by Rick Riordan
Hedge yelled a question that might have been: Where’s Frank?
Percy pointed at the giant koi.
Frank waved his left dorsal fin. ’Sup?
Behind Hedge, the sea goddess began to move. Percy pointed frantically.
Hedge shook his leg like he was warming up his kicking hoof, but Percy waved his arms, No. They couldn’t keep whopping Keto on the head forever. Since she was immortal, she wouldn’t stay down, and it wouldn’t get them out of this tank. It was only a matter of time before Phorcys came back to check on them.
On three, Percy mouthed, holding up three fingers and then gesturing at the glass. All of us hit it at the same time.
Percy had never been good at charades, but Hedge nodded like he understood. Hitting things was a language the satyr knew well.
Percy hefted another giant marble. Frank, we’ll need you, too. Can you change form yet?
Maybe back to human.
Human is fine! Just hold your breath. If this works …
Keto rose to her knees. No time to waste.
Percy counted on his fingers. One, two, three!
Frank turned to human and shoved his shoulder against the glass. The coach did a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick with his hoof. Percy used all his strength to slam the marble into the wall, but he did more than that. He called on the water to obey him, and this time he refused to take no for an answer. He felt all the pent-up pressure inside the tank, and he put it to use. Water liked to be free. Given time, water could overcome any barrier, and it hated to be trapped, just like Percy. He thought about getting back to Annabeth. He thought about destroying this horrible prison for sea creatures. He thought about shoving Phorcys’s microphone down his ugly throat. Fifty thousand gallons of water responded to his anger.
The glass wall cracked. Fracture lines zigzagged from the point of impact, and suddenly the tank burst. Percy was sucked out in a torrent of water. He tumbled across the amphitheatre floor with Frank, some large marbles and a clump of plastic seaweed. Keto was just getting to her feet when the diver statue slammed into her like it wanted a hug.
Coach Hedge spat salt water. ‘Pan’s pipes, Jackson! What were you doing in there?’
‘Phorcys!’ Percy spluttered. ‘Trap! Run!’
Alarms blared as they fled the exhibits. They ran past the Nereids’ tank, then the telkhines. Percy wanted to free them, but how? They were drugged and sluggish, and they were sea creatures. They wouldn’t survive unless he found a way to transport them to the ocean.
Besides, if Phorcys caught them, Percy was pretty sure the sea god’s power would overcome his. And Keto would be after them, too, ready to feed them to her sea monsters.
I’ll be back, Percy promised, but if the creatures in the exhibits could hear him they gave no sign.
Over the sound system, Phorcys’s voice boomed: ‘Percy Jackson!’
Flash pots and sparklers exploded randomly. Doughnut-scented smoke filled the halls. Dramatic music – five or six different tracks – blared simultaneously from the speakers. Lights popped and caught fire as all the special effects in the building were triggered at once.
Percy, Coach Hedge and Frank stumbled out of the glass tunnel and found themselves back in the whale-shark room. The mortal section of the aquarium was filled with screaming crowds – families and day-camp groups running in every direction while the staff raced around frantically, trying to assure everyone it was just a faulty alarm system.
Percy knew better. He and his friends joined the mortals and ran for the exit.
XVII
Annabeth
Annabeth was trying to cheer up Hazel, regaling her with Percy’s greatest Seaweed Brain moments, when Frank stumbled down the hall and burst into her cabin.
‘Where’s Leo?’ he gasped. ‘Take off! Take off!’
Both girls shot to their feet.
‘Where’s Percy?’ Annabeth demanded. ‘And the goat?’
Frank grabbed his knees, trying to breathe. His clothes were stiff and damp, like they’d been washed in pure starch. ‘On deck. They’re fine. We’re being followed!’
Annabeth pushed past him and took the stairs three at a time, Hazel right behind her and Frank trailing, still gasping for air. Percy and Hedge lay on the deck, looking exhausted. Hedge was missing his shoes. He grinned at the sky, muttering, ‘Awesome. Awesome.’ Percy was covered with nicks and scratches, like he’d jumped through a window. He didn’t say anything, but he grasped Annabeth’s hand weakly as if to say, Be right with you, as soon as the world stops spinning.
Leo, Piper and Jason, who’d been eating in the mess hall, came rushing up the stairs.
‘What? What?’ Leo cried, holding a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. ‘Can’t a guy even take a lunch break? What’s wrong?’
‘Followed!’ Frank yelled again.
‘Followed by what?’ Jason asked.
‘I don’t know!’ Frank panted. ‘Whales? Sea monsters? Maybe Kate and Porky!’
Annabeth wanted to strangle the guy, but she wasn’t sure her hands would fit around his thick neck. ‘That makes absolutely no sense. Leo, you’d better get us out of here.’
Leo put his sandwich between his teeth, pirate style, and ran for the helm.
Soon the Argo II was rising into the sky. Annabeth manned the aft crossbow. She saw no sign of pursuit by whales or otherwise, but Percy, Frank and Hedge didn’t start to recover until the Atlanta skyline was a hazy smudge in the distance.
‘Charleston,’ Percy said, hobbling around the deck like an old man. He still sounded pretty shaken up. ‘Set course for Charleston.’
‘Charleston?’ Jason said the name as if it brought back bad memories. ‘What exactly did you find in Atlanta?’
Frank unzipped his backpack and starting bringing out souvenirs. ‘Some peach preserves. A couple of T-shirts. A snow globe. And, um, these not-really-Chinese handcuffs.’
Annabeth forced herself to stay calm. ‘How about you start from the top – of the story, not the backpack.’
They gathered on the quarterdeck so Leo could hear the conversation as he navigated. Percy and Frank took turns relating what had happened at the Georgia Aquarium, with Coach Hedge interjecting from time to time: ‘That was awesome!’ or ‘Then I kicked her in the head!’
At least the coach seemed to have forgotten about Percy and Annabeth falling asleep in the stable the night before. But, judging from Percy’s story, Annabeth had worse problems to worry about than being grounded.
When Percy explained about the captive sea creatures in the aquarium, she understood why he seemed so upset.
‘That’s terrible,’ she said. ‘We need to help them.’
‘We will,’ Percy promised. ‘In time. But I have to figure out how. I wish …’ He shook his head. ‘Never mind. First we have to deal with this bounty on our heads.’
Coach Hedge had lost interest in the conversation – probably because it was no longer about him – and wandered towards the bow of the ship, practising his roundhouse kicks and complimenting himself on his technique.
Annabeth gripped the hilt of her dagger. ‘A bounty on our heads … as if we didn’t attract enough monsters already.’
‘Do we get WANTED posters?’ Leo asked. ‘And do they have our bounties, like, broken down on a price list?’
Hazel wrinkled her nose. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Just curious how much I’m going for these days,’ Leo said. ‘I mean, I can understand not being as pricey as Percy or Jason, maybe … but am I worth, like, two Franks or three Franks?’
‘Hey!’ Frank complained.
‘Knock it off,’ Annabeth ordered. ‘At least we know our next step is to go to Charleston, to find this map.’
Piper leaned against the control panel. She’d done her braid with white feathers today, which looked good with her dark brown hair. Annabeth wondered how she found the time. Annabeth could barely remember to brush her hair.
‘A map,’ Piper said. ‘But a
map to what?’
‘The Mark of Athena.’ Percy looked cautiously at Annabeth, like he was afraid he’d overstepped. She must have been putting out a strong I don’t want to talk about it vibe.
‘Whatever that is,’ he continued. ‘We know it leads to something important in Rome, something that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks.’
‘The giants’ bane,’ Hazel added.
Percy nodded. ‘And in my dream the twin giants said something about a statue.’
‘Um …’ Frank rolled his not-exactly-Chinese handcuffs between his fingers. ‘According to Phorcys, we’d have to be insane to try to find it. But what is it?’
Everyone looked at Annabeth. Her scalp tingled, as if the thoughts in her brain were agitating to get out: a statue … Athena … Greek and Roman, her nightmares and her argument with her mom. She saw how the pieces were coming together, but she couldn’t believe it was true. The answer was too big, too important and much too scary.
She noticed Jason studying her, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking and didn’t like it any more than she did. Again she couldn’t help but wonder: Why does this guy make me so nervous? Is he really on my side? Or maybe that was her mom talking …
‘I – I’m close to an answer,’ she said. ‘I’ll know more if we find this map. Jason, the way you reacted to the name Charleston … have you been there before?’
Jason glanced uneasily at Piper, though Annabeth wasn’t sure why.
‘Yeah,’ he admitted. ‘Reyna and I did a quest there about a year ago. We were salvaging Imperial gold weapons from the CSS Hunley.’
‘The what?’ Piper asked.
‘Whoa!’ Leo said. ‘That’s the first successful military submarine. From the Civil War. I always wanted to see that.’
‘It was designed by Roman demigods,’ Jason said. ‘It held a secret stash of Imperial gold torpedoes – until we rescued them and brought them back to Camp Jupiter.’
Hazel crossed her arms. ‘So the Romans fought on the Confederate side? As a girl whose grandmother was a slave, can I just say … not cool?’
Jason put his hands in front of him, palms up. ‘I personally was not alive then. And it wasn’t all Greeks on one side and all Romans on the other. But, yes. Not cool. Sometimes demigods make bad choices.’ He looked sheepishly at Hazel. ‘Like sometimes we’re too suspicious. And we speak without thinking.’
Hazel stared at him. Slowly it seemed to dawn on her that he was apologizing.
Jason elbowed Leo.
‘Ow!’ Leo yelped. ‘I mean, yeah … bad choices. Like not trusting people’s brothers who, you know, might need saving. Hypothetically speaking.’
Hazel pursed her lips. ‘Fine. Back to Charleston. Are you saying we should check that submarine again?’
Jason shrugged. ‘Well … I can think of two places in Charleston we might search. The museum where they keep the Hunley – that’s one of them. It has a lot of relics from the Civil War. A map could be hidden in one. I know the layout. I could lead a team inside.’
‘I’ll go,’ Leo said. ‘That sounds cool.’
Jason nodded. He turned to Frank, who was trying to pull his fingers out of the Chinese handcuffs. ‘You should come, too, Frank. We might need you.’
Frank looked surprised. ‘Why? Not like I was much good at that aquarium.’
‘You did fine,’ Percy assured him. ‘It took all three of us to break that glass.’
‘Besides, you’re a child of Mars,’ Jason said. ‘The ghosts of defeated causes are bound to serve you. And the museum in Charleston has plenty of Confederate ghosts. We’ll need you to keep them in line.’
Frank gulped. Annabeth remembered Percy’s comment about Frank turning into a giant goldfish, and she resisted the urge to smile. She would never be able to look at the big guy again without seeing him as a koi.
‘Okay.’ Frank relented. ‘Sure.’ He frowned at his fingers, trying to pull them out of the trap. ‘Uh, how do you –?’
Leo chuckled. ‘Man, you’ve never seen those before? There’s a simple trick to getting out.’
Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel was trying not to laugh.
Frank grimaced with concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared. On the deck where he’d been standing, a green iguana crouched next to an empty set of Chinese handcuffs.
‘Well done, Frank Zhang,’ Leo said dryly, doing his impression of Chiron the centaur. ‘That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas.’
Everybody busted out laughing. Frank turned back to human, picked up the handcuffs and shoved them in his backpack. He managed an embarrassed smile.
‘Anyway,’ he said, clearly anxious to change the subject. ‘The museum is one place to search. But, uh, Jason, you said there were two?’
Jason’s smile faded. Whatever he was thinking about, Annabeth could tell it wasn’t pleasant.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘The other place is called the Battery – it’s a park right by the harbour. The last time I was there … with Reyna …’ He glanced at Piper, then rushed on. ‘We saw something in the park. A ghost or some sort of spirit, like a Southern belle from the Civil War, glowing and floating along. We tried to approach it, but it disappeared whenever we got close. Then Reyna had this feeling – she said she should try it alone. Like maybe it would only talk to a girl. She went up to the spirit by herself and, sure enough, it spoke to her.’
Everyone waited.
‘What did it say?’ Annabeth asked.
‘Reyna wouldn’t tell me,’ Jason admitted. ‘But it must have been important. She seemed … shaken up. Maybe she got a prophecy or some bad news. Reyna never acted the same around me after that.’
Annabeth considered that. After their experience with the eidolons, she didn’t like the idea of approaching a ghost, especially one that changed people with bad news or prophecies. On the other hand, her mom was the goddess of knowledge, and knowledge was the most powerful weapon. Annabeth couldn’t turn down a possible source of information.
‘A girls’ adventure, then,’ Annabeth said. ‘Piper and Hazel can come with me.’
Both nodded, though Hazel looked nervous. No doubt her time in the Underworld had given her enough ghost experiences for two lifetimes. Piper’s eyes flashed defiantly, like anything Reyna could do, she could do.
Annabeth realized that if six of them went on these two quests it would leave Percy alone on the ship with Coach Hedge, which was maybe not a situation a caring girlfriend should put him in. Nor was she eager to let Percy out of her sight again – not after they’d been apart for so many months. On the other hand, Percy looked so troubled by his experience with those imprisoned sea creatures she thought maybe he could use a rest. She met his eyes, asking him a silent question. He nodded as if to say, Yeah. It’ll be fine.
‘So that’s settled.’ Annabeth turned to Leo, who was studying his console, listening to Festus creak and click over the intercom. ‘Leo, how long until we reach Charleston?’
‘Good question,’ he muttered. ‘Festus just detected a large group of eagles behind us – long-range radar, still not in sight.’
Piper leaned over the console. ‘Are you sure they’re Roman?’
Leo rolled his eyes. ‘No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course they’re Roman! I suppose we could turn the ship around and fight –’
‘Which would be a very bad idea,’ Jason said, ‘and remove any doubt that we’re enemies of Rome.’
‘Or I’ve got another idea,’ Leo said. ‘If we went straight to Charleston, we could be there in a few hours. But the eagles would overtake us and things would get complicated. Instead we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles. We take the ship on a detour, go the long way to Charleston and get there tomorrow morning –’
Hazel started to protest, but Leo raised his hand. ‘I know, I know. Nico’s in trouble and we have to hurry.’
‘It’s June twenty-
seventh,’ Hazel said. ‘After today, four more days. Then he dies.’
‘I know! But this might throw the Romans off our trail. We still should have enough time to reach Rome.’
Hazel scowled. ‘When you say should have enough …’
Leo shrugged. ‘How do you feel about barely enough?’
Hazel put her face in her hands for a count of three. ‘Sounds about typical for us.’
Annabeth decided to take that as a green light. ‘Okay, Leo. What kind of decoy are we talking about?’
‘I’m so glad you asked!’ He punched a few buttons on the console, rotated the turntable and repeatedly pressed the A button on his Wii controller really, really fast. He called into the intercom, ‘Buford? Report for duty, please.’
Frank took a step back. ‘There’s somebody else on the ship? Who is Buford?’
A puff of steam shot from the stairwell and Leo’s automatic table climbed on deck.
Annabeth hadn’t seen much of Buford during the trip. He mostly stayed in the engine room. (Leo insisted that Buford had a secret crush on the engine.) He was a three-legged table with a mahogany top. His bronze base had several drawers, spinning gears and a set of steam vents. Buford was toting a bag like a mail sack tied to one of his legs. He clattered to the helm and made a sound like a train whistle.
‘This is Buford,’ Leo announced.
‘You name your furniture?’ Frank asked.
Leo snorted. ‘Man, you just wish you had furniture this cool. Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?’
Buford spewed steam. He stepped to the railing. His mahogany top split into four pie slices, which elongated into wooden blades. The blades spun and Buford took off.
‘A helicopter table,’ Percy muttered. ‘Gotta admit, that’s cool. What’s in the bag?’
‘Dirty demigod laundry,’ Leo said. ‘I hope you don’t mind, Frank.’
Frank choked. ‘What?’
‘It’ll throw the eagles off our scent.’
‘Those were my only extra jeans!’
Leo shrugged. ‘I asked Buford to get them laundered and folded while he’s out. Hopefully he will.’ He rubbed his hands and grinned. ‘Well! I call that a good day’s work. I’m gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!’
