Percy Jackson: The Complete Series by Rick Riordan
Zoë didn’t answer.
The cliffs along the river were getting taller. Long shadows fell across the water, making it a lot colder, even though the day was bright.
Without thinking about it, I took Riptide out of my pocket. Zoë looked at the pen, and her expression was pained.
‘You made this,’ I said.
‘Who told thee?’
‘I had a dream about it.’
She studied me. I was sure she was going to call me crazy, but she just sighed. ‘It was a gift. And a mistake.’
‘Who was the hero?’ I asked.
Zoë shook her head. ‘Do not make me say his name. I swore never to speak it again.’
‘You act like I should know him.’
‘I am sure you do, hero. Don’t all you boys want to be just like him?’
Her voice was so bitter, I decided not to ask what she meant. I looked down at Riptide and, for the first time, I wondered if it was cursed.
‘Your mother was a water goddess?’ I asked.
‘Yes, Pleoine. She had five daughters. My sisters and I. The Hesperides.’
‘Those were the girls who lived in a garden at the edge of the West. With the golden apple tree, and a dragon guarding it.’
‘Yes,’ Zoë said wistfully. ‘Ladon.’
‘But weren’t there only four sisters?’
‘There are now. I was exiled. Forgotten. Blotted out as if I never existed.’
‘Why?’
Zoë pointed to my pen. ‘Because I betrayed my family and helped a hero. You won’t find that in the legend either. He never spoke of me. After his direct assault on Ladon failed, I gave him the idea of how to steal the apples, how to trick my father, but he took all the credit.’
‘But –’
Gurgle, gurgle, the naiad spoke in my mind. The canoe was slowing down.
I looked ahead, and I saw why.
This was as far as they could take us. The river was blocked. A dam the size of a football stadium stood in our path.
‘Hoover Dam,’ Thalia said. ‘It’s huge.’
We stood at the river’s edge, looking up at a curve of concrete that loomed between the cliffs. People were walking along the top of the dam. They were so tiny they looked like fleas.
The naiads had left with a lot of grumbling – not in words I could understand, but it was obvious they hated this dam blocking up their nice river. Our canoes floated back downstream, swirling in the wake from the dam’s discharge vents.
‘Over two hundred metres tall,’ I said. ‘Built in the 1930s.’
‘Five million cubic acres of water,’ Thalia said.
Grover sighed. ‘Largest construction project in the United States.’
Zoë stared at us. ‘How do you know all that?’
‘Annabeth,’ I said. ‘She liked architecture.’
‘She was nuts about monuments,’ Thalia said.
‘Spouted facts all the time.’ Grover sniffled. ‘So annoying.’
‘I wish she were here,’ I said.
The others nodded. Zoë was still looking at us strangely, but I didn’t care. It seemed like cruel fate that we’d come to Hoover Dam, one of Annabeth’s personal favourites, and she wasn’t here to see it.
‘We should go up there,’ I said. ‘For her sake. Just to say we’ve been.’
‘You are mad,’ Zoë decided. ‘But that’s where the road is.’ She pointed to a huge parking garage next to the top of the dam. ‘And so sightseeing it is.’
We had to walk for almost an hour before we found a path that led up to the road. It came up on the east side of the river. Then we straggled back towards the dam. It was cold and windy on top. On one side, a big lake spread out, ringed by barren desert mountains. On the other side, the dam dropped away like the world’s most dangerous skateboard ramp, down to the river more than two hundred metres below, and water that churned from the dam’s vents.
Thalia walked in the middle of the road, far away from the edges. Grover kept sniffing the wind and looking nervous. He didn’t say anything, but I knew he smelled monsters.
‘How close are they?’ I asked him.
He shook his head. ‘Maybe not close. The wind on the dam, the desert all around us… the scent can probably carry for miles. But it’s coming from several directions. I don’t like that.’
I didn’t either. It was already Wednesday, only two days until winter solstice, and we still had a long way to go. We didn’t need any more monsters.
‘There’s a snack bar in the visitor centre,’ Thalia said.
‘You’ve been here before?’ I asked.
‘Once. To see the guardians.’ She pointed to the far end of the dam. Carved into the side of the cliff was a little plaza with two big bronze statues. They looked kind of like Oscar statues with wings.
‘They were dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built,’ Thalia said. ‘A gift from Athena.’
Tourists were clustered all around them. They seemed to be looking at the statues’ feet.
‘What are they doing?’ I asked.
‘Rubbing the toes,’ Thalia said. ‘They think it’s good luck.’
‘Why?’
She shook her head. ‘Mortals get crazy ideas. They don’t know the statues are sacred to Zeus, but they know there’s something special about them.’
‘When you were here last, did they talk to you or anything?’
Thalia’s expression darkened. I could tell that she’d come here before hoping for exactly that – some kind of sign from her dad. Some connection. ‘No. They don’t do anything. They’re just big metal statues.’
I thought about the last big metal statue we’d run into. That hadn’t gone so well. But I decided not to bring it up.
‘Let us find the dam snack bar,’ Zoë said. ‘We should eat while we can.’
Grover cracked a smile. ‘The dam snack bar?’
Zoë blinked. ‘Yes. What is funny?’
‘Nothing,’ Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. ‘I could use some dam French fries.’
Even Thalia smiled at that. ‘And I need to use the dam restroom.’
Maybe it was the fact that we were so tired and strung out emotionally, but I started cracking up, and Thalia and Grover joined in, while Zoë just looked at us. ‘I do not understand.’
‘I want to use the dam water fountain,’ Grover said.
‘And…’ Thalia tried to catch her breath. ‘I want to buy a dam T-shirt.’
I cracked up, and I probably would’ve kept laughing all day, but then I heard a noise:
‘Moooo.’
The smile melted off my face. I wondered if the noise was just in my head, but Grover had stopped laughing, too. He was looking around, confused. ‘Did I just hear a cow?’
‘A dam cow?’ Thalia laughed.
‘No,’ Grover said. ‘I’m serious.’
Zoë listened. ‘I hear nothing.’
Thalia was looking at me. ‘Percy, are you okay?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘You guys go ahead. I’ll be right in.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Grover asked.
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘I… I just need a minute. To think.’
They hesitated, but I guess I must’ve looked upset, because they finally went into the visitor centre without me. As soon as they were gone, I jogged to the north edge of the dam and looked over.
‘Moo.’
She was about ten metres below in the lake, but I could see her clearly: my friend from Long Island Sound, Bessie the cow serpent.
I looked around. There were groups of kids running along the dam. A lot of senior citizens. Some families. But nobody seemed to be paying Bessie any attention yet.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked her.
‘Moo!’
Her voice was urgent, like she was trying to warn me of something.
‘How did you get here?’ I asked. We were thousands of miles from Long Island, hundreds of miles inland. There was no way she could’ve swum all
Bessie swam in a circle and butted her head against the side of the dam. ‘Moo!’
She wanted me to come with her. She was telling me to hurry.
‘I can’t,’ I told her. ‘My friends are inside.’
She looked at me with her sad brown eyes. Then she gave one more urgent ‘Moo!,’ did a flip and disappeared into the water.
I hesitated. Something was wrong. She was trying to tell me that. I considered jumping over the side and following her, but then I tensed. The hairs on my arms bristled. I looked down the dam road to the east and I saw two men walking slowly towards me. They wore grey camouflage outfits that flickered over skeletal bodies.
They passed through a group of kids and pushed them aside. A kid yelled, ‘Hey!’ One of the warriors turned, his face changing momentarily into a skull.
‘Ah!’ the kid yelled, and his whole group backed away.
I ran for the visitor centre.
I was almost at the stairs when I heard tyres squeal. On the west side of the dam, a black van swerved to a stop in the middle of the road, nearly ploughing into some old people.
The van doors opened and more skeleton warriors piled out. I was surrounded.
