Hoo boy, this chapter took me WAY too long to write. I literally just finished it like half an hour ago and just barely had time to edit (I get off work in ten minutes, haha). I'm not sure why it took so long, to be honest. Sure, it's kind of long and there's action, but it's not phenomenal. I don't know, I'm just off my game lately, I guess.

Hopefully this is at least somewhat worth the wait. Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy!

We can live forever / If you've got the time

That night, the four of them went back to Reyna and Leo's house in MorningSide to get a couple hours' rest and pick up a few things before setting off. Thalia and Annabeth were both given guest rooms, but when everyone turned in for the night Annabeth sat awake, knowing she ought to get some sleep but also knowing there was no way her mind was poised to do so. Her body was already far too pumped with adrenaline just knowing that in a few hours' time they'd be on their way to Chicago to take revenge on Ezekiel Grace—who, little had she known before, was in fact the CEO of a major company. Just mulling that over left her brain too buzzed to fully relax. So after about half an hour of trying in vain to settle down, she got up and left the bedroom, retreating quietly downstairs to kill some time by having a look around the house.

It might have been impolite to snoop around and scope the place out, but after having been employed as an assassin Annabeth was more or less jaded to that sort of thing. She didn't feel guilty or nervous as she strode into the den at the foot of the stairs and inspected the furniture, again marveling at the size of the television set mounted on the wall. Against the back wall was the entrance to the dining room, which was furnished with a rectangular dining table that looked clean but had the distinct feel of rare use—perhaps it was strictly for larger parties, like if Leo and Reyna ever had company. Above the table was a slightly dusty crystal chandelier—pretty but not overly-impressive, just like the outside of the house. In a cabinet to the left of the table was stacked a collection of old-looking porcelain china, probably a family heirloom judging by the combination of age and well-keeping. Across the room was an oak buffet display table, and beside that an open doorway into the kitchen.

Folding her arms against the nighttime chill, Annabeth stepped aimlessly through the kitchen until her eyes landed on the door she'd earlier assumed led down to the basement. She made her way over and clutched the knob, but when she tried to turn it, it wouldn't budge more than a fraction of an inch. She tried again, but got the same result. It must have been locked. She could probably break it open, but while walking around the house didn't cross any privacy lines, she was pretty sure forcing open a locked door might toe a few.

"Curious?" a voice suddenly asked, and Annabeth turned her head to see Thalia standing nearby with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised in amusement.

"Can't help it," Annabeth admitted with a chuckle. "It used to be my job."

Thalia nodded toward the basement door. "Leo's got a workshop down there," she said. "I saw him bringing stuff up earlier and I asked Reyna about it. She said he usually makes his stuff at the shop, but this place is a sort of back-up."

Noticing her eyebrows crease just a bit in consternation, Annabeth asked, "What's wrong?"

Thalia didn't answer right away. She sighed heavily and stepped past Annabeth into the kitchen, dropping into a chair at the table. "I've just been thinking… If I hadn't told Reyna everything back then, all those years ago… Maybe she never would've gotten involved in all this."

Annabeth sat down across from her and rested her elbows on the table. "You mean the arms dealing."

"I've got nothing against criminals as a principle, obviously," Thalia went on. "Just look at my family and my background. And Leo seems like a nice guy—if a little on the annoying side." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "But… I guess it's just sort of surprising to find out that even though I haven't seen her in so long, Reyna's been a part of this world the whole time. Here I thought we'd be putting her out by asking for a place to stay, but the last thing I expected was for her to help us—for her to already have her own reason to hate my father, a reason that's got nothing to do with me. I just feel like… Like if I'd never told her the truth, she'd never have gotten into this and she wouldn't have a reason to go with us."

"She doesn't seem like the type of person to dwell on the past," Annabeth pointed out. "She seems like… she's comfortable with the way things are. I really doubt she blames you for anything."

Thalia sat back in her chair and glanced at the ceiling. "I know, you're probably right. But I still just feel responsible, know you? And if anything happens to her, it'll be my fault. It's stupid, but I can't stop thinking about it."

"Well, you've got to," Annabeth said flatly, prompting Thalia to look down at her with a slight frown. "You're right, it is stupid. We're about to challenge your father—the leader of the largest and most dangerous criminal organization in the country. We can not afford distractions like this, you know we can't. It doesn't matter how we're all involved—the point is that we are. We've got a team who's serious about this job. So you'd better just accept it, because you won't be doing anyone any favors by doubting. Reyna knows what she signed on for—all you need to do is trust her."

Thalia breathed out heavily, the corner of her mouth lifting in a wry smile. "It's a good thing you're here to keep us all on track, then. Guess we'll need someone level-headed if we're gonna pull this off."

"Damn right," Annabeth agreed with a grin. Leaning back and stretching her arms, she said, "So, you as totally unable to sleep as I am?"

Thalia nodded. "Completely wired. Hang in the den and check out that huge TV?"

"Sounds good to me."

So for the next couple hours, Annabeth and Thalia sat in the den and watched pointless, middle-of-the-night television programming, talking aimlessly about anything but the mission they were about to take on. Somehow, even though they were in someone else's house, the casual company made the whole thing seem less real, like this could've been any relaxing day back home instead of the night before their trip to Chicago to meet Zeus. With the less urgent atmosphere, Annabeth's mind traveled back to her fiancé, who she hoped was recovering well back in London. She wondered if he'd found her letter, and hid a smile when she pictured his face. He'd be angry, undoubtedly. But she hoped he had enough sense to heed her warning and wait for her to come back. Because when she did, they wouldn't have to fear his uncle any longer. And that, in her opinion, would be well worth the wait and the effort it would take to make it happen.

About an hour before sunrise, Leo and Reyna came downstairs and seemed unsurprised to find Thalia and Annabeth up and about. Together the four of them ate a quick breakfast, more on principle than because any of them were actually hungry, before gathering their things and meeting in the garage.

Last night when they returned to the house, Annabeth had only gotten the briefest glance at the garage on their way inside, but walking in that morning with more time to spare she noticed that it was easily the most cluttered room of the house that she'd seen. Shelves and wooden tables lined the back and left walls, piled messily with tools and equipment—a lot of which Annabeth couldn't name or guess a purpose for. Stacks of cardboard and raw metal sat against the tables, leaving little walking room between them. Most of the space was cleared around Reyna's car, the silver Mustang, given that she drove it almost daily (she'd given Thalia and Annabeth a ride home in it the previous night). The other car, which Annabeth could now see was a shiny, black four-door Maserati Ghibli with narrow, bronze stripes along the sides, was more surrounded by clutter but looked to be in perfect condition, almost like it was brand-new. Annabeth assumed it must have belonged to Leo, but he apparently preferred not to drive it often as he'd left his shop last night in a dark red F-250, which was now parked outside.

Stepping last into the garage, Reyna pulled the door closed and pressed a button on the device hanging by the doorframe, and the double garage door slid noisily open. Assuming they'd be taking Reyna's car again, Annabeth started toward it but stopped when Leo climbed around a pile of clutter and pulled a key fob from his pocket, pressing a button on it and prompting the lights on the Ghibli to flash twice in quick succession.

"Leave the trunk clear for now," he said as he opened the rear driver's side door and slid a drawstring bag under the front seat. "We can rearrange after we stock up." As he pulled open the front door and dropped into the driver's seat, Annabeth exchanged a brief glance with Thalia (noting the tiny glint of apprehension in her eyes) before following her around Reyna's car and trying not to knock anything over.

As Thalia ducked into the backseat of the Maserati and scooted across to give Annabeth room, her eyebrows shot up and she muttered, "Whoa." Annabeth slid in beside her and had to stop herself from saying the same thing. She'd never been particularly into cars, but even she had to admit that this one was impressive. The seats were upholstered in deep crimson leather and were quite possibly the most comfortable car seats she'd ever experienced. The navigation and control panels were impossibly clean and decorated with so many buttons and screens that Annabeth couldn't even imagine what some of them could be for. There was a second, unlabeled lever beside the gear shift between the two front seats that fit in well but was clearly not standard-issue. She wondered for a second if Leo had modified the car—and then realized that it was probably stupid to wonder that at all. He owned an auto customization shop and kept a mint-condition, foreign racing-grade sedan in his garage. Clearly this thing had had some work done on it.

