"Normal Conversation"

'Thoughts'

'Telepathy or similar'

Chapter 5:

A journey and a meeting

The God of War was waiting for them at the diner parking lot. "Well, what do you know? You actually managed to stay alive." He sneered at them in lieu of greeting, an annoyingly smug smirk on his face.

Once again, Atalanta felt her anger rise as she got closer to him. This time, she didn't bother restraining it. "Not thanks to you! You knew it was a trap!" she snarled at him.

Ares grinned wickedly. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. If it makes you feel better, you actually looked good on TV."

Atalanta narrowed her eyes. "It doesn't, you asshole!" She threw the shield with all her might sending it spinning straight for Ares's head.

Annabeth and Grover caught their breath. This would end badly, they just knew it.

Contrary to their expectations, Ares's grin never faltered. He grabbed the shield in the air and spun it like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bullet-proof vest. He slung it across his back.

Atalanta would rather drink lava than admit it, but that was actually kinda cool. Which only served to increase her annoyance. Deciding not to give the bastard any more satisfaction, she made conscious effort to suppress her anger, managing it after a few moments.

Ares's smile faded at that. He enjoyed riling people up. He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "See that truck over there? That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which the girls could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

Atalanta's eye twitched. "That's got to be a joke."

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to the daughter of Poseidon. Inside were fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and…a bag of Double Stuff Oreos? Somehow Atalanta didn't picture Ares as the kind of guy who liked Oreos.

She lifted an eyebrow at him but, before she could speak, Grover interrupted, guessing (correctly) that Atalanta would keep antagonizing the god. There were times Grover really wished that Lady Artemis had fixed his friend's temper when she changed him.

"Thank you for your gift, Lord Ares." he said, shooting Atalanta a warning look. The girl rolled her eyes at him and shouldered the backpack. Grover and Annabeth were actually surprised at her acquiescence.

Atalanta looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served them dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt the children. She dragged the cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of them.

'Great.' she thought dryly. 'We'll make the papers again tomorrow.' She could easily imagine the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENCELESS BIKER. Unfortunately, she didn't think she would get the chance to do just that, no matter how much she would like to.

"You still owe me one more thing." she told Ares coldly. "You promised me information about my mother."

"Sure, if you think you can handle the news." He said while kick-starting his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

Atalanta's eyes widened, her legs almost failing her before she caught herself. "What do you mean 'she's not dead'? I saw the Minotaur kill her!"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's was her undergoing metamorphosis that you saw. Not her death. She's being kept."

"Kept? Why?" She knew the 'who' already. The same one that had sent the Minotaur after her. Hades.

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else." he said, using the same tone one would use when explaining something obvious to a kid.

"Nobody's controlling me." she shot back, trying to keep herself under control.

He laughed. "Of course not. See you around, kid."

Atalanta could swear she heard her patience snap. She balled up her fists and narrowed her eyes. "You're pretty smug, Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. Atalanta felt a hot wind in her hair. She ignored it, still glaring at Ares. "We'll meet again, Atalanta Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

He revved his Harley and roared off down Delancy Street.

"That was not smart, Atalanta." Annabeth admonished her friend.

"I don't care." She knew she had no reason to be angry with Annabeth, but her nerves were at their breaking point.

"You don't want a god as your enemy, Seaweed Brain. Especially not that god. How many times must I tell you not to antagonize the gods? What does it take to drive that simple lesson into that hard skull of yours?" Annabeth went on, now beginning to grow angry herself.

"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt your friendly banter, but…"

He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."

None of them liked it, but they had no better option. Besides, they all agreed, they'd seen enough of Denver.

They ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind them. The first thing that hit them was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter. In other words, it stunk.

The trailer was dark inside until Atalanta uncapped Riptide. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals Atalanta had ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing she didn't know the name for.

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. What kind of idiot gave turnips to a carnivore and meat to two herbivores anyway?

The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!

As if all that weren't enough, it seemed like nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.

She found the sight completely revolting and, judging from his curses and exclamations of outrage and indignation, Grover agreed with her.

He looked like he was about to go right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes. And if he did, Atalanta would be right by his side.

She was seriously considering it, but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and they were forced to sit down or fall down.

They huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies.

Grover was trying to talk to the animals in a series of goat bleats (which would have been excellent teasing material at any other time), but they just stared at him sadly.

