ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

74

KAT WAS VAGUELY aware of Hazel shouting, "Go! I'll take care of Nico!"

As if Kat was going to look back. Sure, she hoped he was fine, but her girl's in danger. Piper and Jason are her #1s.

Kat sped up the steps, easily overpassing Leo, Jason, and Frank. Too much testosterone here.

The situation on deck was even worse than the images shown.

Coach Hedge and Piper were struggling against their duct tape bonds while one of the demon monkey dwarfs danced around the deck, picking up whatever wasn't tied down and sticking it in his bag. He was maybe four feet tall, even shorter than Coach Hedge, with bowed legs and chimp-like feet, his clothes so loud they gave Kat vertigo. His green-plaid pants were pinned at the cuffs, and held up with bright-red suspenders over a striped pink-and-black woman's blouse. He wore half a dozen gold watches on each arm, and a zebra-patterned cowboy hat with a price tag dangling from the brim. His skin was covered with patches of scraggly red fur, though ninety percent of his body hair seemed to be concentrated in his magnificent eyebrows.

Kat was forming the thought Where's the other dwarf? when she heard a click behind her.

"Duck!" Leo yelled, but Kat was already falling, turning and tackling the nearest person to her as the explosion blasted her eardrums.

Her ears were ringing, but she was alive. She was just really, really out of it. She tried to get up, but that wasn't working. A warm body was below her, drawing her in even more. Smelled like storms.

Suddenly an electric shock pushed her away so she was facing up. Her vision was out of focus and pink, but she could register that Jason was next to her, propping himself up and looking over Kat.

"Sorry!" he apologized, helping her sit up.

"This is what I get for being selfless," Kat muttered, and they helped each other stand, but it was too late.

The brown-furred dwarf was dressed even worse than his friend, in a green bowler hat like a leprechaun's, dangly diamond earrings, and a white-and-black referee's shirt. He jumped onto the ballista like it was a skateboard, and his friend shot him into the sky.

Red Fur pranced over to Hedge. He gave the satyr a big smack on the cheek, then skipped to the rail. He bowed to Leo, doffing his zebra cowboy hat, and did a backflip over the side.

Leo managed to get up. Jason was already on his feet, stumbling and running into things. Frank had turned into a silverback gorilla ( why, Kat wasn't sure; maybe to commune with the monkey dwarfs? ) but the flash grenade had hit him hard. He was sprawled on the deck with his tongue hanging out and his gorilla eyes rolled up in his head.

Kat was leaning against the side of the ship, getting her bearings, when she realized why she was up here in the first place.

"Shit, Pipes," luckily, Kat was near the helm, so she staggered over to Piper and carefully pulled the gag out of her mouth.

"Don't waste your time on me!" she said. "Go after them!"

At the mast, Hedge mumbled, "HHHmmmmm-hmmm!"

Kat figured that meant: "KILL THEM!" Easy translation, since most of the coach's sentences involved the word kill.

Leo turned to Jason. "You feeling good enough to control the winds? I need a lift."

Jason frowned. "Sure, but—"

"Good," Leo said. "We've got some monkey dudes to catch."

"Let's go," Kat said, grimacing as she stared down at the city. Below her spread the city of Bologna — a jigsaw puzzle of red-tiled buildings in a valley hemmed by green hills. "Jason, don't shock me again, you fucker."