Author's Notes: Happy New Year!

By the way, I did update my House of Hades story. I don't know if nobody's checked yet, or if they checked but haven't noticed, or what happened. But just so you know, chapter six is posted.

Sorry this chapter took a while to come out. But it is kinda longer than the other ones, and is absolutely necessary to the procedure of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO

Instantly, he shot into the air, spiraling out of control and screaming at the top of his lungs. He didn't know which way was up, where he was, where he was going, but he could hear Percy yelling at him in his ear through his earpiece.

"Nico, you're going to hit a tree!"

What?

He opened his eyes and realized that he was flying straight, actually parallel to the truck, where he was supposed to be flying, but a little off the road and in a forest- it was pure dumb luck that he hadn't hit a tree already, but he was zooming straight for one, and it was a big one.

His brain shut down, and he thought, Oh, this is going to hurt. And then impact came. From the left.

What?

"I got you!" said Percy in Nico's earpiece, plucking him out of the sky and away from danger moments before certain death. "You gotta learn how to fly this thing, Nico, because I can't be saving your ass all the time!"

"How do you fly this thing?"

"I told you. Up for up, down for down, left for left, right for right."

Nico gulped again as Percy shimmered into view. "And it works?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "That's why I'm not dead right know."

"How can I see you?"

Percy grinned. "Ah, it's kicked in for you?"

"Yeah."

"It's complicated- has a lot to do with science and light and the electromagnetic spectrum, but what's basically happening is this: we're not changing ourselves to be invisible, we're just distorting everyone else's view."

Nico shrugged, as best as he could in midair. "That's more legit than some things that have happened to me int he past few weeks."

And he realized he was flying. By himself. Without Percy's aid. It didn't feel much different from walking and running, except for the fact that it was abnormally windy. But it was cool, too.

He looked down at the road and noticed the pillow truck and the kidnapper's car split up at a fork in the road. "Good thing we left the truck," he said into his earpiece to his colleague.

Percy nodded. "While you were going crazy, I bugged their car with a recording device, heard all I needed to know, and then remotely detonated it."

He was far away from where Nico was flying, but Nico could envision a smirk creeping up on his face.

"Have you ever heard of Atlantic City?"

They tailed the car in their jet packs up until they found where it was heading- a mansion on the beach in the casino capital of America.

"Not good," Percy had said, "for two reasons. One, I recognize that as the Mechanic's stronghold, meaning the last two assassins are there, along with their boss. They're all in one place, but we can't simply blow up the building. It's on a public beach, and Jersey's legal eagles would be all over my ass."

"What?" Nico had said. "So what we're doing isn't legal?"

They landed in the parking lot of a hotel right across the street from the mansion, using money from the backpack to book a suite on the fifteenth floor of the five-star building, and after a quick dinner, they went back up to the suite to formulate a plan.

"Divide and conquer," said Percy, "that's our plan. We take them out- meaning arrest them- one at a time. First up is the boss, a man by the name of Kronos."

"His name is Kronos?" Nico inquired. "Like the ancient Greek Titan?"

"Actually, his name is Dennis. But since that doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of...of well, anybody, he goes by Kronos."

Nico nodded. "How do you know all this?"

In response, Percy tossed a manila envelope across the table. "We've got a file on him, we've got a file on everyone who's a threat. Read up, because we take him out tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Today is Tuesday. Wednesday is his gambling day. He goes to the casino- the one on the ground floor of this hotel, the one we're staying in- and plays seven hours of blackjack. That's our golden opportunity to get him." He put his hands on the table and stared into Nico's eyes. "Phase One. Take out Kronos's bodyguards and infiltrate his system with knockout serum. Allow me to explain.

"You're insane," Nico said before Percy could start, his three-day James Bond marathon finally coming in handy. "He'll have guards. And they'll most likely be undercover. At the first sign of hostility, they'll just kill us."

Percy smirked. "Exactly. Which is why there won't be any hostility until later."

He brought out a small handheld device from his pocket and booted it up. "This little gold mine comes in handy for displaying missions. It's like an iPad or tablet, similar to the ones the Mechanics use. I'll explain it to you later."

"The Mechanics use it? Does that mean it's commercially available?" Nico asked.

