A web of fates | Percy Jackson and the Olympians

XVI| Olympus

It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.

Chiron had told her that long ago. As usual, she didn't appreciate his wisdom until much later.

According to the L.A. news, the explosion at the Santa Monica beach had been caused when a crazy kidnapper fired a shotgun at a police car.

He accidentally hit a gas main that had ruptured during the earthquake.

This crazy kidnapper (a.k.a. Ares) was the same man who had abducted Percy and three other adolescents in New York and brought them across country on a ten-day odyssey of terror.

Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't an international criminal after all.

He'd caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor (and afterward, witnesses would even swear they had seen the leather-clad man on the bus-"Why didn't I remember him before?").

The crazy man had caused the explosion in the St. Louis Arch. After all, no kid could've done that.

A concerned waitress in Denver had seen the man threatening his abductees outside her diner, gotten a friend to take a photo, and notified the police.

Finally, brave Percy Jackson (Percy was beginning to like this kid) had stolen a gun from his captor in Los Angeles and battled him shotgun-to-rifle on the beach.

Police had arrived just in time. But in the spectacular explosion, five police cars had been destroyed and the captor had fled.

No fatalities had occurred. Percy Jackson and his three friends were safely in police custody.

The reporters fed them this whole story. They just nodded and acted tearful and exhausted (which wasn't hard), and played victimized kids for the cameras.

"All I want," Percy said, choking back his tears, "is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew...somehow... we would be okay. And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here's the phone number."

The police and reporters were so moved that they passed around the hat and raised money for four tickets on the next plane to New York.

Daphne knew there was no choice but to fly. She hoped Zeus would cut Percy some slack, considering the circumstances.

Unlike Percy, Daphne loved flying.

Percy didn't unclench his hands from the armrests until they touched down safely at La Guardia.

The local press was waiting for them outside security, but they managed to evade them thanks to Annabeth, who lured them away in her invisible Yankees cap, shouting, "They're over by the frozen yogurt! Come on!," then rejoined them at baggage claim.

They split up at the taxi stand. Percy told Daphne, Annabeth and Grover to get back to Half-Blood Hill and let Chiron know what had happened.

They protested, and it was hard to let him go after all they had been through but eventually they all agreed to let Daphne go with Percy.

They hopped in a taxi and headed into Manhattan.

*•*

Thirty minutes later, Percy and Daphne walked into the lobby of the Empire State Building.

They must have looked like homeless kids, with their tattered clothes and their scraped-up faces. Daphne hadn't slept in at least twenty-four hours.

Percy went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor."