Miss Quinn

49 ~ Meeting With Luke... Again

Annabeth volunteered to go alone since she had the cap of invisibility, but Percy and Emma convinced her it was too dangerous. Either they all went together, or nobody went.

"Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?"

But in the end he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. The four stopped at their room long enough to gather their stuff. They figured whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if it did have million-dollar bingo.

Percy made sure Riptide was in his pocket and the vitamins and thermos from Hermes were at the top of his bag. Emma didn't want Tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and Annabeth told her not to worry about it. Tyson could carry four full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as Emma could carry a backpack.

The four sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. They hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people they saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved everyone into a supply closet.

Emma heard a couple of guys coming down the hall.

"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.

The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome."

Annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed Emma's arm hard. She got a feeling she should know that second guy's voice.
"I hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man—no contest!" The voices faded down the corridor.

"That was Chris Rodriguez!" Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible. "You remember— from Cabin Eleven."

Emma sort of recalled Chris from the summer before. He was one of those undetermined campers who got stuck in the Hermes cabin because his Olympian dad or mom never claimed him. Now that she thought about it, Emma realized I hadn't seen Chris at camp this summer.

"What's another half-blood doing here?" Annabeth shook her head, clearly troubled. They kept going down the corridor. Emma didn't need maps anymore to know she was getting close to Luke. She sensed something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil. Emma regretted leaving their room. She didn't want to see Luke again after her dream.

"Emma, Percy." Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look." She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade—a mall full of shops— but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention. A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures—humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.

"Scythian Dracaenae," Annabeth whispered. "Dragon women." The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. A lump formed in Emma's throat when she realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.
As they watched, the guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled. Annabeth stepped away from the window. Her face was ashen.

"Come on," Emma told her. "The sooner we find Luke the better." Though, really, Emma didn't think it was.

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When they were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped.