La Vie en Rose // Percy Jackson

ix. percy becomes a known fugitive

Annabeth, Grover and I looked around for Percy. I'd like to say I was calm, but between my panic attack and worrying about Percy, don't you dare tell him or my mother that, I was pretty far from being calm.

Every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded us of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

"But he's dry!"

"That's nice, dear."

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

"...an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities..."

I almost lost hope of finding Percy when Grover bleated, "Perrr-cy!"

Percy turned and he got tackled by Grover's bear hug - or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

Annabeth and I stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even we were relieved to see him. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I sort of fell," Percy said.

"Percy!" I cried. "Six hundred and thirty feet?"

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw Percy. "There he is! That's the boy!"

Percy turned quickly and pulled me, Annabeth and Grover after him. We disappeared into the crowd. "What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"

Percy told us the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, his high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

Before Annabeth or I could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and Percy almost froze in his tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fit the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

"First things first," Percy told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"

Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.