When they got to the breakfast area, Travis tried to check them in so they could eat. This was the routine they had worked out. When he said the room numbers to the host, the host just shook his head. He even looked over the sheets of paper he had in front of him three times, but to no avail.
Travis furrowed his eyebrows. "What's the problem?" Travis asked.
The host answered in accented English, "Those rooms are unoccupied according to this sheet."
"What?"
"I'm sorry, sir. Are you sure you have not checked out?" the host apologized.
"Yes I'm sure!" Travis responded heatedly. "We aren't leaving until tomorrow morning! That should be on your records considering that's how many nights I checked the rooms out for."
"I will get someone to check on that for you, sir." the host replied confusedly. It seemed like he only understood certain parts of Travis's little rant. The host continued, "You and your party must wait off to the side until we get all this sorted out."
Travis looked at Percy who was standing off to the side listening to the conversation. Annabeth was unaware that he was shielding her from sight. Percy figured that if the host was part of whatever group of people they were currently against, he shouldn't reveal that they had an extra member that the opposing people didn't know about. After all, when 'Jim' came to the door, Percy had hidden Annabeth in the shower. They shouldn't know about A2's advantage of an field strategist.
When Percy noticed Travis looking at him questioningly, he nodded slightly and walked off to the side. He waited for the rest of the group to follow. They all seemed to have gotten the unspoken memo to keep Annabeth out of sight subtly until they were in their room or the breakfast area, whichever came first.
Nico was the first one to come over to Percy. He raised an inquiring eyebrow, but Percy just shook his head and nodded to the other men signaling to wait until they were all present.
When they were all huddled around Percy he explained his reasoning, "Look, if we just comply while acting confused and frustrated without completely losing our temper, they might think there is some sort of mistake. Hopefully we can talk this out and just get our breakfast quickly."
"Is Travis the only one that will talk since he's the only one that can speak English apparently?" Frank asked.
"No." Percy answered. "Since we don't have our heritage look or whatever right now, it shouldn't be necessary. We shouldn't match the descriptions that Jim would've given. And Travis isn't wearing the same outfit and all Jim saw was his back. I can jump in speaking Mandarin if I need to."
"Then why are we still keeping Annabeth out of the employees' view." Travis questioned.
"We would have an extra person if we didn't. We didn't change rooms. Just appearance. I want to be careful, but not so much that it becomes obvious. Don't make it look like you're hiding someone. Be causal. I know we can all act, guys." Percy said in a commanding voice.
The men all nodded while Annabeth just stood with a thoughtful face on. As the host came back to the podium, the group moved forward again. They kept Annabeth carefully out of sight.
The host said, "I requested someone of higher rank come to speak with you."
As he finished speaking, another man in a suit came from a side door that led to some sort of staff area. The host stayed at his post at the podium, but turned his body so he could seem like he was standing off to the side. The man that had just come out was taller than the host. Looked maybe 5' 11" so fairly tall. He didn't have to crane his neck to speak with Travis's 6' 1" figure. He might've had to if Percy had to interfere and speak as Percy stood at 6' 3" standing up straight.
The man in the suit came over to stand near the podium, looked over the visible members of their group, and turned to Travis as he was standing at the front. He said, "I am the general manager of the Lido Hotel. You may call me Cheng. What is your concern?"
Travis nodded in understanding then responded calmly, "Your breakfast area host says that we are not permitted to have breakfast because his papers say that we have checked out when we haven't."
Cheng raised his eyebrows. He stepped closer to the podium to look at the papers that the host was shuffling through earlier. He looked them over carefully then looked back up at the group and said, "I don't know why my host said that. You aren't scheduled to be checking out until tomorrow. Please seat yourselves in the breakfast area."
Cheng spread his arm to the side in a guiding gesture to the breakfast buffet and seating area. Travis thanked him and the group went to find a table. When they had all gotten their food, they sat down and immediately huddled together.
Nico asked, "Do you think he's involved?"
"Doubt it." Percy responded.
"Then why would they involve the breakfast host, knowing he would go to the general manager when a problem was pointed out?" Travis countered.
"I don't know. Maybe to throw us off? Whatever the reason, I'm positive Cheng is not involved in stopping us. At least not yet." Percy thought about something for a second then continued, "Maybe they were expecting the general manager to ask the host about it instead of just checking the papers."
"Why didn't they just change the papers if they have inside people?" Frank asked.
"I'd guess that they don't have people of high enough rank to access all the papers that would be needed to change not even including on the computer. They would also have to change the ones that we have in our possession. There is no way they would have gotten to those, so I assume they didn't want to risk it." Percy said. He himself was not completely sure of his explanations, but they made enough sense to be possible at least.
"Do you think they'll try to get the general manager involved now that they know how he would respond?" Travis asked.
"No. That would be pointless. I'm sure they know that we're leaving tomorrow. Maybe they can't access all the papers and records, but they must have access to at least one set that shows when we arrived and when we're leaving." Percy said. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. He was almost glaring at his empty plate. "Let's continue talking about this before our conversation with 'Jim' but only once we're back in one of the rooms. We'll do a bug scan as well." Percy said, then without a word stood up and went back to the buffet.
Once back in Percy and Annabeth's room, Frank pulled out a thin pad. He placed it on the desk and pressed a button. Almost instantly, a hologram image popped up. It was almost the exact same as the computer Annabeth had seen before when 'Jim' came. It was all hologram though. The keyboard was completely a hologram image shown on the padded part. A light shined up from the back of the pad that was projecting the display. The display currently had a huge picture of Percy and Annabeth with their dog by their feet.
The dog was not Mrs. O' Leary, but a regular dog that they had rescued off the streets when it was a puppy. It was a male black lab. He was about six months old when they found him. They had taken him to the vet to get his shots taken care of. They had also gotten him spade. They had named him Leroy by Percy's request. They had rescued him about a year and a half before Percy had been called out on Leo's mission. Percy had trained him to be a great guard and hunting dog. He obeyed Percy 100% of the time and if Annabeth had his food and Percy was absent he would listen to her very reluctantly. That fact annoyed Annabeth to no end and made Percy overjoyed when she first told him. Leroy knew Percy was his master. Percy was considering training Leroy to be a military dog when he got older, but Annabeth talked him out of it.
Percy went over to the hologram computer and typed in his password. He then turned to Annabeth, who had been gazing longingly at Percy's account picture. He walked over to where Annabeth was standing by the unused bed and wrapped an arm around her waist. He asked quietly, "Where's Leroy?"
Annabeth turned her head to face Percy and answered, "He's with Athena along with Perseus Ray Jackson Jr."
Percy nodded, not fully comprehending all that Annabeth just said as he responded, "Are you sure Athena won't murder my puppy?"
Annabeth nodded but before she could reply Percy jumped in excitedly with, "Wait that's his name?"
Annabeth smiled and said, "Yes. I just thought about it and remembered that I never told you I named him after you."
"Why did you name him after me?" Percy wondered aloud.
"Because, Seaweed Brain, he looks like an exact replica of you minus the curliness of his hair. Plus I made sure to have his hair kept regulation style." Annabeth said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Percy grinned and asked, "Roman regulation?"
Annabeth nodded with her a smile of her own. Leo turned to look at them and when he saw what he did he just turned around again and went to the hologram computer. Percy was nuzzling Annabeth's neck, placing a kiss here and there. She wasn't exactly stopping him, but she didn't think the proper time for something like that would be right after breakfast when they were supposed to be working.
Annabeth gently shoved Percy away saying, "We've got work to do."
Percy sighed and nodded going over to his hologram computer. When Leo noticed Percy coming over to help with his standard work expression, he turned to look at Annabeth and raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. Annabeth wasn't sure what Leo was wondering, so she gestured with her head for Leo to follow her away from the other men.
When Leo complied, she looked back to Percy who had been watching the interaction with Leo. She quickly went over to Percy and said quietly, "I'll explain later. I promise. Don't worry."
Percy gave a weak nod and she kissed his forehead which was easier than his cheek since he was sitting in the desk chair. Annabeth went back over to Leo and asked, "What?"
"I think you know." Leo responded in a neutral voice. It wasn't hostile or commanding or accusatory, but it wasn't sad or disappointed or really anything. It held no emotion that Annabeth could detect. However, no matter how hard Annabeth thought, she couldn't figure out why Leo seemed to be questioning her.
"I actually don't. Could you just explain?" Annabeth admitted.
"Fine. Have you told Percy about your kid you had with him?" Leo asked bluntly.
Annabeth glanced at her watch then said, "I thought the deadline was three."
"It is. I am just giving a friendly reminder."
Annabeth raised her eyebrows but replied, "Well, I actually did tell him. I explained everything."
Leo looked skeptical. "So if I go up to Percy right now and ask him who the kid was that Athena had when we landed, he would say it's his kid?"
Annabeth nodded and said, "Yes. But please don't. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want others to know until he has actually met his child."
"Then how am I supposed to know that you aren't lying?" Leo questioned.
Annabeth didn't understand why it mattered to Leo so much that Percy knew about his child before they got back to the states. She asked, "Why do you care so much that Percy knows about him?"
Leo sighed and Annabeth could almost feel the anger and frustration drain out of him. He said, "Percy and I have been tight practically since we first got over my initial screw up." Annabeth nodded remembering how angry Percy had been at Leo for firing the ballistae at New Rome. "I guess all the members of the business care about each others a lot, but the higher ranking ones especially."
