Okay, be prepared for some bad news. This next week, I will be on a missions trip, where I will not have any technology. That means I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UPDATE FOR ABOUT A WEEK.
Also, I have been informed that the antagonists's motives might be somewhat similar to other stories you might find here, but I assure you, its a bit different.
Liam hated farms.
It was strange. Up until he was nine, he had lived in Tennessee—which had a lot of farms. But he had been raised in the city, where air conditioning and fast food joints roamed instead of cows. So when they arrived on the farm nearly two weeks after they discovered the message, he was not happy.
Two weeks might not seem like a long time, but it took Liam and the others a few days before they realized that they had access to a detective who could search whatever databases he had access to for a man named Barbarous. But they had only ended up with a last name: Barbarous Cantid. Then they needed to search the state (Annabeth had found another message in the calendar: "New York") for anyone with that last name, and then they handed the searching off to Annabeth because they were all exhausted. She had told them all at school on Friday that she had found him, and since they were all seniors, they left during the study hall they all shared last period, borrowing Lawrence's van to drive three hours north to the middle of nowhere.
As soon as they exited the van and started walking up the path to the red farmhouse on a hill, Liam began to worry, and questions that had been haunting him for two weeks popped back into his head. For starters, who was the man they had met in the Syndicate's facility, if not Barbarous? Why would Alex be looking for the "real" Barbarous? What was the Syndicate doing in New York? Was the real Barbarous dangerous? What if it was a trap planted by the Syndicate to get rid of anybody who suspected foul play in Alex's death? And why would anyone name their child Barbarous?
Oh, and to make matters worse, the cows were glaring at him, as if they somehow knew that he had eaten a double cheeseburger from Wendy's on the way there.
"Relax," Beckendorf told Liam as they reached the porch of the farmhouse. "Everything will be fine."
"We're demigods," Liam replied, keeping an eyes on the cows. "When does anything turn out fine for us?"
Liam could tell Beckendorf didn't know what to say to that.
They came to a stop outside the door. Grover had volunteered to keep an eye on the van for them, so there were still five demigods at the front door. Liam looked around the country nervously. They no longer had access to the Staff of Soteria, the artifact that Alex had recovered from Fred, her crazy caretaker. Chiron had used it to help create the protective borders of Camp Half-Blood, and it had been destroyed in the process. Five demigods in one place would be like a dinner bell to most monsters. Oddly, however, there hadn't been any hint of monsters stalking them.
Liam forced himself to focus. Answers. They needed answers, not paranoia.
He looked at the others, and they nodded at him. Taking a deep breath, Liam knocked on the door.
There was silence for a few moments, but Liam could have sworn he saw one of the blinds on the windows flick open for half a second before they closed again. Eventually, a voice came through the door, sounding deep but muffled.
"What do you want?"
Liam looked at Annabeth. She was frowning and seemed to be deep in thought. No help there.
"Um…" Liam said. "We're here to…uh…sell Girl Scout cookies!"
Percy and Thalia glared at him. Liam shrugged. What else was he supposed to say?
"You don't look like Girl Scouts," the voice said, sounding suspicious.
Before Liam had a chance to wonder how the voice was able to see them through the door, Annabeth shouted something that took him a second too long to process.
"Liam, get out of the way!"
BOOM!
A strong force slammed into Liam's body, launching him backwards as the door exploded. Before he could gather the winds around him to catch himself, a wooden chunk hit him in the forehead, and he saw no more.
In his dream, Liam was back in the Syndicate's facility. He was in a part of it that he didn't recognize, where the dark hallways were empty of people—save two.
Barbarous—at least, the fake Barbarous—was standing with his insanely muscular arms crossed next to Lindsay in front of a large steel door that looked very out of place. Two cyclopes stood next to it, heaving a hatch to get it to open. Both were grunting and sweating profusely, which Liam found troubling for a couple reasons. For one, he didn't even know that monsters were capable of sweating. For another, he knew that cyclopes had immense strength. If they were struggling to open a simple door, it had to be very heavy. And why was the Syndicate working with monsters? Granted, not all cyclopes were bad—Percy had a half-brother who was basically a big teddy bear—but if the Syndicate was using cyclopes, that couldn't be good.
Finally, the struggling cyclopes finished their task, and the steel door swung open with a loud swoosh sound.
Inside of the large safe, LED lights shone off of several artifacts. Liam saw large shields, strange curved swords, large scrolls, wax statues, puzzle spheres, and more. All of it radiated power.
"What are we doing here?" Lindsay asked.
"Dropping an artifact off," Barbarous said. "What else?"
He put his hand in the pocket of his leather jacket and pulled something out. Liam gasped, and suddenly was very glad that he wasn't actually there in person. Otherwise he might have attempted to strangle the fake Barbarous into oblivion.
