I'm IMing, I am.

"Hey."

Percy blinked as Jason's face suddenly appeared in front of him. "Hey. What's up? You look pretty agitated, bro."

"Is Nico with you?"

Percy frowned. "No. Why would he be?"

"Is Will there?"

"Also no. And he has even less reason - or ability - to be here than Nico. Why do you want to -"

No Jason.

"Hazel!"

She blinked. "Jason?"

"Are Nico and Will there?"

"In Camp Jupiter?"

Jason nodded hurriedly. "Yeah. Are they?"

She raised her eyebrows. "No. Are you expecting them to be?"

"Not particularly." Jason seemed quite flustered. "Are you sure that they're not there?"

Hazel hesitated. "Well, I mean, they could be somewhere in the Camp, or in New Rome. Just the same as they could be anywhere…"

"Can you keep an eye out for them?" asked Jason.

"Of course - but what would they be -?"

"Thanks!" said Jason, before waving away the IM.

Hazel frowned. What was that all about?

"I've heard Jason's looking for Will and Nico. What's that about?"

Piper shrugged. "I have no idea, Leo. I'm not his secretary." She frowned. "How did you know, anyway?"

"Percy IM-ed me. Asked me to keep an eye out."

"And you're calling me because…?"

"Uh," Leo looked puzzled, "Same reason, I guess…?"

"I'll watch for them. But if Nico doesn't want to be found -"

"You won't find him. I know, I know. But blame your boyfriend. He started it."

"Annabeth!"

"Jason - are you looking for Percy?"

"No, for Nico and Will. Have you seen them?"

"Not outside an IM, and that was weeks ago. Why? Should I be worried?"

Jason shook his head. "I'm sure not. Oh - hi, Percy!"

Annabeth turned to see her boyfriend enter the room. He scowled at Jason.

"Didn't you trust me?"

Jason looked flustered. "No, it's not that, it's just that I didn't know how much time you two spend together. Nico or Will might have gone to just see Annabeth."

"But why? I'm awesome!" Percy looked at Annabeth, crestfallen. "Did they really come and see you and not me?"

"This would be way easier if we could just phone them."

"Weren't you working on that?" asked Frank.

"Kind-of…" muttered Leo, looking embarrassed. "I get distracted. It's quite hard!"

"Yeah, well, maybe this shows why it should be prioritised!"

"OK, OK, don't get your feathers in a twist! Shouldn't you be out searching for them anyway, hawk-eye?"

"I'm on it, alright?"

Frank ended the call. He thought about what Leo said, and changed himself into a bird. Leo wasn't always wrong.

"Kayla?"

Kayla blinked. "Hazel?" She dropped her voice. "If people are gonna' keep contacting me, I'm going to get found out. You all may be at camp, or home, but I'm still at school."

Hazel looked apologetic. "Sorry…" She frowned. "You all?"

"Jason, and Percy. And no, I haven't seen Will. Or Nico. Which is what you're probably after, right?"

Hazel nodded.

"And, by the way, why did nobody tell me that Nico and Will were dating!"

Hazel looked at her, eyes wide. "You didn't know?"

"No!"

"But you're Will's favourite sister." Hazel hesitated. "You knew he was gay, right?"

Kayla snorted. "Will? Duh. There are things living under rocks in South Africa that know that Will's gay."

"But you didn't know about Nico?"

"I left Camp a bit earlier last year. Not long after the War. I guess I missed it. Will's gonna' be in so much trouble when I get back there."

"Well, it's 'back there' where there's the problem. They've vanished."

"Yeah, so Percy and Jason said. Is this a thing that they're prone to do?"

Hazel wrinkled her nose. "Not really. But I don't know whether we should be too worried. Nico's probably shadow-travelled them somewhere and doesn't have the strength yet to make it back."

"Well, I'll keep an eye-out for if they coming speeding through Kentucky."

"I'll keep you in the loop."

"Reyna!"

"Jason?" The praetor looked up. "Hi - nice to see you -"

"Have you seen Will and Nico? Or Will or Nico?"

Reyna frowned. "Who's Will again?"

"Nico's boyfriend? Son of Apollo? Quite tall, and really quite camp?"

Reyna looked blank.

"You must know Will!"

"I have a lot of people to deal with here, Jason."

"But this is Nico's boyfriend - he came for Sol Invictus?"

"With the funny blonde hair?"

Jason's eyes lit up. "That's the one! Have you seen him?"

"No."

"Oh."

"You're sure? Wears violently coloured shirts, follows Nico around with bug eyes - if Nico isn't following him - then they bicker -"

"Yeah, Jason, I now remember the guy. But no, I haven't seen him recently."

"And Nico?"

"Inasmuch as Nico ever wants to be seen, no. But that's no guarantee that he hasn't actually been around."

"Will you check New Rome for me? Just in case?"

"Of course. Why do you think they might have left Camp Half-Blood?"

"I don't know." Jason shivered. "But I'm starting to get quite worried about what might have happened to them."

"Have you told Chiron?"

Jason shook his head. "I don't want them to get into trouble, if it turns out that they're just, like, out on a date, or something."

"He might have given them permission," pointed out Reyna.

"True." Jason looked thoughtful. "Keep in touch, OK?"

She nodded, and ended the call. She frowned to herself. How to search the whole of the city for two people who, in all likelihood, didn't want to be found… She groaned. Why was Nico so secretive?

"No, I haven't seen Will. Or Nico."

"Thanks, Hazel!" said Percy.

"Jason?"

"Rachel -"

"I have no oracular information on Will or Nico. And why are you IM-ing me? I'm, like, only a couple of hundred metres away."

"Walking time is wasted time!"

"Jason -!"

Rachel closed her eyes. Just because she hadn't got anything on Will or Nico didn't mean she couldn't try.

"Sorry - do I know you?"

"Ah - wrong number," said Grover. "I didn't know you could do that on an IM…"

"Malcolm!"

"Piper!"

"Mummy, why is there a person in the wall?"

"Oh, sh-" muttered Percy.

"Jason! Have you seen Will and Nico?"

"Sorry. Not seen them." Jason blinked at Travis. "Hang on - I'm the one looking for them!"

"Oh, sorry, man - all I heard was that it was a general hunt for them both."

"Tell me if you find them!"

"Should we be more worried about this, Annabeth?" asked Reyna. "I mean, we've got lots of people looking, and we still can't find them."

Annabeth tipped her head from side to side. "I'm honestly not sure. I think part of the problem is that we're seriously overlapping in our searches. You're the fifth person to contact me so far. But that doesn't advance the search. We've got to centralise if we're going to do this effectively."

A bubble appeared by her head. By now, she was totally unfazed by their sudden appearance. "Hi, Leo," she said. "I'm guessing you've not seen Nico either?"

"Don't need to explain things to you, do I?" said Leo. "But, if you do -"

"I see what you mean," said Reyna, cutting across Leo's prepared statement. "There's an awful lot of repetition."

"It's not helped by the fact that Iris-messaging is so inefficient. You can only do one thing at a time."

Reyna frowned. "Or do you…?"

Annabeth blinked. "What do you mean? Yes, you do."

Reyna shook her head. "I can see - and talk to - Leo." She waved. "Hi, Leo!"

"Hi, Reyna!" he said. "Look, I've got to be going -"

"Stay," said Reyna, her voice stern. Leo froze. "Good boy. Now, if I can talk to you through Annabeth's IM, then -"

"You could arrange them in some central location so that we can all see each other?" finished Annabeth.

"Exactly. Then we could co-ordinate better. So we're not all doing the same thing."

"I'll tell Jason," said both girls at once.

"Hey, hey - everyone just calm down," said Piper. "Why don't we just try IM-ing them?"

"Because we don't know where they are," pointed out Annabeth.

"Sometimes Iris can find people," said Piper. "And, maybe, if they are at somewhere we know, like in New Rome, we can try and guess their location."

"That's going to take a lot of drachmae," said Percy, digging into his pocket. "In fact, she must have made a mint today already…"

Hazel waved a handful at them. "I can do it from here."

"Doesn't that devalue the system…?" mused Annabeth. "I mean - all it would take was -" She started scribbling some figures down, and was soon preoccupied.

"Um. Just a thought," said Kayla. They all looked at her bubble. She blushed. "If Nico and Will are … somewhere where they don't want to be found, will they, uh, want us to find them?"

Jason bit his lip. "A risk we'll have to take. If that's all it is, then, frankly, I'll be glad. OK, Hazel, try Camp Half-Blood first -"

"Jason?"

He turned. Chiron stood at the door of his cabin, staring distraughtly at the array of faces inside.

"What's wrong?" came the general chorus.

"It's Nico and Will." The centaur bent his head. "They're -"

"Missing, we know," said Jason. "And we're just about to start searching via IM -"

"No, Jason, everyone, they're not missing. I've just had word: Nico and Will are dead."

I promise we'll get back to Nico and Will next time. Promise.