Chapter 19
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. That's it. I'm out of clever ways to say it.
Percy woke up feeling great. He and Sara hadn't had a night like that one in a very long time. 10 long goddamn years. But after the night they had shared, they had made up for lost time. There were 7 whole hours of sex and talking and sex and talking. They'd finally caught up using their words, as Percy had originally intended.
He knew that he was going to need to explain some things to Thalia when he got out of his tent. He had never even spoken to her about Sara. He knew that she was going to be pissed at him for that. She still thought of them as 'close'. She didn't know that there were very few people in the world that he could really be 'close' to. For their own good, really. He was a remorseless killer, after all.
A while after they woke up, they knew that they had to get up. The hunters will have eaten breakfast by that point, and they were going to start the next part of their journey to camp soon. They were going to be forced to leave pretty soon either way.
They decided to leave the tent before they were forced to. Neither of them wanted to be told to leave, especially if they had no other choice. They would rather do something that they didn't want to, voluntarily, rather than be forced to do that same thing. It was kind of a control issue. Neither wanted to give it up.
As soon as they left the tent, they felt a lot of eyes on them. The hunters were gathered at their tables, eating breakfast, but it was almost like they could sensePercy and Sara's presence. They swiveled in their seats and stared straight at them. Unsure of what to do, they stood awkwardly for a moment before walking straight over to them. They sat down on the benches, directly opposite each other. There was pure silence among the hunters. Artemis was staring at Sara interestedly. Thalia was staring at Percy accusingly. Phoebe and her posse were glaring at them both, heatedly. The younger hunters just looked confused. He kind of felt bad for them. A few moments went by before Artemis spoke up.
"So… Did you two catch up last night?"
Thalia glared a little harder. Percy and Sara looked at each other for a moment before he answered.
"Yes, we did. Thank you for asking."
Artemis nodded and there was another silence. For Percy, silence wasn't too big of a deal. He kind of lived most of his life in silence. No one talked if they didn't have to in Chaos' realm. It was a lot of silence, except for instructors barking orders, and recruits grunting in exertion or pain. He knew that the hunters were used to talking to each other all of the time, so they would probably cave pretty soon, and talk to each other like they normally do, and he would be free to start up a casual conversation with Sara. He was sure that they could do it without the hunters noticing. All they needed to do was mumble as quietly as they could and the other would hear because of their advanced hearing.
Unfortunately for them both, they didn't get the chance. Instead of casually returning to their conversation, the hunters just stared at them like they were from outer space. The irony of Sara being a literal alien, was not lost on him.
Eventually, breakfast ended. Before long, they had the entire camp dismantled and they were heading off toward camp. Thalia wasn't even remotely subtle in approaching him. She and Jason must have gotten it from one of their parents. Neither could tell a lie nor could they be coy about something. They were two of the bluntest people Percy knew, and he loved that about them. Or at least, he had. He genuinely didn't know if he did anymore. He hadn't spent enough time around Thalia since he had gotten back to gather a conclusion. He hadn't even seen Jason yet. Though, he was sure that was going to change as soon as he reached camp. It wouldn't be long after he arrived that everyone would be notified. There would be no point hiding it. Despite himself, he was kind of eager to introduce Jason and Piper, and everyone else to Sara. He knew they would love her. He knew she would love them.
Thalia walked over to him and dragged him to the side. They were still keeping pace with the group, but they were clearly separated.
"You show up again, we talk for hours about everything that's happened to us, and you don't even mention that you're seeing someone?" she whispered angrily.
He sighed, "No, I didn't."
"And why might that be?"
He shrugged helplessly, "I guess it was just personal."
She looked hurt. He knew that hadn't been the right thing to say.
"Shit, Thals, I didn't mean it like that."
"Like what? Like you can't trust me with personal stuff?"
"You know that's not what I'm trying to say, Thalia."
"Do I? Do I know anything about you anymore? 'Cause I see the way you look at her. I've only ever seen you look at one person that way, and if that's how you feel about this girl, but you didn't even mention her to me, then maybe I don't know you as well as I thought I did."
He sighed, "Thalia, It's just been a long time since I've been able to talk to anyone about me and her. Us being together, isn't strictly allowed where we were. It's just been kind of a habit to not talk about it."
"So, there's been no one you've been able to talk to in the last 20 years, except Sara?"
"Not quite. There's someone I've been able to talk to about most stuff, just not Sara."
She was quiet for a few moments.
"Fuck, Percy, where the hell have you been?"
"You know I can't talk about that right now."
A few moments went by before he spoke again.
"Look, I'm sorry I didn't mention anything. But the fact is, I really like this girl. It would mean a lot to me if you could make a bit of an effort with her."
"Fine, "she said reluctantly, "I'll try. She does seem pretty nice."
"Trust me, she's very nice. I think you two would get along pretty well."
After that, they rejoined the group. Percy slipped next to Sara, and Thalia joined them as well, participating casually in their conversation. At first, things were still slightly awkward, but as time went on, the two girls became far more relaxed around each other. Percy managed to keep the peace between them, long enough for them to learn to maintain it on their own.
After a few hours of walking, the Hunt had to stop again. Sara looked at Percy in shock. He just shrugged back at her and tried to make her understand that 'regular' people didn't have the stamina that they did. The hunters started setting up camp, and Percy showed Sara his campfire lighting trick. She stifled her giggles as the hunters once again questioned how the hell he did it.
Once everything was set up, Percy and Sara started going over the case. He spent a few hours catching her up with everything he had learned, and she seemed pretty pleased with him. He was reminded that she had been doing that kind of stuff for much longer than him, so his work must have seemed pretty trivial in comparison with what she could accomplish. Nonetheless, she was very encouraging.
Once she was caught up, they started going over new information. With Sara's help, he was able to find a few things he never would have thought to look for. Valuable things. Very important pieces of information. Information, which led to him making a connection.
He realized that a particular cell of the terrorists was communicating with each other via the chat of an MMO. A fucking MMO. It was pretty clever in its way. No one would ever think to look for them there. No one except Percy and Sara. But the things they found in their chat were extremely concerning.
There was an attack scheduled and planned out. It was going to take place the very next day, and the target was the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. From what they could gather from the game's chat, there were already explosives placed in the building. It was clearly more of a statement than anything else. They wanted to prove that they could destroy the biggest building in the world.
Obviously, they couldn't let it take place. There was nothing that was going to stop Percy from putting an end to this. He wasn't about to let hundreds of innocent people get killed. Artemis could fight him to the death over it, he wasn't going to step back and let them win.
He locked eyes with Sara and saw that she was having similar thoughts. Good. He loved it when they were on the same page. It made things decidedly less complicated. Together, they walked over to Artemis, who was teaching some younger hunters how to shoot. Percy spoke first.
"Artemis," he said, making her jump. She hadn't heard him approaching.
"Yes, Perseus?"
"We need to leave. Now."
"You what?"
"We have to go to Dubai. It's important."
"Why do you have to go to Dubai?"
"We managed to uncover some messages between one of the terrorist cells we're tracking, "Sara said, taking over from Percy, "We found out that they're planning to bomb the Burj Khalifa."
Artemis and her hunters looked confused.
"The tallest building in the world," she explained to them.
The hunters made vague sounds of realization before Artemis spoke again.
"Well, I simply can't risk that."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "Can't risk what, exactly?"
"The safety of my hunters. What happens if we're attacked by another army while you're gone? We won't be able to survive something like that. You need to stay here until we reach camp."
"I'm not going to let hundreds of innocent people die, to potentially protect two dozen. The maths simply don't add up there."
"Perseus, we aren't going to discuss this further. You aren't going, and that's final."
"Excuse me? "He asked menacingly, "You aren't my keeper. You have no say in the matter. I get that you want your hunters to be safe, but you have no right to keep me here. Besides, we've been over this already. Guardian, not slave, remember?"
"I told you, demigod, you aren't going anywhere."
"And I told you, Artemis, that I am."
"I don't care what you say, you're staying."
Percy was about to snap at her when a thought occurred to him.
"What if Sara stays with you?"
Sara, Artemis, and Thalia all raised eyebrows at him.
"Excuse me?" Artemis asked.
"Sara's a much better fighter than me, so she can do a more than adequate job keeping you safe."
"Um, Percy? "Sara said, "I think there's someone you should have spoken to before making that offer."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but it makes sense. You could easily keep them safe, and this is my mission anyway. Besides, I'm sure your presence here will be far more welcomed than mine, so it's a win-win."
Sara looked a bit miffed that he had offered it on her behalf, but she couldn't argue with the points he had made.
"Alright, fine. Are you sure you can handle it though?"
He snorted, "Sara, they're a bunch of mortals with guns. I could handle them in my sleep."
"It's not just taking care of them though, is it? Even once you get to Dubai, you've still got to find where they're hiding and get rid of all of the bombs."
"I can find all of the bombs in the building. That'll be easy enough. If you work on finding an address while I travel, let me know, but even if you don't, I'll be fine. Should be easy enough."
"How are you going to find a bunch of bombs and terrorists in another country?" Thalia asked, clearly confused.
"Long story, I'll tell you when I get back. The attack is tomorrow, so I don't really have time to wait around."
With no further objections from anyone, he turned on his heel and walked away. He went back to his tent and grabbed his portable armory. He left his tent, said one final goodbye to Sara and Thalia, and left the camp. He shadow traveled into the city, intent on finding a cab to take him to the nearest airport.
While it would have been convenient to shadow travel directly to Dubai, he couldn't. Chaos had explained that he could only shadow travel to places he had physically been before or places he could see at that moment.
He stepped out of a shadow in a back alley in Manhattan and was about to start looking for a cab but quickly reconsidered. The traffic was awful. It would take him 10 times longer than running. So, he had to run. He climbed up the fire escape of one of the buildings he was near and started running across it, jumping from one rooftop to another, heading in the general direction of JFK airport. He had to stick to rooftops for most of the way since it was the best way to keep moving, without being seen by mortals.
Progress was relatively quick. It was pretty fun too. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He felt great. It didn't take him too long to reach the end of the residential area. He wasn't too far from the airport and the traffic was quite a bit better. He flagged down a cab and rode the rest of the way to JFK.
The cab dropped him off at the entrance and he walked in. He scanned the board at the entrance and saw that there was a flight leaving for Dubai in an hour. He had been hoping for sooner, but all of the other flights had stops before they reached Dubai. If he took any of them, his flight time would be around 20 hours, rather than 12. It was worth it, ultimately.
He bought a one-way ticket and sat down in an airport lounge. He pulled out his phone and brought up every map of Dubai, and the area around it, that he could find. He spent most of his time before the flight searching for anywhere that the terrorists could use to hide out. He found extremely little. Their attack may have been in Dubai, but they likely weren't. They probably lived in a town or city or village nearby. Statistically, it was most likely a village.
A boarded the plane and tried to settle himself in for the long flight. 12 hours on a plane was difficult. Thankfully, he bought a first-class ticket, so he wasn't going to be crammed in with other people. He needed to be alone. He needed to think.
First-class was quite a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, he couldn't enjoy it at all. He arrived in a little cabin, where there was a bed with pillows, a little station for him to put his drinks - which he would no doubt be offered soon - and a screen in front of him for movies and stuff. He sat on the bed, reclined himself, closed his eyes, and pretended to be asleep. He needed to think, and he couldn't do that if he was constantly getting interrupted. He knew that the flight attendants would be checking in on him regularly, as was protocol for first-class passengers, but that was the last thing he needed. They wouldn't bother him if they thought he was asleep though.
He spent the next 12 hours lost in thought. He had found several maps of the area surrounding Dubai, and his memory had carefully stored them away. Closing his eyes and thinking about the maps was just like having them in front of him. There were times when he really loved his memory and his mind in general.
He managed to narrow down their location to 2 cities, and 3 villages around Dubai. It would take a little time to find them. Though if Sara came up with something to narrow the search, it would be more than welcome. He hoped that she did, but he was more than prepared to do the legwork. If he needed to search all 5 locations, he would. These people were ready to murder innocent families. Children. They didn't deserve to live. And he was completely at ease with killing them.
After 12 long hours, the plane landed, and he pretended to wake up. He thanked the stewardess for a wonderful flight, picked up his backpack/portable armory, and left the plane. He got in a cab at the airport and told the cabbie to take him straight to the Burj Khalifa. Before long, he was there. He got a basic room at the hotel for one night only. As soon as he had his key, he went up to the room and dropped off his backpack. After that, he sat down on the bed and closed his eyes. He stretched his senses as far as they would go. He found roughly 20 explosive devices throughout the building. They were well placed, ensuring that each explosion would help bring down the building. These terrorists were horrible people, but they weren't idiots, he would give them that.
He left the room and snuck his way to the nearest explosive. He found it and brought up everything he knew about bombs. There had been a quick course with Chaos. Not much more than a footnote, basically. But it had been enough. He was reasonably confident that he could diffuse it. He was about to find out. He left the bomb and snuck down to the kitchens. He managed to 'temporarily borrow ' a few things he would need to get the job done. He figured they wouldn't mind if they knew what he was going to use them for. He made his way to the bomb that was placed at the highest point in the building. Hopefully, if he failed and the bomb went off anyway, it would cause the least damage, and make everyone evacuate. Hopefully.
But he didn't fail, much to his relief. The bomb was diffused in a few minutes. He breathed a sigh of relief and went to the next bomb. Sometime later, they were all diffused. That was good. It meant that their attack had been stopped and there would be no deaths, but it also meant that they were going to find out that someone was on to them. He would have preferred to take care of it without them knowing that beforehand, but that was the hand he had been dealt. He went back to his room, sat down on the bed again, and closed his eyes again. He pulled up the map of the Dubai area. The map that he had been staring at in his head for 12 hours. Out of his 5 most likely places for the terrorists to be, 3 were villages, so that made them the most likely. Out of the 3, he chose the one that he thought was the most likely. There wasn't too much to back up his choice. It was mostly a guess. But he hoped he was right. If he was, and he found them there, he would likely find them before they knew that their bombs had been disarmed, meaning he would catch them by surprise. He didn't exactly need to catch them by surprise, but it would make things so much easier if he could.
He checked out of the hotel and rented a car. He drove himself to the village where he hoped to find them. It took some time, but he had the map of the area imprinted in his mind, so he didn't get lost along the way. He reached the village and tried to find the terrorists. He stretched his senses for large amounts of gun oil, much like he did when finding the armory in Chaos' realm. Gun oil, and guns in general, had a rather distinctive scent. He wished that he spoke Arabic, but he didn't. It would probably be a good idea to learn though.
He found nothing in the first village. If they were there, then he would have sensed a large number of guns and weapons, and probably explosives too. There was nothing. Or at least, nothing more than average. He got back in the car he had rented and started driving to the village he thought was the second most likely.
They were there. He could sense them from miles away. It was palpable. There was an overwhelming scent of weapons. He could clearly tell that there was a massive amount of explosives there. Enough to level the village they were in, 10 times over. It was a fairly small village, but regardless, there were a lot of explosives. He also picked up on a lot of guns. There was a very large variety of them too. There were enormous quantities of handguns, assault rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and even a few RPGs. Whoever was backing this group of terrorists, they were well-connected and very well-financed. But that wasn't going to last very long for them. The gravy train was about to leave the station.
He didn't have long before they realized their plan had failed. They would certainly be staring at the TV, watching the news, waiting to hear about the massive explosion in the tallest building in the world. He didn't know what time the attack was scheduled for, but he doubted it would be too late in the day. They would want daylight so that people could plainly see the damage they will have caused. Or rather, the damage they thought they will have caused.
He could sense that there were roughly 100 of them, all together in a large warehouse at the edge of the village. It was easily the largest structure in the entire village. They would have needed a large building like that to house all of their weapons and personnel. Taking out 100 armed terrorists at the same time was going to be an interesting experience. He wasn't very worried. He had excellent armor in the form of Chaos' robes. He too was extremely well-armed, with his portable armory simply sitting there in the passenger seat of his rented car. Not to mention the fact that he was a lot better than they were, in virtually every regard, having literal superpowers to help him even more. It was going to be a massacre.
He drove into the center of the village and tried to find the police station. It wasn't very hard. He just followed the scent of burned coffee, pastries, handcuffs, and guns. Apparently, some things were consistent throughout every country. It took him a few minutes to get there. He walked in and assessed the situation. There were a total of 6 cops in the building, as well as 2 civilian administrators. He cast his senses throughout the small village and found that there were no more. All of the cops in the entire village were in that building. He understood why the terrorists had chosen that village. There were virtually no cops to worry about. The other village he had searched for them, had a decent amount of police.
There were a total of 8 people in the building. He used all of the shadows in the room to handcuff and gag them all. He went from one person to the other, knocking them all out. There was a tiny nerve located in the neck of every human being in the world. A tiny nerve which, if enough pressure was exerted upon it, would knock a person out for several hours. It was relatively painless and caused absolutely no permanent harm. They would wake up a few hours from then with a slight groggy feeling and a general sense of wonderment and confusion. Chaos had taught him all about that special nerve. The only unfortunate part about it, was that it was absolutely tiny. That made it beyond difficult to find during combat. The only chance to find it properly, was if the target was totally still and not resisting at all. The cops were resisting, sure, but he had them all immobilized in shadows, so it amounted to nothing.
He needed the authorities to be unconscious when he fought the terrorists. If they interrupted the fight, they could take a stray bullet and get hurt or killed. He didn't want that to happen. It was much better that they simply slept through the whole thing. He was sure they would thank him if they could.
