Changing the Future

Chapter 65

I headed back for the library after the council meeting, stopping halfway up the steps only to facepalm myself before beginning to rummage through my bag. How could I be so stupid? Here I was, about to chuck more ancient books at walls out of frustration, when I had the answer to my problem all along.

"I'm an idiot," I told myself, pushing aside piles of clothing, food, and supplies before I found the spines of the books containing everything I needed to know about this place. I counted down four spines, closed my fingers around the book, and pulled it out of my bag, spending a moment too long gazing at the cover.

The House of Hades stared up at me, with a haggard looking Percy and Annabeth plastered on the cover as they trekked through some mist (the natural kind) towards the Doors of Death on the Tartarus side.

I flipped to the end of the book, looking at the inside of the back cover, practically sighing in relief when I found the map of Tartarus that came enclosed with the book. After checking that the map was still securely adhered to the cover, I returned the book to my bag, not willing to risk the chance of anyone seeing the cover and asking why the Hades two of my best friends were making their way through Hell at the moment.

Much happier than I'd been in days, I left the Big House with a great big smile on my face, calmly walking towards the forest, heading for Bunker 9. For the next six months, Leo would be tasked with building the behemoth that was the Argo II, and while in the past he built most of the ship by himself, I refused to subject a fifteen-year-old to so much pressure.

Plus, building such a project would be just the kind of distraction I needed to keep myself from jumping into Tartarus before the time was right. Until then, I'd have to figure out a way to get past Tartarus's barrier to help Luke and Will in any way that I could.

Though it was the middle of the day, it was still pretty dark in this part of the forest, making it seem like it was almost sunset. Eventually, I found Bunker 9 and stood in front of the huge stone doorways, the runes in the stone dark as they waited to be opened.

I summoned a flame to the palm of my hand and touched the door, the runes glowing a bright orange as the sound of gears turning filled the air. The doors then gave way, revealing the massive work area, which had recently been in use if the messy work table was anything to go by.

In the corner of the room, on an otherwise empty work table, sat Festus's head, the wires dangling from his severed neck like limp noodles, his normally ruby eyes as dark as a coal. Next to the head rested a crayon doodle of a flying warship, with Festus as the masthead, bearing Leo's messy signature scribbled in the bottom corner.

Seeing that this was what the Argo II should turn out to be, I took Leo's drawing and a large piece of blueprint paper, starting to sketch out the schematics on how to build something like this in the first place.

Suddenly I had a much higher appreciation for the son of Hephaestus's ingenious when it came to engineering and mathematics as I pulled out yet another sheet of paper, this one only dedicated for scratch work as I grabbed a calculator and started punching in numbers.

I lost track of the time as I kept refining my measurements on the Argo II, muttering a mixture of numbers and formulas under my breath as I flipped through all my work, wanting to be as accurate as possible.

I'd finally found a deck length that suited our needs and could maximize area below and was just about to start working out the details on hull depth when the doors to Bunker 9 opened again, revealing an oil-stained Leo, the black liquid smeared over the majority of his face and a thick stripe on his forehead. He held a large piece of paper rolled up in his hand, which seemed to be the only part of him that wasn't covered in oil.