"A higher being, much older than us, or the titans," Hades said, "I do not know who, but they have concealed themselves well, and their mark is unmistakably ancient."
Valen remained silent, taking in all that his father said. Beings older than gods and titans…
The memory of the battle of Camp Half-Blood flashed against his vision, when he lost control, he remembered a talking crow, but nothing beyond that.
He shook his head, focusing on the subject at hand. "Can you help indirectly?"
Hades raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of topic, but humored him nonetheless, "I could, but it would not change much."
"Father," Nico said, entering the conversation, "maybe I could be your host."
Hades shook his head, "You do not understand the weight behind such a status, nor the burden it carries."
"Then teach me."
Hades stared into Nico's eyes silently, but his will was unwavering, he would not budge. He sighed, "Valen, Perseus, return to the overworld, start this war of yours. We will join you when we're ready."
Valen sighed, "Fine, just try to come before armageddon happens."
"I can make no guarantees," Hades said, grabbing Nico's shoulders and disappearing from their vision.
Withholding another sigh, Valen whistled for Mrs. O'Leary, who appeared in an instant and wagged her tail violently.
"Let's go," Percy said, climbing onto her back, "Nico will be fine."
"I know," Valen said, "But what father said near the end there, it worries me."
"Hades won't let Nico get hurt. At least I think so."
"You're right, he won't, but he might not have a choice." Valen said, turning to face the tunnel, "Oh well. We've got enough on our plate to worry about. Let's go."
.
.
.
Back in New York the two demigods found themselves back in Central Park and wasted no time in Iris Messaging Annabeth.
"Hey," Percy said. "You get my message?"
"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been worried sick!"
"He was with me, you shouldn't be worried." Valen said.
"That's all the more reason I should."
"Hey!"
"I'm kidding," Annabeth smiled.
"Where are you?" Percy asked.
"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens—Midtown Tunnel. But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—"
"Trust me," he said. "I'll see you there."
After the call ended, they booked a taxi to the empire state building. It was late afternoon when they finally reached it. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.
Three white vans pulled up to the curb when Percy whistled at her to heel. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, the cover name for Camp Half-Blood.
The first van was driven by Argus, the hundred eyed giant, while the others were driven by harpies.
The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive.
Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. The Ares cabin was the only one missing.
Raising an eyebrow, Valen walked up to Chiron, "I take it you couldn't talk her out of staying?"
Chiron sighed, shaking his head, "No, I'm afraid not."
"Then I suppose I must pay her a visit, knock her down a few pegs." Valen said, "Perhaps even a change in leadership. Then again her siblings are as dumb as her."
"Don't be too harsh on her, she is still a child."
Valen shrugged, "As soon as we're done with whatever Percy has in mind, I'm going to need to pay her a visit."
"Try not to injure her." Chiron pleaded.
"No promises." Valen retorted, walking back to the rest of the crowd.
Percy addressed the group, "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."
But Chiron shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."
"But you're our leader."
He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."
Percy glanced at Valen and Annabeth, waiting for them to protest, but they only smiled at him encouragingly.
He took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth, something big is going down tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."
He asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.
Chiron shook his hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."
Percy nodded with a half confident smile. "Let's go," He told the campers.
A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover. He glanced up when the demigods filed in with our weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."
"What sort of school group has celestial bronze, and Stygian iron, weapon and armor?" Valen said.
He glanced at their weapons like he had just noticed them.
"We're here for the Six-hundredth floor." Percy said.
"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."
"Would you prefer it if I shoved this sword up-"
"Valen," Percy interrupted, "Let me handle it."
Valen sighed, but beckoned him to go ahead. Percy leaned forward, "Forty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"
He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Make it quick."
"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," Percy added.
"Um, no," he agreed. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."
Percy tossed him a golden drachma, and they marched through.
With the size of the elevator, it took two trips for all of them to go, and it wasn't exactly a comfortable ride, the music choice of "Stayin' Alive" made it worse.
