Piper paced back and forth between the mainmast and the ballistae, practicing her lines. Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD. He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album, or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast. Leo had also installed a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet, a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii. Most helmsmen would’ve been satisfied with a pilot’s wheel or a tiller.

On the stern quarterdeck, Leo rushed around like a madman, checking his gauges and wrestling levers. Annabeth gripped one of the bronze shields that lined the starboard rail. The clouds broke around their hull, revealing the gold-and-green carpet of the Oakland Hills below them. She wasn’t sure the Romans had a sense of humor. Leo had wanted to paint a giant message on the bottom of the hull-WASSUP? with a smiley face-but Annabeth vetoed the idea. Hopefully the message had gotten through. She’d asked Leo to send one of his special inventions-a holographic scroll-to alert their friends inside the camp. Two hundred feet long, with a bronze-plated hull, mounted repeating crossbows fore and aft, a flaming metal dragon for a figurehead, and two rotating ballistae amidships that could fire explosive bolts powerful enough to blast through concrete…well, it wasn’t the most appropriate ride for a meet-and-greet with the neighbors.Īnnabeth had tried to give the Romans a heads-up. The Argo II definitely did not look friendly. What if this was a bad idea? What if the Romans panicked and attacked them on sight? The warship descended through the clouds, but Annabeth couldn’t stop second-guessing herself. Even that mysterious chill she’d been feeling since the ship launched had dissipated, at least for now. The last thing they needed as they flew a magical Greek trireme into a potentially hostile Roman camp was a middle-aged satyr in gym clothes waving a club and yelling “Die!”Įverything seemed to be in order. Most important, she pulled aside their war-crazed chaperone, Coach Gleeson Hedge, and encouraged him to take the morning off in his cabin and watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships.

She reviewed the plan with the rest of the crew-and the backup plan, and the backup plan for the backup plan. She confirmed that the white “We come in peace” flag was flying from the mast. She’d paced the deck of their flying warship, the Argo II, checking and double-checking the ballistae to make sure they were locked down. Until she met the exploding statue, Annabeth thought she was prepared for anything.

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan