Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.
Chapter Ten
Lamborghini Dreams
We were crossing the Potomac when we spotted the helicopter. It was a sleek, black military model just like the one we'd seen at Westover Hall. And it was coming straight toward us.
"They know the van," I said, leaning forward to see better. "We have to ditch it."
Zoe swerved into the fast lane. The helicopter was still gaining on us.
"Maybe the military will shoot it down," Grover suggested hopefully.
"The military probably thinks it's one of theirs," I pointed out pessimistically. "How can the General use mortals, anyway?"
"Mercenaries," Zoe said bitterly. "It is distasteful, but many mortals will fight for any cause as long as they are paid. Sometimes mortals can be even more horrible than the monsters are."
Well, I couldn't exactly argue with that, especially after hearing some of my cabinmates' and Ana's stories. Not that any of them said a lot, but their scars that couldn't have come from monster claws and occasional hunted expressions tended to say enough.
The helicopter kept coming, making a lot better time than we were through D.C. traffic. It kept pace with us easily. Any moment now, we could be attacked, though hopefully not while driving through a crowded street like this.
Thalia closed her eyes and prayed hard. "Hey, Dad. A lightning bolt would be nice about now. Please?"
But of course, he didn't answer. The sky stayed grey and snowy. No sign of a helpful thunderstorm, and the amount of strength that would be needed to blast the helicopter out of the sky would be way beyond Thalia herself.
"There!" Bianca cried, pointing furiously. "That parking lot!"
"We'll be trapped," Zoe protested.
"Trust me," Bianca insisted.
Zoe shot across two lanes of traffic and into a mall parking lot on the south bank of the river. We left the van and followed Bianca down some steps.
"Subway entrance," she explained. "Let's go south. Alexandria."
"Anything," Thalia agreed.
We bought tickets and got through the turnstiles, looking behind us for any signs of pursuit. A few minutes later we were safely aboard a southbound train, riding away from D.C. As our train came above ground, we could see the helicopter circling the parking lot, but it didn't come after us.
Grover let out a sigh. "Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway."
Bianca looked pleased. "Yeah, well. I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it, because it wasn't here when we used to live in D.C."
Grover frowned. "New? But that station looked really old."
"I guess," Bianca said. "But trust me, when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway."
Thalia sat forward. "Wait a minute. No subway at all?"
Bianca nodded.
Now, I'm no expert on that sort of thing, but I didn't see how D.C.'s entire subway system could be less than twelve years old. I guess everyone else was thinking the same thing, because they all looked pretty confused too.
"Bianca," Zoe began. "How long ago…" Her voice faltered. The sound of the helicopter was getting louder again.
"We need to change trains," I said tensely. "Next station."
Over the next half hour, all we thought about was getting away safely. We changed trains twice. I had no idea where we were going, but after a while we finally managed to lose the helicopter.
Unfortunately, when we finally got off the train we found ourselves at the end of the line, in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks. And snow. Lots of snow. It seemed much colder here. I was glad for my new lion's fur coat, despite Mental Ana's constant sniggering about it.
We wandered through the railway yard, thinking there might be another passenger train somewhere, but there were just rows and rows of freight cars, most of which were covered in snow, like they hadn't moved in years.
A homeless guy was standing at a trash-can fire. We must've looked pretty pathetic, because he gave us a toothless grin and said, "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!'
We huddled around his fire, Thalia's teeth were chattering. She said, "Well this is just g-g-g-great."
"My hooves are frozen," Grover complained.
"Feet," I corrected, for the sake of the homeless guy, though he didn't seem to have noticed anything strange.
"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca murmured. "Get Chiron to send help."
"No," Zoe said, shaking her head. "They cannot help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves."
"Zoe's right," I agreed in a clipped tone at the thought. "There's a reason that quests are only supposed be a certain number. If there's too many, believe when I say that the Fates will find a way to get it back to their approved length."
"You know," the homeless man said, "you're never completely without friends." His face was grimy and his beard tangled, but his expression seemed strangely kind. I didn't trust it. No one helps someone else without ulterior motives. "You kids need a train going west?"
"Yes, sir," I said, hiding my suspicion behind a mask of politeness. "Do you know about any?"
He pointed one greasy hand.
Suddenly I noticed a freight train, gleaming and free of snow. It was one of those automobile-carrier trains, with steel mesh curtains and a triple-deck of cars inside. The side of the freight train said SUN WEST LINE.
"That's… convenient," Thalia muttered, her electric blue eyes going narrow in wariness. "Thanks, uh…"
She turned to the homeless guy, but he was gone. The trash can in front of us was cold and empty, as if he'd taken the flames with him. Oh, this was a trap in some way, but we had no other options.
Still, I decided to take advantage, and stripped off my coat, tossing it into the trash can. Ignoring the others' questions, I pulled out my box of matches, and set the coat on fire. "To Artemis," I murmured, watching the flames turn to silver.
When I turned back around, Zoe was giving me an undecipherable look. "Thank you," she whispered, as we headed for the train.
"Don't mention it."
An hour later we were rumbling west. There was no problem about who would drive now, because we all got our own luxury car. Zoe and Bianca were crashed out in a Lexus on the top deck. Grover was playing race car driver behind the wheel of a Lamborghini. And Thalia had hot-wired the radio in a black Mercedes SLK so she could pick up the alt-rock stations from D.C.
"Join you?" I asked her.
She shrugged, so I climbed into the shotgun seat.
"Shame about your coat," Thalia told me sarcastically.
I shrugged. "It's better off giving Artemis strength then warming me up. Anyway the Nemean Lion wasn't the monster we're looking for."
"Not even close. We've got a long way to go."
"Whatever this mystery monster is, the General said it would come for you. They wanted to isolate you from the group, so the monster will appear and approach you one-on-one."
"He said that?"
"Well, something like that. Yeah."
"That's great. I love being used as bait."
"No idea what the monster might be?"
She shook her head morosely. "But you know where we're going, don't you? San Francisco. That's where Artemis was heading."
"The Mountain of Despair," I muttered. "The old Titan Base. They must be holding Ana there too. I dreamed she was in the dark ruins. And I think I've figured out what the Titan's Curse is."
"What?" Thalia asked urgently, sitting up and twisting to look at me properly.
"Remember Heracles', uh, eleventh labour that I copied? The one where he had to steal the apples from Hera's tree? Remember how he did it?"
Thalia had gone pale, and she had one hand half-covering her mouth. "So, the General must be-"
"Yeah," I cut her off before she could say the name, grimacing.
"Fuck," Thalia stated, giving a basic summary of the situation. "This is bad."
"Yeah," I agreed. We sat in silence for a while longer, but eventually I couldn't take the tension anymore and I slipped out of the car, leaving Thalia to glare silently out of the window.
I ended up sitting in the driver's seat of Grover's Lamborghini. Grover was asleep in the back. He'd finally given up trying to impress Zoe and Bianca with his pipe music after he played "Poison Ivy" and caused that very stuff to sprout from their Lexus' air conditioner.
As I watched the sun go down, I thought of Ana. I was afraid to go to sleep. I was worried what I might dream. It killed me to see her hurting, and be completely unable to help, or even comfort her.
"Oh, don't be afraid of dreams," a voice spoke up from right next to me.
I looked over. I wasn't surprised to find the homeless guy from the rail yard sitting in the shotgun seat. His jeans were so worn out they were almost white. His coat was ripped, with stuffing coming out. He looked kind of like a teddy bear that had been run over by a truck.
"If it weren't for dreams," he said, "I wouldn't know half the things I know about the future. They're better than Olympus tabloids." He cleared his throat, then held up his hands dramatically:
"Dreams like a podcast,
Downloading truth in my ears.
They tell me cool stuff."
He looked at me expectantly, and I resigned myself to having a conversation with a god against my will.
"Apollo?" I guessed, because I figured nobody else could make a haiku that bad.
He put his finger to his lips. "I'm incognito. Call me Fred."
"Frederica would be more discreet," I deadpanned. "Why're you incognito in the first place?"
"Eh, well… Zeus insists on certain rules. Hands off, when there's a human quest. Even when something really major is wrong. But nobody messes with my baby sister. Nobody."
"Are you going to help us, then?"
"Shhh. I already have. Haven't you been looking outside?"
"The train. How fast are we moving?"
Apollo chuckled. "Fast enough. Unfortunately, we're running out of time. It's almost sunset. Can't drive after that. But I imagine that we'll get you across a good chunk of America, at least."
"Is Artemis at the Titan's Base?"
His face darkened. "I know a lot, and I see a lot. But even I don't know that for sure. The chances are high, but she's… clouded from me. I don't like it."
"And Ana?"
He frowned. "Poseidon's daughter? Hmm. I don't know that either. Don't be surprised if Uncle P gives a hand too though. He is not happy that his baby girl has been kidnapped. There's been five tropical storms already."
I didn't know what to say to that, and Mental Ana was insisting that Poseidon had some other reason for his actions then her kidnapping (really, it was like I was actually hearing Ana, and not just imagining her), so I changed the subject.
"What about the monster Artemis was seeking?" I asked. "Do you know what it is? Why is it so dangerous?"
"I don't," Apollo admitted frankly. "There are several options, what with the Great Stirring, but I amn't sure which. But there is one who might. If you haven't yet found the monster when you reach San Francisco, seek out Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea. He has a long memory and a sharp eye. He has the gift of knowledge sometimes kept obscure from my Oracle."
"But it's your Oracle," I protested. "Can't you tell us what the prophecy means?"
Apollo sighed dramatically. "You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear through the search."
"In other words, you don't know."
Apollo checked his watch. "Ah, look at the time! I have to run. I doubt I can risk helping you again, Luke, but remember what I said! Get some sleep! And when you return, I expect a good haiku about your journey!"
I wanted to protest that I wasn't tired and I'd never made up any poem, let alone a haiku in my life, but Apollo snapped his fingers, and the next thing I knew I was closing my eyes.
In my dream, I was somebody else. I was wearing an old-fashioned Greek tunic, which was a little too breezy down south, and laced leather sandals. The Nemean Lion's skin was wrapped around my back like a cape, and I was running somewhere, being pulled along by a girl who was tightly gripping my hand.
"Hurry!" she urged. It was too dark to see her face clearly, but I could hear the fear in her voice. "He will find us!"
It was night-time. A million stars blazed above. We were running through tall grass, and the scent of a thousand different flowers made the air intoxicating. It was a beautiful garden, strangely familiar, and yet the girl was leading me through it, as if we were about to die.
"I'm not afraid," I tried to tell her.
"You should be!" she replied, pulling me along. She had long dark hair braided down her back. Her silk robes glowed faintly in the starlight.
We raced up the side of the hill. She pulled me behind a thorn bush and we collapsed, both breathing heavily. I didn't know why the girl was scared. The garden seemed so peaceful. And I felt strong. Stronger than I'd ever felt before.
"There is no need to run," I told her. My voice sounded deeper, so confident it bordered on arrogance. "I have bested a thousand monsters with only my bare hands alone."
"Not this one," the girl said. "Ladon is too strong. You must go around, up the mountain to my father. It is the only way."
The hurt in her voice surprised me. She was really concerned, like she cared deeply about me.
"I don't trust your father," I told her, despite the fact that I didn't have a clue who said father was.
"You should not," the girl agreed. "You will have to trick him. But you cannot take the prize directly. You will die."
I chuckled. "Then why don't you help me, pretty one?"
"I… I am afraid. Ladon will stop me. My sisters, if they found out… they would disown me for my betrayal."
"Then there is nothing for it." I stood up, rubbing my hands together.
"Wait," the girl said.
She seemed to be agonizing over a decision. Then, her fingers trembling, she reached up and plucked a long white brooch from her hair. "If you must fight, take this. My mother, Pleione, gave it to me. She was a daughter of the ocean, and the ocean's power is within it. My immortal power."
The girl breathed on the pin and it glowed faintly. It gleamed in the starlight like polished abalone. I felt like I recognized it somehow, and Mental Ana hissed in surprised distress at the sight.
"Take it," she told me. "And make of it a weapon."
I laughed. "A hairpin? How will this slay Ladon, pretty one?"
"It may not," she admitted sadly. "But it is all that I can offer to help you, if you must insist on being stubborn."
The girl's voice softened my heart. I reached down and took the hairpin, and as I did, it grew longer and heavier in my hand, until I held a familiar bronze sword.
"Well balanced," I said. "Though I usually prefer to use my bare hands. What shall I name this blade?"
"Anaklusmos," the girl answered sadly. "The current that takes one by surprise. And before you know it, you have been swept out to sea."
Before I could thank her, there was a trampling sound in the grass, a hiss like air escaping a tire, and the girl cried out in fear. "Too late! He is here!"
I sat bolt upright in the Lamborghini's driver's seat. Grover was shaking my arm.
"Luke," he said. "It's morning. The train's stopped. Come on!"
I tried to shake off my drowsiness. Thalia, Zoe, and Bianca had already rolled up the metal curtains. Outside were snowy mountains dotted with pine trees, the sun rising red between two peaks.
I paused at the doorway, waving Grover ahead of me, and fished a picture out of my pocket to stare at it. It showed Ana after a miniature swordfighting tournament, that she had won. Her laurel crown hung crookedly on her dark waves of hair, and she laughed as she leaned on her sword.
Anaklusmos. Just looking at the picture, and I was sure I was right. It was the same blade I'd seen in my dream.
And I was sure of something else, too. The girl that I had seen was none other than Zoe Nightshade herself.