Chapter 14: I Have a Dam Problem
"Oh, Rachel should make her first appearance in this one." Percy grinned.
"About time too." Rachel said.
At the edge of the dump, we found a tow truck so old it might've been thrown away itself. But the engine started, and it had a full tank of gas, so we decided to borrow it. Thalia drove. She didn't seem as stunned as Zoe or Grover or me. "The skeletons are still out there," she reminded us. "We need to keep moving." She navigated us through the desert, under clear blue skies, the sand so bright it hurt to look at. Zoe sat up front with Thalia. Grover and I sat in the pickup bed, leaning against the tow wench. The air was cool and dry, but the nice weather just seemed like an insult after losing Bianca.
Nico grimaced. While he had expected it to be a frequent topic, he wished it didn't have to be mentioned so soon. He hoped there weren't too many comments so they could get through this bit to where something else interesting happened.
My hand closed around the little figurine that had cost her life. I still couldn't even tell what god it was supposed to be. Nico would know. Oh, gods… what was I going to tell Nico?
Now Percy grimaced. Telling Nico about Bianca had been one of the worst moments of his life.
I wanted to believe that Bianca was still alive somewhere. But I had a bad feeling that she was gone for good. "It should've been me," I said.
"You don't still think that right?" Apollo whispered to him.
"No. Dad and Triton...well I don't like it but I know it wasn't my fault." Percy replied equally quietly. Apollo nodded in relief.
"I should've gone into the giant." "Don't say that!" Grover panicked. "It's bad enough Annabeth is gone, and now Bianca. Do you think I could stand it if…" He sniffled. "Do you think anybody else would be my best friend?" "Ah, Grover…" He wiped under his eyes with an oily cloth that left his face grimy, like he had on war paint.
"Leo does that all the time." Piper laughed. "It's a strange day if he doesn't have oil streaks all over his face."
"Or in his hair." Jason added with a chuckle.
"Most Hephaestus kids are like that." Katie said with a smile.
"Charlie isn't." Silena put in. "Not usually anyway."
"I'm… I'm okay." But he wasn't okay. Ever since the encounter in New Mexico—whatever had happened when that wild wind blew through—he seemed really fragile, even more emotional than usual. I was afraid to talk to him about it, because he might start bawling.
"Sorry, Percy." Grover said.
"Don't worry, G-Man. I got why it affected you so much." Percy grinned. "Besides, it actually helped me."
"What?" Rachel asked. "Why?"
"Because Grover freaking out helped me pull myself together. I could focus on helping him and not on freaking out myself." Percy explained. A few people nodded at that.
At least there's one good thing about having a friend who gets freaked out more than you do. I realized I couldn't stay depressed. I had to set aside thinking about Bianca and keep us going forward, the way Thalia was doing. I wondered what she and Zoe were talking about in the front of the truck.
"We weren't really talking." Thalia admitted.
The tow truck ran out of gas at the edge of a river canyon. That was just as well, because the road dead-ended. Thalia got out and slammed the door. Immediately, one of the tires blew. "Great. What now?" I scanned the horizon. There wasn't much to see. Desert in all directions, occasional clumps of barren mountains plopped here and there. The canyon was the only thing interesting. The river itself wasn't very big, maybe fifty yards across, green water with a few rapids, but it carved a huge scar out of the desert. The rock cliffs dropped away below us. "There's a path," Grover said. "We could get to the river."
"I don't think Thalia will appreciate that." Jason said.
"Nope." Thalia agreed.
I tried to see what he was talking about, and finally noticed a tiny ledge winding down the cliff face.
"I'm not even scared of heights and I didn't want to go down that path." Percy said.
"I thought you hated heights?" Annabeth asked.
"I don't like them but I'm not terrified like…" Percy trailed off. "I'm not frightened." He corrected himself after Thalia shot him a glare.
"Besides, that path sounds alright for you Grover but you have hooves." Annabeth pointed out.
"That's a goat path," I said. "So?" he asked. "The rest of us aren't goats." "We can make it," Grover said. "I think."
"Oh that's very convincing." Reyna said sarcastically.
I thought about that. I'd done cliffs before, but I didn't like them. Then I looked over at Thalia and saw how pale she'd gotten. Her problem with heights… she'd never be able to do it. "No," I said. "I, uh, think we should go farther upstream." Grover said, "But—" "Come on," I said. "A walk won't hurt us."
"Thanks." Thalia muttered. Percy nodded.
I glanced at Thalia. Her eyes said a quick Thank you. We followed the river about half a mile before coming to an easier slope that led down to the water. On the shore was a canoe rental operation that was closed for the season, but I left a stack of golden drachmas on the counter and a note saying IOU two canoes.
"Why drachmas?" Piper asked.
"No mortal money." Percy shrugged.
"At least he left something." Katie said. "Some people wouldn't have bothered." She looked at Travis and Connor who both shrugged. They didn't bother denying it.
