When they got back onto the ship, Frank having flown them, he ran off to get Leo to take off while the rest of them lay on the deck. Gleeson's shoes were gone as he muttered 'Awesome,' over and over again as Percy was hugging Cressida. The girl was soaking wet and shivering as she was covered in scratches like Percy, but Percy just looked extremely dizzy as Annabeth crouched by them, and he grabbed her shoulder weakly in an attempt to steady himself.
Leo, Piper, and Jason, who'd been eating in the mess hall, came rushing up the stairs.
"What? What?" Leo cried, holding a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. "Can't a guy even take a lunch break? What's wrong?"
"Followed!" Frank yelled again.
"Followed by what?" Jason asked.
"I don't know!" Frank panted. "Whales? Sea monsters? Maybe Kate and Porky!"
Annabeth looked like she wanted to strangle the guy because of his inability to form a sentence. "That makes absolutely no sense. Leo, you'd better get us out of here."
Leo put his sandwich between his teeth, pirate style, and ran for the helm.
"Piper, Hazel, get the med-kit and a blanket and towel for Cress. Jason come with me," Annabeth ordered as they followed her instructions.
She and Jason manned the aft crossbows, waiting for pursuit of creatures that never came.
Hazel had fed Percy some ambrosia that closed up most of his wounds while Piper tried to dry off Cressida and warm her up after getting some nectar down her throat.
"Charleston," Percy panted. He still sounded pretty shaken up. "Set course for Charleston."
"Charleston?" Jason said the name as if it brought back bad memories as he and Annabeth came back. "What exactly did you find in Atlanta?"
Frank unzipped his backpack and started bringing out souvenirs. "Some peach preserves. A couple of T-shirts. A snow globe. And, um, these not-really-Chinese handcuffs."
Annabeth forced herself to stay calm. "How about you start from the top—of the story, not the backpack."
They gathered on the quarterdeck so Leo could hear the conversation as he navigated. And despite the fact that Cressida was still annoyed at him for the whole Nico thing, Percy still forced her to stand by him as Leo warmed her up, the colour already coming back to her skin as he held her hand.
Percy and Frank took turns relating what had happened at the Georgia Aquarium, with Coach Hedge interjecting from time to time: "That was awesome!" or "Then I kicked her in the head!"
And then he crushed Cressida in a hug as he went on about how she bravely used the switchblade he gave her to free them.
On the bright side, at least he'd forgotten about Cressida and Percy sleeping in the same bed.
When Percy explained about the captive sea creatures in the aquarium, everyone else understood why he was so upset.
"That's terrible," Annabeth said. "We need to help them."
"We will," Percy promised. "In time. But I have to figure out how. I wish..." He shook his head. "Never mind. First, we have to deal with this bounty on our heads."
Coach Hedge had lost interest in the conversation—probably because it was no longer about him—and wandered toward the bow of the ship, practising his roundhouse kicks and complimenting himself on his technique.
Annabeth gripped the hilt of her dagger. "A bounty on our heads... as if we didn't attract enough monsters already."
"Do we get WANTED posters?" Leo asked. "And do they have our bounties, like, broken down on a price list?"
Hazel wrinkled her nose. "What are you talking about?"
"Just curious how much I'm going for these days," Leo said. "I mean, I can understand not being as pricey as Percy or Jason, maybe, and Hephaestus knows I'm not as pricey as Cressida... but am I worth, like, two Franks, or three Franks?"
"Hey!" Frank complained.
"Knock it off," Annabeth ordered. "At least we know our next step is to go to Charleston, to find this map."
Piper leaned against the control panel. "A map to what?"
"The Mark of Athena," Cressida answered, her first words in a while as she met Annabeth's eyes, no one able to understand what passed between the two girls.
"Whatever it is," Percy interjected, thinking that this must have something to do with Annabeth's visit with her mother while he was missing. "We know it leads to something important in Rome, something that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks."
"The giants' bane," Hazel added.
Percy nodded. "And in my dream, the twin giants said something about a statue."
"Um..." Frank rolled his not-exactly-Chinese handcuffs between his fingers. "According to Phorcys, we'd have to be insane to try to find it. But what is it?"
Everyone looked at Annabeth, the gears turning in her brain. She noticed Jason studying her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking and didn't like it any more than she did. Again, she couldn't help but wonder: Why does this guy make me so nervous? Is he really on my side? Or maybe that was her mom talking....
"I—I'm close to an answer," she said. "I'll know more if we find this map. Jason, the way you reacted to the name Charleston...have you been there before?"
Jason glanced uneasily at Piper and when he spoke, they understood why.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Reyna and I did a quest there about a year ago. We were salvaging Imperial gold weapons from the C.S.S. Hunley."
"The what?" Piper asked.
"Whoa!" Leo said. "That's the first successful military submarine. From the Civil War. I always wanted to see that."
"It was designed by Roman demigods," Jason said. "It held a secret stash of Imperial gold torpedoes—until we rescued them and brought them back to Camp Jupiter."
Hazel crossed her arms. "So the Romans fought on the Confederate side? As a girl whose grandmother was a slave, can I just say...not cool?"
Jason put his hands in front of him, palms up. "I personally was not alive then. And it wasn't all Greeks on one side and all Romans on the other. But, yes. Not cool. Sometimes demigods make bad choices." He looked sheepishly at Hazel. "Like sometimes we're too suspicious. And we speak without thinking."
Hazel stared at him. Slowly it seemed to dawn on her that he was apologizing.
Cressida rolled her eyes as Jason elbowed Leo and she moved away from where Piper had finished cleaning some of the cuts on her arms. "Idiots," she muttered as Percy wrapped his arms around her, Cressida wrapping her blanket around him.
"Ow!" Leo yelped. "I mean, yeah...bad choices. Like not trusting people's brothers who, you know, might need saving. Hypothetically speaking."
Hazel pursed her lips. "Fine. Back to Charleston. Are you saying we should check that submarine again?"
Jason shrugged. "Well...I can think of two places in Charleston we might search. The museum where they keep the Hunley—that's one of them. It has a lot of relics from the Civil War. A map could be hidden in one. I know the layout. I could lead a team inside."
"I'll go," Leo said. "That sounds cool."
Jason nodded. He turned to Frank, who was trying to pull his fingers out of the Chinese handcuffs. "You should come too, Frank. We might need you."
Frank looked surprised. "Why? Not like I was much good at that aquarium."
"Are you kidding?" Cressida said. "You were more of a help than I was. I would've drowned if not for you two boys."
"You did great," Percy agreed as his grip on Cressida tightened. "You helped save Cress and it took all of us to break that glass."
"Besides, you're a child of Mars," Jason said. "The ghosts of defeated causes are bound to serve you. And the museum in Charleston has plenty of Confederate ghosts. We'll need you to keep them in line."
Frank gulped before a determined look lit up his face. "Okay." Frank relented. "Sure." He frowned at his fingers, trying to pull them out of the trap. "Uh, how do you—?"
Leo chuckled. "Man, you've never seen those before? There's a simple trick to getting out."
Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel was trying not to laugh.
Frank grimaced with concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared.
On the deck where he'd been standing, a green iguana crouched next to an empty set of Chinese handcuffs.
"Well done, Frank Zhang," Leo said dryly, doing his impression of Chiron the centaur. "That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas."
Everyone's lungs almost popped with how hard they broke out laughing.
Frank turned back to human, picked up the handcuffs, and shoved them in his backpack. He managed an embarrassed smile. "Anyway," Frank said, clearly anxious to change the subject. "The museum is one place to search. But, uh, Jason, you said there were two?"
Jason's smile faded.
"Yeah," he said. "The other place is called the Battery—it's a park right by the harbour. The last time I was there...with Reyna..." He glanced at Piper, then rushed on. "We saw something in the park. A ghost or some sort of spirit, like a Southern belle from the Civil War, glowing and floating along. We tried to approach it, but it disappeared whenever we got close. Then Reyna had this feeling—she said she should try it alone. Like maybe it would only talk to a girl. She went up to the spirit by herself, and sure enough, it spoke to her."
Everyone waited.
"What did it say?" Annabeth asked.
