𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 [𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏]

ix: little talks

chapter nine , act two

little talks

THEY SPENT TWO days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.

They weren't attacked once, but Ariana didn't relax. She felt that they were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.

She tried to keep a low profile because her name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as she and Percy got off the Greyhound bus. She had a wild look in her eyes. Percy's sword was a metallic blur in his hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.

The picture's caption read:
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with three teenage accomplices, one of which displayed in the picture above, is the infamous Sirius Black's daughter. The boy's stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.

"Don't worry," Annabeth told them. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.

The rest of the day she spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because she had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.

Once, Percy spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught his eye and waved. Percy looked around the pas-senger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines. Ariana smiled at him.

Another time, toward evening, Ariana saw something huge moving through the woods. She could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.