Once the entire police force of the village was dismantled, he walked to the warehouse. He took his time somewhat. He wanted to get a feel of the place. From the impression that he got, no one really came close to the warehouse. They probably knew what was going on there, and chose to stay away. That was good. Plus, if they heard massive amounts of gunshots fired from the warehouse, they were even less likely to approach it. That was even better.
As he got near the warehouse, he considered opening up his portable armory and retrieving some heavier firepower. He reconsidered. He would certainly be helped by an assault rifle or a shotgun, but he didn't feel like he especially needed one. The handgun that he kept with him at all times had a clip of 19 rounds. He also had 4 spare magazines, which he also kept on him at all times. That alone was 95 rounds of ammo. Considering the fact that he also had a knife, superpowers, and the element of surprise, he was going to be just fine without any heavy firepower.
He used the shadows to form a grappling hook, which he launched onto the roof of the warehouse and pulled himself up. From there, he found a way inside. There was a locked door that led to a staircase down to the lower levels of the warehouse. There was just one problem with it. The guard on the other side. Though, he was willing to admit, it wasn't much of a problem. He crouched by the door and used shadows to form lockpicks. Lockpicking was much easier than most people thought. As long as you had the right tools, you could learn the skill in a few hours with reasonable efficiency. He was pretty good at it.
The shadow lockpicks lifted all of the specific pins and the door opened instantly. It took a total of 4 seconds. He shoved the door open and darted at the guard with impossible speed. He left his knife where it was. He reached out and grabbed the guard's hair and pulled his head down while he launched his knee upwards. To his utter amazement, his knee went all of the way through the guy's head. There was a squelching sound, and the guy's head exploded like a watermelon in a hydraulic press. Percy legitimately hadn't been expecting that. He had kneed people in the head countless times during training in Chaos' realm. It usually knocked out his opponent, but it had never done that!. He knew that Chaos' first blessing enhanced durability, but he had no idea it enhanced it to such a degree.
He walked through the door and stealthily made his way to the main area of the warehouse. He found most of the terrorists huddled around a TV. They didn't look agitated or nervous or confused. Their attack wasn't supposed to have happened yet. They were just watching the news eagerly. Still waiting.
They weren't all watching the TV though. There were a few sleeping in beds in other rooms. There were a few standing guard around the entrance. He dealt with the guards first. He crept over to them, one by one, wrapped his hand around their mouth, slipped his knife into the base of their skulls, and then set them down gently. The whole process took 3 seconds per terrorist. He took out 8 of them that way. All of the guards were now dead. He moved on. His next targets were the sleeping ones. Hardly fair, he was willing to admit, but they had tried to kill hundreds of innocent people, including children. They didn't deserve fair play. One by one, he plunged his knife into their chest, cleanly severing their aorta. They were dead before they could make any sound. 16 more dead.
Out of the original 100, he had already killed 25. 75 left. Child's play. The main group of terrorists were all together in the main room of the warehouse. It was a big open space, where they had dragged a few dozen couches and a massive TV. It looked kind of like a cinema, the way they had arranged it. He considered his opening move. He could just start shooting. But he wanted to send a message. Strike first, strike hard. Time to make these motherfuckers regret their life decisions.
He used shadows in the room to form precisely 35 needles of darkness. He could deal with the other 40 with his gun or just hand-to-hand. He liked round numbers. It was part of his mild OCD. He liked everything to be in its proper place, and he liked even or round numbers. He launched the 35 needles into the bases of 35 terrorist skulls, cleanly severing the brainstem, causing instant death. The reaction was immense, just as he had hoped. While the deaths were instant and perfectly silent, the sound of 35 bodies hitting the ground almost simultaneously, was enough to make the 40 surviving terrorists spin around in total shock. Having seen 35 of their 'colleagues' die at the same time, had the intended effect. They were utterly stunned.
He pulled out his gun and opened fire. 4 bodies hit the ground before they moved for cover. 6 more bodies hit the ground before they reached it. Once the remaining 30 terrorists had taken cover behind various surfaces, Percy ducked behind a steel beam to take cover as they returned fire on him. The firefight didn't last very long. He systematically picked them off. Once there were 15 left, he decided to have some fun.
