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I Percy
THE SNAKE-HAIRED LADIES WERE starting to annoy Percy
They should have died three days ago when he dropped a crate of bowling balls on theo when he ran over them with a police car in Martinez They definitely should have died thiswhen he cut off their heads in Tilden Park
No matter how many times Percy killed them and watched thee evil dust bunnies He couldn’t even seem to outrun them
He reached the top of the hill and caught his breath How long since he’d last killed theer than that
The past few days, he’d hardly slept He’d eaten whatever he could scrounge—vending els, even a Jack in the Crack burrito, which was a new personal low His clothes were torn, burned, and splattered with monster slime
He’d only survived this long because the two snake-haired-ladies—gorgons, they called themselves—couldn’t seem to kill him either Their claws didn’t cut his skin Their teeth broke whenever they tried to bite hier Soon he’d collapse from exhaustion, and then—as hard as he was to kill, he was pretty sure the gorgons would find a way
Where to run?
He scanned his surroundings Under different circuolden hills rolled inland, dotted with lakes, woods, and a few herds of cows To his right, the flatlands of Berkeley and Oakland hborhoods, with severalinterrupted by two od
Farther west, San Francisco Bay glittered under a silvery haze Past that, a wall of fog had sedjust the tops of skyscrapers and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge
A vague sadness weighed on Percy’s chest So told him he’d been to San Francisco before The city had some connection to Annabeth—the only person he could rely diain his memory—if he succeeded in his journey
Should he try to cross the bay?
It was te He could feel the power of the ocean just over the horizon Water always revived hio when he had strangled a sea monster in the Carquinez Strait If he could reach the bay, he ht be able to ons But the shore was at least two miles away He’d have to cross an entire city
He hesitated for another reason The she-wolf Lupa had taught hiuiding hi like crazy now The end of his journey was close—alht under his feet But how could that be? There was nothing on the hilltop
The wind changed Percy caught the sour scent of reptile A hundred yards down the slope, so leaves, hissing
Gorgons
For the ood They had always said they could sod—the half-blood son of so through creeks, even keeping air-freshener sticks in his pockets so he’d have that new car sod stink was hard to mask
He scrambled to the west side of the suhty feet, straight to the roof of an apartment cohway eed from the hill’s base and wound its way toward Berkeley
Great No other way off the hill He’d et himself cornered
He stared at the strea west toward San Francisco and wished he were in one of theh the hill There ht under his feet
His internal radar went nuts He was in the right place, just too high up He had to check out that tunnel He needed a way down to the highway—fast
He slung off his backpack He’d ain Mart: a portable GPS, duct tape, lighter, superglue, water bottle, ca roll, a Comfy Panda Pillow Pet (as seen on TV), and a Swiss arod could want But he had nothing that would serve as a parachute or a sled
That left hiht Both options sounded pretty bad
He cursed and pulled his pen from his pocket
The pen didn’t look like ular cheap ballpoint, but when Percy uncapped it, it grew into a glowing bronze sword The blade balanced perfectly The leather grip fit his hand like it had been custouard was an Ancient Greek word Percy somehow understood: Anaklusmos—Riptide
He’d woken up with this sword his first night at the Wolf House—two o? More? He’d lost track He’d found himself in the courtyard of a burned-out e T-shirt, and a leather necklace with a bunch of strange clay beads Riptide had been in his hand, but Percy had had no idea how he’d gotten there, and only the vaguest idea who he was He’d been barefoot, freezing, and confused And then the wolves came
Right next to him, a familiar voice jolted him back to the present: “There you are!”