chapter eighteen; Swear on Archimedes
JINX SMILED widely when Leo managed to click the door open.
"That, good people, is how we do things in Leo World. Come on in!" Leo boasted.
"I hate Leo World." Frank muttered.
Jinx patted him on the back, moving forward. "I love Leo World."
"Of course you do, everyone does." Leo grinned, putting an arm around her shoulder.
She rolled her eyes and shoved his arm off and looked at the room. Inside was a bunch of different things that Jinx couldn't dream of knowing how to use. The room was filled with many trinkets littering the entire room, from countertops to scattered around the ground.
Leo walked up to a manikin armored in full Roman gear. "Dude, these would be so awesome if they worked."
"Thank the gods they don't." Jinx shivered. She did not want to see manikins start moving all of a sudden, it wasn't on her bucket list.
"Those things are going to come alive and attack us, aren't they?" Frank backed away.
Jinx couldn't blame him for questioning it. Her overthinking was over the roof just looking at them. Those armored manikins could definitely take her on a one-on-one fight.
"Not a chance. They aren't complete." Leo laughed, tapping the manikin's neck. "Look, the head's wiring has been disconnected. And here, at the elbow, the pulley system for this joint is out of alignment. My guess? The Romans were trying to duplicate a Greek design, but they didn't have the skill."
There he goes again, Jinx sighed.
"The Romans weren't good enough at being complicated, I suppose." Hazel said.
"Or delicate," Frank added. "Or sophisticated."
"Hey, I just call it like I see it." Leo moved around the manikin's head, making it bob up and down. "Still...a pretty impressive try. I've heard legends that the Romans confiscated the writings of Archimedes, but—"
"Archimedes?" Hazel looked baffled. "Wasn't he an ancient mathematician or something?"
"Ancient mathematician? I thought he was an astronomer?" Jinx asked, poking around at the table.
Leo laughed. "He was a lot more than that. He was only the most famous son of Hephaestus who ever lived."
Frank scratched his ear. "I've heard his name before, but how can you be sure this manikin is his design?"
"It has to be!" Leo exclaimed. "Look, I've read all about Archimedes. He's a hero to Cabin Nine. The dude was Greek, right? He lived in one of the Greek colonies in southern Italy, back before Rome got all huge and took over. Finally the Romans moved in and destroyed his city. The Roman general wanted to spare Archimedes, because he was so valuable—sort of like the Einstein of the ancient world—but some stupid Roman soldier killed him."
"There you go again." Hazel and Jinx muttered.
"Stupid and Roman don't always go together, Leo." Hazel reminded.
Leo nodded absentmindedly while Frank agreed. "How do you know all of this anyways?" He asked, "is there some Spanish tourist guide down here?"
"No, man." Leo kept playing with the manikin. "You can't be a demigod who's into building stuff and not know about Archimedes. The guy was seriously elite. He calculated the value of pi. He did all this math stuff we still use for engineering. He invented a hydraulic screw that could move water through pipes."
Jinx's head hurt just thinking about the things Archimedes invented or discovered. She didn't think she'd ever have to retain this type of information in her life and put it to use.
"A hydraulic screw. Excuse me for not knowing about that awesome achievement." Hazel said in annoyance.
"He also built a death ray made of mirrors that could burn enemy ships," Leo said. "Is that awesome enough for you?"
"I saw something about that on TV," Frank admitted.
"I don't watch tv." Jinx shrugged. She preferred to spend her downtime sleeping. Her best solution to most things. Taking naps to ignore the world.
"They proved it didn't work." Frank added.
"Ah, that's just because modern mortals don't know how to use Celestial bronze," Leo said. "That's the key. Archimedes also invented a massive claw that could swing on a crane and pluck enemy ships out of the water."
"Okay, that's cool," Frank admitted. "I love grabber-arm games."
"Well, there you go," Leo said. "Anyway, all his inventions weren't enough. The Romans destroyed his city. Archimedes was killed. According to legends, the Roman general was a big fan of his work, so he raided Archimedes's workshop and carted a bunch of souvenirs back to Rome. They disappeared from history, except..." Leo waved his hands at the stuff on the tables. "Here they are."
"Metal basketballs?" Hazel asked.
