The Animal Within

Chapter 59 - Threads

Chiron had paled dramatically when Grover had told him what had happened to Percy and had immediately instructed a harpy to fetch Rachel from her Oracle cave and bring her to the Big House.

His horse backside shifted nervously, clopping on the floor as Grover grabbed a glass of nectar and handed it to Percy. "Careful," he murmured as he handed it over to Percy.

Percy just waved off their concern. "I'm fine," he assured them. "Not hurt at all. Just – what were those voices?"

Grover shook his head slightly. "Like I said before, no one in the forest is telling me if they know."

"But why?"

"They're scared," Grover tiredly said to Percy. "It's, whatever it is, it's dark and it's messing around with the forest in dangerous ways. They're too scared to answer."

Percy groaned. "Can't they be more helpful?" Grover just shrugged.

The son of Poseidon sipped at the nectar slowly as they waited for Rachel to arrive, eyes flicking over to Nico who was sitting a few seats down from Percy along the ping pong table. His cousin seemed worried, probably because every other camper that had been lured in by the voices had completely vanished, and he'd managed to lose Percy while they were in the forest together. Percy frowned slightly at Nico. "Why didn't it affect you?" He asked.

Nico shrugged. "There are lots of voices and impulses down in the Underworld," he said. "And in Tartarus." Right, Percy recalled. Nico had been down in Tartarus. He eyed his cousin, curious about what it was like down there, but not wanting to ask him.

Rachel let out a long breath. "Percy, Chiron suggested I should talk to you about what's going on... or what I've found out. It may be related. So, you remember back last summer?"

Percy groaned. "I try not to. Before or after Kronos stabbed me and kidnapped me?" And wasn't that suspicious? The usual response from saying Kronos' name was dimmed.

"After," Rachel said after a sharp glare at Percy once the flickering lights settled again. "You remember what I said about the meeting I had with the Romans?"

Percy nodded slightly. "Yeah," he said. "That tower or something." Rachel, as the Oracle of Camp Half-Blood, had met with the Romans to try to stop them from attacking Camp Half-Blood. "Why? What about it?"

"I spoke with Chiron about it last year," Rachel said. "And I've looked into it more since. There was something off about that tower. So I got my dad's lawyers to look into it..." she trailed off slightly as she flipped through her phone, causing Percy to raise an eyebrow. "Here," she said, showing him a picture of three men, all features obscured, at the top of a penthouse. "These three men," Rachel said. "They own a company – called Triumvirate Holdings."

Percy's eyes furrowed slightly. That name – for some reason, he'd heard it before. "Right," he slowly said. "Who are they though?"

"That's where it gets interesting," Rachel said. "Those onager Octavian brought to attack us here at Camp?" Rachel tapped a finger against the picture on her phone. "These three – their company – paid for them all."

Percy sat up straighter, his eyes narrowing sharply. "They tried to attack the Camp?" He demanded.

Rachel nodded slightly. "They paid for the weapons," she confirmed. Rachel switched off the screen on her phone. "There's more," she slowly said. "I did more digging. You remember everything the Titans had? Weapons, helicopters, mercenaries?" Percy did remember that. Back on the quest to free Artemis, he remembered that helicopter when Artemis had first shown up.