Annabeth Chase and the Staff of Hermes

Part 5 - I win the ultimate grabber-arm game

The crane was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.

I sat at the controls and stared at them, not knowing which one to pull first. The grabber-arm at Coney Island only had two buttons. This had just a few more.

Turning the engine on was a good start I decided. Fortunately the key was in the ignition, which would have been a problem if it hadn't been. I turned it and the machine coughed into life.

Before I started to press anything else, I tried to see how Percy was doing with Cacus when I spotted another problem. The crane was at a lower level than the rest of the park, a large railing between myself and where I'd left Percy. I couldn't see him by looking out of the cockpit.

Then I spotted mirrors on the arm of the crane, all reflecting a different area. They looked like the rear-view mirrors in cars. In one of them, I saw Percy with his back to me, Cacus trying to zap him with a credit-card-swiper.

Satisfied that Percy wasn't dead yet, I turned my attention back to the controls. There were a few buttons, but mostly there were levers, a whole row of them. I ignored the buttons, some instinct in me gravitating to the levers. But which one?

"Here goes nothing," I muttered to myself and grabbed one.

Athena must have guided my hand as the crane began to swing around in the direction I wanted. It must have been well oiled too as it made next to no sound.

Looking back at the mirrors, I saw Percy watching me, our eyes meeting. He was holding the caduceus, although how he got it I had no idea. I flashed a smile at him as I positioned the claw right above Cacus.

"Bombs away," I said, grabbing another lever.

The claw dropped, hitting Cacus right in the head and knocking him to the ground. He fell heavily and as he lay dazed, I lowered the claw a bit more and scooped him up. The points closed around his chest and I rugged the lever to bring him up.

He started to struggle but the claw was too tight, pinning one of his arms down. Another lever and the arm began to swing, me tugging different levers as I went back and forth. I could feel the crane threatening to tip, but I held it steady, building up momentum.

With a final swing, I released the claw at the top of arc, sending Cacus sailing high in the air, screaming like a little girl. I thought he was going to crash into the Hudson River when a beam of blue light hit him and he disintegrated into a shower of dirty sand.

I looked back at Percy to see he held a bazooka, which I couldn't help but admit was pretty hot.

I turned off the machine and hopped out, making it to the steps of park before Percy met me. I grinned at him, holding my arms out triumphantly.

"Was that amazing?" I demanded.

"That was amazing," he said, grabbing me and kissing me. We were both still covered in muck and Hades knows what else, but at that moment, I couldn't care less.

Percy pulled away first and said the last thing I thought he would, "Rats."

"Rats?" I asked.

"For the snakes. And then -"

"Oh gods," I interrupted, catching sight of how low the sun was. I pulled out my phone to check. "It's almost five we have to get the caduceus back to Hermes!"

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We took the subway because I doubted any taxi would take us in our current state. Besides, the subway had rats, which George and Martha took care of.