East flicked his hand. "They just got sunk."
Hudson snapped his fingers. "A bunch of-" he was cut off by East, and Hudson sent him a furious glance that changed when he saw the shock I was clearly seeing on the wolf face of East.
"I… there's one boat that is resisting my attempts to sink it." He said, his muzzle open and eyes widened as his fists clenched in concentration.
I gulped. Of course, I swallowed a whole bunch of water with the gulp, yuck. Just because it wouldn't kill me didn't mean it was something I wanted to swallow either. "How come, guys? I thought you were the masters of these rivers, or can you not even do that correctly either?" I didn't want to piss off two minor gods standing in front of me anymore than I already had, but excuse me if I was feeling a little grumpy at the moment.
East swung his head towards me and bared his teeth in a snarl. "Just because you helped us boy, does not mean we still can't find those jumper cables." He then turned to Hudson and spoke hurriedly in a low, hushed tone. "The Knights approach. Let's leave the boy to have fun with the servants of the White God. I'm out of here."
What was the point of whispering in the water so the Son of Posideon wouldn't hear you? I shook my head and shouted, "Hey, who are these Knights you speak of?"
Hudson and East turned to me and gave me nearly identical evil grins. "Wouldn't you like to know, little demigod." And with that, the two stupid River Gods faded away back into the dirt and grime they had appeared from.
I kicked off for the surface and broke it just as Annabeth was closing her cell phone, with a strickend expression? "Did everything work out? The ships are sunk?" I shot myself out of the water and landed beside her, my clothes and hair completely dry by the time I touched the rocky shore.
She saw my expression and I saw hers at the same time. "What's wrong?" We asked simultaneously. I shook my head and decided to speak first. Our problem was a bit more immediate. Even as I thought those words, I could hear the distant roar of an engine as it slowly got louder.
Clearly, Annabeth heard it too, because she cast a wide-eyed look at me. I jerked a thumb over my shoulder as I turned to scan for any available cover. "That's the problem. The River Gods, annoying as they are, managed to sink all the ships. Except that one."
Annabeth hissed through her teeth as the engine continued to steadily get louder. It echoed strangely in the completely empty evening air, sounding like a roar. She slowly drew her knife and began to relax herself into the deadly posture I had come to know so well. "Can't you ever do a job right, Seaweed brain?" She said with a smile before she was back to business, her grey eyes burning fiercely. "Did they say anything about why they couldn't sink it?"
"Something about champions of the White God." I said as I pulled the pen out of my pocket slowly and it became Riptide in my hands. "So what did you need to tell me?"
"The Williamsburg Bridge," she said in a hushed tone as we watched a small ship appear in the distance. "A new army just appeared over it. Apollo cabin is having a hell of a time handling both of them. And…" she cast a sideways glance at me, watching for my reaction. "The Minotaur is leading it."
I felt my breath hitch, just a little bit. I had barely been able to handle an unprepared version of the Minotaur. I doubted he would be showing up to war in nothing but his tighty-whities again. But… I remembered the visage of what looked uncomfortably close to fear on the faces of the East god, and I shook my head. "They'll have to handle themselves a bit longer. We need to deal with this boat."
Annabeth nodded in agreement. "Probably the smartest option. Call for backup?"
Once again I shook my head. By now I could see the boat more clearly. It seemed to be a police boat, and it was speeding down the water at speeds even I would feel unsafe doing on the river. I could feel something radiating from it. It felt similar to the power I had felt when I had stood near the gods, but not quite the same either. "No, they are all busy right now. If I can't handle one little boat then I'm really off my game." I gave her my best reassuring grin, and she swatted me on the back of the head for it. That's what you get for trying these days.
I held Riptide low as the boat slowly pulled up to the shoreline. I wasn't sure what I was expecting to emerge from it, not exactly. What I can tell you I was not expecting was an absolute giant of a man, wielding a sword, to leap out of the boat like a professional gymnast and land on the shore in front of me. He was a black man, perhaps early thirties, and had the physique of someone who worked out often and knew how to use the sword he held in his hands. His arms were bulging with thick muscle cords and his hair was cut short in a military-like style. I felt a pang of sadness as I looked upon this man, though I really couldn't afford it at the moment. He just looked so much like Beckendorf, or what Beckendorf could have looked like in ten years if he had been allowed to grow up. Well, except for the Kevlar armor that covered his entire body in layers and the machine gun strapped to his back.
The next person to get out was a short wiry little man with messy brown hair and sports goggles strapped to his frame, with very pale white skin. He too wore Kevlar, but he also had on a genuine cloak of white with a Red Cross emblazoned upon it. He bounced up and down on the balls of his feet.
I decided I had hit the patience quota well enough, and I also wanted to confront them before they could get too far from the water, just in case. "Who are you and what do you want?" I had already lowered Riptide, it wouldn't even do any good against them if they were purely mortal like they seemed to be based on their weapons, though I had learned that appearances could be deceiving.
"Da. We should introduce ourselves. I am Sanya! Delightful tiny man next to me is Butters." The large black man said in a booming and cheerful voice, heavily accented with Russian. He was grinning as if it was the most normal thing in the world, and I swear to the gods they were both wearing brown war paint under their eyes.
"Waldo Butters." The little man said, stepping forward and giving a quick nod of his head. "At your service. Er, I think we are at least." He cast a look at Sanya, who simply shrugged. "Dresden, can you come out here please? We have a landing party!" His voice was reedy and high, slightly scratchy as well. But despite the nervous demeanor, I judged him just as dangerous as the big Russian. Trust me, I've had a lot of experience with this kind of stuff.
"Sorry, sorry. Was just having a consultation with Bob." A rough sounding voice came from inside the cabin of the boat and then a man slowly stood up. Well it might be more apt to call him a tree than a man. He was nearly seven feet tall, with the same messy hair that the little guy Butters had. His face was scarred with what looked like scratches on one side, and as he walked down the ramp to the shoreline, his staff thudded with each step. Ah, yeah, I should probably mention the staff. It was a six foot long piece of heavy oak, with runes carved into the wood of it. It shimmered with power, and the man's duster blew back dramatically as he stood at the end of the ramp. He carried a bag tied to his hip and it clinked against his leg with each step. "Bind one freakin' Titan and now everyone expects you to deal with all of them." The man muttered as he shook his head. When his eyes landed on me his eyebrows went up. "These the people you were talking about, Butters?"
Annabeth had apparently reached her patience quota as well. She stepped forward, knife in her sheath and arms crossed across her chest. "How did you get past the enchanting and sleeping spell? Hecate and Morpheus themselves did that. Are you demigods?"
The tall man fully stepped off the ramp and inclined his head. I noticed he was also wearing the weird war paint. "Greetings. Name's Harry Dresden. I used some of my own magic to dissipate the effects of the sleeping spell on us. I know you must be scared, but we're here to help. We come to speak to the defenders of the city."
"You're looking at them." I said shortly as I walked forward, some hope flaring in my chest. I hadn't been hoping for anymore backup, not at this point in the game. But now it seemed like three people had miraculously showed up, one of them magic to boot. "Hells bells." The man whispered, his eyes widening. He looked over his shoulder and shouted, "Gard get your ass down here now!"
"One second!" A voice practically spat from a hatch in the deck of the boat. Now that I was aware, I could hear a low murmur of voices coming from the compartment. I could feel the seconds slipping by as we waited there, knew that my people could be dying, that I could be saving them if I stopped wasting time. But gods, I did not need an enemy at my back, and I could really use an honest to gods wizard, especially one apparently strong enough to resist Morpheus. That wasn't even to mention the two mortals who managed to put fear in East and Hudson. They may have been as slimy as their river bottoms, but they were gods and didn't fear easily. The fact that those two could do it…
Finally, a woman appeared from the hatch. She was… she was one of the prettiest women I had ever seen. Her eyes were a cold color of blue, like a particularly cold patch of glacier water. She had blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and wore Kevlar like the rest of them. She had a belt around her waist, modern and tactical looking, like something Batman should be wearing, not this woman. It had several cases of ammo slipped into slots and at least two handguns that I could see. There was a duffel bag slung over one shoulder as well, hitting her back with a clanking sound as she strode forward. But that wasn't the most striking feature. The most striking feature was that she wore gleaming silver armor that seemed more finely crafted than any armor I had ever seen. It glowed with its own light, like the sun itself had been crafted into it. It was finer even than the armor that Chiron wore, which if I were to believe the Stoll brothers (never an advisable idea), were a gift from the Hundred-Handed Ones centuries ago. And in her hands she held a gleaming, double-sided battle-ax. It had a black handle, but the heads were bronze and silver color, presumably Celestial and mortal. And they were both emblazoned with glowing runes of fire, but none that I recognized.
"What took you so long?" Snapped Dresden, raising an eyebrow at the woman. She held up a large blocky phone in her hand that looked like it belonged in the 1970's. "Cell phone wasn't able to make a call outside of the city, so I had to get my satellite phone out."
Dresden held up a hand to cut off the explanation. "You can explain on the way, Siggy." He turned to me and jerked his head into the city. "Take me to your leader, whoever he is. Or she." He added as an afterthought. He began walking down the road, and I hurried to catch up to his long-legged stride. I felt like everything was spinning out of control how he strode forward into the quiet, empty city.
"Our leader is indisposed at the moment." I said as we walked down the street, heading back to rejoin the battle. I wanted to call Blackjack and have him come pick me and Annabeth up, but I wasn't going to leave these four people here alone. "So I'm in charge at the moment."
Dresden stopped walking and turned to face me, his mouth wide open. Butters and Sanya also stopped and traded a long look. "How old are you? Seventeen? Eighteen? Are all of you your age?"
"I just turned sixteen. And man, I'm one of the older ones here." I said in a tired tone. Sometimes it was easier to forget how young my fellow campers were. Everyone looks older after a couple years of seeing their friends die. Tends to make people grow up rapidly. But clearly this man hadn't gotten that memo. His face tightened in rage and a slow chill swept in from the riverfront, making goosebumps rise on my arms.
He bit out his words in a harsh manner, barely opening his clenching jaw. "Take us to your headquarters then. I need to set up. Siggy?" The woman named Gard looked up from where she was fiddling with her armor straps, giving Dresden a glare. "You better have good news for me from Marcone."
Once again the woman was cut off. This time it was by the phone in Annabeth's pocket ringing. My head snapped around to see her pull the phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. The man hurriedly took a step or two back, still waiting for his companion.
"Got it. Yeah. We're trying. I know, we have an issue here as well. Be there soon." I could only hear Annabeth's side of the conversation, but the voice on the other end of the phone had the tone of someone near or already panicking. She flicked the phone closed, stuck it back in her pocket and shook her head at me, face looking slightly paler then a second before. "Percy, that was Michael. They need help, and they need it now. They've already lost at least a dozen campers."
"Where's the issue?" Asked the man Dresden, as he leaned on his staff.
I gave him the CliffNotes version of how some of my people had been surprised by a second army on the Williamsburg Bridge. I just thought he would shrug it off, but instead the man closed his eyes for a moment before speaking in a low voice. "Grimalkin, can you hear me." There was no reply, at least none that I could hear. Evidently it was different for the man, for after a few seconds he spoke out loud once more. "I need you and your kin to go to the Williamsburg Bridge and reinforce the defenders there."
He opened his eyes and made a motion at the annoyed looking woman, and said in a tight voice. "Sorry, Sigrun. You can speak now."
"Do you want the bad news first, the worse news or the even worse news?" She asked wryly.
"Of course it is." He shook his head. "Hit me."
"First, the boss contacted his people in the Federal department and got access to a satellite, which is how I could call him."
"How is that bad news?" Dresden asked. As we walked I could see the two men with swords look at all the sleeping mortals and their faces getting tighter and angrier.
"Because they also couldn't get any imagery of the city. Seems that it's been obstructed, like a huge cloud settled just above it."
"That would be Hectate." Annabeth interjected. "Her and a bunch of other minor Gods are working with the Titans. Morpheus is the one that put everyone to sleep."
"What else?" Dresden asked as he gripped his staff a little tighter.
"Well our old friend is here, on the enemy's side. He brought a bunch of specialized mercenary companies with him, and some remnants of the Fomor army that managed to escape the purge. Guess they decided to shack up with a new Titan."
"Listens." His jaw set even harder. "Thought I killed that bastard when I buried him in several tons of earth."
"Guess not," Replied Gard. "And the last piece of news is that the Accorded Nations are still locked in closed session regarding whether they should come help us. Mr. Marcone called for a recess to update us."
"Guess it helps to be independent sometimes, huh?" Dresden said flippantly. I began to like this man, with his casual attitude. As we got near the Plaza Hotel we were using as headquarters, we could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance.
"Let's hurry." I said with renewed urgency, as new dread gripped me. Those were my people, who were dying. "I need to go join the fight."