Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.

Chapter Nine

Killing A Cat

I tore across the Mall, not daring to look behind me. I burst into the Air and Space Museum and raced through the admissions area.

The main part of the museum was one huge room with rockets and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. Three levels of balconies curled around, so you could look at the exhibits from all different heights. The place wasn't crowded, just a few families and a couple of tour groups of kids, probably doing one of those holiday school trips. I wanted to yell at them all to leave, but I figured that would only get me arrested. I had to find Thalia and Grover and the Hunters. Any minute now, the Spartoi were going to invade the museum, and I didn't think they would settle for an audio tour.

I ran into Thalia—literally. I was barrelling up the ramp to the top-floor balcony and slammed into her, knocking her into an Apollo space capsule.

Grover yelped in surprise.

Before I could regain my balance, Zoe and Bianca had arrows notched, aimed at my chest. Their bows had just appeared out of nowhere.

When Zoe realized who I was, she reluctantly lowered her bow. "Why art thou running in such a manner?" she demanded. "Thy shall attract attention!"

"Annabeth," I said, trying to catch my breath. "I saw her. She's here."

The anger in Thalia's eyes at being knocked over immediately melted. She put her hand on her silver bracelet, glancing around anxiously. "Where?"

I told them what had happened at the Natural History Museum with Doctor Thorn, Annabeth, and the General.

"The General is here?" Zoe looked stunned. "That is impossible! You lie."

"Why would I lie? Look, there's no time to argue. Spartoi—"

"What?" Thalia demanded. "How many?"

"Twelve," I said. "And that's not all. That guy, the General, he said he was sending something, a 'playmate,' to distract you guys over here while they looked for me. Some sort of monster, but I don't know what."

Thalia and Grover exchanged looks.

"We found a trace of Artemis' trail while heading for the food court," Grover said. "And I can smell some powerful monster scent that I don't recognize… She must've stopped here looking for the mystery monster. But we haven't found anything yet."

"Zoe," Bianca's voice was nervous, "if it is the General—"

"It cannot be!" Zoe snapped. "Luke must have seen an Iris-message or some other kind of illusion."

"Illusions don't crack marble floors," I told her flatly. I couldn't believe that we were even arguing about this. My mental Ana was flinging her hands up in the air over how stupid we were being. The middle of a museum with lots of glass and mortals was a terrible place for a battle.

Zoe took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. I didn't know why she was taking it so personally, or how she knew the General, but I knew that now wasn't the time to ask. "If Luke is telling the truth about the skeleton warriors," she said, "we have no time to argue. They are the worst, the most horrible… We must leave now."

"Agreed," I nodded. "Let's go. We're in trouble if we end up fighting in here."

That was something that nobody could dispute. Temporarily setting aside our arguments, we began heading for the exit. We were too late.

As we reached the staircase, I heard a growl so loud that I almost thought one of the rocket engines was starting up.

Below us, a few adults screamed in terror. A little kid's voice screeched with delight: "Kitty!"

Something enormous bounded up the ramp. It was the size of a pick-up truck, with silver claws and golden glittering fur. I'd seen this monster once before. Two years ago, Ana and I had glimpsed it briefly from a train. That time, we had managed to avoid being forced to confront the monster, and Ana had always said was one of the biggest monsters she had ever seen. Now, up close and personal, it looked even bigger.

"The Nemean Lion," Thalia whispered. "Don't move."

The lion roared so loud it parted my hair. Its' fangs gleamed like stainless steel.

"Separate on my mark," Zoe ordered, keeping her gaze fixed on the lion. "Try to keep it distracted."

"Until when?" Grover asked fearfully.

"Until I think of a way to kill it. Go!"

I unsheathed my sword and rolled to the left. Arrows whistled past me, and Grover played a sharp tweet-tweet cadence on his reed pipes. I turned and saw Zoe and Bianca climbing the Apollo capsule. They were firing arrows, one after another, all shattering harmlessly against the lion's metallic fur. The lion swiped the capsule and tipped it on its' side, spilling the Hunters off the back. Grover played a frantic, horrible tune, and the lion turned toward him, but Thalia stepped into its' path, holding up Aegis, and the lion recoiled. "ROOOAAAR!"

"Hi-yah!" Thalia called. "Back!"

The lion growled and clawed at the air, but it retreated as if the shield were a blazing fire.

For a second, I thought Thalia had it under control. Then I saw the lion crouching, its' leg muscles tensing. I'd seen enough cat fights in the alleys during my years living on the streets. I knew that the lion was going to pounce.

"Hey!" I yelled. I knew I had no chance to actually destroy it, but I needed to get it away from Thalia. I slashed at it with my sword, a good strike to the flank that should've cut the monster into chunks of Fancy Feast, but the blade just clanged against its' fur in a burst of sparks.

The lion raked me with its' claws, ripping off a chunk of my coat. I backed against the railing. It sprang at me, one thousand pounds of monster, and I had no choice but to turn and jump, activating my shoes while I did so. I ended up hovering just beside an old airplane, hanging from the ceiling.

An arrow whizzed past my head. The lion jumped onto the aircraft, and the cords holding the plane began to groan.

The lion swiped at me, and I dropped down to hide behind the next exhibit, a weird-looking spacecraft with blades like a helicopter. I looked up and saw the lion roar—and inside its' maw, a pink tongue and throat.

A weak point! I realized triumphantly.

"Aim for the mouth!" I bellowed to the others. "The mouth's vulnerable! Aim for the mouth!"

The monster lunged. An arrow zipped past it, missing completely, and I dropped from the spaceship onto the top of a floor exhibit, a huge model of the earth. I slid down Russia and dropped off the equator.

The Nemean Lion growled and steadied itself on the spacecraft, but its' weight was too much. One of the cords snapped. As the display swung down like a pendulum, the lion leaped off onto the model earth's North Pole.

"Grover!" I yelled. "Clear the area!"

Groups of kids were running around screaming. Grover tried to corral them away from the monster just as the other cord on the spaceship snapped and the exhibit crashed to the floor. Thalia dropped off the second-floor railing and landed across from me, on the other side of the globe. The lion regarded us both, trying to decide which of us to kill first.

Zoe and Bianca were above us, their bows held at the ready, but they kept having to move around to get a good angle.

"No clear shot!" Zoe yelled. "Get it to open its' mouth more!"

The lion snarled from the top of the globe.

I looked around. Options. I needed options.

My eyes landed on the gift shop. I had a vague memory of Ana telling me about her trip here as a little kid. Something that she had made her mother buy her, and subsequently regretted it. If they still sold that stuff…

"Thalia," I called to her, "keep it occupied."

She nodded grimly.

"Hi-yah!" She pointed her spear and a spidery arc of blue electricity shot out, zapping the lion in the tail.

"ROOOOOOOAR!" The lion turned and pounced. Thalia rolled out of its' way, holding up Aegis to keep the monster at bay, and I ran for the gift shop.

"This is no time for souvenirs, boy!" Zoe yelled.

I rolled my eyes, wondering just what had happened to make her hate males so much. Surely she realized that I had a plan, and wasn't just being selfish? I didn't deny that some guys were that way, but so were some women. And I knew my responsibility. I wasn't going to let people die if I could stop it. Which was why I needed to get to the gift shop.

I dashed into the shop, uncharacteristically clumsy as I knocked over rows of T-shirts, flew over tables full of glow-in-the-dark planets and space ooze, and just generally wrecked the place completely. The sales lady didn't protest. She was too busy cowering behind her cash register, shrieking into her phone about an escaped zoo lion eating the exhibits.

There! That had to be them. On the far wall were several dozen glittery silver packets. I scooped up every kind I could find and ran out of the shop with an armful clutched to me chest.

Zoe and Bianca were still showering arrows on the monster, but it was no good. The lion seemed to know better than to open its' mouth too much. It snapped at Thalia, slashing with its' claws. It even kept its' eyes narrowed to tiny slits.

