Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Chapter 10: Arrival
Percy's POV
After breakfast it took Annabeth and I several hours to get Thalia and Nico over their sea sickness. By early afternoon we were all able to continue the training lessons. I worked with my three students until evening and then we broke for dinner. After we ate Thalia and Nico went below deck to sleep as they were exhausted from being sick and the training. I sat on the couch and continued to navigate the ship. Annabeth walked over to me and stood next to the controls. At first I thought she was looking at the navigation system, but then she turned around and I could tell she was concerned about something.
"Percy, are you mad at me about last night?" Annabeth asked curiously.
"Mad about what?" I asked.
"You know, when I left early to go to sleep." Annabeth said.
"Ah that, I wasn't mad, maybe a little disappointed." I said. Actually I was a lot disappointed, but I wasn't going to tell her that.
"I'm sorry I just thought we were going too fast. I'm not ready to go that far." Annabeth said.
"What do you mean that far? I thought you were just tired and you didn't want to make out." I said. Was she talking about sex?
"Come on seaweed brain, you know what I'm talking about." Annabeth said.
"Oh that! Did you think that I wanted to do that last night?" I asked.
Annabeth looked a little uncomfortable. "You mean that you weren't thinking about that?" Annabeth asked.
"No, not last night I was just thinking that we might make out under the stars, that's all. Not that I haven't thought about that, but I don't want to pressure you and besides I don't know if I'm ready to go that far yet." I said as I rambled on nervously. Annabeth just looked at me and I could see that she was trying to repress her laughter.
"Hey, you're laughing at me." I said.
"A little, it's just that I thought that if I stayed up here last night that you would want to go further than just making out." Annabeth said.
"You did, I'm sorry if I gave you that impression." I said.
"It's o.k Percy, I guess I forget that you're the best boy friend on the earth and not a sex crazed guy." I said.
"Well I am a guy, but I love you too much to rush you into anything that you're not perfectly alright with." I said sincerely.
"Percy you're the best." Annabeth said as she sat down next to me and hugged me tightly. Her hugs always made me melt, I felt like I would slide right off the couch.
Annabeth looked up at me and said, "I don't know what's gotten into me lately last night and what happened with our fight at camp. It's like someone is urging me on or influencing me somehow."
"You mean when it comes to you and I." I said.
"Yeah, like someone wants us to break up or go too far too fast." Annabeth said.
"Could that someone be Aphrodite?" I asked. I saw Annabeth's eyes grow big with realization.
"Your right that sounds a lot like her. She would love to add drama to our lives." Annabeth said.
"Not that we need any more drama with quests and kidnappings to deal with." I said sarcastically.
"What can we do to stop her?" Annabeth asked.
"You know the next time you feel your emotions change abruptly or when you feel like your not yourself use your focus techniques and try to clear your mind. If you do that you might be able to catch Aphrodite red handed." I said.
"I'll try that, thanks." Annabeth said.
"Your welcome, wise girl." I said as I placed the ship on autopilot and leaned back on the couch holding my wise girl. She was the smartest person I knew and my best friend. I loved her more than she knew. I felt her stir a little from under my grasp and I knew she felt that we were close to our destination.
"How close are we now?" Annabeth asked.
"About two hours from the inlet." I said.
"Good, we need to prepare. I'll go get Nico and Thals." Annabeth said.
"I'll take care of the ship." I said as Annabeth walked below deck to get my cousins ready. Our long trip was almost over and the dangerous part, the part I dreaded was about to begin. I'm not use to such anxiety over a quest, but that prophecy and my talk with Theseus had really worried me. I prayed to the gods that everything would work out.
An hour later Annabeth came back on deck followed by my cousins. Thalia and Nico looked a lot better, I guess the fact that this trip was almost over made them start to feel good.
"If you look to your left you can see, Bar Harbor, Maine." I said as I motioned to the port side of the ship. The small city was visible, but everything still looked quite small based on our distance from shore.
"We're just under an hour away from our destination." Annabeth said and I nodded in agreement.
Thirty minutes later I saw the cliffs along the shoreline come into view. They looked to be made from granite bedrock and rose at least fifty feet above the ocean. The side of the cliff facing the ocean was a shear drop off to the water below with no visible beach or shoreline visible below them. The sky was bright blue and clear today. We had a few hours before it was dark, so if we needed to hurry to inlet and then find this enemy base.
"Where is the inlet?" Annabeth asked.
"It should be about two miles north of the cliffs." I said expectantly.
As we approached the last cliff I noticed a large dark structure perched on the top of the it. As we came closer I discovered that it was a castle made of a very dark stone. It looked like something from a horror movie.
"That's got to be the enemy base." Annabeth said as she pointed toward the castle.
"That place looks pretty creepy to me." Thalia said.
"I don't know I think it looks kinda cool." Nico said. Dead head would think it was cool.
"There's the inlet, look that a way." I said as I pointed to the inlet as it came into view.
I steered the ship straight for the inlet at full speed. As we approached I lowered the sails and powered up the electric motor. We slowly made our way into the inlet. I found a safe place to anchor the ship and then walked to the port side of the ship and lowered the inflatable zodiac.
"Nice job Percy, team lets go everyone board the zodiac." Annabeth said.
We all boarded the zodiac and I started the small outboard motor and we made our way to the nearest shoreline. The shore was made of crushed granite rock and dark sand. We walked on shore and looked around for any possible trails. I slid the zodiac onto shore and covered it with vegetation to hide it.
"Look there's a dirt path leading from the shore, we should follow it." Annbeth said.
We all followed Annabeth as she led us along the dirt path about a mile inland until we reached a quiet two lane road.
"Let's take this road south and hopefully it will back track us to the castle." Annabeth said.
We continued to follow her for at least two miles until we saw a fence with a sign attached to it. The sign said Castle Orion. I pulled out some binoculars from my bag and peered into the property, clearly visible about five hundred yards from the fence was the castle. It didn't look quite as big as it did from the sea, but it was still a very large structure.
"Annabeth look, see those trees near the south wall of the castle?" I said.
"I do, that would be a good place to hide while we plan our entry into the castle." Annabeth said.
"How do we get there?" Thalia asked.
"Ask your boyfriend." Annabeth said as we all looked at Nico, then I saw Thals eyes light up in realization.
"What? Why are you all lookin at me that way?" Nico said.
"Nico, buddy we need you to shadow travel all of us to those woods." I said as I pointed to the trees near the castle.
"Sure, I can do that." Nico said as he gathered everyone around him. We all grabbed his arms and then ran toward a large shadow under a nearby tree. We all rematerialized under the group of trees near the castle's south wall.
"I haven't seen any guards yet." Thalia said.
"That's because the castle is pretty protected by the wall around it and the guards that patrol the top of the wall." Annabeth said as she pointed to guards on the wall. I could see at least three guards and they were carrying automatic rifles.
"They sure don't look like enemy demigods to me." I said.
"You're right they could be mercenaries like Prometheus had on Alcatraz Island, remember." Annabeth said. She's right of course they could be mercenaries.
"How in Hades are we going to get in there?" I said anxiously. I could tell by the expression on Annabeth's face that she was thinking hard. I knew she would come up with a plan, so I stepped away from her for a while and took out my binoculars again to look at those guards more closely. I focused on their uniforms, maybe there was a logo or something. The guards were dressed in all black with a Kevlar vest. They had a holster with a pistol attached. They carried an assault rifle and then I saw it. There was a patch on the side of the guard's shoulder. I focused on the patch it was round and had red, white and blue stripes that ran around the perimeter of the patch. Inside the patch was an eagle holding a magnifying glass in one talon and a dagger in the other. There were some words written around the eagle, it said Project Orion. The background behind the eagle was the familiar flag of the United States of America. I froze when I realized what this meant. I walked back over to Annabeth and the others. I guess Annabeth saw my expression because she asked, "Seaweed brain, what's going on?"
"I looked at one of the guards more closely and this guy had a patch on his uniform that says Project Orion." I said.
"Alright, that explains the name of the castle." Thalia said.
"That's not all the patch shows a bald eagle holding a magnifying glass in one talon and a dagger in the other. The background of the patch is the United Stated flag." I said.
I saw Annabeth's eyes light up in realization.
"You think this operation is run by our government?" Annabeth asked.
"I certainly do, at least a covert part of the government." I said.
"Why do you think it's covert?" Thalia asked.
"Well they certainly aren't advertising this place as a government facility." I said.
"Percy's right, but why would they be capturing demigods?" Annabeth asked.
"They probably think we're aliens or something. You know like Roswell and that stuff." Nico said.
"I think you've been reading too many of those sci-fi books." Thalia said as she elbowed her boyfriend in the ribs.
"Hey, I was just trying to be helpful." Nico said as he gave Thalia one of his patented son of Hades fiery eyes looks.
"The prophecy says that the eagle of mortals takes, that could mean the U.S. government; the bald eagle is the government's symbol after all." Annabeth said.
"So the government or at least a secret part of the government is kidnapping young demigods, for what purpose?" I asked.
"Well and this is just an educated guess, what if Coeus is working for the government and has convinced them that we are some secret weapon of terrorists?" Annabeth said.
"You mean like genetically engineered weapons of mass destruction." Nico said. Everyone ignored the conspiracy theorist among us.
"So their capturing kids to experiment on them." Thalia asked clearly disgusted by the thought.
"It would make sense for someone as smart as Coeus to get help from not only an unsuspected ally, but one with immense resources like the U.S. government." Annabeth said.
"Well, clearly they're working together to capture demigods, no matter the reasoning or how Coeus convinced the government we have to free those young heroes." Percy said.
"Agreed" Thalia, Nico and Annabeth said at the same time.
"Annabeth did you finish your plan?" I asked.
"Yes, it's simple actually. I'm going to put on my invisibility cap and wait until someone leaves the castle. Then sneak in. I will make my way to the top of the south wall, knock out and tie up each guard before I send a rope over the wall for you to climb up. Since there are three guards on the south wall each of you will wear a uniform so you can sneak in unsuspected. I will use my invisibility to locate the captured demigods. After that I still haven't figure out the escape, but it will come to me." Annabeth said.
"Alright that sounds good." Thalia said.
Thalia and Nico walked over to a tree to wait and I followed Annabeth to the edge of the woods. I took her hand and said, "Be careful wise girl."
"I will, don't worry." Annabeth said as she released my hand and put on her invisibility cap and disappeared.
Annabeth's POV
It's so cute of Percy to be worried, but I don't have time to discuss romance I have to get the job done. I ran to the entrance of the castle. The castle doors were made of steel and had to be at least three inches thick and fifteen feet tall. I waited by the wall for about an hour until I heard metal moving and the sound of locks clicking. Suddenly the large door opened a car drove out. I only saw one person in the vehicle and I didn't see any demigods. Before the door could close I ran inside the castle. The inside of the castle was lit by several sconces on the walls. There was a large courtyard in the middle of the castle adjacent to a large stone structure that was most likely the keep. The walls ran around the keep and courtyard. The walls had to be thirty feet wide and I assumed they were full of rooms and passageways. I looked toward the south wall and I saw a large stone staircase that clearly led to the top of the wall. I ran up the stair case until I reached the top of the wall. There were three towers along this wall. One tower on each corner and a central tower near the staircase. I ran into the central tower and waited for one of the guards to enter. As soon as the guard entered I hit him over the head with a large rock that I found on the floor. I used my rope to tie him up and I placed him inside a utility close until Percy and the others arrived. I looked outside of the tower toward the southeast tower. I waited for the guard to go into the tower and then I ran for it. As I reached the southeast tower the guard began to walk out I close lined the guard around the throat knocking him to ground then I kicked him in the head and he landed on the ground unconscious. Like the first guard I tied him up in a utility closet. I ran back down to the central tower again and looked for the third guard. As soon as that guard walked into the southwest tower I ran toward that tower. Again as I reached the tower the guard walked out, but stopped before I could close line him. He turned and walked back inside the tower. I followed him until I saw him pick up a mug of coffee. As he lifted the cup to drink and tilted his head back I punched him in the side of the head, he spilled his hot coffee all over his face, before he could scream I kicked him in the head and he hit the floor unconscious. I tied him up in the nearest closet.