"Nice, huh?" Leo said with a grin, wiggling his eyebrows as he twisted around and caught the looks on their faces. He faced front and pressed the ignition button as Reyna sat down in the passenger seat and pulled the door closed with a dull snap, and the engine hummed steadily to life.

"Let's just get going," Reyna said, eyes going to the dark, early morning sky outside. "The sooner we're on the road, the fewer chances we'll have for trouble."

-0-0-0-

Leo's storage facility turned out to be a wide, one-story warehouse in the industrial district of Detroit, where the buildings were very spread out. There was a single door at the east front end and a double-door at the west, but rather than use either of them they drove around and parked in the back by what looked like a truck entrance. When they got out of the car, Leo walked up and snapped open a panel on the building wall that revealed a glowing input relay. He punched a long and complicated-looking code into the number pad and then placed his hand flat on the scanner, before a high-pitched beep sounded and a section of the back wall slid upward like a gigantic garage door. Leo jerked his head toward it and the others followed him inside.

When he switched on the lights, Annabeth looked around to see that the warehouse was filled with rows of what looked like oversized filing cabinets. Each one was about ten feet tall and length-wise ran the width of the building.

"So… how much opposition are we expecting, here?" Leo asked, eyes scanning the rows of storage units.

"I don't know," Annabeth said truthfully. "If we're lucky we might be able to get to Zeus without alerting the entire organization. But luck hasn't really been good to us before so I haven't got much reason to expect it to start now. Either way, I'm sure we can count on some sort of guard to stand between us and him. It'd be best to go prepared to fight."

"Are all of these full of guns?" Thalia asked in mild disbelief, leaning sideways to inspect the far side of the room with raised eyebrows.

"Of course not," Leo responded with a quirky smile, as though that had been a rather silly question. Annabeth wasn't surprised. The place was huge, after all. That would certainly be a lot of weaponry.

Not a second later, however, Leo went on to explain, "I've also got mod accessories like scopes, blade apparatuses, magazine expansion hookups—plus more ammo than you'd ever need, then there're the long- and short-range explosives—you know, hand grenades, proximity mines, firing dynamite, couple stalks of dry TNT, liquid corrosive—we should grab some of that, definitely, super useful—that section back there's got tech, night-vision shades, heat and motion sensors, tracking devices, the best-concealed recorder-radios you'll find anywhere, auto-translator chips—though those are still in beta—"

"I think they get it," Reyna cut him off wryly when it didn't seem he'd be finishing anytime soon. He gave a half-grin and shrugged.

"Wow, uh…" Thalia responded, blinking in mild surprise. "Okay, well, seeing as we're trying to infiltrate the Willis Tower and not turn it to jelly, let's just stick with the basics."

"If you say so," Leo said in a tone that implied his disagreement with that statement. He stepped past Annabeth and Thalia and started down a row between two cabinets, all three women following after him. The large metal drawers stacked among the columns, Annabeth observed as they went, were about three feet tall and six feet wide, and each bore a lock and keypad beneath an embossed 3-digit number. Leo stopped about two-thirds of the way down the column and drew the key ring from the pocket of his jeans, separating a small, silver key from the others and sliding it into the lock on a drawer in the middle of the three rows on their left. He punched in five numbers on the keypad and the drawer clicked open an inch, allowing him to reach in and slide it out the rest of the way. The space inside was split into slim compartments, each of which held a gun save for the two on the right which were stacked with replacement magazines. When Leo pulled one out and flipped it in his hand, Annabeth cocked her head to the side and examined it, recognizing it as your basic .45 machine handgun.

Leo retrieved an ammunition cartridge from the drawer and slid it into the gun's grip with a snap before grinning at the others, his dark eyes gleaming like fire, and saying, "Let's get started."

-0-0-0-

Annabeth was impressed with Leo's merchandise. Even without taking the wide array of variety into account, the metalwork and mechanics alone were remarkable. Every surface felt smooth and clean beneath her touch, and even the larger weapons were surprisingly lightweight for the specifications he reported them to have. Annabeth had handled enough guns in her life to recognize expert workmanship when she saw it, and Leo's work was exactly that. She was glad she and Thalia had lucked into meeting him before they'd set off after Zeus.