In his hand was a gleaming white necklace. A moon pendant hung from the chain, engraved with multiple greek symbols and the letters AC, in Alex's handwriting.
"How did you get that?" Lindsay asked, looking almost as surprised as Liam felt.
Barbarous shrugged. "Nobody at the morgue checks a corpse for their valuables these days. A shame. Grave robbing used to be quite common."
Blood roared in Liam's ears. If he had been there in person, he had no doubt that electricity would be crackling all over the place. He was going to kill Barbarous—or whoever he was.
Barbarous entered the safe, but the light inside was too bright for Liam to see much else. After a moment, Barbarous exited, and Alex's necklace was no longer with him.
"We're finished here," he told the cyclopes, who immediately set to work on closing the safe again. Barbarous turned back to Lindsay, spreading his arms wide. "And with that, we are even closer to achieving our goal. Come. We have more to plan."
Liam woke with a gasp, and immediately wished he hadn't when a splitting headache assaulted him.
"Stay down," someone told him. It sounded like Thalia. "You took a nasty hit to the head."
"Drink this," a voice said. Liam didn't recognize it, but he accepted the glass he was handed all the same. He took a tentative sip and discovered that it was nectar—it tasted like blueberry pie, which his mother used to make all the time before she became busy with work. It even tasted superb like hers did, too.
Instantly the headache began to ease, and Liam was able to open his eyes. Squinting, he realized that he was lying on a rather beat-up couch that for some reason smelled like citrus. His friends were sitting on mismatched furniture around him, holding glasses of what looked like lemonade. A plate of cookies sat on a coffee table. They appeared to be inside some kind of house—there was a fireplace in one corner and a window above Percy's seat that revealed more cows. Thalia was standing over him.
Liam groaned as he sat up. "What happened?"
"You were stupid," Thalia said bluntly.
Sounds about right, Liam thought, rubbing his forehead, where he found a tender goose egg.
"Actually," the deep voice interrupted, "I was being a tad paranoid."
Liam looked behind him and immediately reached for the ring on his finger. The man standing behind the couch was nearly identical to the Barbarous he had seen in his dream. He had the same three claw marks across his face, the same harsh features, and the same deep voice. But he also seemed…well, wimpy. He was wearing simple blue flannels and jeans with hiking boots. He was insanely scrawny—he looked like a twig.
"Liam," Thalia said, squeezing his arm painfully like she did when he did something wrong. "This is the real Barbarous. Don't. Kill. Him." She spoke through a clenched smile.
Liam forced himself to relax. This was not the same man he had seen in his dream. He put his ring back on and allowed the tension in his shoulders to drop.
"What do you mean?" Liam asked the real Barbarous.
The other man seemed sheepish, which didn't seem like him—until Liam realized that he hadn't actually met him before, just his doppleganger. Liam's head began to ache again, and not just from his head wound.
"I'm not too great with visitors," Barbarous said. "And please, call me Barb."
"All right…Barb," Liam said, frowning. He looked at the others. "How long was I out for?"
"Just an hour," Annabeth said. She and Percy were sitting on the only other couch in the room. Everyone else seemed to be seated on wooden dining chairs, even Grover, who was supposed to be watching the van. "We've been talking while you were out."
"About?" Barbarous handed Liam a cup full of cold lemonade. "Er…thanks."
"Well, not much," Thalia admitted. "We were waiting for you to wake up. Mostly we talked about how to make lemonade."
"My lemonade has won the county citrus fair seven times in a row!" Barbarous exclaimed proudly. "It even keeps monsters away! They hate citrus."
Liam looked at Beckendorf for confirmation. The burly boy nodded, looking dejected. Liam knew for a fact that Beckendorf was clueless when it came to cooking.
"Which brings us to business," Thalia said. "We have a couple questions for you, Barb."
"About the Syndicate," Percy added for clarification.
Instantly Barbarous's demeanor changed. Gone was the carefree lemonade-making farmer. In his place was a tired and scared-looking old man.
"This is exactly why I don't like guests," Liam heard him mutter. Then, louder, "What do you want to know?"
Liam opened his mouth, but Beckendorf got there first, sending him a warning look not to be too blunt.
"For starters, why is there a man who looks exactly like you running it?" Beckendorf took a sip of the lemonade.
"That's…a long story," Barbarous said. "Are you sure you want to hear it?"
"We need to," Annabeth said.
Barbarous sighed and sat on a stool that Liam hadn't noticed before. "Well…if you know about the Syndicate, you probably know all about the nefarious activities they've been up to lately."
"Lately?" Thalia asked. She'd read Alex's research just like the rest of them.
Barbarous's eye twitched. "True, they were just as bad in the old times. But when I took over about thirty years ago, I was determined to turn things around. I outlawed demigod trading, and I ordered that we only hunt monsters."
