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"So now you're worried about Luke again," I grumbled
She stared at et it," I muttered I wondered what Her Luke when she'd had the chance Clearly, she wasn't tellingBut at theI wanted to hear about was more of her history with Luke
"The point is he didn't die in the Styx," I said "Neither did I Now I have to face him We have to defend Olyto see differences since ht My mom mentioned--"
"Plan twenty-three"
She rued in her pack and pulled out Daedalus's laptop The blue Delta sylowed on the top when she booted it up She opened a few files and started to read
"Here it is," she said "Gods, we have a lot of work to do"
"One of Daedalus's inventions?"
"A lot of inventionsdangerous ones If s are very bad" She looked at e to you: 'Remember the rivers'? What does that mean?"
I shookme Which rivers was I supposed to remember? The Styx? The Mississippi?
Just then the Stoll brothers ran in to the throne room
"You need to see this," Connor said "Now"
The blue lights in the sky had stopped, so at first I didn't understand what the probleathered in a se of thedown at Manhattan The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one golden drachle one
I looked down at the city I could see al fro the shape of Manhattan, the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north Everything looked nor I felt it in my bones before I realized what it was
"I don'thear anything," Annabeth said
That was the probleht, I should've heard the noise of the city-- around, thousands of cars and e metropolis You don't think about it when you live in New York, but it's always there Even in the dead of night, New York is never silent
But it was now
I felt like my best friend had suddenly dropped dead
"What did they do?" My voice sounded tight and angry "What did they do to my city?"
I pushed Michael Yeay from the binoculars and took a look
In the streets below, traffic had stopped Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways There was no sign of violence, no wrecks, nothing like that It was as if all the people in New York had si and pass out
"Are they dead?" Silena asked in astonishment
Ice coatedin my ears: And see the world in endless sleep I reod Morpheus in Central Park You're lucky I'y for the main event
"Not dead," I said "Morpheus has put the entire island of Manhattan to sleep The invasion has started"
TEN
I BUY SOME NEW
FRIENDS
Mrs O'Leary was the only one happy about the sleeping city
We found her pigging out at an overturned hot dog stand while the oas curled up on the sidewalk, sucking his thu for us with his hundred eyes wide open He didn't say anything He never does I guess that's because he supposedly has an eyeball on his tongue But his faceout
I told hiods would not be riding to the rescue Argus rolled his eyes in disgust, which looked pretty psychedelic since it et back to camp," I told him "Guard it as best you can"
He pointed at me and raised his eyebrow quizzically
"I'us nodded, like this answer satisfied him He looked at Annabeth and drew a circle in the air with his finger
"Yes," Annabeth agreed "I think it's tied around in the back of his van He brought out a bronze shield and passed it to Annabeth It looked pretty much standard issue--the sa But when Annabeth set it on the ground, the reflection on the polished s to the Statue of Liberty--which wasn't anywhere close to us
"Whoa," I said "A video shield"
"One of Daedalus's ideas," Annabeth said "I had Beckendorf lanced at Silena "Uht from anywhere in the world to create a reflection You can literally see any target under the sun orit Look"