"Even the fields of punishment wouldn't be that cruel," Valen muttered as he walked out of the elevator. In front of him a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.
"Something's wrong," Valen said immediately, "I don't sense many gods in there."
And he was right, the mountain was eerily silent, no music, no voices, no laughter.
As they waited for the second group, Annabeth spoke to Percy, "You look . . . different. Where exactly did you go?"
The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined them.
"Tell you later," Percy said. "Come on."
They made their way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be in it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted us from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.
"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"
They froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. They watched them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still, it was strange.
"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."
"Well, lets hope Olympus' defenses are strong enough to keep us from getting vaporized." Valen muttered.
"Let's get to the palace," Percy said.
No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Their footsteps echoed as they walked into the throne room.
Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air and inside swam the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half-serpent.
"Moooo!" he said happily, turning in a circle.
Percy smiled, "Hey man, they treating you okay?"
"Mooo," Bessie answered.
They walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome."
Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had before, but she was a grown woman now.
"Lady Hestia," Valen bowed, Percy in tow. Following them, the other demigods bowed too.
Hestia regarded Percy with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."
The other campers started muttering among themselves: What did she say? What about Achilles?
"You must be careful," Hestia warned him. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."
Annabeth nudged him. "Um . . . what is she talking about?"
Percy suddenly lost his strength and would have fallen were it not for Annabeth and Valen.
"Percy! What happened?" Annabeth asked.
"Did . . . did you see that?" Percy asked.
"See what?"
He glanced at Hestia. "How long was I out?"
"You weren't out for a moment, Perce, you just began falling all of a sudden." Valen said.
Hestia turned to him, "You are distraught, as if you have learned a terrible truth about yourself."
Valen remained silent, his lips pressed into a thin line. His fathers words about a higher being having marked him had plagued his thoughts for a while.
"Do not despair," Hestia said, "Your situation is not as bad as you think."
"Isn't it?" Valen said, "How long do I even have before I lose my body?"
Hestia shook her head, "You will not lose anything Valen Steensen, it is not a parasitic relationship, but a symbiotic one."
"What?"
"But fret not, the time for that hasn't come yet, don't let your mind wander from the war." Hestia said.
"Um, Lady Hestia," Percy said before she could reveal anything further, "we've come on urgent business. We need to see—"
"We know what you need," a man's voice said.
A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-and pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.
"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke.
Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy. "Hello, Percy."
His brow furrowed as though he was annoyed with something.
Percy bowed awkwardly. "Lord Hermes."
Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in my mind. Don't say hi to us. We're just reptiles.
George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.
"Hello, George," he said, smiling slightly. "Hey, Martha."
Did you bring us a rat? George asked.
George, stop it, Martha said. He's busy!
Too busy for rats? George said. That's just sad.
"Um, Hermes," Percy said. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."
Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"
Behind him, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned.
"You guys," Percy said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Annabeth and me back here in thirty minutes."
Silena frowned. "But—"
"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."
The Stolls seemed to like that—getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids. "We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Annabeth, Percy, and Valen with Hermes.
"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."
"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."
"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"
Thunder rolled through the sky.
"I'd watch the comments, girl," Hermes warned. "Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."
"But there are these blue lights—"
"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage. Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."
Percy raised my hand. "Um . . . what about that materializing/teleporting thing you guys do?"
"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"
Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous—hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive."
"And this is where your seats of power are, nothing will matter if Kronos destroys them before you can beat Typhon." Valen said
"Maybe just a few of you could come back," Percy suggested.
Hermes shook his head impatiently. "You don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."
"I thought that was Kronos." Percy said.
The god's eyes glowed. "No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna—"
"Met her at the Arch," he muttered. "Not nice."
"—and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."
"Hades isn't just sitting around, he's planning for something," Valen defended his father, "If you guys won't come to defend Olympus, Hades will."