Atalanta was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but Annabeth pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving.

"Besides, do you seriously want to let loose a starving lion while we don't have anywhere to run in case he decides we look like a good appetizer? Try using what's between your ears once in a while, Seaweed Brain." She admonished her.

Atalanta conceded the point. She would have liked to complain about Annabeth being too harsh, but she had to admit her idea was really that stupid.

'I should really try to think things through in the future. I won't always have Annabeth with me.'

So, instead of complaining -which would probably set Annabeth off again-, she looked around until she found a water jug to refill the animals' bowls, then used Riptide to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. She gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.

Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but they decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. They told Grover to promise the animals they'd help them more in the morning, then settled in for night.

Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened the bag of Double Stuf Oreos and nibbled on one halfheartedly; Atalanta tried to cheer herself up by concentrating on the fact that they were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to their destination. Halfway to the master-bolt, the possible restoration of her old self and, most important of all, halfway to her mother.

It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. They could make it in plenty of time.

The problem was that she had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with her. At least Artemis's punishment was result of her own rash actions and Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it. He'd put up cameras and advertised them as entertainment.

But she couldn't help the feeling that even now she was being watched. She imagined the gods sitting back on their thrones and eating popcorn while she and her friends ran around, risking their lives and making fools out of themselves. It was quite an annoying image.

"Want some?" Zeus offered some of the popcorn he had been munching to his brother as a sign of a temporary truce while the quest lasted.

"You offer me popcorn while my child is out there risking his/her life in order to retrieve your master-bolt?" asked Poseidon... while taking the popcorn.

Zeus lifted an eyebrow at his brother.

"Hey, never say no to good popcorn."

Three simultaneous facepalms echoed through Olympus.

"Hey, I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Atalanta." mumbled Annabeth all of a sudden, distracting Atalanta from her thoughts, which might or might not have involved ways to get back to the gods who where making fun of her. Ares, at the very least.

"That's okay. Don't worry about it." She replied surprised. She wasn't used to Annabeth apologizing.

"It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders."

"Because of the Arachne story. She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?" Atalanta was a little surprised with herself. It seemed like some of Chiron's lessons stuck after all.

Annabeth nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."

Atalanta waved her away. "We're a team, remember? Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."

They thought Grover was asleep, but then he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"

The girls laughed, but Annabeth's laugh didn't last long. Atalanta looked at her friend, only to find her deep in thought, her hands playing with an Oreo.

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it-as if she thought better of it- then opened it again. "In the Iris message ... did Luke really say nothing?"

It was obvious by her tone that it was bothering her for a while, which Atalanta thought, was completely fair. Her conversation with Luke was bothering her all evening as well.

"Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time." She hesitated, then, reluctantly, added. "He also said that nobody would turn into a pine tree."

Grover shot up from his corner and turned to face her. In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions, but both looked pretty sad.

Grover let out a mournful bray. "I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled and his eyes were watered. Atalanta hoped he wouldn't start crying. She had only seen him cry once before, and it wasn't pretty.

"I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along." Grover added, his voice full of self-loathing and guilt. The same tone, Atalanta realized, he had when he first told her the story of Thalia, back at the camp.

"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus. And..." She turned to Annabeth. "...the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp was you and Luke, wasn't it?"

Annabeth nodded, her expression grave. "Like you said, Atalanta, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were ... amazing monster-fighters, even without training, especially Thalia. The monsters were attracted to her like moths to a flame. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."

"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp." He added, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought ... I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker ..."

"Stop it," Annabeth admonished him. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either. In fact, I'm certain she would hit you if she heard you blaming yourself."

Atalanta hoped Annabeth's attempt at levity would help improve the satyr's mood, but his expression didn't change. If anything, it became even more gloomy. "I deserve to be hit. She sacrificed herself to save us. Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."

Atalanta snorted. "I don't know who these Cloven Elders are, but they sound like a bunch of idiots. So it's your fault that Thalia died because you wouldn't leave the other two behind? Hardly fair. Also, completely stupid."

"Atalanta's right." said Annabeth. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says."

Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."

"You are far from lame. Besides, if it weren't for you I would've died before I even reached the Camp, so I think you are a fine guardian and you'll make an even better searcher. I mean, you said it yourself. You found both Thalia and me. You are a natural." said Atalanta encouragingly.

