It was my idea.
I loaded us into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we actually had money, and told the driver, “Los Angeles, please.”
I could practically see Annabeth mentally facepalming.
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 the platinum LotusCash card.
He looked at it sceptically.
“Swipe it,” I invited.
He did.
His metre 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 Highness?”
I liked the sound of that.
"The Santa Monica pier.” I sat up a little straighter. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change.”
Maybe I 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. Perseus told Annabeth, Grover and I about his latest dream, but he couldn’t remember it very well. I was in the same predicament.
“The Silent One?” Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades. Andy, any ideas?”
“No. I can't remember it either.”
“You two shared a dream?”
“Must’ve. Nothing else makes sense and it wouldn’t be the first time.”
"That throne room sounds like Hades', " Grover said. “That's the way it's usually described.”
I shook my 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. It felt too evil as though it were… but it can’t be.” I turned to Annabeth, “could it.”
Annabeth's eyes widened.
“What?” Perseus asked.
"Oh... nothing. I was just - No, it has to be Hades. It couldn’t be what you’re thinking, Andy. The gods would stop him before he was too powerful to talk to their children.” i would’ve believed her but it sounded as though she was just trying to reassure herself. “Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong–”
"Like what?”
“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 why the Furies were searching for it when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt.”
“But if I'd already retrieved the bolt,” he said, “why would I be travelling to the Underworld?”
“To threaten Hades,” Grover suggested. “To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back.”
Perseus whistled. “You have evil thoughts for a goat.”
“Why, thank you.”
“But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items,” I said. “If the master bolt is one, what's the other?”
YOU ARE READING
The Eclipse, Percy Jackson
FanfictionAndromeda has been going to camp half blood since she was seven and was claimed as a daughter of Apollo immediately but she knows she goes somewhere else when it isn't the summer. The only problem is she can't ever remember where or what she does or...