"Right, because Hades loves Olympus so much, doesn't he?" Hermes shot back.
"He knows he stands no chance alone, that Kronos is a threat bigger than his own ego."
"Please, Hermes," Annabeth interrupted, probably saving Valen from being vaporised. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"
"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages."
Rodents, George mused. I'm in it for the rodents.
Shhh, Martha scolded. We care what Hermes has to say. Don't we, George?
Oh, absolutely. Can we go back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That's fun.
"Quiet, both of you," Hermes grumbled.
The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray-eyes thing.
"Bah," Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."
"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.
"She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant."
Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it. "Go on."
"Last thing." Hermes looked at me. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um, something about staying away from her daughter."
Valen chuckled at their red faces, "Seems like you two are gonna need a chaperone from now on."
Annabeth shook her head and cleared her throat, "Thank you, Hermes. And I . . . I wanted to say . . . I'm sorry about Luke."
The god's expression hardened like he'd turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."
Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"
"SORRY doesn't cut it!"
George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.
"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth. "You're the only one who could have."
"Hermes!" Valen yelled, "Luke's situation is far more your fault than hers, you on the other hand, perhaps if you had the balls to visit him things might have been different."
He glared up at the god, "Or are you so insecure that you must put the blame of your decisions on demigods just to feel that instant of validation?"
Hermes looked positively livid, his face was so red it looked like he popped a vein. He raised his cattle prod and began to grow.
Valen grabbed both Annabeth and Percy's shoulders, prepared to shadow travel away at a moment's notice, when Hermes stopped and stared at him in shock.
A phantom crow sat on his shoulder, its eyes darker than night as it stared into Hermes' soul. Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff. He could swear he saw the crow smirk before fading away.
"I will leave you now," He forced out, "I have a war to fight."
He began to shine and the demigods turned away.
Good luck, Percy, Martha the snake whispered. Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.
Annabeth sat at the foot of her mother's throne and cried. Percy wanted to comfort her, but he wasn't sure how.
"Annabeth," Percy said, "it's not your fault. I've never seen Hermes act that way. I guess . . . I don't know . . . he probably feels guilty about Luke. He's looking for somebody to blame. I don't know why he lashed out at you. You didn't do anything to deserve that."
Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.
"Hermes was just being an insecure twat, don't pay any heed to his words." Valen said with some anger still.
Percy turned to Valen, "That was the dumbest thing you could have done,"
"I kn-"
"And I would've done the same." He finished with a grin.
Valen smiled, "Of course you would."
"Percy," Annabeth suddenly said. "What did you mean about Luke's mother? Did you meet her?"
Percy nodded reluctantly. "Valen, Nico and I visited her. She was a little . . . different." He described their encounter with the insane woman to her.
Annabeth frowned. "That doesn't make sense. But why were you visiting—" Her eyes widened. "Hermes said you bear the curse of Achilles. Hestia said the same thing. Did you . . . did you bathe in the River Styx?"
"Don't change the subject."
"Percy! Did you or not?"
"Yes, he did." Valen said, cutting to the chase.
"Dude!" Percy stared at him like he just betrayed him.
"What? She could figure it out herself in like, five minutes."
Percy sighed, and went into an explanation about his visit to the underworld, and Valen continued off from when he bathed in the Styx, however, he chose to cut out the part about his soul being marked.
She shook her head in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"
"I had no choice," Percy said. "It's the only way I can stand up to Luke."
"You mean . . . di immortales, of course! That's why Luke didn't die. He went to the Styx and . . . Oh no, Luke. What were you thinking?"
"So now you're worried about Luke again," Percy grumbled.
She stared at him like I'd just dropped from space. "What?"
"Forget it," He said, "The point is he didn't die in the Styx. "Neither did I. Now I have to face him. We have to defend Olympus."