"We need to go upstream," Zoe said. It was the first time I'd heard her speak since the junkyard, and I was worried about how bad she sounded, like somebody with the flu.
Artemis sighed sadly at that. She knew Zoe would be blaming herself.
"The rapids are too swift."
"Well it's a good job you have a son of Poseidon with you then." Hermes said.
"Yeah, that should be no problem for Percy." Triton nodded.
"Leave that to me," I said. We put the canoes in the water. Thalia pulled me aside as we were getting the oars. "Thanks for back there." "Don't mention it."
Thalia smiled. She was so glad that Percy was such a decent guy.
"Can you really…" She nodded to the rapids. "You know." "I think so. Usually I'm good with water." "Would you take Zoe?" she asked. "I think, ah, maybe you can talk to her."
"You really think Percy should talk to Zoe? She doesn't like him at the best of times." Rachel pointed out.
"Maybe but I'd already tried and I couldn't get through to her." Thalia sighed. "Percy has his magic that I figured even Zoe couldn't resist."
"It's not magic!" Percy said in exasperation.
"She's not going to like that." "Please? I don't know if I can stand being in the same boat with her. She's… she's starting to worry me." It was about the last thing I wanted to do, but I nodded.
"You are a very good friend." Apollo stated. He didn't know many males who would dare to speak to an upset or angry Hunter. But it bothered him that Thalia wanted Percy to talk to and cheer up Zoe but nobody seemed willing to do the same for Percy. He pushed aside his own feelings to help Grover and now Zoe.
Thalia's shoulders relaxed. "I owe you one." "Two." "One and a half," Thalia said.
"Definitely two." Percy said.
"Yeah. Fair enough." Thalia agreed.
She smiled, and for a second, I remembered that I actually liked her when she wasn't yelling at me.
Thalia and Percy grinned at each other.
She turned and helped Grover get their canoe into the water. As it turned out, I didn't even need to control the currents. As soon as we got in the river, I looked over the edge of the boat and found a couple of naiads staring at me. They looked like regular teenage girls, the kind you'd see in any mall, except for the fact that they were underwater. Hey, I said. They made a bubbling sound that may have been giggling. I wasn't sure. I had a hard time understanding naiads.
"They were probably giggling." Triton nodded. "They don't do much else."
"At least they were helpful." Percy sighed.
We're heading upstream, I told them. Do you think you could— Before I could even finish, the naiads each chose a canoe and began pushing us up the river. We started so fast Grover fell into his canoe with his hooves sticking up in the air.
Everyone burst out laughing at that.
"Some warning would have been nice." Grover grumbled.
"I didn't really have any myself." Percy told him with a smirk.
"I hate naiads," Zoe grumbled. A stream of water squirted up from the back of the boat and hit Zoe in the face.
"I think they heard her." Silena laughed.
"She-devils!" Zoe went for her bow.
"Overreaction much." Piper frowned. "They were probably just playing."
"Well, they wouldn't have appreciated what Zoe said but I don't think that some water in the face deserves to be shot." Triton said.
"Whoa," I said. "They're just playing." "Cursed water spirits. They've never forgiven me."
"Or they got upset because you said you hate them." Silena rolled her eyes.
"Forgiven you for what?" She slung her bow back over her shoulder. "It was a long time ago. Never mind." We sped up the river, the cliffs looming up on either side of us. "What happened to Bianca wasn't your fault," I told her. "It was my fault. I let her go."
Apollo reached out and squeezed Percy's hand.
I figured this would give Zoe an excuse to start yelling at me. At least that might shake her out of feeling depressed. Instead, her shoulders slumped. "No, Percy. I pushed her into going on the quest. I was too anxious. She was a powerful half-blood. She had a kind heart, as well. I… I thought she would be the next lieutenant."
"Surely she would need more training to become the Lieutenant?" Rachel frowned.
"Yeah. She would." Thalia nodded. She was honestly surprised that she had been given the title over the older Hunters but at least she had had demigod training. Bianca hadn't even had that. Artemis sighed. Zoe had suspected all along that she would die on this quest.
"But you're the lieutenant." She gripped the strap of her quiver. She looked more tired than I'd ever seen her. "Nothing can last forever, Percy. Over two thousand years I have led the Hunt, and my wisdom has not improved. Now Artemis herself is in danger."
"That is not your fault Zoe." Artemis whispered. "There is nothing you could have done."
"Look, you can't blame yourself for that." "If I had insisted on going with her—" "You think you could've fought something powerful enough to kidnap Artemis? There's nothing you could have done."
"Look at Percy being right." Annabeth laughed.
"Had to happen sometime." Grover chuckled.
"Hey!" Percy complained.
Zoe didn't answer. The cliffs along the river were getting taller. Long shadows fell across the water, making it a lot colder, even though the day was bright. Without thinking about it, I took Riptide out of my pocket. Zoe looked at the pen, and her expression was pained. "You made this," I said. "Who told thee?" "I had a dream about it." She studied me. I was sure she was going to call me crazy, but she just sighed. "It was a gift. And a mistake."
