"No, you shut up!" Perseus glared at Annabeth as she picked the lock to Nakamura's office.
"Stop yelling. Jesus, you don't shut up, do you?" Annabeth scowled at him as she twisted the bobby pin in the keyhole.
Perseus just leaned against the wall next to the office door, his dark clothing blending into the black surface of the smooth wall.
Annabeth placed her ear against the door, grinning as she heard the click of the door unlocking. Opening the heavy metal door, she and Perseus walked in, their footsteps light and graceful. Annabeth looked around, nothing suspicious, just a normal office. In her peripheral vision, she saw Perseus poking around through the drawers of the desk in the corner. Annabeth walked over to the filing cabinet against the gray walls, she opened it and started to flip through the countless Manila folders in the drawer, which was slightly difficult seeing as her hands were gloved if she's being honest. She faltered at one and picked it out of its place among the other identical folders. Opening it, she read the six dark words typed on the yellowing paper.
The Bolt is in our possession.
"What?" Annabeth muttered, beckoning Perseus over, she showed him the note.
"The Bolt? What's that?" He took the folder from her, inspecting the note.
Annabeth sighed as she shrugged unknowingly.
"Let's print a copy of it and take the original to the lab to see if there are any prints on it." Annabeth slipped the paper out of the folder and placed it in the photocopier against the back wall, she and Perseus stay in awkward silence until the photocopier beeps, she takes out the copy and placed it back into the beige folder before slipping the original into her bag, she nodded at Perseus before exiting, her body tense and steps light.
Sneaking through the shadows of the aquarium, Annabeth and Perseus made their way to the back exit, past the old broken glass tanks and pipes. A figure moved in front of them and Annabeth's eyes widened, there wasn't supposed to be anyone there, well, they were there but that surely didn't count, Perseus hid behind a gray pillar and Annabeth followed his move, hiding behind a pillar a few feet away, they watched the figure's shadow move against the wall opposite them.
"Genevieve? Caspian?"
Shit.
Perseus peered from behind the large slab of concrete, Annabeth turned to look at the figure after observing the way Perseus' eyes widened then narrowed at the sight of the arcane person. Turning, Annabeth came face to face with Alecto Dodds, an old tour guide at Phorcys, Annabeth and Perseus shared a look. Better to rip the bandaid off.
"Hey, Mrs. Dodds! How are you?" Perseus grinned at her, his posture relaxed, but stiff enough to launch an attack if needed.
"It's no good snooping around in things that don't concern you, honey." Alecto smiled her eerie grin at them. "Especially in things regarding the Circle."
"You know about the-" Annabeth started, her gray eyes blown wide.
"The Circle? Well, of course, I do, honey. I am part of it, after all."
Annabeth risked a look at Perseus, his face mirrored the shock she felt at Alecto's blatant admittance at being part of the Circle.
"But you're old!" That's what he had to say about this?
Alecto turned her glare to Perseus, her blue eyes bright. "I think I'll start with you first, Perseus."
"How do you know my name?" Perseus glared at her, all the previous tranquillity in his body gone as he stared down Alecto.
Alecto let out a laugh, Annabeth's eyebrows furrow at the familiar idiosyncrasy of the cackle. Athena. It reminded her of Athena, the undertones of superiority, the roughness instead of mirth, it all screamed Athena.
"The Circle has ties everywhere, including Imaímos and Atlantída," Alecto sneered, bringing Annabeth out of her confused musing.
Annabeth faltered, a spy in Imaímos? Well, they were all spies, but a spy from the Circle at Imaímos? There's no way Athena would allow that.
Annabeth's jaw clenched. "You're lying."
"You two are posing as a married couple to get close to Ethan Nakamura who has been spotted with Kronos Hasapis, your task is to find information about the Circle and the Scythe. Am I correct?" Alecto smirked at them, looking more and more demonic by the moment.
Perseus advanced towards Alecto, his face closed off and stony as he spoke.
"I don't want to hurt you, Alecto, just tell us what you know, and we'll let you go."
"You underestimate me, honey," Alecto croaked out before she lunged towards him.
Perseus sidestepped quickly, his posture dropping into a fighting stance as Alecto threw her fist at him.
Annabeth snuck up on her, raising her fist to swing at her when Alecto turned, grabbing Annabeth's fist she twisted it and tugged it towards her before bringing her foot behind Annabeth's knee and swiping her to the floor. Falling onto her back, Annabeth made eye contact at Perseus and nodded at some extra wire on the floor. He ran towards it as Annabeth rolled over, overpowering Alecto who just cackled at her once more. God, if she laughed one more time, Annabeth was going to shove her sock into that old hag's throat.