"You won't be alone at facing him. If Nico can handle the power of Hades, he might just turn the tide in your favor." Valen said, "Then of course you have me and Annabeth."
Annabeth frowned, "What was that with Hestia by the way? About you losing your body?"
"Not important right now," Valen waved the question away, "Now, your mother mentioned something about a plan 23?"
Annabeth stared at him for a few more seconds before deciding to let it go. She rummaged in her pack and pulled out Daedalus's laptop. The blue Delta symbol glowed on the top when she booted it up.
She opened a few files and started to read. "Here it is," she said. "Gods, we have a lot of work to do."
"One of Daedalus's inventions?"
"A lot of inventions . . . dangerous ones. If my mother wants me to use this plan, she must think things are very bad." She looked at Percy. "What about her message to you: 'Remember the rivers'? What does that mean?"
Percy shook his head, he had no clue.
Just then the Stoll brothers ran into the throne room. "You need to see this," Connor said. "Now."
The blue lights in the sky had stopped, so at first he didn't understand what the problem was. But the silence hit him like a loaded truck.
"I don't . . . hear anything," Annabeth said.
Percy clenched his teeth and walked to the edge, looking down at the dead city.
"What did they do?" his voice sounded tight and angry. "What did they do to my city?"
He pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and looked down. Valen sighed, "This is the main event, Morpheus has put the entire city to sleep."
Mrs O'Leary seemed like the only one happy about the sleeping city. They found her downstairs, her face buried in an overturned hot dog stand.
"Well, at least this way we don't have to worry about how the mist was going to conceal all that." Valen said.
Percy kept frowning, he still didn't like it one bit.
Argus was waiting for them with his hundred eyes wide open. He didn't say anything. But his face made it clear he was freaking out.
After they told him what happened on Olympus and that the gods wouldn't come to help, he couldn't help but roll his eyes, all hundred of them.
"You'd better get back to camp," Percy told him. "Guard it as best you can."
He pointed at him and raised his eyebrow quizzically.
"I'm staying," he said.
Argus nodded, like this answer satisfied him. He looked at Annabeth and drew a circle in the air with his finger.
"Yes," Annabeth agreed. "I think it's time."
"For what?" Percy asked.
Argus rummaged around in the back of his van. He brought out a bronze shield and passed it to Annabeth. It looked pretty much standard issue—the same kind of round shield we always used in capture the flag. But when Annabeth set it on the ground, the reflection on the polished metal changed from sky and buildings to the Statue of Liberty—which wasn't anywhere close to us.
"Whoa," Percy said. "A video shield."
"One of Daedalus's ideas," Annabeth said. "I had Beckendorf make this. The shield bends sunlight or moonlight from anywhere in the world to create a reflection. You can literally see any target under the sun or moon, as long as natural light is touching it. Look."
"Like real time satellite imagery," Valen said, peering into the shield.
They crowded around as Annabeth concentrated. The image zoomed and spun, before stabilising. They were in the Central Park Zoo, then zooming down East 60th, past Bloomingdale's, then turning on Third Avenue.
"Whoa," Connor Stoll said. "Back up. Zoom in right there."
"What?" Annabeth said nervously. "You see invaders?"
"No, right there—Dylan's Candy Bar." Connor grinned at his brother. "Dude, it's open. And everyone is asleep. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Connor!" Katie Gardner scolded. "This is serious. You are not going to loot a candy store in the middle of a war!"
"Sorry," Connor muttered, but he didn't sound very ashamed.
Annabeth passed her hand in front of the shield, and another scene popped up: FDR Drive, looking across the river at Lighthouse Park.
"This will let us see what's going on across the city," she said. "Thank you, Argus. Hopefully we'll see you back at camp . . . someday."
"Hey Perce, do you need me right now?" Valen suddenly said, "Cause I need to go beat some sense into Clarisse."
"Um, maybe later. I need you to stay for a while longer." He said, before whistling for Mrs O'Leary, and she came bounding over.