"Zoe knows about demigod dreams. Nothing is too crazy." Artemis stated.
"Who was the hero?" I asked. Zoe shook her head. "Do not make me say his name. I swore never to speak it again." "You act like I should know him." "I am sure you do, hero. Don't all you boys want to be just like him?"
"No." Percy stated firmly. Zeus looked affronted at this.
"You should aspire to be like my son. He was the finest hero."
"No he wasn't. Heracles was a jerk." Thalia scowled.
"Definitely." Percy agreed.
"How dare you!" The God thundered. Silena decided to keep reading quickly. Hera silenced Zeus with a glare.
Her voice was so bitter, I decided not to ask what she meant. I looked down at Riptide, and for the first time, I wondered if it was cursed.
Poseidon thought about the great prophecy and felt a shudder run down his spine. But then he thought some more about it and realised that it made no sense for Riptide to reap Percy's soul. It must mean something else. It had to.
"Your mother was a water goddess?" I asked. "Yes, Pleione. She had five daughters. My sisters and I. The Hesperides." "Those were the girls who lived in a garden at the edge of the West. With the golden apple tree and a dragon guarding it." "Yes," Zoe said wistfully. "Ladon." "But weren't there only four sisters?"
"She just said there were five." Annabeth shook her head.
"She might have just made a mistake." Percy shrugged.
"There are now. I was exiled. Forgotten. Blotted out as if I never existed."
"That's cruel for one mistake." Thalia sighed.
"Given who her father is, what else did you expect?" Chris asked.
"Why?" Zoe pointed to my pen. "Because I betrayed my family and helped a hero. You won't find that in the legend either. He never spoke of me. After his direct assault on Ladon failed, I gave him the idea of how to steal the apples, how to trick my father, but he took all the credit."
"Why would he take all the credit?" Will asked. "Why did it matter to him?"
"Getting the apples were one of Heracles' great tasks. He wasn't supposed to have help with them. He might have thought that if he acknowledged her part then his cousin would have declared the task failed." Jason said, trying to defend his half-brother.
"She lost her family and her home for helping him. The least he could have done was help her in return." Percy scowled. "Not just ignored her and pretended she didn't do pretty much all the work for him."
"But—" Gurgle, gurgle, the naiad spoke in my mind. The canoe was slowing down. I looked ahead, and I saw why. This was as far as they could take us. The river was blocked. A dam the size of a football stadium stood in our path. "Hoover Dam," Thalia said. "It's huge."
"I can't believe I missed going to see Hoover Dam." Annabeth groaned. "I love Hoover Dam."
"Maybe the four of us can take a trip there when this is all over." Percy suggested.
"That sounds good." Grover nodded.
"I'm in." Thalia agreed.
"Thanks guys." Annabeth smiled gratefully at her friends.
We stood at the river's edge, looking up at a curve of concrete that loomed between the cliffs. People were walking along the top of the dam. They were so tiny they looked like fleas. The naiads had left with a lot of grumbling—not in words I could understand, but it was obvious they hated this dam blocking up their nice river. Our canoes floated back downstream, swirling in the wake from the dam's discharge vents. "Seven hundred feet tall," I said. "Built in the 1930s." "Five million cubic acres of water," Thalia said. Graver sighed. "Largest construction project in the United States."
"You guys do listen!" Annabeth exclaimed happily.
"It's hard not to pick up some stuff." Thalia told her.
Zoe stared at us. "How do you know all that?" "Annabeth," I said. "She liked architecture." "She was nuts about monuments," Thalia said. "Spouted facts all the time." Grover sniffled. "So annoying."
"Hey!"
"I meant it in a good way?" Grover tried.
"How exactly do you call someone annoying in a good way?" Annabeth asked.
"You do it all the time with Percy." Thalia smirked.
"I wish she were here," I said. The others nodded. Zoe was still looking at us strangely, but I didn't care. It seemed like cruel fate that we'd come to Hoover Dam, one of Annabeth's personal favorites, and she wasn't here to see it. "We should go up there," I said. "For her sake. Just to say we've been."
"You guys are the best." Annabeth grinned.
"We know." Grover told her. She rolled her eyes.
"You don't have time to be sightseeing." Apollo said with a frown.
"We needed to get to the Dam to get to the road." Percy told him.
"To get to the dam road." Thalia snickered.
"You are mad," Zoe decided.
"Yep." Beckendorf laughed.
"I can't believe she's only just noticed." Leo snickered.
"Like you can talk. You're crazier than they are." Piper told him.
"But that's where the road is." She pointed to a huge parking garage next to the top of the dam. "And so, sightseeing it is." We had to walk for almost an hour before we found a path that led up to the road. It came up on the east side of the river. Then we straggled back toward the dam. It was cold and windy on top. On one side, a big lake spread out, ringed by barren desert mountains. On the other side, the dam dropped away like the world's most dangerous skateboard ramp, down to the river seven hundred feet below, and water that churned from the dam's vents. Thalia walked in the middle of the road, far away from the edges. Grover kept sniffing the wind and looking nervous. He didn't say anything, but I knew he smelled monsters.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Reyna asked.
"Because it was hard to tell how far away they were. Given the area they could have been miles away." Grover said.
"Given how fast they can travel, it wouldn't take them long to make up a few miles." Clarisse pointed out.
"How close are they?" I asked him. He shook his head. "Maybe not close. The wind on the dam, the desert all around us… the scent can probably carry for miles. But it's coming from several directions. I don't like that."
"Yeah, that's not good. You're going to need some pretty speedy transport to outrun them." Hermes frowned.
I didn't either. It was already Wednesday, only two days until winter solstice, and we still had a long way to go. We didn't need any more monsters, "There's a snack bar in the visitor center," Thalia said. "You've been here before?" I asked. "Once. To see the guardians." She pointed to the far end of the dam. Carved into the side of the cliff was a little plaza with two big bronze statues. They looked kind of like Oscar statues with wings. "They were dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built," Thalia said. "A gift from Athena."
Zeus smiled at his daughter.
Tourists were clustered all around them. They seemed to be looking at the statues' feet. "What are they doing?" I asked. "Rubbing the toes," Thalia said. "They think it's good luck."
"They think rubbing toes is good luck?" Connor asked.
"Yeah. Mortals are weird." Thalia shrugged.
"Hey!" Rachel protested.
"You're definitely weird." Percy told her with a smirk.
"Why?" She shook her head. "Mortals get crazy ideas. They don't know the statues are sacred to Zeus, but they know there's something special about them." "When you were here last, did they talk to you or anything?" Thalia's expression darkened. I could tell that she'd come here before hoping for exactly that—some kind of sign from her dad.
Zeus sighed. He wished he could give his daughter what she wanted from him but it was simply impossible. He was supposed to be the King, the leader. He needed to set the example, not that anybody seemed to follow the rules anymore. Unless...unless they, or he, did change the rules. The King of the Gods was definitely an 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' kinda guy. In fact he was pretty much a 'if it is broke don't fix it until it could destroy the world' kinda guy too. But that note in the beginning said this was partly organized by the Fates. So maybe it would be ok to at least think about it.
Some connection. "No. They don't do anything. They're just big metal statues." I thought about the last big metal statue we'd run into. That hadn't gone so well. But I decided not to bring it up.
"Good choice." Thalia told him.
"Besides, the last statue wasn't sacred to a God." Beckendorf pointed out.
"Was it not sacred to your dad?" Dakota asked.
"No. It was broken and in his junkyard. Not sacred."
"Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoe said. "We should eat while we can." Grover cracked a smile. "The dam snack bar?"
"So Zoe started this joke you guys have?" Travis asked. They had always wondered why Percy, Thalia and Grover seemed to have an inside joke.
"Yeah but not deliberately. She didn't even get the joke." Grover laughed.
Zoe blinked. "Yes. What is funny?" "Nothing," Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. "I could use some dam French fries."
A few people snickered at this.
Even Thalia smiled at that. "And I need to use the dam restroom." Maybe it was the fact that we were so tired and strung out emotionally, but I started cracking up, and Thalia and Grover joined in, while Zoe just looked at us. "I do not understand."
"Poor Zoe. She has no idea what she has done." Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"Hey, we needed a laugh right then." Percy told her. She nodded.
"I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said. "And…" Thalia tried to catch her breath. "I want to buy a dam T-shirt." I busted up, and I probably would've kept laughing all day, but then I heard a noise: "Moooo."
"Mooo?" Chris asked in confusion. Poseidon winced. He guessed the Ophiotaurus was back. That was not good. This must be the monster that Atlas wanted to find Thalia. So she could sacrifice it.
The smile melted off my face. I wondered if the noise was just in my head, but Grover had stopped laughing too. He was looking around, confused. "Did I just hear a cow?" "A dam cow?" Thalia laughed. "No," Grover said. "I'm serious." Zoe listened. "I hear nothing." Thalia was looking at me. "Percy, are you okay?" "Yeah," I said. "You guys go ahead. I'll be right in."
"No. Don't separate." Apollo groaned.
"Apollo is correct. That is a bad idea." Hermes nodded.
"Actually it might be better for Thalia to go inside." Artemis said. Everyone except Poseidon looked at her in surprise.
"Why?" Zeus asked, a little angrily.
"Because she should not see that monster."
"What monster?" Ares asked.
"You'll see in a moment, I suspect." Poseidon told them.
"What's wrong?" Grover asked. "Nothing," I said. "I… I just need a minute. To think." They hesitated, but I guess I must've looked upset, because they finally went into the visitor center without me. As soon as they were gone, I jogged to the north edge of the dam and looked over. "Moo." She was about thirty feet below in the lake, but I could see her clearly: my friend from Long Island Sound, Bessie the cow serpent.
Poseidon shook his head. He could not believe his son had named such a powerful and ancient monster 'Bessie'. And yet, it was such a Percy thing to do. Triton looked simply bemused.
"Why would the creature he rescued have followed him across the country?" Athena wondered, looking thoughtful.
I looked around. There were groups of kids running along the dam. A lot of senior citizens. Some families. But nobody seemed to be paying Bessie any attention yet. "What are you doing here?" I asked her. "Moo!" Her voice was urgent, like she was trying to warn me of something. "How did you get here?" I asked. We were thousands of miles from Long Island, hundreds of miles inland. There was no way she could've swum all the way here. And yet, here she was. Bessie swam in a circle and butted her head against the side of the dam. "Moo!" She wanted me to come with her. She was telling me to hurry.
Poseidon frowned. He wondered why the Ophiotaurus had taken such a liking to Percy, even if he had saved it.
"You should leave." Hermes warned.
"I can't," I told her. "My friends are inside." She looked at me with her sad brown eyes. Then she gave one more urgent "Mooo!" did a flip, and disappeared into the water. I hesitated. Something was wrong. She was trying to tell me that. I considered jumping over the side and following her, but then I tensed. The hairs on my arms bristled. I looked down the dam road to the east and I saw two men walking slowly toward me. They wore gray camouflage outfits that flickered over skeletal bodies.
"That's not good." Reyna said. "Bianca…" She stopped herself with a quick glance at Nico.
"Yeah. You definitely need to find the others and get out." Annabeth nodded.
They passed through a group of kids and pushed them aside. A kid yelled, "Hey!" One of the warriors turned, his face changing momentarily into a skull. "Ah!" the kid yelled, and his whole group backed away. I ran for the visitor center. I was almost to the stairs when I heard tires squeal. On the west side of the dam, a black van swerved to a stop in the middle of the road, nearly plowing into some old people. The van doors opened and more skeleton warriors piled out. I was surrounded.
"Fantastic!" Poseidon groaned in annoyance.
"They are travelling by van?" Athena frowned. "That makes no sense. A van could not have caught up with a train as quickly as they did before. Especially with a God increasing the speed of the train. Nor should the van have caught you up after riding the boar."
"Well, after the boar they did stop and have to make their way through the junkyard. But they shouldn't have caught up to the train that quickly." Apollo agreed. "Not in a van."
"Maybe Atlas sped them up too?" Percy suggested.
"They would still have to deal with general traffic and such." Annabeth pointed out. Everybody shrugged. They didn't know.
I bolted down the stairs and through the museum entrance. The security guard at the metal detector yelled, "Hey, kid!" But I didn't stop.
"Why would you set off a metal detector?" Triton wondered. "Your sword should be hidden by the mist."
"When does the mist ever work in my favour?" Percy asked. Triton shrugged.
"Fair point."
I ran through the exhibits and ducked behind a tour group. I looked for my friends, but I couldn't see them anywhere. Where was the dam snack bar?
The Stolls snickered.
"Stop!" The metal-detector guy yelled. There was no place to go but into an elevator with the tour group. I ducked inside just as the door closed. "We'll be going down seven hundred feet," our tour guide said cheerfully. She was a park ranger, with long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and tinted glasses. I guess she hadn't noticed that I was being chased. "Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen, the elevator hardly ever breaks."
"Comforting. I feel like she didn't need to add that last part." Piper muttered.
"Does this go to the snack bar?" I asked her. A few people behind me chuckled. The tour guide looked at me. Something about her gaze made my skin tingle.
"Not another one of you interfering?" Zeus groaned. Why bother with rules at all?
"They are going to need some divine intervention or they will be killed by the skeleton warriors." Apollo pointed out. "Your daughter included." Zeus grumbled at this but made no further comment.
"To the turbines, young man," the lady said. "Weren't you listening to my fascinating presentation upstairs?" "Oh, uh, sure. Is there another way out of the dam?" "It's a dead end," a tourist behind me said. "For heaven's sake. The only way out is the other elevator."
"That's not good." Hephaestus grunted.
The doors opened. "Go right ahead, folks," the tour guide told us. "Another ranger is waiting for you at the end of the corridor." I didn't have much choice but to go out with the group. "And young man," the tour guide called. I looked back. She'd taken off her glasses. Her eyes were startlingly gray, like storm clouds. "There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it."
"Athena!" This time it was Hera who exclaimed unhappily.
"They are looking for my daughter." Athena said simply. Annabeth smiled at her mom who nodded in return.
The doors closed with the tour guide still inside, leaving me alone. Before I could think too much about the woman in the elevator, a ding came from around the corner. The second elevator was opening, and I heard an unmistakable sound—the clattering of skeleton teeth. I ran after the tour group, through a tunnel carved out of solid rock. It seemed to run forever. The walls were moist, and the air hummed with electricity and the roar of water. I came out on a U-shaped balcony that overlooked this huge warehouse area. Fifty feet below, enormous turbines were running. It was a big room, but I didn't see any other exit, unless I wanted to jump into the turbines and get churned up to make electricity. I didn't.
Poseidon, Apollo and Triton nodded appreciatively at this.
Another tour guide was talking over the microphone, telling the tourists about water supplies in Nevada. I prayed that Thalia, Zoe, and Grover were okay. They might already be captured, or eating at the snack bar, completely unaware that we were being surrounded. And stupid me: I had trapped myself in a hole hundreds of feet below the surface. I worked my way around the crowd, trying not to be too obvious about it. There was a hallway at the other side of the balcony—maybe some place I could hide. I kept my hand on Riptide, ready to strike. By the time I got to the opposite side of the balcony, my nerves were shot. I backed into the little hallway and watched the tunnel I'd come from. Then right behind me I heard a sharp Chhh! like the voice of a skeleton.
Rachel smirked.
Without thinking, I uncapped Riptide and spun, slashing with my sword. The girl I'd just tried to slice in half yelped and dropped her Kleenex. "Oh my god.'" she shouted. "Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?"
"Why yes...yes I do." Percy told her with a laugh. Rachel grinned.
"I can't believe you thought me blowing my nose was the same as a skeleton's voice." She said.
"Yeah. How do those sound alike?" Grover asked with a laugh.
"I was on edge alright?" Percy told him. "Besides, it's not like it hurt."
"Physically. Do you know how freaked out I was that some random guy had just tried to kill me?" Rachel put on a serious face but could only hold it for a few seconds.
The first thing that went through my head was that the sword hadn't hurt her. It had passed clean through her body, harmlessly. "You're mortal!" She looked at me in disbelief. "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I'm mortal! How did you get that sword past security?"
"He just ran past and didn't stop." Will chuckled.
"So the guard was just more worried about a random kid running in without going through security. The mist did protect the sword." Annabeth stated, thinking about it. Everybody nodded.
"I didn't—Wait, you can see it's a sword?" The girl rolled her eyes, which were green like mine. She had frizzy reddish-brown hair. Her nose was also red, like she had a cold. She wore a big maroon Harvard sweatshirt and jeans that were covered with marker stains and little holes, like she spent her free time poking them with a fork.
"How did you guess?" Rachel asked dramatically.
"You poke your clothes with a fork?" Dakota asked in confusion.
"No." Rachel rolled her eyes.
"So why do they have so many holes?" Gwen wondered. Rachel just shook her head.
"Well, it's either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world," she said.
Everybody laughed at this.
"And why didn't it hurt me? I mean, not that I'm complaining. Who are you? And whoa, what is that you're wearing? Is that made of lion fur?"
"That's a lot of questions and not a lot of time for him to answer them." Will told Rachel while trying not to laugh.
"Well, when a random guy comes up, wearing a lion fur coat and tries to kill me with a sword, I think I'm entitled to a few questions." Rachel shot back.
"Of course you can ask them. It might be helpful to give him time to actually answer though." Chris smirked.
She asked so many questions so fast, it was like she was throwing rocks at me. I couldn't think of what to say. I looked at my sleeves to see if the Nemean Lion pelt had somehow changed back to fur, but it still looked like a brown winter coat to me. I knew the skeleton warriors were still chasing me. I had no time to waste. But I just stared at the redheaded girl. Then I remembered what Thalia had done at Westover Hall to fool the teachers. Maybe I could manipulate the Mist.
"Not going to work." Rachel said in a sing-song voice.
"It is nearly impossible to manipulate the Mist with no training." Hestia told Percy kindly.
"Plus Rachel can see through the Mist so it wouldn't work anyway." Annabeth added.
I concentrated hard and snapped my fingers. "You don't see a sword," I told the girl. "It's just a ballpoint pen." She blinked. "Um… no. It's a sword, weirdo."
Everybody laughed again.
"Who are you?" I demanded. She huffed indignantly. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now, are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?" "No!" I said. "I mean, I'm kind of in a hurry. I'm in trouble." "In a hurry or in trouble?"
"Both. Always both." Percy sighed.
"One does usually follow the other." Thalia told him.
"Um, sort of both." She looked over my shoulder and her eyes widened. "Bathroom!" "What?" "Bathroom! Behind me! Now!" I don't know why, but I listened to her.
"Oh sure. You listen to the random mortal." Annabeth frowned. Rachel scowled at the daughter of Athena. Aphrodite watched the proceedings with glee. Not even a love triangle. There was a fourth element. This was getting better by the second.
"I listen to you too. Eventually." Percy grinned.
"Yeah, eventually. You listened to her without even hesitating."
"Maybe I just wanted to avoid more of her questions."
"You never did answer them properly. You just ran off." Rachel reminded him.
I slipped inside the boys' bathroom and left Rachel Elizabeth Dare standing outside. Later, that seemed cowardly to me. I'm also pretty sure it saved my life.