He tucked his gun back into its holster and sprung out from cover. By no means did he need to, he just felt like mixing it up a little bit. He didn't take out his knife either. His confrontation with the guard who had been introduced to his knee, was proof of that. The first terrorist he reached, reacted to his presence with utter shock. He hadn't been expecting to see a 6'7 mountain of muscle flying at him, but life is full of the unexpected. His shock was short-lived, however, and so was he.
Percy's fist crashed through the guy's face and came out the other end. The rest of the terrorists reacted in different ways. Some of them dropped their guns in shock. One of them shrieked like a 4-year-old. The rest tried to shoot him, but he was moving far too fast. Percy had wrenched his hand out of the guy's face and threw the body at a few of his colleagues, who were just as surprised as that guy had once been.
Once the body was thrown, he darted toward another terrorist, who he dismantled with a jab to the throat, which crushed his trachea. Once he was done with him, he moved on to the next, and then the one after that, and then the one after that. He made quick work of them. It wasn't long before they were all dead.
He was left standing in an empty warehouse with 100 dead guys, and shitloads of weapons. But there was something else there. He caught a whiff of something in particular. He made his way through a few rooms before he found what he thought he would find. Money. Stacks upon stacks of money. If he had to guess, he would say that there was at least a million dollars there.
He whistled appreciatively. That was a lot of money. He opened his portable armory and started moving the money into it. It just about fit. Once it was all there, he turned his attention to the weapons. He didn't want to just leave them. He came up with a plan instead. The bombs he had disabled in the Burj Khalifa, were the same bombs used in the other bombings around the world, which the FBI was investigating, along with Interpol and a few other agencies. It was a combined effort since the attacks spanned the world. Knowing this, he went back to the Burj Khalifa. He simply shadow traveled into the room he had checked into. He knew there was no chance anyone else was in there, since he had rented it earlier that same day.
He found one of the bombs he had disabled earlier and exposed it, leaving the deactivated device slightly more visible than it had been. Once it was out in the open, he called down to the management of the hotel and complained that there was a strange object in the halls, and asked them to remove it at once. He made sure to make the request in the snootiest voice he could muster. As soon as one of the cleaners went to remove the object, they would realize what it was and call the police. The police would sweep the building and find the rest of the bombs. They would get their agency involved, which would then be added to the joint taskforce which had been established to investigate the bombings. They would search the area for the terrorists, find the warehouse, much like he had - aided by the village's police department reporting that they were all knocked out simultaneously - and then they would find them all dead. They would also find the weapons and explosives in the building. They would match the explosives in the warehouse to the explosives at the Burj Khalifa. Everything would be taken into evidence, where it couldn't be used by anyone. That dealt with his problem quite neatly.
But he didn't want them to have any less information than possible. Him removing the money, was removing evidence. He contemplated putting it back, but decided against it. If he did, it would sit in an evidence locker for years, until some security guard decided to take some and buy a new car. No help to anyone except the guard. He took the money with him and decided that he would split it into 50 even parts, of $20,000 each, and leave it for 50 different charities. That would be a much better use of the cash.
Instead of leaving the cash for the police to find, and instead of removing a part of the equation for the agencies, he decided to leave a note. He found a pen and some paper and started scribbling.
"There was roughly $1,000,000 American, right here, in cash. You should take that into account. Sorry I can't leave you guys the exact bills, but I'll put them to better use that you would. Good luck catching the rest of these scumbags. Maybe I'll find them first, or maybe you will."
Satisfied with the note, he left it roughly where the stack of bills had been. Once he was done with that, he left the warehouse, walked back to his car, and drove it back to the rental place in Dubai where he had picked up the car. He dropped it off, gave back the keys, and started walking into town. He found a quiet spot, where no one would see him, and shadow traveled back to New York. He arrived at the hunters' camp and found that it was dinner time. The hunters and Sara were gathered around their tables, eating whatever concoction Artemis had prepared that evening.
None of them sensed him. It had become a habit of his to remain totally undetectable at all times. He wasn't entirely sure why. It had started out as an exercise and turned into a habit, he supposed. He walked over to the tables and sat down in the empty space opposite Sara. She didn't seem surprised to see him.
"I assume it went well?" was all she said.
"Yep."
A/N: Well, this was a very mission-oriented chapter. I kinda wanted to establish how Percy would fare against mortal enemies, since his training with Chaos began. There hasn't been much with him and the hunt in this chapter, but there'll be more in the next chapter, as well as him meeting his friends from Camp. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed, let me know what you thought. This chapter has been betaed by the fabulous Anon516, so any quality-of-life improvements you spot, that's who they came from. Hope you're all doing well. Stay safe.