I bolted down the stairs and through the museum entrance. The security guard at the metal-detector yelled, ‘Hey, kid!’ But I didn’t stop.
I ran through the exhibits and ducked behind a tour group. I looked for my friends, but I couldn’t see them anywhere. Where was the dam snack bar?
‘Stop!’ The metal detector guy yelled.
There was no place to go but into an elevator with the tour group. I ducked inside just as the door closed.
‘We’ll be going down two hundred and twenty-two metres,’ our tour guide said cheerfully. She was a park ranger, with long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and tinted glasses. I guess she hadn’t noticed that I was being chased. ‘Don’t worry, ladies and gentlemen, the elevator hardly ever breaks.’
‘Does this go to the snack bar?’ I asked her.
A few people behind me chuckled. The tour guide looked at me. Something about her gaze made my skin tingle.
‘To the turbines, young man,’ the lady said. ‘Weren’t you listening to my fascinating presentation upstairs?’
‘Oh, uh, sure. Is there another way out of the dam?’
‘It’s a dead end,’ a tourist behind me said. ‘For heaven’s sake. The only way out is the other elevator.’
The doors opened.
‘Go right ahead, folks,’ the tour guide told us. ‘Another ranger is waiting for you at the end of the corridor.’
I didn’t have much choice but to go out with the group.
‘And, young man,’ the tour guide called. I looked back. She’d taken off her glasses. Her eyes were startlingly grey, like storm clouds. ‘There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it.’
The doors closed with the tour guide still inside, leaving me alone.
Before I could think too much about the woman in the elevator, a ding came from round the corner. The second elevator was opening, and I heard an unmistakable sound – the clattering of skeleton teeth.
I ran after the tour group, through a tunnel carved out of solid rock. It seemed to run forever. The walls were moist, and the air hummed with electricity and the roar of water. I came out on a U-shaped balcony that overlooked this huge warehouse area. Fifteen metres below, enormous turbines were running. It was a big room, but I didn’t see any other exit, unless I wanted to jump into the turbines and get churned up to make electricity. I didn’t.
Another tour guide was talking over the microphone, telling the tourists about water supplies in Nevada. I prayed that Thalia, Zoë and Grover were okay. They might already be captured, or eating at the snack bar, completely unaware that we were being surrounded. And stupid me: I had trapped myself in a hole a couple of hundred metres below the surface.
I worked my way around the crowd, trying not to be too obvious about it. There was a hallway at the other side of the balcony – maybe some place I could hide. I kept my hand on Riptide, ready to strike.
By the time I got to the opposite side of the balcony, my nerves were shot. I backed into the little hallway and watched the tunnel I’d come from.
Then right behind me I heard a sharp Chhh! like the voice of a skeleton.
Without thinking, I uncapped Riptide and spun, slashing with my sword.
The girl I’d just tried to slice in half yelped and dropped her Kleenex.
‘Oh my god!’ she shouted. ‘Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?’
The first thing that went through my head was that the sword hadn’t hurt her. It had passed clean through her body, harmlessly. ‘You’re mortal!’
She looked at me in disbelief. ‘What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I’m mortal! How did you get that sword past security?’
‘I didn’t – Wait, you can see it’s a sword?’
The girl rolled her eyes, which were green like mine. She had frizzy reddish-brown hair. Her nose was also red, like she had a cold. She wore a big maroon Harvard sweatshirt and jeans that were covered with marker stains and little holes, like she spent her free time poking them with a fork.
‘Well, it’s either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world,’ she said. ‘And why didn’t it hurt me? I mean, not that I’m complaining. Who are you? And, whoa, what is that you’re wearing? Is that made of lion fur?’
She asked so many questions so fast, it was like she was throwing rocks at me. I couldn’t think of what to say. I looked at my sleeves to see if the Nemean Lion pelt had somehow changed back to fur, but it still looked like a brown winter coat to me.
I knew the skeleton warriors were still chasing me. I had no time to waste. But I just stared at the redheaded girl. Then I remembered what Thalia had done at Westover Hall to fool the teachers. Maybe I could manipulate the Mist.
I concentrated hard and snapped my fingers. ‘You don’t see a sword,’ I told the girl. ‘It’s just a ballpoint pen.’
She blinked. ‘Um… no. It’s a sword, weirdo.’
‘Who are you?’ I demanded.
She huffed indignantly. ‘Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now, are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?’
‘No!’ I said. ‘I mean, I’m kind of in a hurry. I’m in trouble.’
‘In a hurry or in trouble?’
‘Um, sort of both.’
She looked over my shoulder and her eyes widened. ‘Bathroom!’
‘What?’
‘Bathroom! Behind me! Now!’
I don’t know why, but I listened to her. I slipped inside the boy’s bathroom and left Rachel Elizabeth Dare standing outside. Later, that seemed cowardly to me. I’m also pretty sure it saved my life.
I heard the clattering, hissing sounds of skeletons as they came closer.
My grip tightened on Riptide. What was I thinking? I’d left a mortal girl out there to die. I was preparing to burst out and fight when Rachel Elizabeth Dare started talking in that rapid-fire machine gun way of hers.
‘Oh my god! Did you see that kid? It’s about time you got here. He tried to kill me! He had a sword, for god’s sake. You security guys let a sword-swinging lunatic inside a national landmark? I mean, jeez! He ran that way towards those turbine thingies. I think he went over the side or something. Maybe he fell.’
The skeletons clattered excitedly. I heard them moving off.
Rachel opened the door. ‘All clear. But you’d better hurry.’
She looked shaken. Her face was grey and sweaty.
I peeked round the corner. Three skeleton warriors were running towards the other end of the balcony. The way to the elevator was clear for a few seconds.
‘I owe you one, Rachel Elizabeth Dare.’
‘What are those things?’ she asked. ‘They looked like –’
‘Skeletons?’
She nodded uneasily.
‘Forget you tried to kill me?’
‘Yeah. That, too.’
‘But who are you?’
‘Percy –’ I started to say. Then the skeletons turned round. ‘Gotta go!’
‘What kind of name is Percy Gotta-go?’
I bolted for the exit.
The café was packed with kids enjoying the best part of the tour – the dam lunch. Thalia, Zoë and Grover were just sitting down with their food.
‘We need to leave,’ I gasped. ‘Now!’
‘But we just got our burritos!’ Thalia said.
Zoë stood up, muttering an Ancient Greek curse. ‘He’s right! Look.’
The café windows wrapped all the way round the observation floor, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the skeletal army that had come to kill us.
I counted two on the east side of the dam road, blocking the way to Arizona. Three more on the west side, guarding Nevada. All of them were armed with batons and pistols.
But our immediate problem was a lot closer. The three skeleton warriors who’d been chasing me in the turbine room now appeared on the stairs. They saw me from across the cafeteria and clattered their teeth.
‘Elevator!’ Grover said. We bolted in that direction, but the doors opened with a pleasant ding, and three more warriors stepped out. Every warrior was accounted for, minus the one Bianca had blasted to flames in New Mexico. We were completely surrounded.
Then Grover had a brilliant, totally Grover-like idea.
‘Burrito fight!’ he yelled, and flung his Guacamole Grande at the nearest skeleton.
Now, if you have never been hit by a flying burrito, count yourself lucky. In terms of deadly projectiles, it’s right up there with grenades and cannonballs. Grover’s lunch hit the skeleton and knocked his skull clean off his shoulders. I’m not sure what the other kids in the café saw, but they went crazy and started throwing their burritos and baskets of chips and sodas at each other, shrieking and screaming.
The skeletons tried to aim their guns, but it was hopeless. Bodies and food and drinks were flying everywhere.
In the chaos, Thalia and I tackled the other two skeletons on the stairs and sent them flying into the condiment table. Then we all raced downstairs, Guacamole Grandes whizzing past our heads.