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︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶
the next morning katherine woke to a different ship's horn—a blast so loud it literally shook her out of bed.
She wondered if Leo was pulling another joke. Then the horn boomed again. It sounded like it was coming from several hundred yards away—from another vessel.
She rushed to get dressed. By the time she got up on deck, the others had already gathered—all hastily dressed except for Coach Hedge, who had pulled the night watch.
Frank's Vancouver winter Olympics shirt was inside out. Percy wore pajama pants and a bronze breastplate. Hazel's hair was all blown to one side, as though she'd walked through a cyclone; and Leo had accidentally set himself on fire. His t-shirt was in charred tatters. his arms were smoking.
About a hundred yards to port, a massive cruise ship glided past. Tourists waved at them from fifteen or sixteen rows of balconies. Some smiled and took pictures. None of them looked surprised to see an ancient Greek trireme.
Must be the mist , Katherine thought.
The cruise ship blew its horn again, and the Argo II had a shaking fit. Coach Hedge plugged his ears. "Do they have to be so loud?"
"They're just saying hi," Frank speculated.
"WHAT?" Hedge yelled back.
The ship edged past them, heading out to sea. The tourists kept waving. If they found it strange that the Argo II was populated by half-asleep kids in armor and pajamas and a man with goat legs, they didn't let on.
"Bye!" Leo called, raising his smoking hand.
"Can I man the ballistae?" Hedge asked.
"No," Leo said through a forced smile.
Hazel rubbed her eyes and looked across the glittering green water. "Where are—oh...wow."
Katherine followed her gaze. Without the cruise ship blocking their view, she saw a mountain jutting from the sea less than half a mile to the north.
Katherine were saw a lots of such an amazing views from all places she had been for the quests but none of it was as amazing as this massive fist of blinding white rock thrust into the sky.
On one side, the limestone cliffs were almost completely sheer, dropping into the sea over a thousand feet below, as near as Katherine could figure. On the other side, the mountain sloped in tiers, covered in green forest.
"The rock of Gibraltar," Annabeth said in amaze. "At the tip of Spain. and over there—" she pointed south, to a more distant stretch of red and ochre hills. "That must be Africa. We're at the mouth of the Mediterranean."
