JAWBREAKER

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙚𝙣

Great, Percy thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow. He imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.

"You owe me one more thing," Percy told Ares, looking back at him and trying to keep his voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

Percy suddenly felt dizzy. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept. Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

"Nobody's controlling me."

He laughed. "Oh yeah? Later, kid."

Percy balled up his fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. Percy felt a hot wind in his hair.

"We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

He turned to Warren and revved his Harley. "If that punk tries anything slick, bash his head in. Catch ya 'round, Ren."

Then Ares roared off down Delancy Street.

"That was not smart, Percy," Annabeth said.

"I don't care."

"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not my dad," Warren said, still feeling uneasy in the wake of seeing her father.

"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but..."

He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."

Warren didn't like the idea of Vegas, but they had no better option. Besides, she'd seen enough of Denver.

They ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind them.

The first thing that hit her was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.
The trailer was dark inside until Percy uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene.

Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals Warren had ever seen: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing she didn't know the name for.

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!

Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and Warren would've helped him, but just then the truck's engine roared to life. The trailer started shaking, and they were forced to sit down or fall down.