"It wasn't cowardly. They wouldn't care about mortals." Apollo told him. "They should just leave her alone."
I heard the clattering, hissing sounds of skeletons as they came closer. My grip tightened on Riptide. What was I thinking? I'd left a mortal girl out there to die. I was preparing to burst out and fight when Rachel Elizabeth Dare started talking in that rapid-fire machine gun way of hers.
"I do not…" Rachel started to protest.
"Yeah. It sounds like you kinda do." Clarisse told the girl.
"Oh my god! Did you see that kid? It's about time you got here. He tried to kill me! He had a sword, for god's sake. You security guys let a sword-swinging lunatic inside a national landmark? I mean, jeez! He ran that way toward those turbine thingies. I think he went over the side or something. Maybe he fell." The skeletons clattered excitedly. I heard them moving off. Rachel opened the door. "All clear. But you'd better hurry."
"Thank you." Poseidon said to the mortal girl.
"Anytime." She smiled in return.
She looked shaken. Her face was gray and sweaty. I peeked around the corner. Three skeleton warriors were running toward the other end of the balcony. The way to the elevator was clear for a few seconds. "I owe you one, Rachel Elizabeth Dare." "What are those things?" she asked. "They looked like—" "Skeletons?" She nodded uneasily. "Do yourself a favor," I said. "Forget it. Forget you ever saw me."
"I feel like that would be rather difficult." Nico said with a strained smile. Will squeezed his hand, glad that he was finally up to talking again.
"Yeah. That would be hard to forget." Katie agreed.
"Forget you tried to kill me?" "Yeah. That, too."
More laughter.
"Never going to happen." Rachel snickered.
"I noticed." Percy groaned.
"But who are you?" "Percy—" I started to say. Then the skeletons turned around. "Gotta go!" "What kind of name is Percy Gotta-go?" I bolted for the exit. The cafe was packed with kids enjoying the best part of the tour—the dam lunch. Thalia, Zoe, and Grover were just sitting down with their food. "We need to leave," I gasped. "Now!" But we just got our burritos!"
"I think skeleton warriors are more important than food." Reyna said.
"Yeah. But they looked like really good burritos." Thalia sighed mournfully.
"Oh this was awesome." Percy grinned.
"Yeah. Shame we couldn't stay." Grover said.
Thalia said. Zoe stood up, muttering an Ancient Greek curse. "He's right! Look." The cafe windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the skeletal army that had come to kill us.
"Lovely. Just the kind of view I always wanted." Silena said sarcastically.
"It's probably Nico's dream view." Percy grinned at the younger boy. "I can just imagine his bedroom being covered in Mythomagic posters and undead monsters." Nico went red.
I counted two on the east side of the dam road, blocking the way to Arizona. Three more on the west side, guarding Nevada. All of them were armed with batons and pistols. But our immediate problem was a lot closer. The three skeletal warriors who'd been chasing me in the turbine room now appeared on the stairs. They saw me from across the cafeteria and clattered their teeth. "Elevator!" Grover said. We bolted that direction, but the doors opened with a pleasant ding, and three more warriors stepped out. Every warrior was accounted for, minus the one Bianca had blasted to flames in New Mexico. We were completely surrounded.
"How the Hades do you get out of this mess?" Beckendorf wondered.
"Grover." Percy grinned. "And we had a little extra help." Zeus glared around wondering which God would interfere next.
Then Grover had a brilliant, totally Grover-like idea. "Burrito fight!" he yelled, and flung his Guacamole Grande at the nearest skeleton.
"You escaped by causing a food fight?" Leo laughed. "Brilliant."
"I'm sensing a theme in this quest. First Percy beats the Nemean Lion with space food. Now you guys escape due to a food fight." Piper smiled.
Now, if you have never been hit by a flying burrito, count yourself lucky. In terms of deadly projectiles, it's right up there with grenades and cannonballs.
"What?" Reyna frowned.
"They pack one heck of a punch." Grover nodded seriously.
Grover's lunch hit the skeleton and knocked his skull clean off his shoulders.
"Ok, yeah. That's pretty awesome." Jason grinned.
"It was great. I got there a bit later and there was still a huge food fight going on." Rachel told everyone. "It took the workers ages to stop it."
I'm not sure what the other kids in the cafe saw, but they went crazy and started throwing their burritos and baskets of chips and sodas at each other, shrieking and screaming. The skeletons tried to aim their guns, but it was hopeless. Bodies and food and drinks were flying everywhere.
"That is so wicked." Leo said.
"But I'd leave quickly." Beckendorf added.
"Definitely." Will agreed.
In the chaos, Thalia and I tackled the other two skeletons on the stairs and sent them flying into the condiment table. Then we all raced downstairs, Guacamole Grandes whizzing past our heads. "What now?" Grover asked as we burst outside. I didn't have an answer. The warriors on the road were closing in from either direction. We ran across the street to the pavilion with the winged bronze statues, but that just put our backs to the mountain. The skeletons moved forward, forming a crescent around us. Their brethren from the cafe were running up to join them. One was still putting its skull back on its shoulders. Another was covered in ketchup and mustard. Two more had burritos lodged in their rib cages.
