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TWENTY FIVE, manners, please?
❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
ANNABETH VOLUNTEERED TO GO alone since she had her invisibility cap, but Aster protested immediately. Percy agreed; 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. The four of them figured that whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship. Aster had a sinister feeling that something was about to go wrong (because it always did), but if it didn't, she wouldn't stay another night even if someone offered to change her heritage.
Aster made sure her daggers were secured and hidden in her belt loops, and triple checked that Percy had the vitamins and thermos from Hermes. Tyson insisted on carrying everything, and though Percy protested it, Annabeth told him not to worry about it. Tyson could carry four full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as any of them could carry a backpack.
They sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. They 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.
Aster 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."
Annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed Aster's arm tightly. Aster recognized that voice, but she couldn't quite remember who it was.
"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."
Aster remembered. Chris was an undetermined camper who got stuck in the Hermes cabin because his Olympian mom or dad never claimed him. She'd seen him occasionally over the years, but she couldn't remember seeing Chris at camp this summer.
"What's another half-blood doing here?" Percy asked.
Annabeth shook her head, clearly troubled. Aster felt a sinking feeling in her stomach; whatever drew any half-blood here to Luke's ship couldn't be a good thing.
They kept going down the corridor. Aster didn't need a map to know they were getting close to Luke. She sensed something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil.
