Percy Jackson and the Dark Elites

XXXIV

Jason

Jason waited patiently for Dakota to pick the lock.

He had taken a few hairpins from a female roman and was hunched over at work.

The Riders had locked them behind solid bronze, but a simple steel door stood between them and the floor below them.

So the best plan they had was to hope more prisoners were kept down there. Maybe Jason could recruit a large enough force to overwhelm the Riders next time they stopped by.

So far they'd stopped by twice. And each time three Romans had been forcibly taken away.

Dakota laughed. "Almost there. I can tell. My grandpa used to..." He grunted and pressed his ear to the door. "...lock the liquor cabinet... hang on,"

Jason raised his eyebrows at Travis Stoll, who stood right beside him. That was another weird hint about Dakota's life he didn't want answered.

Travis cleared his throat. "I'm sorry Dakota, but maybe I should be the one-"

The lock popped so loud even Jason heard it.

Travis looked oddly disappointed, but he helped Jason quietly open the door.

Like Jason thought, it was a staircase to a lower level.

"They'll have to have some other way down," Travis whispered. "That means another way up."

"Okay," Jason whispered and waved to the rest of the Romans, who stood spread out across the room. "You guys cover for us, if we find a way out, we'll all leave at once and try to improvise using force, if we don't come back up..."

"You should all come down after a while." Dakota clarified. "It's still got more opportunities than here."

The Romans silently saluted them away.

Travis fulfilled his promise to close the door without locking it by shoving a rock in the locking mechanism.

"Classy," Jason led the way down the steps.

The metal creaked loudly as they descended. After a while, they decided no one could hear them. They moved quickly into the dark.

Jason gripped the railing and prayed he wouldn't trip. His own hands were no longer visible. Every now and then he, Travis, and Dakota would say their names to take a roll call.

When Jason reached the bottom he tripped when his foot kicked the ground sooner than expected.

"Here," He squeaked.

He held his hands out in front if him but couldn't find any walls. "Shoot. Guys, we're in the middle of a large room. I can't find a handhold,"

"It's fine. Just keep going," Travis recommended.

"Where?" Jason demanded.

Dakota shushed him. Someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to the staircase. He grabbed onto the railing and tried to follow the metal rod outside the stairs.

They spun under the spiral case and decided it would be safest to grab hold and make their way in the opposite direction from where the stairs let out. They stood shoulder to shoulder to avoid turning.

A small draft cooled the sweat on Jason's brow. He adjusted his classes to get some air on the bridge of his nose.

"Draft!" Travis called and stopped both Jason and Dakota.

Jason clenched his jaw. A cool draft, they could be dealing with a very large room.

"Jason, send a blast of air in front of us. Let's try to use it like sonar. See when it hits our skin,"