It turned out that the trunk of Leo's Maserati had a hidden compartment beneath a false bottom, which was why he'd told them to leave the trunk clear earlier. They'd almost finished loading it with equipment and were busy filling the last of their empty duffel bags when a sudden and loud banging sounded from the east front end of the storehouse—three times in quick succession, like someone pounding on the metal door.

Annabeth looked up from the drawer she was crouched in front of with a startled frown. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Leo answered, standing up slowly and narrowing his eyes in the direction of the sound. "There shouldn't be anyone here this early. I'll go check it out, you guys finish this." He turned and tossed Reyna his key ring, adding, "Make sure you lock up." Then he jogged to the end of the row and turned left, disappearing from sight as the banging repeated itself.

"Who do you think it is?" Thalia wondered, glancing at Reyna as they continued loading ammunition into their bag.

"I don't know," Reyna responded, eyebrows creased tightly together in vague apprehension. "There are others who come here—the few people who work for him, raw suppliers, you know. But he'd know if there was a delivery today and, like he said, it's really early…"

Annabeth exchanged a glance with Thalia. "You don't think there's a problem, do you?"

Reyna shook her head and sighed shortly. "I'm sure it's nothing. Just to be safe, though, let's hurry up and get this stuff packed up." She zipped the bag closed and slung it over her shoulder, then slid the drawer back into place and turned the key in the opening, locking it tight.

As they all climbed to their feet, Thalia picked up the bag beside her and said, "Hopefully this doesn't delay us too much. It'd be nice to miss the worst of the traffic in—" The rest of her sentence was suddenly drowned beneath the interruption of two loud, unmistakable bangs—gunfire.

"What the—?" Annabeth stammered in surprise, ducking her head reflexively even though she was surrounded on two sides by ten-foot cabinets. She whipped around as another gunshot sounded, followed quickly by the clang of metal against metal.

"Where's that coming from?" Thalia demanded in a harsh whisper as Reyna started down the column in the direction in which Leo had disappeared. Annabeth made to follow her but stopped when she heard a sliding squeak and the sound of footsteps behind her. She and Thalia spun around to see Leo racing down the column toward them, an angry expression on his face.

"Keys!" he called to them in a low voice.

Reyna stepped forward. "Leo, what—?"

"Now!" he interrupted her as a male voice shouted from nearby, "We ain't walkin' with a 'no' this time, Valdez!" Reyna breathed in sharply and threw the key ring to Leo, who snatched it out of the air and said, "This way!" as he ran past them. Startled, Annabeth followed him without question, shooting a glance over her shoulder but thankfully seeing no movement. When they reached the end of the column, Leo leaned out and looked both ways before darting around to the right and ducking into another column two rows down, all three girls on his heels.

"Okay, what's going on?" Reyna demanded in a whisper as they ground to a halt halfway down the column. "That wasn't the police, was it?"

"No, it's not the police," Leo responded shortly as he dropped to his knees, shoving his key into a drawer on the bottom row and jamming some numbers on the keypad. "It's Venti. Friggin' morons can't take a hint. I swear, one of these days, man…"

Reyna cursed under her breath and Annabeth asked quietly, "Who's Venti?"

"A local gang," Reyna replied, reaching for the duffel bag Annabeth had been carrying and zipping it open. "They tried to make a deal two weeks ago, but Leo wouldn't sell to them." She pulled two .45 ACPs from the bag and handed them both to her boyfriend before retrieving a third and cocking it.

"They're bad news," Leo explained as he stuck the guns in the back waistband of his jeans and pulled open the drawer in front of him, grabbing weapon parts out of it and assembling them alarmingly fast. "Not the kind of clients I typically go for. Granted I'm not what you'd call a model citizen myself, but you gotta draw the line somewhere, right? And watchin' this place just so they can barge in at six in the morning and pull a gun on me sure as hell isn't earnin' 'em any amity points in my book."

Again a voice yelled something a little ways away, and Reyna eyed Leo seriously. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Leo paused to shoot her a skeptical look. "Those idiots? Yeah, right. They got aim worse than anything I've ever seen. One of the reasons I won't deal to them, actually."

"So what do we do?" Annabeth asked, grabbing an ACP herself and checking the grip, eyes wandering to each end of their column.