Percy nodded. "Every Tom, Dick, and Osama Bin Laden can get one if they had a couple thousand bucks." He turned his attention back to the handheld, which was about the size and shape of a small iPad. It currently showed a 3-D floor plan of the entire hotel that seemed to project out of the device and in front of them. Percy hit a button and the entire building was filled with people. "A simulation of what it's going to be like in two days. Based on photographs that were taken from surveillance cameras."

He zoomed into the ground floor, where people were frozen in mid-action. He tapped one person at the blackjack table and the picture zoomed in further. The man in question was intimidating-looking, with cold, black eyes and hair. His facial expression wasn't that of a human being, but of a lion examining his prey from a distance, wondering what was the best way to dispose of it.

"Hard to believe his parents chose the name Dennis," Nico noted.

Percy shrugged. "Yeah, well. So this guy just plays for hours on end- seven hours was the max, but it's definitely a couple hours, which is long enough for him to be taken out. That's where you come in." He looked at Nico. "You play blackjack?"

Nico shrugged. "Used to."

Percy grinned. "Excellent, because I suck."

"Wait a minute. I never said I was good at-"

"Timing is everything," Percy interrupted. "A dealer for blackjack is chosen when the casino opens. And you know how the dealer controls the game- the very game that Kronos loves to play."

"I have to be the dealer," Nico guessed.

Percy shook his head. "The casino opens at noon, and they have a 'winner stays on' policy. Basically, whoever wins the game, regardless of if they're the dealer or not, automatically becomes the dealer. If you keep winning, five, six, seven times in a row, you remain dealer. And that's crucial to your part of the plan."

He reached into the backpack he brought from the hotel and produced a small vial filled with a few milliliters of liquid. "Powerful knockout serum," he said. "It only goes into effect when we tell it to, because the particles are actually tiny machines than attack parts of the body- similar to the invisibility liquid in the water. It doesn't have any side effects, except for a headache when the person wakes up, but he'll be out for four or five hours when it's put into effect. Which should be enough time to initiate Phase Two." He paused. "Any questions on Phase One?"

Nico stared at the handheld, bewildered and overwhelmed. "When did you come up with this?"

Percy shrugged. "On the flight here."

"You call that a flight?"

"Yes, of sorts. Any other questions?"

Nico sighed. "What about the guards?"

"That's where I come in." He fished out a small syringe from his pack and held it up. "Same knockout serum, except the effect is instantaneous. I'll use this to take out the guards."

"How do you know who the guards are?"

Percy gave him a weird look. "Like I said: we keep files on everyone who's a threat. Bodyguards count, in fact, they're usually the most dangerous and the most watched. And this is why I'm the one taking them out, unless you want to memorize their names, faces, personalities, et cetera. And don't worry about how I'll dispose of them to make sure no one finds out. I'm very good at what I do, and they won't die."

"And how exactly do I give Kronos the serum?"

"Let me give you a scenario," Percy answered. "You're playing blackjack. When Kronos enters the casino, that's when you try to win the next round. When you win-"

"If."

"When," Percy corrected. "Losing is not an option. There are lives at stake, remember."

Annabeth and Rachel, Nico thought. "Go on."

"When you win," Percy continued, "you have to keep winning until Kronos comes over and gets into the game. It isn't too complicated, though- just make sure you're the dealer for at least one of Kronos's games."

"And how will being the dealer help me?"

"You get to control giving the cards away. Kronos always sits on the seat right to the left of the dealer- he sometimes gets a sneak peek at the cards- but you know he'll be the first one to get the card. So you hide the serum up your sleeve. Then what you do is you pretend to drop the deck of cards. While you get down on the floor to pick them up, lace the top card with the knockout serum. Dump it all on the card. Then give it to Kronos."

"So he'll get the full effects of the serum," Nico said, "and I have to make sure not to touch it."

Percy nodded. "Yeah. After you've done that, your part of Phase One is basically over. Purposely lose that round, the one where you drug Kronos, and head back to the room with the drugged card to initiate Phase Two. We'll get to that later."

Nico nodded. "I mean, it seems legit...but how do I make sure Kronos doesn't see me doing it? Lacing the card, I mean?"