"Reyna wouldn't tell me," Jason admitted. "But it must have been important. She seemed...shaken up. Maybe she got a prophecy or some bad news. Reyna never acted the same around me after that."
"Alright," Cressida sighed, seeming reluctant to voice whatever she was about to say. "I can lead whatever team goes after the ghost. I can't be possessed, and I'll be able to force the spirit out if it tries to possess anyone else."
That seemed to make Annabeth feel a whole lot better as she walked over to her friend who eagerly left Percy's arms as she linked hers with Annabeth. "A girls' adventure, then," Annabeth said. "Piper and Hazel can come with me and Cress."
Both nodded, though Hazel looked nervous. No doubt her time in the Underworld had given her enough ghost experiences for two lifetimes. She did feel a little better with Cressida's presence though.
Cressida then looked back at Percy. This would be their first time apart since they got back together but after his experience with the sea creatures he could use the rest.
Both of them seemed nervous before Percy leaned down to peck her lips which were dry and tasted of saltwater. "Come back to me," he said, and she gave him a small smile.
"So long as you do the same."
"So that's settled." Annabeth turned to Leo, who was studying his console, listening to Festus creak and click over the intercom. "Leo, how long until we reach Charleston?"
"Good question," he muttered. "Festus just detected a large group of eagles behind us—long-range radar, still not in sight."
Piper leaned over the console. "Are you sure they're Roman?"
Leo rolled his eyes. "No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course, they're Roman! I suppose we could turn the ship around and fight—"
"Which would be a very bad idea," Jason said, "and remove any doubt that we're enemies of Rome."
"Or I've got another idea," Leo said. "If we went straight to Charleston, we could be there in a few hours. But the eagles would overtake us, and things would get complicated. Instead, we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles. We take the ship on a detour, go the long way to Charleston, and get there tomorrow morning—" Hazel started to protest, but Leo raised his hand. "I know, I know. Nico's in trouble and we have to hurry."
"It's June twenty-seventh," Hazel said. "After today, four more days. Then he dies."
"I know! But this might throw the Romans off our trail. We still should have enough time to reach Rome."
Hazel scowled. "When you say should have enough..."
Leo shrugged. "How do you feel about barely enough?"
Hazel put her face in her hands for a count of three. "Sounds about typical for us."
"Story of our damn lives," Cressida huffed, Percy and Annabeth nodding in agreement.
Annabeth decided to take that as a green light. "Okay, Leo. What kind of decoy are we talking about?"
"I'm so glad you asked!" He punched a few buttons on the console, rotated the turntable, and repeatedly pressed the A button on his Wii controller really, really fast. He called into the intercom, "Buford? Report for duty, please."
Frank took a step back. "There's somebody else on the ship? Who is Buford?"
A puff of steam shot from the stairwell, and Leo's automatic table climbed on deck.
He was a three-legged table with a mahogany top. His bronze base had several drawers, spinning gears, and a set of steam vents. Buford was toting a bag like a mail sack tied to one of his legs. He clattered to the helm and made a sound like a train whistle.
"This is Buford," Leo announced.
"You name your furniture?" Frank asked.
Leo snorted. "Man, you just wish you had furniture this cool. Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?"
"Oh my gods! Did you come up with that name?" Percy exclaimed as he turned to his girlfriend with an amused smirk on his face.
"You know I'm good at the name game. Oh, that reminds me! Books. Look at the fish, Fish Face gave me. Well, after I told him to," Cressida said as she held up her bracelet to let Annabeth see the charm and Percy just rolled his eyes as Piper and Hazel smiled at the scene.
Buford spewed steam. He stepped to the railing. His mahogany top split into four pie slices, which elongated into wooden blades. The blades spun, and Buford took off.
"A helicopter table," Percy muttered. "Gotta admit, that's cool. What's in the bag?"
"Dirty demigod laundry," Leo said. "I hope you don't mind, Frank."
Frank choked. "What?"
"It'll throw the eagles off our scent."
"Those were my only extra pants!"
Leo shrugged. "I asked Buford to get them laundered and folded while he's out. Hopefully, he will." He rubbed his hands and grinned. "Well! I call that a good day's work. I'm gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!"