As we went up, Percy kept staring down at the car, right at Rachel, so I decided to say something about it to ease the tension.
"So, I'm guessing you don't want me to mention that little scene to Annabeth."
Percy looked seasick immediately; this came as irony to me. "Oh gods," he said, "don't even think about it."
I laughed.
It was getting dark by the time we found the ship.
The gigantic cruise ship, the Princess Andromeda looked amazing—it was the kind of thing you'd use for traveling the world with half of New York City. It glowed with gold and white light and looked like a normal party ship, not the evil capital of the world. I felt bad about having to blow it up, but the huge figurehead told me otherwise. It was a replica of Andromeda; with dark hair and Greek clothing, screaming at the top of her lungs—how nice.
She was chained to the boat and was probably screaming because she saw my dad (sorry Dad).
I look back at Percy, he really did look sick to his stomach. I didn't know why but I could sense bad history here. I noticed Blackjack was acting skittish and seemed to be whining. That did not spell good news.
"You know what to do?" I yelled to Percy over the wind.
Percy nodded and told Blackjack to land us at the bottom stern deck.
We knew what to do. We practiced dry runs a few times in the dockyards of New Jersey, using abandoned ships and had done well enough, but this boat was about a billion times larger and also had passengers; most I knew were monsters, some had to be demigods, and one, I knew was Kronos, the Titan Lord himself.
It we soared over the ship, I noticed monsters patrolling the upper decks. Thank the gods none of them noticed.
Blackjack came to a landing on the bottom level of the back of the boat; the stern.
We hopped off. Percy looked a little uneasy, but before I could say anything, Blackjack shot off into the night.
Percy pulled out Riptide—his magic pen then expanded into a sword. Three feet of Celestial bronze. It was the type of thing most sons of the Hephaestus wished they could have been the makers of.
Instead of pulling a weapon of my own, I drew a piece of paper out of my pocket. Even in the dim light, I could still see the beautiful smiling face of Silena on a photograph that I taken earlier that summer at Camp Half-Blood's annual Fourth of July celebration—Fireworks.
I stared at the picture, a little worried that I was charging into battle and leaving her behind the beach... stupid move on my part, but at least she was safe.
But Percy broke my train of thought. "We'll make it back to camp." He said.
He sounded so enthusiastic, I felt fully able to believe them. I smiled, praying he was right. "You bet." I said, "let's go blow Kronos back into a million pieces."
I took lead through the ship. I'll admit I was a little like a maze, and with my having ADHD, I hated having to have the patience to go through it.
I was almost two our point, when I froze; there were voices above us.
From what Percy told me of them, I recognized the monsters as telkhines—part human, part seal, and part dog—arguing over meatloaf sandwich and how they smelled so much like half-bloods. The first one scolded the second one but we ignored them. I pointed downstairs.
We went down, and a few flights later, came to a big metal door. I looked at Percy and mouthed the words "engine room."
The door was locked, so I took out my special bolt cutters; a gift from my dad, and split the bolt with no effort.
Inside were a bunch of turbines and gauges and computers along with one telkhines, which Percy sliced in half when it went for the alarm.
"One down," I told Percy, "about five-thousand to go." I tossed him some Greek fire and a roll of duct tape. "Slap that on the console. I'll get the turbines."
With that, we went to work. It seemed to take forever in that hot room and we are both sweating within a couple of minutes.
Things only got worse when we heard feet rush down the stairs; straight to us—it was a very bad because we shouldn't have heard them over the roar of the turbines.
Percy looked to me desperately, "How long?"
"Too long." I said, tapping my watch, "I still have to prime the charges and wire the receivers, at least ten more minutes."
Boneheaded as always, Percy said, "I'll distract them. Meet you at the rendezvous point."
"Percy—" I called after him. The point of the mission was to get in and get out unnoticed. The plan was ruined now.
"Wish me luck." Percy said.
I want to argue, but he wouldn't let me. I barely had time to yell "Good luck." to him before he burst out the door, leaving me alone to finish the job.