The Undetermined || pjo

05-You Don't Have To Answer, Just 'Cause They Asked You

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PERCY'S POV

It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped me at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts.

Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.

I whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. I'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though I knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief. The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. We used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive. I was glad so many had come: Pollux, Silena Beauregard, the Stoll brothers, Michael Yew, Jake Mason, Katie Gardner and Annabeth, along with most of their siblings.

Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. The Ares cabin wasn't here, but I tried not to get too angry about that. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. End of story.

I did a head count: forty campers in all.

Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods I'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp.

Everyone looked nervous, and I understood why. We were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew we were here.

As I looked at their faces— all these campers I'd known for so many summers—a nagging voice whispered in my mind: One of them is a spy. But I couldn't dwell on that. They were my friends. I needed them.

Then I remembered Kronos's evil smile. You can't count on friends. They will always let you down.

Annabeth came up to me. She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder— ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first.

"What is it?" She frowned.

"What's what?" I asked.

"You're looking at me funny!"

I realized I was thinking about my strange vision of Annabeth pulling me out of the Styx River.

"It's, uh, nothing." I turned to the rest of the group "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

"I came to wish you luck, my boy" My old mentor shook his head "But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader!"

"I am your trainer, your teacher" he smiled "That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader"

I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at me expectantly, even Annabeth. I took a deep breath.

"Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight.
Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."