Percy shrugged. "I'll cause a distraction. We'll be wearing earpieces that allow us to communicate with each other, so when you want Kronos to look away, just give me a shout and I'll get him to look away."

He ejected the flash drive that Nico just realized was in the handheld and put in another one. This time, the image that popped up was of a suite in the hotel.

"Phase Two. Top floor penthouse suite," Percy said. "is where Kronos stays. See, the serum has two different stages, designed specifically for the kind of job. Stage one is wooziness and nausea. It'll make him go up to his room and lie down. When he's alone in his room, I knock him out and we start Phase Two."

"Which is?"

"Simpler than Phase One," Percy answered. "You hang tight in the room. Meanwhile, I'll go up to Kronos's floor, tranq the bodyguards that are outside his room, and give you a shout. You'll- and stay with me, here- you'll grab the jet packs, fly out of our window and up to the penthouse's window. Smash that window, toss me a jet pack, and we'll fly out with Kronos back to headquarters. And come back before sunrise for Ethan and Luke."

"I assume you've got a plan for them, too?"

Percy shrugged. "Working on it. Right now, my main worry is Kronos. He's the big fish, the Gran Poobah of the Mechanics. It's smart to take him out first. Then the Mechanics have no leader."

"And are you..." Nico hesitated, "...sure this will work?"

Percy nodded. "It'll happen. Like I said, I've done this before, this is what I do."

He checked the clock. "It's getting late. You should get to bed, tomorrow we've got phase one."

Nico sighed. "Yeah. I'll get to bed."

Percy passed him on the way to his bedroom and stopped, turning back to his cousin. "Hey," he said.

"What?"

Percy hesitated for a second. "You'll be fine. I've done this before. The one really is that you make sure you don't touch any of the serum. If you do, you'll be affected when I activate it. And then I'll have two people to save and no one to help me do it. Understand?"

Nico nodded. "And what about if we get attacked?"

"At what point?"

"Whenever."

Percy shrugged. "Worst-case-scenario, we get caught with all our weapons. Then the FBI will cover for us. I'll keep the instant serum with me, of course, and a tranquilizer gun for the bodyguards. Do you need anything besides the manually-controlled serum?"

Nico shook his head. "We're just two regular guys out for a night of gambling and drinking, man, I don't know what you're talking about."

Percy smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "That's the right way of thinking."

Lying in bed, Nico weighed his strengths and weaknesses against what his part of the mission required him to do, and he felt pretty good about it. But he still wasn't quite sure that it would actually succeed. It seemed more far-fetched than pretty much anything he'd ever heard in his life.

It got to the point that he found himself dialing Chiron's office number on the phone the Analysts had provided for him. After a few rings, the leader of his operation picked up.

"Yeah?"

"Chiron? It's Nico."

"Nico? What's the problem? Is there one?"

"You know about our mission, of course."

"Yeah. Percy sent me the details a few hours ago."

"Do you think it's plausible?"

"You mean, that it could work?"

"Yeah."

Chiron drew in a long breath and slowly let it out. "I don't know," he finally said. "I really don't."

"Percy does."

"And with good reason. Exfils are his passion, his specialty."

"Exfils?"

"Exfiltrations. As opposed to infiltrations. Getting someone out of somewhere instead of putting someone in. Like in Argo, with Ben Affleck."

"Yeah, I saw it. Did you?"

"Yes. It was pretty good."

"Did you also happen to notice that it was the most insanely hard and improbable thing that has ever happened?"

"But it happened."

"I mean- I don't know, Chiron."

"Trust Percy. He's been doing this for a while. This is what he does, and he's very good at it. Probably the best."

Nico felt his eyelids getting heavier. Chiron's reassurance's had the effect of a soothing lullaby on him. "Thanks, Chiron," he said.

He could hear the smile in Chiron's words. "No problem."

He put the phone down on his side table and fell asleep to dreams of all the ways phase one and phase two could go wrong.

And all the ways he'd fix them.

Author's Notes: That chapter was pretty fun to write. Coming up with plans and strategies and stuff like that is always fun. And the writing of phase one and phase two will be even more fun.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

-epicsilverbullet