I ran outside of the tower and looked over the wall. I saw the woods below. I grabbed the remaining portion of rope and threw it over the side. I saw Percy, Thalia and Nico run out of the woods as the rope hit the ground below. All three grabbed the rope and began to climb. After about twenty minutes Percy climbed over the wall last. Each one of them ran to one of the three towers and undressed the guards. They all three came out a few minutes later dressed in the all black combat uniforms.
Three new guards came up onto the wall a few minutes later and I heard them talk to my team mates. Then I saw Percy, Thalia and Nico exit each of their towers and walk down the steps. I followed them as they made they're way to the courtyard below. I whispered, "Head to the keep."
We all walked to the keep and entered. The walls were an off-white color with overhead lights centered in the ceiling every fifty feet. We were in a hallway, Percy and the others walked down the hallway, I followed them. As we reached the end of the hallway I saw a door. There were no other doors that I could see. Percy slowly opened the door. The room was dark inside, but I didn't sense that anyone was inside. We all entered the room and the door abruptly closed behind us. Suddenly, the lights came on and standing in front of us was a man in a dark suit. He had a bald head and was about six feet in height.
"You may take off your disguises now children of the three." The man said. I was stunned who was this guy and how did he know us?
"I'm sure your asking yourselves who is this guy and how did he recognize us behind our disguises?" The man said.
"Well, I'm Coeus and I've been expecting you three to arrive. We have cameras that look down the exterior of the walls at all times just to be sure no one tries to climb up. Ah, excuse my manners, Ms. Chase you can take off your cap now. We know you're in here." Coeus said. I was stunned how did he know I was here?
"Well, we have cameras in the towers as well Ms. Chase and since you're the only demigod that I know of with an invisibility cap it has to be you." Coeus said.
I took off my cap and glared daggers at this titan piece of garbage. "Where are the kids you've captured?" I yelled.
"Straight to the point, I like that. Don't worry you all will be joining the others soon." Coeus said.
"How are you going to stop the four of us by yourself?" Thalia asked with venom in her voice.
"Oh, Thalia Grace is it, I won't be stopping you, they will." Coeus pointed to the walls as more lights came on. Surrounding us on a platform extending from the walls were about ten soldiers dressed in black. Each was carrying a weird looking rifle it almost looked like something out of star wars.
Thalia's eyes glowed in anger and I could feel the electricity in the room, but before she could attack I heard something, actually several somethings fly through the air. Suddenly I saw Thalia stiffen as if something hit her and then she fell backwards. Nico grabbed her before she hit the ground, then I saw them. Sticking out of her forearm, her shoulder and her leg were darts, tranquilizer darts. She was out like a light. Nico was mad, I saw him look around us and then I felt the ground shake and several large boulders flew out of the ground and stood around us. He was trying to protect us from the tranquilizer darts. More darts sailed through the air, but they bounced helplessly off the rocks. I saw Coeus run for a door and I picked up a rock on the ground and threw it at him. It hit him straight in the back of the head and he fell to the ground hard. It wouldn't keep him down for very long, I knew. We were surrounded with no way out. The enemy knew this and the guards jumped from the platform and began to advance toward us. We were beat more guards came through the door near Coeus. We were surrounded and outnumbered five to one. Then I remembered the prophecy One led by wisdom bested, now I understood what that meant. We were beat and I couldn't think of a way out of it. I looked at Percy, he was helping Nico with Thalia. I tried to think of a way out and I knew I could escape with my cap, but that meant leaving Percy and the others, I couldn't do that. What in hades are we going to do? Thats all I could think, we're so screwed.
A little cliff hanger, hope you enjoyed this chapter.