¹Pocket Full of Posies, p. jackson

xii. Breaking and Entering

chapter twelve
❛ breaking and entering ❜

━━━━━ THE FOUR STOOD in the shadows of Valencia Boulevard, looking up at the gold letters etched in black marble: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS. Underneath, stenciled on the glass doors: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING. It was almost midnight by now, but the lobby was brightly lit and full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking guard with sunglasses and an earpiece.

        Percy turned to his three companions. "Okay. You remember the plan."

        "The plan." Grover swallowed nervously, his eyes darting around the building. "Yeah. I love the plan ..."

        Annabeth's eyebrows were knitted. She had her thinking face on. "What happens if the plan doesn't work?"

        "Don't think negatively," Percy chided her. However, the way he said it, it sounded more like a question than a command.

        Josephine looked at the building with wary eyes. "You're telling us not to think negatively as we're entering the Land of the Dead. That seems a little counter-intuitive to me ..."

        You're getting closer, Onesimus told her. The time is coming near.

        And this isn't the time for you to talk, she hissed back at him. Earlier would've been great if you gave me some answers, but don't talk now.

        I can't give you answers, he told her. Not yet, anyway.

        The son of Poseidon took the pearls out of his pocket, the four milky spheres the Nereid had given him in Santa Monica. Josephine never said it aloud, but the gift didn't seem like much of a backup in case something went wrong.

        Noticing his worried expression, she sighed and placed a hand on Percy's shoulder. "You're right, I — we," she gave Annabeth a hard look, "shouldn't be so negative. We'll make it, I'm sure of it." She looked not-so-discreetly at Annabeth and Grover, not-so-secretly hinting at them to add comments.

        The satyr's mouth formed a small O. "Uh ... oh, right!" the satyr chimed in. "We got this far. We'll find the Master Bolt and save your mom. No problem. No problem at all!"

        Annabeth tried to give Percy a smile. "Yeah, they're right. The plan's gonna work perfectly."

        Percy managed to give the three a small smile before slipping the four pearls back into his pocket. "Let's whup some Underworld ass."

        Smiling slightly at the ridiculousness of his sentence, Josephine walked after Percy into the DOA lobby. Onesimus was whispering in her head — an odd half-chant and half-chid. She shook her head, rattling the man's voice around her mind.

        Inside the DOA lobby, Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel grey. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and Josephine saw that every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, standing up, staring out the windows, or waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved, talked — or did much of anything at all. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see them all just fine; however, if she focused on any one of them in particular, they started looking ... transparent. She could see right through their bodies. They were all ghosts.

        The security guard's desk was a raised podium, so they had to look up at him. He was tall and elegant, with dark-colored skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag.