THE WAR GOD was waiting for them in the diner parking lot.
"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."
"You knew it was a trap," Percy accused.
Ares gave him a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."
Percy shoved the shield at the god. "You're a jerk."
Annabeth and Grover caught their breath. Naomi not so subtly shifted to stand behind Annabeth.
Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.
"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."
The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back that read: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.
Percy said, "You're kidding."
Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."
He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it at Percy.
Percy glared at the god. "I don't want your lousy—"
"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving Percy his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."
Percy reluctantly slung the backpack over his shoulder. "You owe me one more thing," he told Ares. "You promised me information about my mother."
"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead.
Percy's glare all but melted off of his face. "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," Ares said. "Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."
"Nobody's controlling me," Percy argued.
Ares laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."
Percy's hands clenched into fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."
Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."
He revved his Harley, then 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 that god."
"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but..."
He pointed toward the diner. At the cash register, the last two customers were paying their bill—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."
They ran across the road and climbed into the back of the big lorry, closing the doors behind them.
❊
The Kindness International truck seemed to be running low on the kindness.
The trailer was dark inside until Percy uncapped his sword. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three pitiful zoo animals: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing.
Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he understandably didn't want anything to do with. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a polystyrene 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 silver birthday balloon tied to one of 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 Naomi would've been happy to help, but just then the truck's engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and they were forced to sit down or fall down.
They huddled in the corner of some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at them sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but Percy pointed out that it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving.
Naomi found a water jug and refilled their bowls. Percy used his swords to drag the mismatched food out of their cages, giving the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.
Grover calmed the antelope down while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but with the truck bumping around, it was too risky. They told Grover to promise the animals they'd help them more in the morning, then they settled in for the night.
Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened the bag of Double Stuf Oreos from Ares's backpack and split one with Naomi.
It was June fourteenth. She hadn't realized it until now, but her fourteenth birthday was in ten days.
Naomi hardly ever gave her birthday much thought—having a summer birthday was only fun when you could throw pool parties. St. Monica's had no pool, and even if they did, the nuns wouldn't have let her throw a pool party. Who would she have even invited? The other kids at the orphanage? Percy?
She wondered if her godly parent would reach out. It was a stupid, wishful thought, but she couldn't help but think it. A small part of her hoped maybe her godly parent was holding off on claiming her until her birthday, to make it special in a way.
Or maybe her godly parent didn't even know her birthday.
Somehow that seemed more likely.
"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park."
"That's okay," Percy said.
"It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders."
"Because of the Arachne story," Percy guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"
Annabeth nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."
"We're a team, remember?" Percy said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."
Naomi thought he was already asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"
Naomi, Annabeth, and Percy laughed.
Annabeth pulled apart another Oreo, handing Percy half. "In the Iris message... did Luke really say nothing?"
Percy hesitated, munching on his cookie in silence. "Luke said you and he go way back," he finally said. "He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."
Grover let out a mournful bray. "I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."
"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus," Percy said quietly.
Naomi frowned, confused, but kept quiet. She'd always been pretty good at figuring stuff out from context clues.
Grover nodded glumly.
"And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp..." Percy looked over Naomi's head at Annabeth. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?"
Annabeth put down her Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Percy, an eight-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were... amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."
"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought... I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker..."
"Stop it," Annabeth said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either."
"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably. "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."
"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" Percy said. "That's not fair."
"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says."
Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."
"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now."
She reached over Naomi's head to flick him in the shoulder.
"Yeah," Percy said, shooting her a brief glare. "It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."
There was a deep, satisfied sigh. Soon, Grover was snoring.
"How does he do that?" Percy marveled.
"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But that was a really nice thing you told him."
"I meant it."
They rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at Percy hopefully.
Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.
"That pine-tree bead," Naomi said. "Is that from your first year?"
Annabeth looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing.
"Yeah," she said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer..."
"And the college ring is your father's?" Percy asked curiously.
"That's none of your—" She stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."
"You don't have to tell us," Naomi offered gently.
"No... it's okay." Annabeth took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her... That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Naomi said.
"Yeah, well... the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."
"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?" Percy asked.
Annabeth didn't look at either of them. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."
"You shouldn't give up," Percy told her. "You should write him a letter or something."
"Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."
They passed another few miles in silence.
"So, if the gods fight," Percy said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"
Annabeth put her head against the backpack Ares had given them, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you guys."
"Why?"
"Because you're my friends, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"
She didn't give Percy a chance to come up with one. She was asleep in seconds.
Naomi wished she could say the same, but like most nights, sleep fought with a vengeance.
She gave up after two hours, and stayed awake, keeping watch in the dingy zoo transport trailer, and trying to ignore the lion's hungry eyes.
❊
After a long, sleepless night, Naomi was startled into action when the truck came to a stop.
As soon as she heard the sound of a door opening, she shook her companions awake. "We stopped. I think they're coming to check on the animals."
Everyone jumped into adrenaline-fueled action.
"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.
Easy for her to say. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Naomi, Grover, and Percy had to dive behind feed sacks and hope they looked enough like turnips not to rouse suspicion.
The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.
"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.
"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.
The lion roared in indignation.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.
Grover tensed under the turnip sacks. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.
The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin, Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"
The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at Percy.
There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.
The trucker inside with Naomi and her companions yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"
A voice outside—Eddie's, Naomi assumed—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"
"What are you banging for?"
Knock, knock, knock.
Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"
Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.
A second later, Annabeth appeared next to Percy. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. She said, "This transport business can't be legal."
"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers! We've got to free them!"
He, Naomi, and Annabeth both looked at Percy, waiting for his lead.
Percy looked at them, then at the zebra, then at the trailer doors. Finally, he took out his sword and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.
The zebra burst out. It turned to Percy and... bowed?
Grover held his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.
Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. Naomi and her companions rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs.
They'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.
The truckers ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"
"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.
"The other animals first," Grover said.
Percy cut the locks with his sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.
"Good luck," Percy told the animals.
The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.
Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.
"Will the animals be okay?" Percy asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all—"
"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."
Naomi blinked. "And... that means...?"
"It means they'll reach the wild safely," he explained. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need to find a safe place to live."
"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" Percy asked.
"It only works on wild animals."
"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.
Naomi didn't even try to hide her laugh
"Hey!" Percy protested.
"Kidding," Annabeth said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."
❊