▃▃▃ ᴅᴏɴᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ʜᴇʀ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴏꜰ ɪɴɴᴏᴄᴇɴᴄᴇ ꜰᴏᴏʟ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱʜᴇ ɪꜱ ꜰᴜʟʟ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ʙᴀᴅ-ᴊ ɪʀᴏɴ ᴡᴏʀᴅ
▃▃ ʙᴏᴏᴋ 1 ▃▃ In which the only daughter of Persephone sneaks on a quest to see the world for the first time since she's been at camp. The daughter of wisdom...
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𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⭑ ‧₊˚ ⋅ જ⁀➴๋࣭ ⭑๋࣭ ⭑
Elara wasn't some wise child of Athena, but she couldn't see this plan going well. And for once, it was one of Annabeth's plans, not Percy's.
They had all piled into the back of a taxi cab and Percy told the driver, "Los Angeles, please." Y'know, as if they actually had the money to pay for that kinda ride.
The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized them up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."
"Do you accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth inquired, praying silently to every god there was that the answer was yes.
"Some of 'em. Same as credit cards, I gotta swipe 'em first." The driver shrugged.
Annabeth handed him her green Lotus Cash card. He looked at it sceptically. "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 them, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"
"The Santa Monica pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. Anyone could tell she liked the Your Highness' thing."Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."
Perhaps that was a bad choice of words, because the cab's speedometer looked as if it were about to explode the entire ride, never going below ninety-five the entire way through the desert.
On the road, they had plenty of time to talk. Percy told them about his latest dream, but the details got sketchier the more he tried to remember them.
The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited his memory. He couldn't recall what the invisible servant's voice.
"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades?"
"Maybe..." he said.
"That throne room sounds like Hades's" Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."
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 teel like a god's voice."
"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-" Annabeth tried to say.
