The Adventure That Lies Ahead | PJO x HP

CHAPTER 12

It was Annabeth's idea, so Isa didn't question it.

She loaded them into the back of a Vegas taxi as if they had money, and told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."

The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized them up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay upfront."

"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.

He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through, first."

Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card.

He looked at it skeptically.

"Swipe it," Annabeth invited.

He did.

His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally, an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.

The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at them, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"

Isa had to stifle her laugh, and placed a hand over her mouth.

"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. Isa could tell she liked being called 'Your Highness' which made it harder for her not to laugh. "Get us there, and you can keep the change."

Perhaps she shouldn't have told him that.

The cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.

On the road, they had plenty of time to talk. Percy told them about his latest dreams, but it only got weirder because Isa admitted that she had the same ones. But the details got sketchier the more they tried to remember them. The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited their memory. They couldn't recall what the invisible servant's voice had sounded like, though the two were sure that it was somebody they knew. The servant had called the monster in the pit something other than 'my lord'... some special name or title.

"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."

"Maybe..." Percy said, though for Isa neither sounded right.

"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."

Isa agreed that it was the throne room. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit... I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."

Annabeth's eyes widened.

"What?" Isa asked.

"Oh... nothing. I was just⎼No it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master out, and something went wrong⎼"

"Like what?"

"I-I don't know," she said. "But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies we're searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."

Isa wasn't sure what was wrong with her. She looked pale.

"But if Isa and I already retrieved the bolt," Percy said, "Why would we be traveling to the Underworld?"

"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back. You admitted you're only going for his mom."

Percy whistled. "You have evil thoughts for a goat."