𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐄𝐍𝐃! percy jackson ²

xxxix. A Sleeping City

Percy stared at her. "When did you learn so much about magic?"

She blushed. "I don't spend all my time in the wardrobe."

"Percy," called Annabeth, who was still looking at the shield. "You better see this."

Cain, Percy and I all looked over her shoulder. The bronze image showd Long Island Sound near La Guardia, where a fleet of a dozen speedboats raced through the dark water towards Manhattan. Each boat was packed with demigods in full Greek armour. At the back of the lead boat, a purple banner amblazoned with a black scythe flapped in the night wind: Kronos.

"Scan the preminter of the island," said Percy. "Quick."

She shifted the scene to the harbour, and a Staten Island ferry was ploughing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hellhounds. Swimming in front of the ship was a pod of marine mammals━telkhines. Once again, the scene shifted, showing the Jersey shore right at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. A hundred assorted monsters were marching past the lanes of stopped traffic━giants, Cyclopes, fire-spitting dragons, and a World War Two-era Sherman tank, pushing cars out of its way as it rumbled into the tunnel.

"Wait, what's happening with the mortals outside Manhattan?" asked Cain. "Is the whole state asleep?"

Annabeth frowned. "I don't think so, but it's strange. As far as I can tell from these pictures, Manhattan is totally asleep. Then there's, like, a fifty-mile radius around the island where time is running really, really slow. The closer you get to Manhattan, the slower it is."

She showed us another scene: of a New Jersey highway. The drivers all looked awake, driving through the traffic, but the cars were moving at one mile per hour. Birds around them flew in slow motion.

"Kronos," said Percy. "he's slowing time."

"Hecate might be helping," Katie said. "Look how the cars are all veering away from the Manhattan exits like they're getting a subconscious message to turn back."

"I don't know," Annabeth muttered, frustrated. She hated not knowing. "But somehow they've surrounded Manhattan in layers of magic. The outside world might not even realise something is wrong. Any mortals coming towards Manhattan will slow down so much they won't know what's happening."

"Like flies in amber," Jake Mason sighed.

Annabeth nodded, "We shouldn't expect any help coming in."

Percy turned to us━most of the campers looked stunned and scared, and I couldn't blame them, because so was I. That shield ... it showed at least three hundred enemies on the way, far more than we could take on. "All right," he said. "We're going to hold Manhattan."

Silena tugged at her armour nervously. "Um, Percy. Manhattan is huge."

"We are going to hold it," he said. "We have to."

"He's right," I said, giving him a nod. "The gods of the wind should keep Kronos's forces away from Olympus by air, which means he's going to try a ground assault. We have to cut off the entrances to the island."

"They have boats," pointed out Dean.

Percy met his gaze, and a wash of realisation hit him. "I'll take care of the boats."

"How?"

"Just leave it to me. We need to guard the bridges and tunnels. Let's assume they'll try a midtown or downtown assault, atleast on their first try. That would be the most direct way to the Empire State Building. Michael, take Apollo's cabin to the Williamsburg Bridge. Katie, Demeter's cabint akes the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Grow thorn bushes and poison ivy in the tunnel. Do whatever you have to do━but keep them out of there! Connor━take half of Hermes cabin and cover the Manhattan Bridge. Travis, you take the other half and cover the Brooklyn Bridge. And no stopping for looting or pillaging!"