Percy Jackson: CHB Again?

Chapter 27: ...That Could Kill Us

Written by: Awesomeelsa and Rick Riordan

I led Beckendorf to the bowels of the ship, to a metal latch. I mouthed the words 'engine room'.

It was locked, but Beckendorf pulled some chain cutters out of his bag and split the bold. He was a child of Hephaestus. It shouldn't have amazed me.

Inside, turbines the size of grain silos churned and hummed. A telkhine was manning a control panel of some sort, but he was so interested in his work that he didn't notice us.

I tossed Beckendorf a jar of Greek fire and we made our way through the engine room. He then proceeded to throw me duct tape.

We ran around strapping the jars on anything and everything, slicing down monsters when we had to.

"We're taking to long." He told me, pointing to his watch which he told me was our remote controlled detonator. "Ten more minutes, at least."

There were footsteps heading in our direction. Forget ten minutes, we had about ten seconds.

"I'll distract them." I said. He wished me good luck. I ran out the door.

~

I cut down a group of telkhines with my blade faster than they could yelp. I kept climbing, passing a stray telkhine. I let him live. My plan was to get the alarm raised so the monsters would follow me rather than get to the engine room.

I kept running as I made it to deck six.

"There!" A voice shouted from a balcony above. "Intruder!"

If I'd wanted to create a distraction, it had worked. But I was in the centre of the ship. I didn't want to fight where they could easily corner me.

Monsters and demigods everywhere pointed their weapons at me and advanced. I didn't care - as long as I got them away from the engine room and gave Beckendorf more time.

I ran up the stairs, and a kid no older than twelve came barrelling down to meet me. He reminded me of Percy, in all aspects except his eyes and his voice. He drew his sword and shouted "Kronos!"

No way was I going to hurt him. I hit my blade against his with so much force it clattered to the ground. I was probably jeopardizing the mission by doing this but I didn't care.

"If you want to live," I told him. "Get off this ship now. Tell the other demigods." I pushed him down the stairs and kept climbing up.

The whole upper ship seemed eerily deserted. A little farther and I could make it to the helipad. That's where Beckendorf and I said we'd meet.

We'd jump into the sea. My water powers would protect us both and we'd detonate the charges from a quarter mile away.

I was half way there when a voice said "You're late, Tera."

Luke stood on the balcony above me, a smile on his scarred face. He wore jeans and a white shirt, and flip flops like he was a normal kid, but his eyes told the truth. They were gold. He was Kronos.

I was wasting time, now. Standing here. I couldn't see the helipad from here, I couldn't see if Beckendorf was there or not.

"Kronos." I said. "I am here to prove my loyalty to camp half blood, even though I am loyal to you."

"You cut down my army, and tell my demigods to flee."

"Part of the act!" My face felt hot. My argument wasn't holding. He just stared at me.

"How long have you known?" I gave up.

"Since the campers attacked you." His eyes flickered for a moment, back to Luke's eyes. I thought maybe it was him talking now. Maybe it was actually Luke.