These Lifeless Things || p. jackson

VIII. Angels from Mars

"TELL ME WHEN IT'S OVER," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to them so they couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"Everything's fine," Percy promised.

"Are... are we very high?"

Xiao looked down. Below them, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. Percy stretched out his foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks.

"Nah," he said. "Not that high."

"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoë yelled. She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" Xiao's angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Percy asked.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"

"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."

"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, Xiao swore Hank did. "Back to flying."

They sped up, so Xiao could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then they were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoë got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as they flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and they passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour. Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying.

It was a few hours before they reached San Francisco. Hank asked them where they wanted to land, and Zoë suggested the Embarcadero Building.

"Good thinking," Chuck said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons."

They all looked at him.

"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humor?"

As it turned out, there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. They freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when they landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.

They said their good-byes to the angels, who flew off to party with their statue friends. After a brief discussion, they agreed that we needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was.

"But how?" Percy asked.

"Nereus," Xiao said. "We're supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But how do we find him?"

Zoë made a face. "Old Nereus, eh?"

"You know him?" Thalia asked.

"My mother was a sea goddess. Yes, I know him. Unfortunately, he is never very hard to find. Just follow the smell."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Come," she said without enthusiasm. "I will show thee."

{ ♥☼♥ }

Five minutes after they'd found the Goodwill drop box, Xiao was doing her best not to laugh. Percy outfitted in a ragged flannel shirt and jeans three sizes too big, bright red sneakers, and a floppy rainbow hat.