Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Chapter 26: Hurry It Up!
AN: A short setup chapter, so its not the best, but it's needed for the next part of Thalia's mission.
Thalia's POV
I awoke the next morning fully rested and ready for the day ahead. I went to the bathroom and got ready for today's work. After I was cleaned and dressed I walked downstairs to the massive kitchen and fixed breakfast, I'm usually not the best cook, but when I was with the hunters we all took turns cooking, I found that I actually liked it, go figure huh! For whatever reason, I cooked enough breakfast for all three of us. I ate my breakfast waiting for the Stolls to come down. I eventually heard them run down the steps they entered the kitchen actually half-way presentable.
"Good to see that you two are actually taking this seriously." I stated.
They both looked at me and smiled. They saw the breakfast and dug in finishing all of it. "Thalia you're a great cook." Travis said gladly. I just nodded and smiled.
"So I guess we need to go to the power company first, right?" I asked expectantly.
"Yes, we're all ready, everyone have their badges?" Travis asked. Connor and I nodded. We walked to the power company service station and entered. We showed our badges, the security allowed us to enter without any problems. So far so good I thought. We made our way to the locker room and changed into our service technician clothes. We made our way to the truck yard and found our ladder truck that was waiting for us. We entered the vehicle and I drove us off the lot. It was only a few minutes drive to the warehouse. When we approached the warehouse I noticed that it was very large, it took up an entire city block. The walls were painted white, but they were clearly made of concrete. There were four overhead doors on one side of the building and I could see a truck unloading cargo at one of the bays.
We drove to the lot across the street that contained the two large utility poles. I positioned the truck in the exact spot to allow the large arm of the truck to lift up the service basket. Connor was working the extension arm controls while Travis road in the service basket. Connor easily maneuvered the arm in position and extended the service basket to the appropriate height. Travis immediately began his work of installing the surveillance equipment. After about thirty minutes Travis signaled that we should bring him down. Connor lowered the arm back in place. I drove the truck over to the second utility pole and we repeated the process. After another thirty minutes we had installed the last of the surveillance equipment. We then proceeded to go to the buildings that surrounded the warehouse to install the other surveillance equipment. We were never questioned about our appearance in these buildings as everyone assumed that we were real utility workers. After about five hours of work we had completely installed all of the needed equipment. We drove the truck back to the truck yard and changed back into our regular clothes. We left the utility company's service station without ever being questioned. I have to admit, the Stolls did a great job in handling this part of the mission.
We walked back to the mansion and entered. We all went up stairs and cleaned up for dinner. We were all tired and dirty from our work today. When I finished in the bathroom I walked downstairs to the kitchen and started to cook dinner. The first to come downstairs was Connor, I motioned for him to sit down as I handed him a plate of food.
"Thanks, Thalia." Connor said. I watched him eat the food I prepared happily. A few minutes later Travis walked in and proceeded to sit at the table across from his brother. I gave him a plate of food as well and watched him devour it.
"Thalia, thanks for asking us on this mission." Travis said. I could see Connor nod in agreement.
"You're welcome, but I didn't have much choice, you're the experts in this sort of thing." I said. The Stolls both smiled when I called them experts. I just rolled my eyes at their childishness.
We all finished eating our food and then we walked up stairs to review our surveillance footage. Connor sat at one computer and Travis at the other. I sat in the middle of the room so I could see both computers. Connor pulled up the north and south surveillance data. I could see the two sides of the warehouse. We could keep track of employees, visitors, security and especially their timing. I looked over to Travis, his computer showed the east and west sides of the warehouse. I could see the loading area that was on east side as well as the main street side entrance on the west.
"We're both recording all the data and the computer will run our surveillance algorithms to establish any visible patterns." Travis said. I could see Connor nod in agreement.
"What do we do now just wait for the computers to spit out their analysis?" I asked anxiously. I saw both Stoll brothers look at me and smile.
"Patience!" They both said at the same time. That's definitely creepy coming from twin brothers. Sometimes I wonder if they share a brain.
Suddenly a bright golden light appeared in the room and when it dissolved Athena was standing before us. "Lady Athena!" All three of us said at the same time. I saw Athena survey the room and she looked impressed by what she saw.
"It looks like you have a pretty good setup here." Athena said. "Thalia, I hope my brother's two boys haven't been too much trouble." I looked at Athena and smiled fiendishly because I could see the worried looks on the Stoll brother's faces.
"No, they've been pretty good, so far." I said. I just had to throw in the "so far" just for emphasis. I could tell the Stolls were relieved, but only a little. I guess I shouldn't tell Athena about their little theft from Annabeth's office.
Athena and I left the Stolls in our base of operations we walked downstairs to the kitchen and sat at the table. I could tell that Athena needed to talk to me.
"Thalia, how are you, really?" Athena asked sincerely. I didn't know what to say, but it's hard to lie to Athena especially when you know she can see right through you.
"I'm worried about Nico. He's gone back to the casino he was there for seventy years before, what happens if he won't leave now?" I asked as I tried not to cry. I could tell that Athena new I was close to tears because she put a hand on my shoulder.
"It's alright little sister, Percy and Annabeth will bring him back even if they have to drag him out of there." Athena said confidently. I just looked at her and I was amazed by how much she looked like Annabeth or I guess it was the other way around. Other than Annabeth's blond hair she was the spitting image of Athena. Annabeth may have been taller, but they both carried themselves the same way and their eyes were identical.
"I hope they can, Nico is definitely not himself now. I'm still mad at him for getting into this mess and I hate myself for making things worse." I said sadly.
Athena pulled me into a hug and I let myself cry for the first time since I arrived on Olympus. We finally separated after a few minutes. Athena wiped the last tears from my eyes. "Now isn't that better?" Athena asked. I never knew she could be so nice and so caring. I had heard from Annabeth many times how her mother had changed since Theseus came back, but this is the first time that I truly understood what she meant.
"Yes, thank you." I said. I did feel a little better. "Why are you here, is it just to check on me?" Athena smiled and I could tell there was another reason.
"Yes, there is another reason. You need to speed up your operation. Zeus and Hades will be meeting with Aphrodite tomorrow evening. They will try to keep her as busy as possible." Athena said. I could tell that she was very serious.
"How long will we have?" I asked with concern in my voice.
"No more than five hours I would suppose, maybe less." Athena said.
"Why do we need to hurry?" I asked curiously.
"Well, we found out that Aphrodite knows that we are going to try to steal the antidote, so I've heard from Hermes that she is going to move it somewhere safer." Athena said.
"So if we're going to get it we'll have to get it done tomorrow night, thats it." I said.
"That's correct my dear, I'm sorry to make the mission more difficult." Athena said sincerely. I could tell she was sincerely sorry.
"It's not your fault, we'll have to make do." I said confidently.
"I know that you can do this, good luck." Athena said, I could tell she was ready to leave.
Before she could leave I asked, "Have you heard from Annabeth or Percy?"
"Yes, they should be in Las Vegas, tomorrow morning." Athena said. I hope they can bring him back. "Don't worry they'll get him." Athena hugged me and then disappeared into a golden light. I walked back upstairs and informed my teammates. The Stolls were concerned, but as if this was a common occurrence they shook off any doubts and sat down to plan. We planned through the night. We finished around eleven in the evening and I felt better about our chances. There wasn't a lot of room for error, but I prayed to my dad and Athena for success.
For those who wanted Hades and Zeus to confront Aphrodite, well this chapter set that up, wait and see. Next back to Percy and Annabeth as they arrive at the Lotus Casino.