Wandering around the streets of London wasn't hard. Once they've gotten inland, they had to take a train to get to the English capital city. They all wore winter clothes with combat boots and coats. They had learnt how great those things were for hiding weaponry (the perks of being a demigod). They would've passed for a group of regular teenagers on winter holidays if it wasn't for Iris who, luckily had accepted to wear a trench coat to hide her sword but was still wearing black shorts and a simple tank top so she drew the attention of some tourists. This time Percy had the box which made Jason feel a lot more comfortable now that he didn't have to carry its weight.
The snow covered the streets and the fog impregnated the morning air on a typical British Tuesday. Even though Iris's strange cold hardiness was worth the glance of a lot of pedestrians and the mere presence of Pandora's box should've been radiating energy, they weren't attacked even once. Leo couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong, but he didn't say anything. He didn't want to false-alarm his friends and the only person in the group that would have the nerve to go and check was ignoring him.
The moved fast and got to the British Museum in no time, since it was a pretty important touristic place, easy to spot. They stopped at the entrance and closed circle, visitors walking around them. Frank contemplated the street innocently.
"No one's following us. We made it. Still not sure why we didn't just teleport ourselves" he said.
Iris put a hand on his shoulder "Frank, dear, Icebreaker is not an inexhaustible source of portals. It has to rest. Only one trip a day, so unless you want to swim all the way to New York with the box, I suggest you don't complain" she said.
Frank nodded frightened "Yes, ma'am"
Annabeth sighed. She looked for something in her coat and handed it to Piper. It was a cellphone.
"Uh, care to explain?" Piper asked.
"You are going to use some charmspeak to call the Museum and tell them you're right outside the building and you can see smoke coming from the rooftop. You're very scared and you want them to evacuate" Annabeth said.
Piper stared at her like she was going nuts.
"It's your phone, why don't you call?"
Annabeth's cheeks turned red and she looked at the floor "They know me, I-uh, used to spend a lot of time in here when I was on holiday in London with my dad" Percy laughed next to her so she punched him softly "Don't make fun of me! I like history, that's all"
"You're a nerd, that's all" Percy replied, smiling. Annabeth opened her mouth, probably to curse him, but was interrupted "And it's one of the reasons why I so devoutly love you and I probably wouldn't be standing here it if wasn't for you. So I'm just gonna shut up"
That seemed to calm her down "Wise choice. Now, Piper if you could do the honors, the number is in the screen"
Piper pressed the call button and waited. She spoke with a nervous tone and Leo could've sworn she was actually preoccupied, he even felt like running away from that place. But he knew he had to control himself, it was just charmspeak she was using. An alarm went on and she lowered the phone.
"Done. They're evacuating" she said.
Jason stared there watching the tourists leave in disbelief "You're amazing"
"I know" Piper winked at him.
They marched together against the current of panicking people toward the entrance, like nothing was wrong. The guards at the door barely even noticed them with the chaos that was going on around them. Annabeth guided them to an office and closed the door behind them.
"Woah you do know this place" Frank told her.
Annabeth grinned clearly unpleased with his comment, and asked "Now, Iris, where to?"
"Well, we need a very ancient object created by any sort of civilization so I think…the Rosetta Stone should do"
"Great. If I'm not wrong it's not far from here. Just follow me and stay quiet" Annabeth replied.
The eight went out again and this time the halls and corridors were completely empty. Once more Leo felt nervous, like they were being watched. He thought that if that was the case, Iris wouldn't have missed such an important thing but she wouldn't meet Leo's eyes and he was too scared to ask.