Leo slammed the drawer shut and straightened the weapon in his hands, allowing Annabeth to indentify it as some kind of heavy-looking automatic machine rifle. "Well, when diplomacy fails," he said with a wry grin as he snapped an ammunition clip into the loading mechanism and pulled the cocking lever, "you drive the point home. One way or another."

Annabeth smiled. She was liking this guy more and more by the hour.

Without another word, Leo hefted his rifle and stood, jerking his head to his right and leading the way down the column. He stopped a few yards from the end of the cabinets and said quietly, "Let's use their stupidity against them." Gesturing to Annabeth and Thalia to stand back, he exchanged a nod with Reyna, who slid her gun into her belt, moved forward, and flattened her back against the very end of the cabinet to their right. Leo dropped to a stable crouch and braced the end of the rifle against his shoulder, leaning down to check his sight before pulling a small, silver sphere from one of his pockets. He tossed it up once and caught it, before releasing it and letting it roll across the floor toward the back hallway. A second after it passed out of their column it suddenly emitted a high-pitched beeping noise.

If the device was meant to draw attention, it worked. Immediately someone shouted from off to the right and gunfire blared as a few wild bullets flew past their column. A voice called, "He's here, I saw something!" before hurried footsteps began to draw closer. As Leo smiled almost evilly, Annabeth wondered with incredulity, How stupid can you get?

Apparently pretty stupid, because a second later two men appeared around the corner, both with pistols hanging lax at their sides. "Hi-ya," Leo greeted them shortly as they scrambled to raise their guns, but they weren't anywhere near fast enough. Leo opened fire and mowed them down with barely an eighth of his clip. A third man who'd just arrived ducked hurriedly back around the corner, but the instant he pivoted the bend and held out his gun Reyna grabbed his arm and yanked him forward, swinging a leg around his knees and disrupting his balance. He flailed and tried to swing at her, but she ducked him easily and returned a kick at his ribs, smacked him beneath the chin with the palm of her hand, then turned and once again gripped his arm, flipping him over her shoulder and onto his back with a growl. She jammed him in the face with her wrist and he was out cold.

"Three down," Leo said, grinning at Reyna as she stood and brushed her hands together. "Four to go."

Reyna arched an eyebrow. "They brought seven guys just to try and steal from you?"

Leo smirked. "If that was their goal," he scoffed, lifting his rifle and getting to his feet, "they should've brought more."

Something caught Annabeth's ear and she spun around, raising her handgun and holding it steady, trained eyes combing the shadows at the end of their row.

"What?" Thalia asked in a low voice.

"I thought I heard…" She trailed off and tensed as a flash of movement snatched her attention. Without the slightest hesitation she fired twice and was rewarded with a shout of pain as someone darted back around the end of the cabinet and out of sight. More gunshots sounded behind her and she shot a glance over her shoulder to see Leo duck quickly back into their row.

"Time to split," he said, dropping his rifle and pulling both handguns from behind him. He nodded toward the man Annabeth had just shot at. "You guys take the Lone Ranger, and see if you can find Tonto. Let's clean up and clear out." With that he turned and fired both guns in alternating succession at something down the back hall to the right before taking off at a run, Reyna on his heels.

Immediately Annabeth headed quickly in the opposite direction, back down the column of cabinets with Thalia barely a step behind her. The man at the end of the row pivoted the corner and Annabeth and Thalia jerked to either side as they heard gunfire, but as Leo had said, the guys were terrible shots. Annabeth was pretty sure the bullets' paths were nowhere near them. Thalia raised her gun and returned fire, forcing the guy to hide from them again and give them more time to approach. In an impressive display of either unrelenting daring or incredible stupidity, the man ducked around the corner once more when they were almost upon him—giving Annabeth a perfect opportunity to bury three bullets in his chest. He flailed backward onto the hard ground, gun flying from his hand.

After first checking to make sure the coast was clear, Annabeth and Thalia ducked out of their column and ran along the front hall at the end of the rows of cabinets, glancing down each one and watching for movement. At the sound of gunfire just ahead of them, they veered hurriedly into a column between two cabinets in evasion. A second later, loud footsteps announced the arrival of their attacker as a man slid into view and skidded to a halt facing them. He'd barely stopped before Thalia wrapped an arm around his outstretched wrists and pulled, causing him to drop his gun with a grunt. She drove an elbow into his gut and he hunched forward, throwing a wild swing at her that missed by a mile. She stomped hard on his foot and turned quickly around, clenching a fist and slugging him hard in the face. Annabeth winced at the audible crack as he was thrown backwards, dazed and groaning.

Thalia shook her hand with a grimace. "Ouch… Been a while since I've been in a fight."

"Good to know you haven't forgotten everything," Annabeth said appreciatively.

She turned and began a quick survey of the area, stopping when once again something piqued her auditory senses. It was faint at first, but she could hear the distinct sound of police sirens coming from outside.

"Great," Thalia said bitterly, proving that she'd noticed it as well.

Rapid footsteps approached them from behind and Annabeth spun quickly around, raising her gun, but it was only Leo and Reyna. They must have gotten rid of the last two intruders, because the shouting and weapon fire had ceased.

"Detroit PD!" a voice called from outside the nearby door, accompanied by a short series of dull thumping.

Leo cursed unpleasantly as he and Reyna slowed and his eyes scanned the wall behind Thalia as though he could magically see through it. "Cops—you've gotta be kidding me," he growled. "When this is over, I'm sending the rest of Venti a strongly-worded letter. The kind that explodes."

"What do we do?" Reyna asked evenly.

"I'll try and get rid of 'em," Leo decided when the pounding repeated. "You guys grab the goods and finish loading up the car. And, uh… be ready for a quick getaway. You know, just in case." He gave them a less-than-reassuring grin before darting past them toward the east front door. Thalia rolled her eyes and breathed out shortly as the three of them hurried off in the opposite direction. After the creak of an opening door, Annabeth heard Leo say lightly, "Morning, officer. What can I do for you?" and a male voice reply, "We got a report of gunshots in the area…" before they'd gone too far and the rest of the conversation became muffled.

They quickly retrieved the bags they'd left upon the intruders' arrival and stowed them in the trunk of Leo's car. Reyna replaced the false floor and they threw the more-legal remainder of their belongings on top of it before slamming the trunk shut. At once Reyna turned and strode back into the warehouse and Annabeth and Thalia followed after her, listening hard for any sign of activity. Halfway along the back hallway, Reyna collided suddenly with Leo, who'd been hurrying down a column from the front of the building.

"We gotta go," he said quickly as he grabbed his girlfriend's arm to steady her. "Now."

"What happened?" Annabeth asked sharply. "Where's the cop?"

"On the ground by the guy you two knocked out. Let's jet before—" He broke off and spun around as a loud bang signified the east front door being slammed open and a chorus of voices followed. Leo cringed. "Before exactly that happens. Come on!" They set off at a run but hadn't even reached the garage entrance when Leo ground to an unsteady halt, let out a kind of frustrated growl, and said, "Wait, there's something I need to take care of. You guys go, I'll be right behind you!"

"Leo!" Reyna shouted, throwing up her hands in exasperation.

But he'd already set off in the other direction, calling after them, "Just go!" and the sounds of activity in the warehouse informed them that they didn't have much choice but to oblige. Clicking her tongue and wondering what was so important, Annabeth turned and led the way out of the building through the back entrance.

The sun was starting to rise by now, and though it hadn't peeked up over the distant trees and buildings yet the sky was considerably brighter than it had been when they'd left Reyna and Leo's house a little while ago. They'd planned to be on the road by sunrise, headed for Chicago. Leave it to street gangs and policemen to complicate things.

"They're coming around back!" Thalia hissed urgently as she leaned around the corner of the building and peered through the shadows. "What should we do?"

Annabeth bit her lip and breathed out in a huff. They were on an assassination mission. Not exactly legal given that it wasn't government-sanctioned. A police shootout, though, was entirely different territory. And yet she didn't completely relish the idea of being taken in—not when the CIA was still after her. Which meant there was nothing to do but fight back and run—two habits she'd been hoping to drop. Oh, well. This was her life, it seemed.

"I don't know about you," she finally answered Thalia, pulling the handgun from her belt and checking how many shots she had left, "but I'm going to Chicago. Nothing's gonna stop us here."

Thalia nodded, a sort of resigned agreement on her face. "Can't argue with that." She shot another glance around the corner. "Get ready. Three incoming."

Annabeth stood beside Thalia in the shadow of the building, waiting and wondering if the cops approaching had seen them or were routinely surrounding the building. The question was answered for her when the first of them rounded the bend and Thalia darted forward to elbow him in the face, catching him clearly by surprise. As he stumbled backward a second uniformed man ducked around him from behind and aimed a gun at Thalia, but Annabeth was faster. She lifted her own gun in both hands and immediately returned fire. One bullet missed the man by a centimeter and the other embedded itself in his shoulder, causing him to topple over backwards. Thalia drove her knee into the first cop's stomach and smacked the back of his head with her elbow when he doubled over, knocking him out. A third policeman had barely pointed his gun before Annabeth shot him once in the chest and once in the leg.

A voice behind them shouted, "Police! Drop your weapons!" and Annabeth spun around to see another pair of officers rushing toward them with guns held at the ready. She hesitated, trying to calculate whether she could outshoot them in time, when Reyna suddenly stood from behind the car and fired the handgun in her grip, sending a bullet into one cop's arm. Annabeth took advantage of the moment of confusion to shoot the same guy in the shoulder, knocking him on his back, as the other one stopped and turned his aim on Reyna. He fired twice and she ducked before leaping up and vaulting off the hood of Leo's car, spinning in midair and kicking the cop shooting at her in the side of the head. As he fell, she landed beside him on the pavement and drove her hand against the nape of his neck, causing him to fall still with a groan.

"Wow," Annabeth said, impressed. Reyna stood and gave her a wry smile before snapping her gaze to the open garage entrance at the sounds of shouting and weapon fire. Not a second later, Leo sprinted into view, ducking instinctively as bullets flew by and sliding in the thin layer of snow that covered the back lot. He wasn't holding a gun, but something was gripped tightly in his left hand.

"Car, now!" he yelled to them without slowing down. "MOVE!" The angry look on his face told Annabeth not to argue. She and Thalia crossed the lot and threw themselves into the backseat as Reyna leapt back over the hood and made a grab for the passenger-side door.

"Leo, what's wrong?" Reyna demanded as Leo slammed his door shut and started the car. She was frowning intently at the look on his face. "I mean other than the obvious. What were you—?"

"When I tell you," Leo cut her off through gritted teeth as he shoved the metal object he was holding into her hands, "press that button."

Reyna's eyes darted from him to the object, then over his shoulder toward the warehouse. "You're gonna—?"

"They called it in. No choice now. I can't—" He broke off and looked sharply out his window as two more officers emerged from the rear building entrance and yelled something Annabeth couldn't hear. "Hold on!" Leo told them before he slammed his foot on the gas pedal and gave the steering wheel a hard turn, thrusting them into motion. Annabeth slid sideways across the seat as the car sped around the side driveway and angled out onto the road. She had a brief glimpse of flashing red and blue as two of the three squad cars parked out front rolled into motion behind them, giving chase onto the empty, early-morning street.

"Reyna, now!" Leo ordered, and Reyna gave him a desperate, disbelieving sort of look before squeezing the device in her hands. The deafening explosion that ensued made Annabeth flinch in surprise and throw her hands over her ears as the ground rumbled briefly beneath them and the car swerved a foot or so to the left. Alarmed, she spun in her seat and stared through the back window to see the walls of the warehouse they'd just fled cave inward, smoke and fire rising into the slowly-brightening sky.

"You just…" she muttered in disbelief.

"We've still got problems," Thalia pointed out urgently. "Like our two tailgaters, for instance."

"That we can handle," Leo said, his voice oddly tight. "Hang on to something."

This time Annabeth took his advice and quickly fastened her seatbelt. And it was a good thing she did—without a second's hesitation Leo reached for the second lever beside the gear shift, the one Annabeth had found suspicious earlier, and pushed it sideways to reveal two silver-blue buttons on the panel beneath it. He punched the one on top and again grabbed the lever, this time yanking it straight back, his other hand tightening its grip on the steering wheel.