More laughter.
"That must have looked...interesting." Nico said.
"It looked hilarious. It was just hard to appreciate given that they were about to kill us. Looking back it was great." Percy said.
They didn't look happy about it. They drew batons and advanced. "Four against eleven," Zoe muttered. "And they cannot die." "It's been nice adventuring with you guys," Grover said, his voice trembling. Something shiny caught the corner of my eye. I glanced behind me at the statue's feet. "Whoa," I said. "Their toes really are bright." "Percy!" Thalia said. "This isn't the time."
"It's exactly the time." Athena stated, looking towards her father. She hid a smirk, anticipating his reaction to finding out he had interfered on a quest himself.
But I couldn't help staring at the two giant bronze guys with tall bladed wings like letter openers. They were weathered brown except for their toes, which shone like new pennies from all the times people had rubbed them for good luck. Good luck. The blessing of Zeus. I thought about the tour guide in the elevator. Her gray eyes and her smile. What had she said? There is always a way for those clever enough to find it.
"Good catch." Annabeth smiled.
"Percy is very smart." Tyson beamed.
"Thalia," I said. "Pray to your dad." She glared at me. "He never answers." "Just this once," I pleaded. "Ask for help. I think… I think the statues can give us some luck." Six skeletons raised their guns. The other five came forward with batons. Fifty feet away. Forty feet. "Do it!" I yelled. "No!" Thalia said. "He won't answer me."
"It's not like you have any other options." Jason reminded his sister.
Zeus frowned. Would he help? Would he break his own rules and interfere on a quest to save his daughter? He had already saved her from dying once. And, in his heart, Zeus knew he would do it again. If, in the future, he was willing to interfere then maybe changing the rules wouldn't end in disaster.
"This time is different!" "Who says?" I hesitated. "Athena, I think." Thalia scowled like she was sure I'd gone crazy. "Try it," Grover pleaded. Thalia closed her eyes. Her lips moved in a silent prayer. I put in my own prayer to Annabeth's mom, hoping I was right that it had been her in that elevator—that she was trying to help us save her daughter. And nothing happened.
"WHAT?" Poseidon looked towards his brother. Artemis was also looking very unhappy.
"You're not going to save your own daughter?" She asked.
"I'm fine." Thalia pointed out. Zeus looked up at that. Yes. Thalia was alive and so clearly somebody had intervened. But why wouldn't he? Hera smirked triumphantly. At least her husband would not be foolish enough to help on a quest.
The skeletons closed in. I raised Riptide to defend myself. Thalia held up her shield. Zoe pushed Grover behind her and aimed an arrow at a skeleton's head. A shadow fell over me. I thought maybe it was the shadow of death. Then I realized it was the shadow of an enormous wing. The skeletons looked up too late. A flash of bronze, and all five of the baton-wielders were swept aside. The other skeletons opened fire. I raised my lion coat for protection, but I didn't need it. The bronze angels stepped in front of us and folded their wings like shields.
Poseidon, Apollo and Artemis all let out sighs of relief while Hera looked enraged.
"You broke your own rules! You interfered on a quest! How dare you!?" She screeched.
"She is my daughter." Zeus stated firmly.
"She is a ridiculous mortal who should never have been born!" The furious Queen of the Gods continued to rage.
"Enough!" Zeus thundered. "Thalia is my daughter. I would not have her die before her time." Hera spluttered and grumbled but she knew not to test her husband further on the subject. She would simply have to try other methods.
Bullets pinged off of them like rain off a corrugated roof. Both angels slashed outward, and the skeletons went flying across the road. "Man, it feels good to stand up!" the first angel said. His voice sounded tinny and rusty, like he hadn't had a drink since he'd been built. "Will ya look at my toes?" the other said. "Holy Zeus, what were those tourists thinking?" As stunned as I was by the angels, I was more concerned with the skeletons. A few of them were getting up again, reassembling, bony hands groping for their weapons.
"Time to go." Reyna said.
"Trouble!" I said. "Get us out of here!" Thalia yelled. Both angels looked down at her. "Zeus's kid?" Yes! "Could I get a please, Miss Zeus's Kid?" an angel asked. "Please!" The angels looked at each other and shrugged. "Could use a stretch," one decided. And the next thing I knew, one of them grabbed Thalia and me, the other grabbed Zoe and Grover, and we flew straight up, over the dam and the river, the skeleton warriors shrinking to tiny specks below us and the sound of gunfire echoing off the sides of the mountains.
Jason gave his sister a sympathetic look. That had to be hell for her. Sure, it was better than dying, but that didn't mean it wasn't terrifying all the same.
"Chapter's done." Silena announced.
"That makes it my turn." Gwen said cheerfully. She took the book from her half-sister.