Missing Pieces

Chapter 6

Percy and I swam towards the surface. We came ashore next to a floating Mcdonald's. A block away, every emergency vehicle surrounded the Gateway Arch, while the police helicopters circled on top of it.

There was a news lady talking for the camera. "It's probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of two people falling from the Arch.

I followed Percy through the crowd, looking for Annabeth and Grover.

Another reporter spoke up. "The surveillance cameras show that a boy and a girl were going wild on the observation deck and setting off an explosion. Hard to believe but it's what we heard."

"Percy! Val!" I turned around to see Grover and Annabeth running over to us. Grover tackled me and Percy both in a big hug.

"What happened, both of you?" Annabeth asked us.

"We fell," Percy said.

"Six hundred and thirty feet?" Annabeth said.

Then behind us, a cop yelled, "gangway." The crowd moved as a couple of paramedics, came out, rolling a woman on the stretcher.

"And then there was this big dog, this huge fire-breathing chihuahua," the woman was saying. "And a boy and girl jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw us. "Look that's the boy and girl." She pointed at us.

Percy quickly grabbed me, Annabeth, and Grover, and pulled us into the crowd.

"What's going on?" Annabeth asked us.

Percy and I took turns, as we told them the story about the Chimera, Echidna, and everything.

"Okay, we need to get you both to Santa Monica," Grover said. "You can't ignore a summon like that from your father."

Then we passed by another reporter who said. "Percy Jackson. The boy who caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by the authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the girl that was with him also helped him cause the explosions."

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.
"First we need to get out of this town," Percy said.

"Agreed," I said. We made it back to the Amtrak train, without being spotted, and got on it before it pulled out.

The next day, the train arrived in Denver.

"Let's contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about the river spirit."

"We can't use phones tho," Percy said.

"She's not talking about phones," I explained.

We walked around downtown, looking for something with a good connection to Iris-message. Eventually, we came across a do it yourself car wash. We walked over to the stall that was farthest from the street.

Grover took out the spray gun, "Seventy cents. All I have is 2 quarters. Annabeth, Percy, Val. Do you have anything?"

"What are we doing?" Percy said as he took out some change from his pocket.

"Iris-messaging," I explained. "Iris, the goddess of rainbows, carries messages for the gods. And she'll do the same for half-bloods."

Grover pointed the nozzle into the air, and water came out in a mist and a rainbow broke out in the mist.

Annabeth looked over at Percy. "Drachma please?"

He gave it to her.

Annabeth took it and held it up. "Oh, goddess, accept our offering." She threw it into the mist. "HALF BLOOD HILL!" The air shimmered and the view of the strawberry fields came into my view. Luke was standing on the porch.