Thalia jabbed at the monster and backed up. The lion pressed her.

"Luke," she yelled, "whatever you're going to do—"

The lion roared and swatted her like a cat toy, sending her flying into the side of a Titan rocket. Her head hit the metal and she slid to the floor, unmoving. Dread and fury filled me, and I dashed forward as fast as I could.

"Hey!" I bellowed at the lion. I was too far away to strike, so I took a risk: I hurled my sword like a throwing knife. It bounced off the lion's side, but that was enough to get the monster's attention. It turned toward me and snarled.

There was only one way to get close enough. In a very Ana Jackson-like stunt, I charged straight at the monster, and as the lion leaped to intercept me, I chunked a space food pouch into its' maw—a chunk of cellophane-wrapped, freeze-dried strawberry parfait.

The lion's eyes got wide and it gagged like a cat with a hairball.

"NOW!" I cried to the Hunters as I tossed more into its' open mouth, widening the monster's maw. "Kill it now!"

The lion's eyes bugged. It opened its' mouth wide and reared up on its back paws, trying to get away from me.

"Now!" I yelled again.

The girls didn't need any more encouragement. Immediately, arrows pierced the lion's maw—two, four, six. The lion thrashed wildly, turned, and fell backward. And then it was still.

Alarms wailed throughout the museum. People were flocking to the exits. Security guards were running around in a panic with no idea what was going on.

Grover knelt at Thalia's side and helped her up. I sighed in relief because she seemed okay, just a little dazed. Zoe and Bianca dropped from the balcony and landed next to me.

Zoe eyed me cautiously. "That was… an interesting strategy," she told me. I wasn't sure if it was a sort of compliment, or if she was insulting me somehow.

I shrugged, deciding it didn't matter. After all. "Hey, it worked."

She didn't argue.

The lion seemed to be melting, the way dead monsters do sometimes, until there was nothing left but its' glittering fur coat, and even that seemed to be shrinking to the size of a normal lion's pelt.

"Take it," Zoe said to me. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"You killed it," I said.

She shook her head, almost smiling. "I think thy ice-cream sandwich did that. Fair is fair, Luke Castellan. Take the fur."

I nearly went into shock. Was it possible that Zoe Nightshade and I might have managed to come to a truce, even just for a few minutes?

Not daring to speak and risk breaching the moment of comradery between us, I lifted the cape up. Considering it was made of solid gold, it was surprisingly light. The fur was smooth and soft. It didn't feel at all like something that could stop a blade, though I knew that it had been Heracles' main advantage, after his raw strength. As I watched, the pelt shifted and changed into a coat—a full-length golden-brown duster.

"Not exactly my style," I murmured. Mental Ana whispered a suggestion in my mind of what to do with it. Something that would be way more beneficial than me wearing it would be. I couldn't do it here, so I pulled it on to keep it out of the way until I could perform my idea.

"We have to get out of here," Grover said. "The security guards won't stay confused for long."

I noticed for the first time that the guards hadn't rushed forward to arrest us like they usually would do after an event like this. Instead, they were scrambling in all directions except ours, like they were madly searching for something. A few were running into the walls or each other.

"You did that?" I asked Grover.

He nodded, looking a little embarrassed. "A minor confusion song. I played some Barry Manilow. It works every time. But it'll only last a few seconds."

"The security guards are not our biggest worry," Zoe said, voice grim as she pointed. "Look."

Through the glass walls of the museum, I could see a group of men walking across the lawn. Grey men in grey camouflage outfits. They were too far away for us to see their eyes, but I could feel their gaze aimed straight at me.

"Go," I urged my companions. "They'll be hunting me. I'll distract them."

"Luke, no-" Thalia began.

"No," Zoe said at the same time. "We go together."

I stared at her in surprise. "But—"

"You are the leader of this quest," Zoe said grudgingly. "I do not like it, but there is no changing what the Fates have decreed. You are the quest leader. And we are not leaving anyone behind."