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27: What Do You Mean "Missing"?

"The guy from the Hermes cabin?" I remembered him from two years ago. Chris Rodriguez was aboard the Princess Andromeda. Chris was one of the half-bloods who'd abandoned camp and joined the Titan Army. He was rude to me, he had... uh... slapped me a couple of times.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."

"What do you mean he just appeared?"

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string." Ha, karma.

"String," I said. String, string, string. There's something about string...

"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."

Percy shivered, though I wasn't exactly sure why. Poor Chris...he hadn't been a bad guy until he kidnapped me. What could've driven him mad? The Labyrinth? I looked at Grover, who was chewing up the rest of his fork.

"Okay," Percy asked. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because... well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy.

"Oh my gods, same." I smiled, swallowing my food.

"The builder, Daedalus, was a genius." Annabeth continued. "But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?"

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"But not if you had Ariadne's string," I said figuring out what the string was. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," Percy said. "Why? What's he planning?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders. Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but...it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I could find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

I blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find." Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

"Oh no. The horror!" I shrieked sarcastically.

"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—"

"It could lead you to the wild god," I said.

"I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."