Annabeth Chase tightened her ponytail and once again focused her eyes on Lisa.

"He definitely referred to Percy in the present tense?"

Lisa nodded. "It's clear that they've got him. What they are doing with him I wasn't able to find out."

Annabeth exhaled, pushing all her worry and mixed feelings out with the air. "I'd guess that he's leading them off on some ridiculous tangent and covering with a pretense of ignorance." She smiled, an expression strangely sad and filled with the remembrance of past days. "He's quite good at that. Being ignorant, I mean. It's a deeply ingrained and highly irking personality trait of his."

Lisa smiled. "I figured."

The door swung to the Athena cabin swung open, revealing Katie Gardener. "Chiron wants a meeting in the Big House," she said. "Now."