"Hey, girl," he said. "You remember Grover? The satyr we met in the park?"
"WOOF!"
"I need you to find him," he said. "Make sure he's still awake. We're going to need his help. You got that? Find Grover!"
The hellhound licked Percy head to toe, before leaving.
Pollux crouched next to a sleeping policeman. "I don't get it. Why didn't we fall asleep too? Why just the mortals?"
"This is a huge spell," Silena Beauregard said. "The bigger the spell, the easier it is to resist. If you want to sleep millions of mortals, you've got to cast a very thin layer of magic. Sleeping demigods is much harder."
Percy stared at her. "When did you learn so much about magic?"
Silena blushed. "I don't spend all my time on my wardrobe."
I call bullshit. Valen thought, but refrained from voicing.
"Percy," Annabeth called him. She was still looking at the shield. "You'd better see this."
The bronze image showed Long Island Sound near La Guardia. A fleet of a dozen speedboats raced through the dark water toward Manhattan. Each boat was packed with demigods in full Greek armor. At the back of the lead boat, a purple banner emblazoned with a black scythe flapped in the night wind. It wasn't hard to guess whose flag that was.
"Scan the perimeter of the island," Percy said. "Quick."
Annabeth shifted the scene south to the harbor. A Staten Island Ferry was plowing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hellhounds. Swimming in front of the ship was a school of telekhines.
The scene shifted again: the Jersey shore, right at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. A hundred assorted monsters were marching past the lanes of stopped traffic: giants with clubs, rogue Cyclopes, a few fire-spitting dragons, and just to rub it in, a World War II-era Sherman tank, pushing cars out of its way as it rumbled into the tunnel.
"What's happening with the mortals outside Manhattan?" Percy said. "Is the whole state asleep?"
"I doubt it," Valen said, "Something like that would make national news."
Annabeth frowned. "But it's strange. As far as I can tell from these pictures, Manhattan is totally asleep. Then there's like a fifty-mile radius around the island where time is running really, really slow. The closer you get to Manhattan, the slower it is."
She moved to another scene—a New Jersey highway. It was Saturday evening, so the traffic wasn't as bad as it might've been on a weekday. The drivers looked awake, but the cars were moving at about one mile per hour. Birds flew overhead in slow motion.
"Kronos," Percy said. "He's slowing time."
"Hecate might be helping," Katie Gardner said. "Look how the cars are all veering away from the Manhattan exits, like they're getting a subconscious message to turn back."
"I don't know." Annabeth sounded really frustrated. She hated not knowing. "But somehow they've surrounded Manhattan in layers of magic. The outside world might not even realize something is wrong. Any mortals coming toward Manhattan will slow down so much they won't know what's happening."
"Like flies in amber," Beckendorf said.
Annabeth nodded. "We shouldn't expect any help coming in."
Valen opened his mouth to notify them of Hades' plan, but he didn't want to give them false hope, Hades might not arrive in time after all.
"All right," Percy said. "We're going to hold Manhattan."
Silena tugged at her armor. "Um, Percy, Manhattan is huge."
"We are going to hold it," Percy said. "We have to."
"He's right," Annabeth said. "The gods of the wind should keep Kronos's forces away from Olympus by air, so he'll try a ground assault. We have to cut off the entrances to the island."
"They have boats," Michael Yew pointed out.
"I'll take care of the boats," Percy said.
Michael frowned. "How?"
"Just leave it to me," Percy said. "We need to guard the bridges and tunnels. Let's assume they'll try a midtown or downtown assault, at least on their first try. That would be the most direct way to the Empire State Building. Michael, take Apollo's cabin to the Williamsburg Bridge. Katie, Demeter's cabin takes the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Grow thorn bushes and poison ivy in the tunnel. Do whatever you have to do, but keep them out of there! Conner, take half of Hermes cabin and cover the Manhattan Bridge. Travis, you take the other half and cover the Brooklyn Bridge. And no stopping for looting or pillaging!"
