Oops! Ang larawang ito ay hindi sumusunod sa aming mga alituntunin sa nilalaman. Upang magpatuloy sa pag-publish, subukan itong alisin o mag-upload ng bago.
It was Annabeth's idea. She forced us into the back of a taxi as if we had money and said to the driver, "Los Angeles, please." The taxi driver chewed on his cigar and looked us over. "That's over three hundred kilometers. You have to pay in advance." "Do you take casino cards?" Annabeth asked. He shrugged his shoulders. "Some are like credit cards. You have to swipe them first." Annabeth handed him her green Lotus Cash Card. He looked at her skeptically. "Put it through," Annabeth pleaded. He did. His device immediately started ticking. The lights flashed. Finally, the symbol for infinity appeared next to the dollar sign. The cigar fell out of his mouth. He turned to us and widened his eyes. "Where in Los Angeles... er, Your Highness?" "To the pier in Santa Monica." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. "If it's quick, you can keep the rest." Maybe she shouldn't have said that. During the entire journey through the desert the speedometer was never below one hundred and fifty. We had enough time to talk along the way.
Percy told us about his last dream. But because of the events in the casino, he no longer fully remembered. "Silent one," Annabeth suggested. "Richer? Both are nicknames for Hades." "Maybe," he said, but didn't look convinced. "This throne room seems like Hades'," I said. "At least that's how he's usually described." Percy shook his head. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't that important in my dream. And the voice from the pit... I don't know. It just sounded not like the voice of a god." That couldn't be right, but with one look at Annie, I knew that she thinks the same as me. "What's wrong?" asked Percy. "Oh... nothing. Just... no, it just has to be Hades. Maybe he sent that thief we don't know to get the bolt and then something went wrong..." I tried to convince him and myself.
"For example?" "I... I don't know," I said. »But if he has stolen Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus and if the gods are hunting him, then a lot can go wrong. The thief had to hide the blot. Maybe he lost it somehow. In any case, he couldn't take him to Hades. That's what the voice in your dream said, right? The guy failed. And that explains what the Furies were looking for when they attacked the bus. Maybe they thought we had already brought the bolt back." Annie looked like she had seen a ghost and with one look in the reflection of the window I knew I looked the same.
"But if I had already gotten the lightning," said Percy, "then why should I go to the underworld?" "To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back." Percy whistled. "For a goat, you have a pretty nasty imagination." "Yes, thanks." "But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items," Percy said. "If the Master blot is one, what is the other?"
Grover shook his head, seeming to find it all extremely puzzling. Please don't say it. Please don't say it. Please say... "I mean, if it's not Hades?" "Percy...let's not talk about it. Because if it's not Hades...no. It has to be Hades."
We drove through the desert. We passed a sign that said: CALIFORNIA 20 MILES. I looked at Percy and I could imagine what was going on in his head. "The answer lies in the underworld," I assured him. "You've seen the spirits of the dead, Percy. And that can only mean one place. We're doing the right thing."