"You wouldn't hurt an old lady, would you, Genevieve?"
"I would, actually." Annabeth punched her, feeling only a little bit guilty about beating up the elderly.
Perseus approached them from behind, wire in his hands, as Annabeth held Alecto's hands together. Wrapping the thin line around her wrists, he leaned Alecto against a pillar before wrapping the thin steel rod around her middle to keep her in place.
"That was anticlimactic," Perseus commented as he finished tying the wire, he stood up from his knees before taking a place on Annabeth's left, analyzing Alecto's slumped figure.
Annabeth shot him a look. "Well she's like 90, it's not going to be a huge fistfight. What were you even expecting?"
"I don't know, but something better than that, that's for sure."
Annabeth shook her head before turning back to Alecto, she crouched down in front of her, her eyes narrow as she took in Alecto's ragged appearance.
"What do you know about the Circle of Othrys?" Her voice was low as she questioned Alecto.
Alecto just laughed and Annabeth fought the urge to stick something into her ears to cancel out the god-awful cackling. "You're a fool if you think I'd tell you anything, Annabeth."
"This isn't optional, Alecto, either you tell us or… you know the rest," Percy threatened, his face stony as he stared her down.
"You'll what? Take me to your precious academy? Wonder what Poseidon will think once he's told his star pupil can't interrogate a Circle member properly, that he's incompetent and is too cowardly to face the group that killed his mother."
Perseus tensed, his jaw and hands clenched as Alecto's words sank into Annabeth's mind. Son? She knew he was Poseidon's son! But the Circle killed his mother? Why hadn't he told her? Brushing away her queries, Annabeth spoke out again.
"Give her the chloroform, we'll take her to the Institute for questioning," Annabeth instructed.
"Why the Institute? Let's just take her to the Academy," Perseus countered, still tense from Alecto's words.
"The Institute is closer, Jackson." Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him defiantly.
"Well, the Academy is better, we might actually get info out of her if we take her there."
"Your Academy is full of incompetent and impertinent idiots, I don't see how it's better." Annabeth stood up, resting her hand on her hip as she glared at Perseus.
"Oh yeah? Your Institute is full of snobs with superiority complexes and ego issues."
"We have superiority complexes because we're better than you dumbasses from the Academy."
"You sound like a third-grader. You guys always talk about how you're better, but who had the most successful assignments last year? Atlantída."
"Yeah, last year, not this year. Imaímos is going to kick your asses."
"A bunch of privileged smartasses are going to win against us? Yeah, right." Percy scoffed.
"Well-" Annabeth gets cut off by Alecto's cough, turning to look at her, her eyes widen at the pool of blood on the floor surrounding the old woman.
Alecto grinned at her through blood-stained teeth. "Too late." She dissolved into a coughing fit, dark crimson blood spilling out of her mouth and standing out on her pale chin like dark letters standing out on white paper.
"Fuck! She's dead!"
"No shit, Sherlock." Annabeth glared at him before looking back at Alecto's slumped figure.
What were they supposed to do?
"Should we still take her to the Academy?" Perseus questioned hesitantly, taking a tentative step forward towards Alecto's dead body.
Annabeth had no idea. What were you supposed to do when you found out some old lady was part of a dangerous organization and revealed there was a mole in the Institute and Academy, then ended up coughing up blood and dying? Annabeth didn't even hit her that hard.
"Let's call Ms. Pantazis," Annabeth took a breather before taking out her phone and dialling Athena's number.
It went to voicemail. Annabeth stared at her phone, why didn't she pick up?
"I'll call Poseidon," Perseus offered and Annabeth decided not to dwell on the fact he called him Poseidon instead of father.
"Shit, why isn't he picking up?" Perseus muttered, dialling Poseidon's number again.
Annabeth bit her nail as thoughts ran through her mind, how odd, Athena usually picked up all her phone calls, or she'd have her secretary, Calypso, pick it up. Annabeth remembered the one time Calypso didn't hear the phone ringing and let it go to voicemail, her eardrums haven't been the same since and she wasn't even the one Athena was screeching at. Annabeth inwardly winced at the memory.
Perseus' loud curses pulled Annabeth out of her thoughts, he clutched his foot jumping around a little bit.
"What did you do?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him, she'd been doing that more and more.
"I got mad." Perseus looked down sheepishly.
"And?" Please don't tell me you kicked the pillar out of frustration.
"I kicked the pillar."
Annabeth stares at him, unamused. He reminds her of Clarisse, sometimes aggressive and angry, others sarcastic and witty, Annabeth remembers the last mission they went on and her mood immediately sours. Clarisse had made it back, but barely.
"Uh, Chase? You okay?" Perseus peered at her expectantly.
Annabeth nodded. "You just remind me of someone. I'm going to call Drew, she works with forensics at the Institute, she can help."
Perseus didn't argue that time.
::
"That doesn't make sense, blows couldn't have killed her, only momentarily hurt her even with her age." Drew furrowed her eyes as Annabeth and Perseus recounted the odd encounter with Alecto, she tapped her dark red nail against the white surface of the lab.
Perseus groaned into his hands. "That's why we came to you, Tanaka because it doesn't make sense, we already knew that."
Drew glared at him. "Well, I'm only helping you because Annabeth's asking, don't think I'm doing this for you."
"Do you know what the Bolt is?" Annabeth shot a look at Perseus, a warning to stop angering Drew and more.
"The Bolt? No idea, you guys could go talk to the Huntresses or something, they might know something."
"It's fine, we don't need help, we'll just go to Ms. Pantazis or Mr. Filo." Annabeth stood up, leaving the lab with Perseus hot on her trail.
"Some forensic scientist you got there."
"She married."
"Not what I meant, plus, I'm technically also married."
Annabeth scowled at him. "As long as we're in the Institute or Academy, we're Perseus and Annabeth, not Caspian and Genevieve, remember."
"It's Percy, actually."
"And?"
"You don't have to act like such a bitch you know."
"I just want to get through this mission and find information about the Circle efficiently, I'm sorry for taking this seriously."
"Not this again," Percy rolled his eyes before grabbing Annabeth's wrist, stopping her from moving.
"What is it, Jackson?" Annabeth glared at him, how insufferable can one boy be?
"Let's not tell Athena and Poseidon." Percy looked around before looking back at Annabeth, his face dark.
"Are you crazy? Why wouldn't we tell them?" If she couldn't trust Athena, who could she trust?
"Look, Annabeth," she noted that he called her by her first name. "Isn't it suspicious that neither of them picked up their phone? I don't know about Athena, but Poseidon always picks up the phone, no matter at what hour."
"Well, maybe they just wanted a break, Ms. Pantazis needs it out of all people," Annabeth defended, glaring at Percy.
"Look, I'm just saying, this whole thing is suspicious, it's better not to trust anyone."
"What? I can trust you and not Ms. Pantazis?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
Annabeth twisted her arm out of his grasp and glared at him some more before walking down the hall to Athena's office, leaving Percy at the end of the hall.
"You don't understand, Poseidon!" Athena's voice yelled from behind the large door.
Annabeth stopped, what on earth? She pressed her ear against the cold surface of the door and waited for Poseidon's response.
"Either you tell her, or I do. She deserves to know." Poseidon's voice boomed.
Who are they talking about? Annabeth pressed her ear against the door more, desperately wanting to know more.
Chair legs screeched as someone stood up.
"I believe we are done here, Poseidon."
"I suppose we are."
Shit, Annabeth ran around the corner and pressed her back against the black wall, her breathing shallow and quiet. She poked her head out as Poseidon's footsteps became distant and hesitantly knocked on Athena's door.
"In." Annabeth felt momentarily shocked at the weariness that seeped through Athena's voice, she rarely showed signs of weakness to anyone.
Opening the door, Annabeth took in Athena's weary appearance, dark circles took over her pale face under her cold gray eyes and her thin lips were turned down, realizing Annabeth's presence, her face went from tired to confused then to cold indifference.
"What is it, girl?" Athena raised a dark eyebrow at her, her gray eyes malicious as she straightened her back.
"We found a member of the Circle, Alecto Dodds, she died after confrontation because of unknown reasons, her body is currently in the laboratory, Ms. Pantazis."
Athena leaned back into her chair, her eyebrows furrowed in thought.
"Alecto Dodds, what do you know about her?"
Annabeth gulped, staring at the ground she replied. "Nothing, ma'am."
Athena shook her head, her disappoint evident on her face. "I expected better from you, Annabeth. I thought you'd be right for the job."
Annabeth's stomach dropped, Athena had trusted her and she failed. "I promise, Ms. Pantazis, I'll do better, I will find information about the Circle of Raziel, whatever the Scythe it, I will destroy it."
Athena nodded. "Good, now you must find out how Alecto Dodds is related to the Circle as well as Ethan Nakamura. Don't fail me."
"I won't." Annabeth tilted her chin up.