looked back at Mr. Ellia. "James, tell me where your safe is."

He blinked. "I don't have a safe in my office."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

She could tell he was lying through his teeth just with his body language and avoiding eye contact with her. It didn't matter as she already knew where it was. It was a simple test to see if he was honest.

"Butch," she said getting the big man's attention without losing eye contact with Mr. Ellia. "Do you mind taking that painting off the wall?"

He looked at her than at the painting and his eyes lit up. He smiled, "Not a problem."

He moved past Mr. Ellia and took the painting off the wall and dropped it on the floor. There, hidden by the painting seconds ago, was a safe with a digital screen and a code pad.

"Well what do you know," Annabeth said smirking at Mr. Ellia who had his jaw set and glared at her. She slapped him, hard. "You lied."

She then looked at Butch and he grabbed Mr. Ellia and lifted him up to his feet. Butch grabbed his hand and laid it on the digital screen. After a few seconds, the screen turned green, but the safe didn't open. There was still a code needed.

"Now enter the code," she told him. When he didn't react, Butch slapped him by the back of his head. He glared at both of them before he brought his hand up to the number pad and entered the code.

Once he tapped the last number, there was a clicking sound and the safe opened slightly. Butch shoved Mr. Ellia away as Annabeth came to stand in front of it. She opened it and her eyes widened. "What?"

"What what?" Butch and Mr. Ellia asked at the same time.

She stepped to the side so the two could see what was inside. Or more like what wasn't. There were no files, nothing. The safe was empty. Mr. Ellia looked stunned.

"How-" he started before he swallowed the lump in his throat as he stared at the empty safe with wide eyes. He was at loss of words. "It's impossible. That safe is impenetrable."

Annabeth looked back at the safe door and she sighed. "Nothing is impenetrable," she said tracing a finger on the safe door, there slight bumps on it as if it were forced open. "Whoever did this was very strong."

"Annabeth," Butch said looking at her. "You don't think-?"

"I do," she said.

"Uh, I don't follow," Mr. Ellia said looking between them. "Listen whoever you are people. I'm not your enemy."

"Oh yeah?" Butch asked looking down at him. "Then how come you've got ties to the most dangerous terrorist group on the planet?"

"Wait, I can explain," he said lifting his hands up in front of him as he took a step back.

"Yes," Annabeth said. "You will tell us everything… back at base." She turned to Butch. "If you will?"

"My pleasure," he said and before Mr. Ellia could do anything, Butch knocked him out with a powerful punch to his temple.

Butch picked his limb body up and threw him over his shoulder and they made their way out of the office. "So you really think it's him?"

Annabeth looked in front of her not meeting her partner's eyes. "It's no coincidence. The only other one who survived the test… he died. I know it's him, it has to, and I count on bringing him back."

"But how can you be so sure it's him?" Butch asked as they reached the elevator. "I mean, there have only been a couple cases like this, but I mean how? No one ever saw him. We don't even know it's a 'he'."

"I just know!" she said a bit louder than she should have. She let out a shaky breath, before she spoke normally. "I just know, ok? I don't know how, but it has to be him. It has to be Percy Jackson."