The Campers were having lunch in the dining hall of Camp Jupiter, when Frank and the blue horse suddenly landed in front of them with a wounded boy.
Frank got off his horse and shouted. "Where's medic? He was shot by a manticore! Where's..."
"Is that Alex?" Hazel asked, astonished. "How did you find him?"
"He was being attacked by the manticore near the sea. Someone help him!" Frank yelled.
Reyna picked up a bottle of nectar from her pocket and hurried toward them. "Who is he?"
"He can't have nectar. He's a mortal. Maybe unicorn draught..."
A medic ran after them and fed the draught to Alex. Alex was barely conscious, but his breathing became more stable. Frank sighed. If unicorn stuff were lethal to mortals like nectar... he didn't want to think of that.
"Why would a menticore attack a mortal? And that horse..." Reyna looked a little bewildered.
Hazel answered her for him. "This boy is Alex Rider, who helped us on out quest. he ran away after a few days... after we fought with some monster from Chinese myth," Hazel said. "He worked as an MI6 agent when he was fourteen. He is even better that most demigods," she added.
"We should take him to the infirmary. I'll explain everything when he's safe." Frank said.
"You are asking me to believe this?" Reyna almost lost her words. If it wasn't for the wounded mortal boy in front of her, she would have thought he went crazy. "You think the police will get involved? Nobody can overlook a broken house."
Frank was about to answer her, but stopped when he saw Alex waking up."...Where am I?" Alex murmured.
"You're in the infirmary of Camp Jupiter. And this is Reyna, a praetor like me. Alex, can you tell us what happened there?" Frank asked.
Alex winced and told them all about it.
The news that Alex's house had been attacked was enough to alert the CIA. Joe Byrne arrived as soon as the police called him, and couldn't believe what he was seeing.
It was no longer a house. It's front part was smashed, and other parts were almost burned. The policed informed that there was a gas explosion after the house was broken, but they couldn't tell how the house got smashed. And Alex was nowhere to be seen.
While other agents were investigating the house, a knife caught Byrne's eyes. It was lying on the ground a few meters from the house. Since he was a son of Athena, he could understand what had happened at the house. A monster attack. A demigod fighting it. Whether or not Alex was that demigod, the truth had to be hidden to people.
"Report this as an IS terror attack aimed at a journalist." Byrne said to his agents.
"But sir, I don't think..." An agent started to say, but Byrne didn't let him finish the sentence. "Do as I say, and assign this case to Tamara Knight."
Percy was talking with Annabeth when Blackjack suddenly landed between them.
Boss, you should go to camp Jupiter now. No time to argue. Blackjack said.
What are you talking about? It's time for lunch. Play somewhere else. Percy replied.
Camp Jupiter needs you. Boss, just shut up and climb on my back.
Percy had never heard Blackjack saying 'shut up' to him. He did shut up and rode Blackjack. Annabeth did the same.
Blackjack flew at his full speed. After an hour, Percy spotted a rainbow ahead of them.
"Annabeth, do you have a drachma?"
"Sure," Annabeth tossed the golden drachma as they passed through the rainbow. "O goddess, accept my offerimg. Please show us Hazel at Camp Jupiter.
Hazel's face appeared. "Hi, Hazel, how's it going?" asked Percy.
Hazel seemed surprised, but she seemed to recognize the Iris-message. "Hi, Percy. Frank found Alex Rider. He was..."
"What's that?" Annabeth suddenly interrrupted. "There's a ...mini drone right over your head."
"What are you talking about?" Hazel looked up and shrieked. "Styx- what is this?" She quickly snatched it. It was indeed a drone, and that meant someone was spying on the camp. Percy could see the far end of the camp on the edge of the image, and saw an unfamiliar figure. And the figure was lifting his hand.
Alex heard the gunshot. He ran out of the infirmary to see a man aiming another shot. The second bullet was aimed at Alex, and he would have died without the unlucky bird flying between him and the man.
"Hazel!" Frank was helping Hazel, whose ear was bleeding. It was the same spot Alex had been shot earlier, and he realized that this man had been shooting with incredible accuracy. He ducked behind a tree, and tried to find anything that could help with this. The third bullet hit the tree. Campers gathered, but two of them were hit by the forth and fifth bullets. Archers shot arrows, but they just passed through the man, and the sixth bullet whizzed pass Alex's head. The man was reloading his gun, and Frank got his bow and arrows, then aimed.
"Aim at the gun," Alex whispered.
"What?"
"You know it's no use aiming at that mortal. The best you can do is to break his gun."
He saw Frank aiming again. He shot the arrow just when the man was about to fire another bullet, and the gun was broken into pieces as it was hit by the arrow. Alex saw the man bringing up a cellphone and talking into it rapidly only to get it blown apart by another arrow. Alex saw the man running away, but he knew this was not the end. The man would come back, and maybe with some remaining Scorpia agents and monsters.
He couldn't helping blaming himself. The demigod camp was in danger because of him.
