cacoethes |PERCY JACKSON| [book 2]

X

ANNABETH VOLUNTEERED TO GO ALONE since she had the cap of invisibility, but Selena quickly shut her down and offered to do it herself since she had more control. However, Percy was able to convince them it was too dangerous. Either they all went together, or nobody went.

"Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?"

But in the end, he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. They stopped at their cabin long enough to gather their stuff. They figured whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo.

Percy didn't want Tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and Annabeth told him not to worry about it. Tyson could carry three full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as Percy could carry a backpack.

They sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth and Selena scouted ahead invisibly. The four hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people they saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved them into a supply closet.

Percy heard a couple of guys coming down the hall, "You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.

The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome."

Selena was still invisible, but she squeezed Percy's arm hard. She knew who the second guy was. Chris Rodriguez. "I hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man, no contest!"

The voices faded down the corridor. "That was Chris Rodriguez!" Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible. "You remember, from Cabin Eleven."

Chris was one of those undetermined campers who got stuck in the Hermes cabin because his Olympian dad or mom never claimed him, just like Selena.

"What's another half-blood doing here?" Percy asked.

"He disappeared along with Luke during the year. Told everyone he was going back to school." Selena told them, feeling betrayed.

They kept going down the corridor. "Percy, Selena," Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look." She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade-a mall full of shops- but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention.

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants like the ones who'd attacked Percy with dodgeballs, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures-humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.

"Scythian Dracaenae," Selena whispered. "Dragon women."

The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. A lump formed in Selena's throat when she realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. As they watched, the guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled.

Annabeth stepped away from the window. Her face was ashen. "Come on," Percy told her, trying to sound braver than he felt. "The sooner we find Luke the better."

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When they were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."

"You can hear that far?" Percy asked.

Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Luke's. "-the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."

Before anyone could react, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the other guy they had heard talking to Luke outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?"

Tyson laughed Luke's laugh. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw. "

Annabeth shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy."

Tyson opened his eye and looked puzzled. "Just listening."

Selena remembered her encounter with Cyclops years ago, "All Cyclops can recreate voices, remember Annie?"

"Keep going," Percy urged, "What else are they saying?"

Tyson closed his eye again. He hissed in the gruff man's voice, "Quiet!" Then Luke's voice, whispering: "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Tyson said in the gruff voice. "Right outside."

"Oh, crap." Selena whispered before turning invisible.

Percy just had time to say, "Run!" when the doors of the stateroom burst open and there was Luke, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at their chests.

"Well," Luke said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my two favorite cousins. Come right in." Percy looked around and noticed that Selena was nowhere to be seen. But the hand on his arm reminded him that she was there, just invisible.

The stateroom was beautiful, and it was horrible. The beautiful part: Huge windows curved along the back wall, looking out over the stern of the ship. Green sea and blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon. A Persian rug covered the floor. Two plush sofas occupied the middle of the room, with a canopied bed in one corner and a mahogany dining table in the other. The table was loaded with food-pizza boxes, bottles of soda, and a stack of roast beef sandwiches on a silver platter.

The horrible part: On a velvet dais at the back of the room lay a ten-foot-long golden casket. A sarcophagus, engraved with Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames and heroes dying grisly deaths. Despite the sunlight streaming through the windows, the casket made the whole room feel cold.

"Well," Luke said, spreading his arms proudly. "A little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?"