Annabeth was about to respond when Percy announced in a loud voice, "These walls and door are fully soundproof and all bugs have been deactivated and the same goes for our other two rooms!"
All the men offered a short round of applause as Percy continued, "I set the bugs to respond to my wire alone."
"Nice." Nico complemented.
Percy nodded.
"Should I call the guy now?" Travis asked.
The men looked at each other while Percy raised an eyebrow at Annabeth. Annabeth just shrugged. She truly was not sure what would be the best action at that point. Percy held her gaze for another second before turning away to the rest of the men.
Finally Percy said, "I think we might as well figure out who we are dealing with."
Nico sighed and grabbed Travis's phone off the desk along with the paper that had the number they were supposed to call. Travis took both from Nico and dialed the number into his phone.
The group waited in silence as muffled ringing could be heard from the phone. They all seemed to tense every time another ring would sound. It took five and a half rings for a man to pick up the phone on the other end.
Travis heard "Hello, Daniel speaking." He quickly put the phone on speaker and set it on the desk again, responding, "Yes! I was instructed to call this number."
There was silence on the other end. While there was silence, Percy wrote a note on the complementary notepad. It said Give him your real name. I'm sure they already know, but make up names for the rest of us that relate to the heritage he thought we had when we changed our looks. Or at least, that was what it was probably supposed to say. It was slightly more jumbled when Annabeth read it. But it must have been good enough for Travis to figure out because when he read it he nodded in understanding.
Then Daniel spoke again. He said, "Ah. Are you the English speaking man from the Lido Hotel?"
"That I am. I can also speak a few other languages." Travis answered.
"Wonderful! Were you passed out when I visited?" Daniel asked sounding relieved.
"Ah, yes I was." Travis said putting on an embarrassed front. Daniel must have fallen for it because he chuckled good naturedly.
"Don't worry, my friend. I think all your friends were a little tipsy as well. Besides I think all of us including me know what it's like to be hitting the happy juice until we're hammered."
"That's probably right. I mean I know my friends have all passed out from liquor before. It's just normally not at a hotel."
"Now tell me, are all your friends from different countries?" Daniel asked. His tone had changed to one that sounded more business-like.
Travis noticed the change in tone as well, but he didn't change his own tone from the light and carefree one he had been using. He answered, "They were born in different countries, but we all met when studying abroad in Italy. Well, Mario wasn't exactly abroad but you get my gist."
Nico ran to the corner behind the desk shaking with silent laughs. The other men weren't much better. Travis's face burned with embarrassment. Annabeth wasn't sure what they all thought was so funny but she couldn't ask as that might give away the extra person.
Daniel asked, "Who's Mario?"
"He's the Italian in our group." That sentence set the men off again. Leo and Nico ran to the bathroom and shut the soundproof door. Annabeth assumed they couldn't be silent much longer even though she still failed to see what was so incredibly hilarious. Frank had retreated to the corner Nico was previously in and faced the wall while shaking with silent laughter. His hands seemed like they wanted to clap but they never met each other, so they were just flapping around in the air in front of him. Percy had stayed where he was, but even he was dying of laughter in his spot. Annabeth just stood where she was, observing the other men's actions. It was insane if you asked her, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it, so she let it go for the time being.
The conversation continued between Daniel and a red-faced Travis. Travis and Percy were the only ones paying any attention to it and Percy was doing a half ass job of it too. Annabeth would be listening if she wasn't being constantly distracted by the other men attempting to come back to the desk, but one would go into another fit of laughter before they could compose themselves completely, setting the rest off again.
Travis finally finished his conversation with Daniel and turned to the other men who had finally come out of the various places they were hiding to suppress their laughter that was started from two simple sentences. Annabeth thought they were laughing at some teasing that might have been underlying in the sentences that Travis said about 'Mario' (aka: Nico). She didn't know what was so funny about "Mario wasn't exactly abroad, but you get my gist" or "he's the Italian in our group". They were coverups. They were sensible in Annabeth's eyes. If it was some sort of teasing, Nico probably wouldn't be laughing harder than any of the others.
She decided to ask them when they composed themselves. Travis was surveying the other men with a sheepish expression. That made them all crack up again. Frank had finally composed himself while Percy was letting all his suppressed laughter come out. Annabeth decided she had had enough.
She brought Percy's head down and whispered, "If you stop laughing now and get down to business here, it will give us more alone time later."
Percy sobered up. He stood up straight and announced, "Alright! That's enough. It was funny, but now it's time to get to work! What did we all miss Travis?"
"I invited him to come over again."
A/N: As probably noticed, updates have slowed down. This is due to hectic summers and all that. I'm doing the best I can. Thanks for the reviews, favorites, follows & PMs