"You-you slayed the Echidna and the Chimera, not to mention Lamia?" Grover asked, shocked. "That's amazing! Very few heroes can claim to do that!"
"Told you, I've faced worse." Jakob shrugged.
Then Andromeda added her own input, telling the group about her high dive act, and some underwater lady's message.
"Whoa," Grover said. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't just ignore a summons from your dad."
"If we must go, then we must." Jakob said with a sigh, knowing that Gods, the Olympians especially, didn't like to be ignored.
Somehow, they made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted and got on board the train before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind them.
-------------------------------
The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, the train rolled into Denver. Thankfully Jakob still had some money to spare from the start of the quest. They were able to get some food, but only a little. They hadn't showered, and it was starting to show.
"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
"We can't use phones, right?" Andromeda asked.
"I'm not talking about phones." Annabeth answered.
They wandered through downtown for about half an hour, as Annabeth kept looking for something. It was hot and dry out.
Finally they found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. Veering towards the stall farthest from the street.
"What exactly are we doing?" Andromeda asked, as Grover took the spray gun.
"It's seventy-five cents." The Satyr grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"
"Don't look at me," she said. "Jakob is the one with the money." She pointed to him.
Grunting, the Son of Thor reached into his pocket, fishing out four quarters that he had with him, which excluded the money he received from camp.
"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."
"What are you talking about?" Andromeda asked once more, really curious.
Grover fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "'I-M'ing."
"Instant messaging?" Andromeda frowned.
"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected her. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."
"You summon a goddess with a spray gun?" Andromeda asked in disbelief.
"There's weirder ways of summoning gods." Jakob said dismissively, having read different mythologies and about how gods are summoned or appeared in some shape or form.
Grover pointed the nozzle at the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."
Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapour and broke into colours.
Annabeth held her palm out to Andromeda. "Drachma, please."
She fished out one and handed it to the blonde.
She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering." She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer. "Half-Blood Hill."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then they could see through the mist and saw the strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. It was probably the porch by the Big House. Standing with his back to them at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank-top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.
"Luke!" Andromeda yelled.
He turned, his eyes wide. They could see that Luke was standing three feet in front of them through a screen of mist, except they could only see part of him that appeared in the rainbow.
"Andie! Jakob!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"
"We're… uh… fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her T-shirt, trying to comb her loose hair out of her face. "We thought - Chiron - I mean - "
Jakob rolled his eyes at her behaviour. She was acting like a typical high school girl with a crush. Sure, he acted in a similar fashion when he met Silena, but he recovered quickly the more he spent time with her. With Annabeth, she still acted the same.
"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"
"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"
Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.
"Chiron had to – what's that noise?" Luke yelled.
"I'll take care of it." Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Grover, come on!"
"What?" Grover said. "But –"
"Give Andie the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.
Grover muttered about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle of Delphi, then he handed Andromeda the spray gun and followed Annabeth.
After a quick readjust of the rainbow by Andromeda, both the Daughter of Poseidon and Son of Thor could now see Luke.
"Chiron had to break up a fight up," Luke shouted to them over the music. "Things are pretty tense, guys. Word leaked out about the Zeus – Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how – probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are taking sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."
Andromeda shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on his dad's side for anything.
In the next stall, they could hear Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.
"So what's your status?" Luke asked them. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."
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