Grover looked up, half surprised and half grateful. "Thanks Atalanta, but why would you have died before reaching the Camp without me?"

Atalanta resisted the urge to face-palm. "Think about it Grover. What do you think would have happened if you hadn't found me and my mom in Montauk and warned us about the Minotaur?"

"He would have killed both of you...oh."

"Exactly."

Atalanta, smiled, happy to see her friend get her point. Though she was surprised with how fast he fell asleep once he calmed down.

"How does he do that?" She asked Annabeth.

The other girl shrugged. "No idea. Thanks form helping calm him down."

The spent the next while in silence, each girl lost in her thoughts, trying to ignore all the bumping around they suffered. Seriously, how could Grover sleep through this?

When Atalanta wasn't worrying about her mother, wondering about her friend's ability to sleep at any place and anytime and plotting ways to get some pay-back from Ares, she was trying to decide if the lion was eying her because he expected her to give him more food or thought of her as food.

She turned her attention to the daughter of Athena. Annabeth was deep in thought, probably planning contingency plans, back-up plans for the contingency plans and back-up plans for the back-up plans. She was also absentmindedly rubbing one of the beads of her necklace. One with a picture of a pine tree on it.

"That bead, is it from your first year?" she asked, curious.

She looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing.

"Yeah," she said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress..."

"Wait, what?" Atalanta was stunned. "A centaur in a prom dress? What was that about?"

Annabeth giggled but shook her head. "I can't tell you. Chiron swore that he would make anyone who even mentioned what happened then pay dearly."

Unfortunately, she wouldn't budge no matter how much Atalanta pestered her.

Meanwhile on Olympus

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Once this quest is over we need to get Dionysus here and have him tell us that story."

"Agreed."

Back with our heroes

Seeing us Annabeth refused to tell anything more about the prom dress incident, Atalanta decided to take advantage of her friend's good mood and ask about something else she was curious.

"That college ring... is it your father's?"

Annabeth's mood immediately took a turn for the worse. "That's none of your..." She stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"You don't have to tell me." Atalanta backed away immediately, cursing herself for her stupidity. It should be obvious that this would be a sore subject!

"No... it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her... That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Despite her words, Atalanta was now on guard, waiting for the bad part. There had to be one, or Annabeth wouldn't be like that.

"Yeah, well... the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood." She said looking depressed.

"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?" Atalanta was beginning to think part of her friend hoped for a chance to make up with her father.

Annabeth wouldn't meet Atalanta's eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."

"You shouldn't give up. You should write him a letter or something." Atalanta insisted.

"Thanks for the advice, but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with." She answered coldly.

Atalanta didn't press the issue, and the next few miles were spent in silence.

The silence was broken when Atalanta thought of another topic she felt they should discuss. "So if the gods fight," She began, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"

Annabeth chuckled quietly, then put her head against the backpack Ares had given them and closed her eyes. "Athena is almost always against Poseidon. But I don't care what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."

"Why?" Atalanta asked surprised. It was obvious from the beginning that Annabeth idolized her mother.

"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"

Atalanta smiled, moved, but before she could think of an answer for that, Annabeth was asleep.

Atalanta tired to, but had trouble following her example, what with Grover snoring and the lion still staring at her as if he hoped she would be his dinner. 'You would think he would rather have the one who's actually half-goat. Why is he obsessed with me anyway? He hasn't stopped staring ever since we got on.'

But eventually she too fell asleep.

Her nightmare started out as something she'd dreamed a million times before: she was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, "Come on, Atalanta. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil." Pretty weird, even for a dream, she supposed, but what can you do?

But then the dream strayed from the usual.

She looked over at the next desk and saw a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. She was around her age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her electric blue eyes, and freckles across her nose. Somehow, Atalanta knew who she was. She was Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at her in frustration, and snapped, "Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here."

'She's right,' dream-Atalanta thought. 'I'm going back to that cavern. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.'

The straitjacket melted off her. She fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.

"Atalanta Jackson, it said. Yes, the exchange went well, I see."

She was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing her. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.

"And he suspects nothing?" it asked.

Another voice, one she almost recognized, answered at he shoulder. "Nothing, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest."

Atalanta looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.

"Deception upon deception," the thing in the pit mused aloud. "Excellent."

"Truly, my lord," said the voice next to her, "you are well-named the Crooked One. But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly..."

"You?" the monster said in scorn. "You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened."

"But, my lord.." the voice tried to plead its case.

"Peace, little servant." the monster interrupted. "Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands and she has returned from her mission. If she succeeds as well, we'll have all we need."

"While I don't trust her, my Lord, she is formidable. Do you believe she could really fail?" asked the voice.

"If the only matter was to retrieve them, she wouldn't fail unless a god guarded them and maybe not even then. But we can't afford to give them proof of my doings this early in the game. I ordered her to take them only if she could do so without attracting attention. And worry not about her loyalty. She will remain loyal as long as we pay her. I would prefer not to deal with her, true, but it's necessary. For now." said the monster, though it didn't sound as sure of itself as earlier.

Atalanta didn't know who the woman they were talking about was, but apparently even the thing in the pit had trouble controlling her.

The voice began to say something else, but the monster stopped it before it could even begin. "Wait. How surprising. She's here."

"What? You summoned her, my lord?" Said the invisible servant, sounding far more tense than her was an instant ago.

"No." The monster sounded irritated as it turned the full force of its attention to the young demigod, freezing her in place. "Blast her father's blood-too changeable, too unpredictable. The girl brought herself hither."

"Impossible!" the servant cried, sounding part surprised, part amazed and part...scared?

"For a weakling such as you, perhaps." The voice snarled, it's tone dismissive, its attention not turning from the young girl that overheard its plans.

"So ... you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige."

Whit that last half-mocking, half-threatening comment, the scene changed.

Atalanta was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Standing at the foot of the dais was her mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.

She tried to step toward her, but her legs wouldn't move. She reached for her, only to realize that her hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armor crowded around her, draping her with silk robes, wreathing her head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into her scalp.

The evil voice began to laugh. "Hail, the conquering hero!"

She woke with a start.

Grover was shaking her shoulder. "The truck's stopped." He said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."

"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.

'Easy to say for the one with the magic Make-Me-Invisible cap. You would think the goddess of wisdom and inventiveness wouldn't have to copy Harry Potter to come up with gift ideas.'

She grabbed Grover and dived behind the feed sacks. 'Let's hope they'll decide we look like turnips. And if that lion gives us away I'll make hamburgers out of it.' She glared at the lion, that was still staring at her, for good measure.

The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.

"Man!" One of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances."

'So do I.' thought Atalanta.

The man that had complained climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.

"You hot, big boy?" He asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.

The lion roared in indignation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The man said.

Next to her, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous. A feeling Atalanta shared. 'Hmm. Maybe I should feed these guys to that overgrown cat. Two birds with one stone.'

While Atalanta was contemplating some very un-hero-like thoughts (or very hero-like, depending on whose definition of the word you used), the trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at Atalanta. There was no sound, but the girl heard its voice as clear as day.

'Free me, lady. Please.'

'What the hell?! Did that zebra just talk into my head?'

While Atalanta was trying to make sense of that new development, someone knocked on the side of the trailer.

"What do you want, Eddie?" yelled the trucker inside back.

A voice outside-it must've been Eddie's-shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"

"What are you banging for?" shouted Maurice in reply as the knocking continued.

Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"

Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.

A second later, Annabeth appeared next to them. She was the one doing the banging on order to get Maurice out of the trailer.

"This transport business can't be legal." she said.

"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

'That's right.' the zebra said in Atalanta's mind again.

'...Seriously, how do you do that? Please tell me it's because my father made horses and zebras are close enough to horses to count and not because you're some god disguised as a zebra.'

'Err, the first, my lady.'

'Good. I've had enough of gods for now.'

She turned her attention back to her friends just in time to hear Grover say they must free the animals. He and Annabeth both looked at Atalanta, waiting for her lead.

'Open my cage, lady. Please. I'll be fine after that.'

Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. Atalanta grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.

The zebra burst out. It turned to her and bowed. 'Thank you, lady.'

Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.

Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking.

They rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. 'We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.' Thought Atalanta amused.

Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

"Now would be a good time to leave." Annabeth said.

"The other animals first." Grover said.

Atalanta turned to the cages and cut the locks with her sword, keeping an eye on the lion just in case. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.

"Good luck." Atalanta told the animals. The antelope burst out of its cage and went off into the streets. The lion stopped in front of Atalanta and rubbed itself on her, purring, before following the antelope.

Atalanta was surprised. 'What do you know. It seems the big guy wanted a friend and not a meal after all.'

Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos, much to Atalanta's dismay. Forget telephones, with all the photographic evidence they left in their wake, all a monster would have to do is read the newspaper.

"Will the animals be okay?" she asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all-"

"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."

"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" she asked. They could have used it several times.

"It only works on wild animals."

"So it would only affect Atalanta." Annabeth reasoned.

"Just for that comment, if I ever find out I have the power to turn into a fish, I'll throw you in the ocean and turn into a shark. A hungry one."

"Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."

They stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and they looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay them much attention.

They passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. They passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty, which was a pretty small replica, but still made Atalanta homesick.

Atalanta wasn't sure what they were looking for, but whatever it was they must have taken a wrong turn, because they found themselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers-lotus blossom, maybe. Atalanta had never smelled one, so she wasn't sure.

The doorman smiled at them. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

They'd learned the hard way to be suspicious, the last week or so. Anybody might be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But this guy was normal. One look at him, and you could see.

Besides, they were so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that they nodded and went in without really thinking about it.

Inside, they took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa."

The whole lobby was a giant game room. And in this case, 'game' meant some pretty outrageous things. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV.

Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.

"Hey!" a bellhop said. At least Atalanta guessed he was a bellhop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

Atalanta stammered, "Um, but..."

"No, no," he said, laughing, guessing what the problem was. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."

He handed each of them a green plastic credit card.

There must've been some mistake. Obviously he thought they were some millionaire's kids. But they took the cards and Atalanta asked, "How much is on here?"

His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

Some part of Atalanta knew the entire thing was suspicious, but the rest of her ignored it. It was as if her brain could no longer tell if something wasn't normal.

They took the elevator upstairs and checked out their room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and every luxury one could think of and a few he couldn't.

"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is ..."

"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."

There were clothes in the closet, and they fit Atalanta. She frowned, the feeling of wrongness coming back again, but once again her brain refused to acknowledge it.

She threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore. When they left, she could just charge a new one at the hotel store.

She took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. Then she changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than she had in a long time. In the back of her mind, the feeling from before persisted, trying desperately to get the rest of her to listen. She'd had a dream or something ... she needed to talk to her friends. But for the third time nothing came out of it.

She came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth and Grover had also showered and changed clothes.

Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel.

"All those stations," Atalanta told her, incredulous, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"

"It's interesting.""

"I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place." Without his even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again.

"So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?"

The other two looked at each other and grinned. They both held up their green plastic LotusCash cards.

"Play time," they said together.

Atalanta couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun. She came from a relatively poor family. Her idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video. A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it.

She bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter.

She saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing-where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks.

She saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. Atalanta didn't think much of it, but Annabeth loved it.

Atalanta was searching for the next game, when something attracted her attention. There was a group of people playing a tabletop game, which was slightly out of place. When she went closer she saw it was a game with cards and figurines representing Greek gods, heroes and monsters.

Her interest rising, she took an even closer look, when her gaze fell on one of the players. It was a young black-haired boy, but something felt off about him.

"Are you sure you have time to fool around here?"

Atalanta turned around to see who spoke. It was a woman standing next to her, staring intently at the same boy that had caught Atalanta's attention.

From were she was standing, the only discerning features Atalanta could see was that she was tall and had blood-red hair. That alone should have made her stand out like a sore thumb and Atalanta wasn't sure just how she missed her before.

"Excuse me, what?"

"I would think a child of the sea god on a quest would have better things to do than wast time in here. Unless of course she's a coward and came here to hide." the woman responded, not turning to look at her.

Atalanta was insulted. "I'm no coward!"

Now the woman turned to look at her and Atalanta took an involuntary step back. Her face was pleasant enough, but Atalanta paid no attention to it. The woman's eyes were so disconcerting that she couldn't pay attention to anything else.

Black. Not dark blue or anything of the like, but pure black. Pitch black. Warning bells went off in her head, chasing away the fog that had took it over ever since she set foot in the Lotus Hotel. Blood-red hair and pitch black eyes. That wasn't normal, she was sure. This woman was no human.

Before she could act on the realization, the woman spoke, "There are only four kinds of people in here. Prey, idiots, people in hiding and people that are searching for those in hiding. You're obviously not the fourth, or you wouldn't have lost yourself. A child of the sea god wouldn't make easy prey, and an idiot wouldn't be sent on a quest as important as yours. Which leaves only one possibility."

There were many things Atalanta wanted to ask, like who or what was the woman, why was she here, how did she know who Atalanta was, and more, but one thing the woman said dominated her thoughts.

"What do you mean I lost myself?"

"The Lotus Hotel hides those inside from the eyes of Time. But in return it doesn't allow those inside to see anything it doesn't want them to see, deceiving them with promises of enjoyment, pleasure and freedom from responsibilities."

Atalanta didn't understand what the woman was talking about and she rolled her eyes, disgusted, before grabbing a passerby.

"Do me a favor and tell this stupid brat what year is it." she demanded.

The man she had grabbed looked annoyed, but answered anyway. "1976"

"Get it now?" she asked as released the man.

Atalanta did. And she was floored. She finally understood why she had that bad feeling and then she realized she couldn't tell how long she'd been in there. Fear overtook her. What if she went out and found out decades had passed? Then two other thoughts took hold of that feat and enlarged it to titanic proportions. First: she had forgotten all about her quest. Second and worse: she had forgotten all about her mother.

She abandoned the strange woman without giving her another word or thought and ran to find her friends so they could get the hell out of this accursed place.

She found Annabeth still building her city. "Come on," she told her. "We've got to get out of here."

No response.

She shook her. "Annabeth?"

She looked up, annoyed. "What?"

"We need to leave."

"Leave? What are you talking about? I've just got the towers-"

"This place is a trap."

She didn't respond until Atalanta shook her again. "What?"

"Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!"

"Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes."

"Annabeth, there are people here from 1976. People who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."

"So?" she asked. "Can you imagine a better place?"

Atalanta grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the game.

"Hey!" She screamed and hit Atalanta, but nobody else even bothered looking at them. They were too busy.

Annoyed, Atalanta did the only thing she was sure would wake up her friend. She made her look directly in her eyes and said, "Spiders. Large, hairy spiders."

That jarred her. Her vision cleared. "Oh my gods," she said. "How long have we-"

"I don't know, and that's the problem. Hurry, we've got to find Grover."

They went searching, and found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter.

"Grover!" they both shouted.

He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!"

"Grover!" He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen.

The two girls looked at each other, and together they took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"

The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"

"We're leaving." Atalanta told him.

"Such a shame," he said, and he looked like he really meant it, that they'd be breaking his heart if they left. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."

He held out the cards, but Atalanta didn't want them. What she wanted was to get out of there that very second. She yanked back Grover's arm when he reached for the cards and started dragging him towards the exit, Annabeth following close behind.

They walked toward the door, and as they did, the smell of the food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. Atalanta shook her head, grabbed Annabeth's hand, and broke into a run, dragging both her friends out of the Hotel as fast as her legs could carry her.

They burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day they'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert.

Ares's backpack was slung over Atalanta's shoulder, which was odd, because she was sure she had thrown it in the trash can in room 4001, but at the moment she had other problems to worry about.

She ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. Thank the gods, it was the same year it had been when they went in. Then she noticed the date: June twentieth.

They had been in the Lotus Casino for five days. They had only one day left until the summer solstice. One day to complete their quest.

And as if that wasn't enough, she couldn't sake the feeling that she was forgetting something. Something important.

Meanwhile

The woman looked at Atalanta as she ran off to find her friends. 'Finally she gets it.' she thought with amusement. 'Still, I hope she gets better in the future, or this war will be pretty damn boring. Now then, back to business.'

She turned her attention back to the boy, one of the two children she was after. He was as well protected as his sister, if not better. Hades's minions were all around, disguised as 'patrons' and part of the staff, even hidden in the very shadows.

There were more than a few of them. It was almost enough to make her mistake Hades for a caring and protective father. Almost.

She could take them, and easily at that. But not unnoticed. As soon their watchers realized they were outclassed they would ran back to their master. And a fight with Hades was an entirely different ball of yarn.

Oh well, no skin of her back. She would get paid either way. And even better, the war would last longer.

She turned to leave, glad to be out of that place. So much weakness gathered in one place disgusted her.

As she left the hotel, another thought struck her. 'I could've sworn they told me the sea god's child was a boy.'