"Awwww!" the whole Hermes cabin complained.
"Silena, take the Aphrodite crew to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel."
"Oh my gods," one of her sisters said. "Fifth Avenue is so on our way! We could accessorize, and monsters, like, totally hate the smell of Givenchy."
"No delays," He said. "Well . . . the perfume thing, if you think it'll work."
"Well, perfumes are generally flammable, so with a lighter they should be able to make something akin to molotov cocktails." Valen noted, "Also the Hermes cabin needs to loot some stuff, mostly medical equipment and anything that can help against the monsters."
The entire Hermes cabin cheered in joy, and the Stoll brothers grinned uncontrollably.
"All right, enough!" Percy yelled, closing his eyes, "The Holland Tunnel. Jake, take the Hephaestus cabin there. Use Greek fire, set traps. Whatever you've got."
He grinned. "Gladly."
"The 59th Street Bridge," he said. "Clarisse—"
"She will come," Valen said, "I'll drag her cabin here if I have to."
Percy nodded in thanks.
"But until they do," Annabeth said, "Malcolm, take the Athena cabin, activate plan twenty-three along the way, just like I showed you. Hold that position."
"You got it."
"I'll go with Percy," she said. "Then we'll join you, or we'll go wherever we're needed."
Somebody in the back of the group said, "No detours, you two."
"All right," Percy said. "Keep in touch with cell phones."
"We don't have cell phones," Silena protested.
Reaching down, he picked up some snoring lady's BlackBerry, and tossed it to Silena. "You do now. You all know Annabeth's number, right? If you need us, pick up a random phone and call us. Use it once, drop it, then borrow another one if you have to. That should make it harder for the monsters to zero in on you."
Everyone grinned as though they liked this idea.
Travis cleared his throat. "Uh, if we find a really nice phone—"
"No, you can't keep it,"
"Aw, man."
"Hold it, Percy," Jake Mason said. "You forgot the Lincoln Tunnel."
"Leave that to me," Valen stepped in.
"Valen, you'll be alone against an army." Percy said, "You have to take someone with you at least."
Valen smiled eerily, "I have more reinforcements than you think Percy."
"You bet he does," A girls voice called from across the street.
A band of thirty adolescent girls crossed Fifth Avenue. They wore white shirts, silvery camouflage pants, and combat boots. They all had swords at their sides, quivers on their backs, and bows at the ready. A pack of white timber wolves milled around their feet, and many of the girls had hunting falcons on their arms.
The hunters.
Valen raised a finger, "I did not mean that when I said reinforcements, but it works too."
Zoe smiled, "Thou can leave the Lincoln tunnel to us."
There were hugs and greetings all around . . . or at least Thalia was friendly. The others didn't particularly like boys, but at least they didn't shoot them.
"Where have you been the last year?" Percy asked Thalia. "You've got like twice as many Hunters now!"
She laughed. "Long, long story. I bet my adventures were more dangerous than yours, Jackson."
"Complete lie," He said.
"We'll see," she promised. "After this is over, you, Valen, Annabeth, and me: cheeseburgers and fries at that hotel on West 57th."
"Le Parker Meridien," He said. "You're on. And Thalia, thanks."
She shrugged. "Those monsters won't know what hit them."
Zoe nodded, "Hunters, move out!"
"Thank the gods," Annabeth said. "But if we don't blockade the rivers from those boats, guarding the bridges and tunnels will be pointless."
"You're right," Percy said.
He looked at the campers, all of them grim and determined.
"You're the greatest heroes of this millennium," I told them. "It doesn't matter how many monsters come at you. Fight bravely, and we will win." He raised Riptide and shouted, "FOR OLYMPUS!"
They shouted in response, and Valen summoned his bident, and raised it to the heavens, "FOR CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"
And the sound of forty campers echoed off the buildings of Manhattan.