The effect was immediate. The Maserati surged forward with a thrum as though something massive had hurled it ahead from behind, accelerating at an alarming speed so that the buildings and trees on either side of them were reduced to a gray blur. The sounds of police sirens dwindled and the red-and-blue lights began to fade, leaving them with only the early, winter dawn light.

After about twenty seconds, they slowed back to cruising speed and Annabeth allowed her body to relax, not realizing she'd been holding her breath. Leo made a sharp left turn onto a slimmer road between more tightly-cramped buildings and Annabeth turned around, once again peering through the back window and noticing that their police escort seemed to have vanished.

"What was that?" Thalia asked, and Annabeth glanced over to see her checking to make sure her body was still intact.

"Nitrous oxide," Leo answered, eyes on the road and a stony expression on his face. "Modified engine. Comes in handy for a quick getaway. I've only got one more tank, though, so we should probably try and lie low from now on."

"Why'd you blow that place up?" Annabeth wondered. "If you want to 'lie low' there had to be a better way than that."

"I know!" Leo said, his tone turning almost miserable as he banged his head on the steering wheel. "I know. Trust me, that was the last thing I wanted to do. Man—there was millions of dollars worth of equipment in there!" He gave a kind of strangled yell and shook his head. "But I didn't have a choice. The place isn't registered in my name so I doubt they'll be after me because of this. But if they'd had a good poke around inside, there'd'a been plenty to pin on me. And I'd rather lose all my work than get thrown back in jail."

A heavy silence settled over the four of them as Annabeth thought back on her conversation with Thalia early that morning. Thalia felt responsible for involving Reyna when they were kids—for getting her accustomed to danger and crime. Now, Annabeth wondered if maybe she'd had a point—if maybe she herself was partly responsible for all of this as well. True, she'd never met Leo and Reyna before the previous day. And yes, they were already involved in illegal business without any interference on her part. But now, because of her and Thalia and their crusade against Zeus, they'd already sacrificed something huge. And who knew how much more they'd be forced to give up before this was all over?

"I'm sorry," Annabeth said quietly after a moment. "You're doing this to help us, and… So far it's only hurting you."

"It's okay, Annabeth, really," Reyna said matter-of-factly. She didn't smile, but oddly that only made Annabeth believe her more. "Leo's just ticked. He'll cool off. We both want to do this, whatever it takes."

"Hey, long as I get to take it out on the big guy," Leo agreed, "I don't care how much shit we go through. Nothing's blockin' out the light at the end of that tunnel."

Annabeth shook her head with a wry chuckle. "Have I mentioned how much I like you guys?"

"Back at'cha, babe," Leo said. Reyna rolled her eyes.

When they turned into an empty gas station and pulled around to the side of the building, Annabeth sat up straight and looked around. "Where are we?"

"Pit stop," Leo answered. "Hey, do me a favor and lift up the compartment under your feet."

As he killed the ignition and got out of the car, Annabeth did as she was asked. She bent over and slid her fingers along the leather interior until she found a tiny, indented hinge. Pulling it upward revealed a small, rectangular compartment in which sat a haphazard stack of differently-colored license plates.

"You're really prepared for anything, aren't you?" she said appreciatively when her door opened from the outside and Leo crouched beside her.

He grinned, long-fingered hands reaching out to shift through the plates. "Hey, you never know when you might need a little camouflage." He wiggled his eyebrows and Annabeth chuckled, shaking her head. Somehow, she was glad to realize that even though the loss of so much of his work had been technically her fault, he had no intention of holding it against her, just as Reyna had said. She thought of what she'd told Thalia hours go—that it didn't matter how each of them was involved, only that they were. Their two new companions would definitely be a major help on this trip—and maybe, she couldn't help but think, she could even secure herself two new friends.

"So, what do you guys think?" Leo asked, eyes lifting from the plates and sliding across all three women with amusement. "Townies from Vermont or road-trippers from New Mexico?"

Well, that was fun, eh? God, if this chapter took me so long I'm scared to see how long chapter 9 is gonna take me... It's the next big action scene and by my outline should be longer and nuttier than this one... Ughhh, haha.

So hopefully I can work around all the junk going on with life lately and pay attention to what's clearly more important, which is fanfiction. Review in the meantime? Later days!

-oMM