Some good that did, Liam thought. Fred—Alex's old caretaker—had probably been involved in demigod trading for at least twenty years. Of course, he was in prison now, but Liam had no doubt that other traders had slipped under Barbarous's radar.
"About ten years later, I took an apprentice under my wing," Barbarous continued. "I was training him to replace me some day. His name was Thaddeus, and he was a son of Zeus."
Liam suddenly felt very uncomfortable. So far, the only other child of Zeus he had met was Thalia, no doubt due to the oath that the "Big Three" had sworn when their children had caused World War II. But, as they had discovered, none of the Big Three, except maybe Hades, were very good at keeping that oath. Maybe they needed to add "no backsies" as a clause to clear things up.
Barbarous sighed again. "At first, Thaddeus—" What's with all the weird names? Liam thought. "—seemed like a model student. He was kind and courteous, and he followed all my commands to the letter, and made sure that others did the same."
"What went wrong?" Percy asked. Annabeth elbowed him into silence.
"His sister was killed," Barbarous said bluntly. "The grief drove him mad. Thaddeus became a religious nut—he thinks that the gods need to be overthrown. By the time I found out, he had already turned all of my inner council against me. He kicked me out, and I went into hiding. Later, I realized that he had stolen my identity by using some kind of artifact to make himself look and sound like me."
"But that's impossible!" Grover exclaimed. "Nobody can steal someone's appearance!"
"Steal it? No. But imitate it? Yes. I'm afraid it is very old magic—but where he got the artifact, I have no idea."
"I might," Liam said dejectedly. He told them about his dream, and concentrated very hard on not crackling with electricity when he remembered how the necklace looked in the fake Barbarous's hands. He figured the real Barbarous wouldn't appreciate a charred couch.
"That's not good," Percy commented.
"Obviously," Annabeth said, her face twisted into a frown. "If Bar—I mean, Thaddeus has that many artifacts, who knows how much power he has or what he could do with it. Barb, do you have any idea what he could be planning?"
Barbarous shook his head. "Unfortunately, I went into hiding before I could find out. But whatever it is, it will most definitely hurt the gods."
Liam felt his back muscles tighten as a realization slapped him across the face. "Guys," he said. "What did Phoebe want two years ago?"
"To overthrow the…oh," Annabeth said.
"You think she and the Syndicate were in league with each other?" Percy asked, looking concerned.
"It makes sense," Liam replied. "Alex…" He paused as it felt like something stabbed him in the heart. "She said that Phoebe mentioned an ally. What if it was the Syndicate? It would explain a lot."
"But wouldn't Phoebe be hesitant to team up with mortals after what happened the last time she did?" Thalia interjected.
"Maybe not," Annabeth said, and Liam could have sworn he could see the gears turning in her head. "With all the magical artifacts that they have access to, it wouldn't be hard to pass themselves off as a powerful being—maybe a Titan or another god."
"Okay, but why would the Syndicate work with a Titan if they hate the gods?" Beckendorf asked.
"That's easy," Barbarous said, and Liam started. He had forgotten the man was there. "Thaddeus isn't afraid to use any means necessary to overthrow the gods. If he can do that, taking out a single Titan should be easy." The older man frowned. "Did you say something about a girl named Alex?"
"Yeah," Liam said, his heart jumping. "Why?"
"Well, there was another girl who visited me maybe two months ago who called herself that. She asked pretty much the same questions as you."
Liam felt like he was going to have a heart attack. They were on the right track. Alex had investigated the same things. Hadn't she been killed because she knew too much? Or was it because she possessed a powerful artifact that Thaddeus needed? Was Liam in danger now that he was investigating the same things? If so, he didn't care. The only thing that could stop him from destroying the Syndicate now was if Alex came back to life and told him not to. But she would never tell him that, and there was no need to resurrect her—she was clearly in Elysium, where she would be having the time of her afterlife.
Barbarous checked his watch. "It's getting late. You all should probably leave. I have to replace the citrus filter soon."
"Citrus filter?" Liam mouthed to Beckendorf. His friend simply shrugged.
"One more thing," Annabeth said as they got up to leave. "Why are monsters afraid of citrus?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Barbarous demanded. "They don't like potatoes either. Monsters are soulless beasts; it shouldn't be a surprise that they hate things that give life meaning."
Liam and Beckendorf shared a look. Liam was seriously considering that the old man had gone mad while he had been tending his cows for the past twenty years.
Hopefully, he thought, taking one last sip of his lemonade, we won't go crazy trying to kill this Thaddeus.
Well, one could hope.
I added that thing about citrus just for fun. I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! Please shoot me some reviews this next week!
What do eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long?
Polaroids.
