ENTRAPPED ₂

111

THE ARGO II REALLY WASN'T IN GOOD SHAPE TO FLY, BUT LEO HAD BEEN IN SUCH A GOOD MOOD WITH THEIR RECENT SUCCESSES THAT HE HAD MANAGED TO GET THE SHIP AIRBORNE AFTER ONLY ONE NIGHT OF WORK. With the world ending tomorrow morning, he was highly motivated, a feeling that Madeleine shared. One way or another, they would figure out their conclusions.

"Oh, that's beautiful," Leo muttered, maneuvering the ship over the ruins of Epidaurus.

"You're insane," Madeleine told him.

Leo had primed the oar flaps. He'd injected Styx water (yuck) into the samophlage. He'd treated Festus to his favorite brew of thirty-weight motor oil and Tabasco sauce―Beckendorf would've been proud. Even Buford the Wonder Table had pitched in, rattling around belowdecks while his holographic Mini-Hedge yelled, "GIVE ME THIRTY PUSH-UPS!" to inspire the engine. Madeleine found this deeply annoying, and was eternally grateful for Ethan forcing the stayr not to join them. She would've killed him.

Now, at last, they hovered over the ancient temple complex of the healing god Asclepius, where they could hopefully find the physician's cure and maybe also some ambrosia, nectar, and Fonzies, because Madeleine had been stealing Leo's and he was getting upset.

Next to them on the quarterdeck, Percy peered over the railing. 

"Looks like more rubble," he noted.

"You're so observant," Madeleine told him.

Percy smiled. His face was still green from his underwater poisoning, but at least he wasn't running to the bathroom to vomit quite so often. Between him and Hazel's seasickness, it had been impossible to find an unoccupied toilet onboard for the past few days.

Annabeth pointed to the disk-shaped structure about fifty yards off their port side. "There."

Leo smiled. "Exactly. See, the architect knows her stuff."

Madeleine and Percy exchanged a look, like, what the fuck are these two on?

The rest of the crew gathered around.

"What are we looking at?" Frank asked.

"Ah, Senor Zhang," Leo said, "you know how you're always saying, 'Leo, you are the only true genius among demigods'?"

"I'm pretty sure I never said that."

"Well, turns out there are other true geniuses! Because one of them must have made that work of art down there."

"It's a stone circle," Frank said. "Probably the foundation of an old shrine."

Piper shook her head. "No, it's more than that. Look at the ridges and grooves carved around the rim."

"Like the teeth of a gear," Jason offered.

"And those concentric rings." Hazel pointed to the center of the structure, where curved stones formed a sort of bull's-eye. "The pattern reminds me of Pasiphae's pendant: the symbol of the Labyrinth."

"If that's an entrance to the Labyrinth, we're getting the fuck out of here," Madeleine said.

Leo scowled. "Well, I hadn't thought of that. But think mechanical. Frank, Hazel... where did we see concentric circles like that before?"

"The laboratory under Rome," Frank said.

"The Archimedes lock on the door," Hazel recalled. "It had rings within rings."

Percy snorted. "You're telling me that's a massive stone lock? It's, like, fifty feet in diameter."

"Leo might be right," Annabeth said. "In ancient times, the temple of Asclepius was like the General Hospital of Greece. Everybody came here for the best healing. Aboveground, it was the size of a major city, but supposedly the real action happened belowground. That's where the high priests had their intensive care, super-magical-type compound, accessed by a secret passage."