Indigo Eyes

Chapter 117

Percy, Cressida and Annabeth were running through the streets as they looked for transport, the cars not an option as none of the engines were working and most of the cars were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Eventually, they found this couple that had been riding matching red Vespas.

Since Cressida had never taken driver's ed, she rode with Percy as Annabeth rode behind them as they zigzagged down Broadway.

Let's just say that they had a lot of things to fix on their way to Madison Square Park where Annabeth said, "Pull over."

She parked and Percy parked after her as they jumped off and followed Annabeth to where she ran towards a bronze statue on a red marble pedestal.

"Why do we care about ..." Percy squinted at the name on the pedestal. "William H. Steward?"

"Seward," Annabeth corrected. "He was a New York governor. Minor demigod – son of Hebe, I think. But that's not important. It's the statue I care about."

"Let me guess," Cressida said with her arms crossed over her chest. "It's an automaton."

Annabeth smiled. "Turns out most of the statues in the city are automatons. Daedalus planted them here just in case he needed an army."

"To attack Olympus or defend it?" Percy asked.

Annabeth shrugged. "Either one."

"Well that's reassuring," Cressida said.

"That was plan twenty-three. He could activate one statue and it would start activating its brethren all over the city, until there was an army. It's dangerous, though. You know how unpredictable automatons are."

"Uh-huh," Percy said as Cressida took his hand, both of them thinking about Bianca. "You're seriously thinking about activating it?"

"I have Daedalus's notes," she said. "I think I can ... Ah, here we go." She pressed the tip of Seward's boot and the statue stood up, its quill and paper ready as Cressida took a hesitant step away from it.

"What's he going to do?" Percy muttered. "Take a memo?"

"Wow, you really have bad timing, don't you?" Cressida remarked.

"Don't lie," he said as he nudged her shoulder. "You love my timing."

"You wish."

"Shh," Annabeth scolded. "Hello, William."

"Bill," Percy suggested.

"Bill – oh, shut up," Annabeth huffed the statue tilted its head, looking at us with blank metal eyes. Annabeth cleared her throat. "Hello, er, Governor Seward. Command sequence: Daedalus Twenty-three. Defend Manhattan. Begin Activation."

Seward jumped off his pedestal. He hit the ground so hard his shoes cracked the sidewalk. Then he went clanking off towards the east.

"He's probably going to wake up Confucius," Annabeth guessed.

"What?" Percy said.

"Another statue on Division. The point is, they'll keep waking each other up until they're all activated."

"And then?"

"Hopefully, they defend Manhattan."

'Do they know that we're not the enemy?"

"I think so."

"Again, that's reassuring," Cressida said before there was a ball of green light exploding in the sky – Greek fire, somewhere over the East River.

"Shit - we have to hurry," Percy said. And they ran for the Vespas.

They pulled over outside Battery Park, at the lower tip of Manhattan where the Hudson and East Rivers came together and emptied into the Bay.