Jinx jabbed one and quickly retracted her arm, thinking it would explode. But it didn't.
"Guys, Archimedes constructed spheres. The Romans couldn't figure them out. They thought they were just for telling time or following constellations, because they were covered with pictures of stars and planets. But that's like finding a rifle and thinking it's a walking stick."
"Leo, the Romans were top-notch engineers," Hazel reminded him. "They built aqueducts, roads—"
"Siege weapons," Frank added. "Public sanitation."
Jinx felt lost in the entire conversation. Normally, she enjoyed not being a part of the conversation, but right now? She felt like she was being one-upped by the three demigods in the room. Even though she spent time at Camp Jupiter, Jinx wasn't Roman so she couldn't talk about what the Romans excelled at. And she had no real idea who Archimedes was, so when Leo looked at her with an exasperated expression and gestured towards their fellow Roman companions, Jinx shrugged.
She wanted to help out in whatever he was trying to explain, but Jinx had no clue where he was getting at.
"Yeah, fine," Leo said. "But Archimedes was in a class by himself. His spheres could do all sorts of things, only nobody is sure..."
Leo trailed off, his expression changing and his entire attitude shifting into a more positive direction. His nose even burst into flames.
Jinx flinched at the sudden flame. "You have got to get a handle on that."
"I'm working on it." He said, moving towards a roll of cubbyholes with a purposeful stride. Leo examined the scroll cases, "oh gods. This is it!"
He carefully lifted one of the scrolls up, "Guys, this is the lost book!" His hands were shaking. "Archimedes wrote this, describing his construction methods, but all the copies were lost in ancient times. If I can translate this..."
Jinx was horrible at "reading the room", or telling how a person was feeling, but she could sense the excitement radiating off of him.
"The secrets of Archimedes," he murmured. "Guys, this is bigger than Daedalus's laptop. If there's a Roman attack on Camp Half-Blood, these secrets could save the camp. They might even give us an edge over Gaea and the giants!"
Jinx noticed the glance Hazel and Frank shared, and wondered if they were really on their side. From what Jinx's seen, it wasn't odd for Greeks and Romans to be at each other's throats. She subconsciously moved to stand next to Leo. Jinx was just being cautious.
"Okay," Hazel said. "We didn't come here for a scroll, but I guess we can take it with us."
"Assuming," Frank added, "that you don't mind sharing its secrets with us stupid uncomplicated Romans."
"What?" Leo stared at him blankly. "No. Look, I didn't mean to insult— Ah, never mind. The point is this is good news!"
"Maybe this was left down here for a good reason." She suggested.
Leo stared at her for a moment before answering.
"Yeah! For me to find it. This is great."
On the table next to Hazel and Frank, one of the orbs clicked and whirred. A row of spindly legs extended from its equator. The orb stood, and two bronze cables shot out of the top, hitting Hazel and Frank like Taser wires.
Leo lunged to help them, but the impossible was suddenly possible.
"I thought you said those couldn't move." Jinx moved away from the manikins that had started moving on their own, raising their swords and stepping towards them.
"They shouldn't be able to." He said, his voice sounding like it went on autopilot.
"You cannot escape us, Leo Valdez," it said. "We do not like possessing machines, but they are better than tourists. You will not leave here alive."
Jinx closed her eyes hard, This can't be real.
"Fuck." She whispered, grabbing at her chest.
A panic attack was least useful in a situation like this. Another reason why she makes a horrible demigod.
Leo rose, scrambling away from the manikins and rushing to her. He grabbed her arm lightly, making her eyes shoot open.
"It's going to be fine. We got this." Leo said. But it sounded like fake encouragement.
"No. No we do not."
Jinx focused on calming her racing heartbeat and tried to think about the good things. How Leo was so excited about what big discovery they found in this room. When Frank joined in on singing the Kim Possible theme song.
But she kept reverting back to their current problem.
She tried to stay where she was and not freak out enough to the point where she froze time. But she opened her eyes and Leo was looking around in shock.
"Did- did you just..." He pointed to everything around him.
Jinx couldn't answer.
Her heart was in her throat and despite not doing anything, she was sweating like crazy.
"Hey. I'll make sure none of us die." Leo said, attempting to get over his initial shock at time being stuck in one spot. "I swear it on Archimedes' scrolls."