Camp Hermit-Blood - The Sea of Monsters

Annabeth

Annabeth had a plan ready to go for their heist. She also had a plan ready to go about ten seconds after Luke found them.

Unfortunately, she couldn't put either of them into motion, because before she knew it, they were being herded by Luke's half-bear friends onto the pool deck of the Princess Andromeda.

There seemed to be an audience of assorted monsters and half-bloods who had come to watch the drama. Wasn't that wonderful.

"Okay," Luke said. "Let's make this quick. Where is the Fleece?"

"We don't have it," Percy said.

"I know you do," Luke growled. "You wouldn't have left the Sea of Monsters without it. Where is it?"

"We don't have it," Grover said. "Where the heck would it be?"

"I think we need to be the one asking questions here," Bdubs said, looking equally angry. "Where's Grian?"

Luke smiled coldly, and sharp fear ran down Annabeth's spine.

"I'll trade you," he said.

A couple of snake ladies - dracanea - pushed a familiar son of Hermes forward.

"Grian!" Several people cried at the same time.

All Annabeth could think was that he was alive. She could work with that.

His hands were tied behind his back and he was staring at the ground, refusing to meet anyone's eyes, not even the other Hermits'. Annabeth took out her knife, and she saw the glint of Celestial Bronze in several others' hands as well.

"None of that," Luke said casually. "He's fine. I haven't hurt him. See? But I can, if you don't give it to me."

Percy was aggravated. "We..." he said. "We don't have it. We sent it ahead of us."

For a split second, Luke looked confused. "There's no way you could have..." then he cursed. "Clarisse."

Percy smirked and nodded.

"AGRIUS," Luke yelled. "Fetch me my steed. NOW!"

Grian's eyes widened, maybe with fear, maybe with hope. Maybe a little bit of both. Annabeth couldn't tell.

"You and me," Percy challenged. "One on one. If I win, you let us and Grian go."

"I'm not Ares," Luke snorted. "You can't provoke me into a fight. Even if you could, you certainly wouldn't win."

Ren squeaked angrily.

"What the heck is that? Did you find yourself a hamster?" Luke laughed.

"NO!" Bdubs yelled. "That's Ren."

Grian, despite the situation, couldn't hold back his laughter. "Ren?! How the heck did you get turned into a hamster?"

"He's a guinea pig," Grover protested. "Not a hamster."

Ren ducked back into Percy's pocket and sulked.

Luke was smiling, and it actually seemed genuine for the first time since... well, probably last year before he betrayed everyone, but Annabeth couldn't remember exactly when.

It was incredibly disturbing.

"You've been toying with us all along," Zedaph accused. "You let the others go earlier, so we would bring the Fleece right to you. And you kept Grian as a bargaining chip."

From the look on Grian's face, it was the truth.

Annabeth saw Zedaph's idea. They needed time. They needed to stall Luke and get him to start ranting about his plans. That worked in all the other books, why shouldn't it work in this one?