Annabeth was the first one to come up with an idea to get to their destination. She loaded the rest of the group inside the nearest taxi, with Danny and Ellie sharing the front seat, nevermind it's illegal. She rode inside motorcycle stroll, plus it's not like car crash is dangerous for her. "Los Angeles, please," Annabeth told the driver.
The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized them up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."
"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked before Danny could take out his money.
The driver shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."
Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card. That's even better.
He looked at it skeptically.
"Swipe it," Annabeth invited.
He did.
His meter 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 them, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"
"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth said. The whole 'Your Highness' thing caused the actual royal family to snicker at the irony of the situation, "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."
Maybe she 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, they had plenty of time to talk. Percy told the others about his latest dream, but The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited his memory. He couldn't recall what the invisible servant's voice had sounded like. The servant had called the monster in the pit something other than "my lord" ... some special name or title....
"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested.
"The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades," Danny offered.
"Maybe ..." Percy said, though neither sounded quite right to him.
"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."
Percy shook his 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."
Annabeth and Danny's eyes widened.
"What?" Percy asked.
"You are thinking what I'm thinking, Beth?" Phantom asked.
"It has to be Hades. 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 what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."
She looked pale.
"But if I'd already retrieved the bolt," Percy said, "why would I be traveling to the Underworld?"
"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."
"Wow, goatman, never took you for evil genius," Danny commented with a smirk.
YOU ARE READING
Weird relatives
FanfictionI'm really bad at summaries. Danny needs to protect his only now known nephew. How hard it can be?
