The Twins Of Poseidon

I Don't Want To Do This Quest Anymore

It was Annabeth's idea. AKA, if we get in trouble, her fault, but don't tell her I said that. She loaded us into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we actually had money, and told the driver, "Los Angeles, please." 

The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized us up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front." 

"You accept casino debit cards?" I asked. 

He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first." 

I handed him my green LotusCash card. He looked at it skeptically. "Swipe it," Annabeth invited. He did. His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign. 

The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at us, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highnesses?" 

"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. I could tell she liked the "Your Highnesses" thing. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change." 

Maybe she shouldn't have told him that. The cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert. On the road, we had plenty of time to talk. Percy told the rest of us about his latest dream, which was a little hard when they were all in the back and I was stuck in front with the cab driver. As Percy told us his dream, he seemed to remember less and less about it, he couldn't recall what the invisible servant's voice had sounded like, though he was somehow sure it was somebody he knew. 

"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades." 

"Maybe ..." Percy said, though neither sounded quite right. 

"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."

 "Yeah and with the invisibility and everything, it all points to him." I pointed out. 

Percy shook his head.  "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit ... I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."  Annabeth's eyes widened. "What?" Percy asked. 

"Oh ... nothing. I was just—No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong—" 

"Like what?" I asked. 

"I—I don't know," she said. "But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt." I wish I wasn't right but I think I knew why she was so pale. 

"But if Alex and I already retrieved the bolt," Percy said, "why would we be traveling to the Underworld?" 

"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your guys mom back." 

Percy whistled. 

"I have told you this before and I tell you again, you have evil thoughts for a goat." I said looking back at him. 

"Why, thank you." He smirked. 

"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting fortwo items," Percy said. "If the master bolt is one, what's the other?" Grover shook his head, clearly mystified. Annabeth started looking at Percy as if to tell him something and I knew she was asking him not to ask what we knew he was about to ask. Don't ask. "You have an idea what might be in that pit, don't you?" He asked us. "I mean, if it isn't Hades?"