v. lotus hotel and casino

*    *    *

ARES IS WAITING for them in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well," he says. "You didn't get yourself killed."

"You knew it was a trap," Percy states.

Ares gives him a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled black-smith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV. The flying spiced things up."

Percy shoves Ares' shield at him. "You're a jerk."

The three of them hold their breath.

Ares tosses it into the air and slips it onto his bag after it turns into a bulletproof vest. "See that truck over there?" He points to an eighteen-wheeler parked across from the diner. "That's your ride. Take it straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

There's a sign on the back of it, which Thea has trouble reading, but what she ultimately reads as: 'KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.'

Percy blinks. "You're kidding."

Ares snaps his fingers and the back door of the truck unlatches. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slings a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tosses it to Percy. Inside are enough fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos. Thea makes a mental note to take some before Grover takes all of them, plus the plastic wrapping.

Percy's eyebrows pinch together. "I don't want your lousy--"

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Thea says. She elbows Percy in the side. "Your kindness is greatly appreciated, by all of us."

"You owe me one more thing," Percy says as the god gets onto his motorcycle. "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-starts his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

Percy looks like he's going to be sick. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept. Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

"Nobody's controlling me."

He laughs. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."

Percy clenches his fist. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Ares' sunglasses start to melt as a hot, dry wind blows Thea's hair into her face. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

He revvs his Harley, and then he's gone down the street, disappearing as if he had never been there.

"Percy," Thea sighs, "you're an idiot."

"I don't care."

"Ares isn't someone you want as your enemy. Did you forget he's the god of war?"

"Nope."

"Hey, guys," Grover says, "I hate to interrupt, but . . ."

He points toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers are paying, both in identical black overalls, with a logo that matches the one on the truck.

"If we're taking the Zoo Express, we need to hurry."

Thea isn't too eager to spend her time with zoo animals, but she's had worse. She climbs into the back of the truck and closes the door once they're all inside.

The trailer is dark until Thea brings out her flashlight. In the row of filthy cages there's a zebra, a male albino lion, and a species of antelope she can't remember the name of. The lion has a sack of turnips while the zebra and antelope each have a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane is matted with chewing gum while the antelope has a silver birthday balloon tied to one of its horns.

Thea feels sorry for the lion. It's pacing around in its too-small cage, over soiled blankets, with flies buzzing around its eyes as it pants from the humid heat. It's too skinny, its ribs poking through its dirty white fur. She almost reaches out to touch it before she remembers it's, in fact, a lion.

"This is kindness?" Grover yells. "Humane zoo transport?"

"Dickheads," Thea agrees.

She almost goes outside to give the workers a piece of her mind, and she's sure Grover will gladly participate, but the truck lurches forward into a drive, and they're forced to sit down on uncomfortable mildewed sacks.

"Well," she yawns. She takes off her bag to use as a pillow and sets her sword beside her. "I'm beat. Wake me up if anything important happens."

"It's not even eight o'clock," Annabeth says, and she can just imagine her blinking in confusion.

"Exactly. I've missed out on a very important nap. Spell-casting takes a lot of effort. So, goodnight, princess."

She can practically hear Annabeth roll her eyes. "Goodnight, Thea."

*    *    *

WHEN THEA HAS nightmares, she doesn't scream. She doesn't toss and turn. She gets still, her bones pull tight like wires, and occasionally she'll twitch, or let out a small whimper of pure fear, but that's it. She's learned her mistake about allowing herself to scream. Somehow, over the months she spent trying to get to Camp Half-Blood, she learned the skill. It's that, or wake up with monsters clawing at her.

That's fine with her, it's better that way. But it makes for several awkward minutes with the others.

"You were, uh . . ."

"Yeah, I know." Thea cracks her neck to the side, which earns a wide-eyed look from Grover. "What's up? Why's the truck stopped?"

"We think they're coming to check on the animals," Grover explains as he quickly shakes Percy awake.

"Hide!" Annabeth hisses.

It's easy for her, she can put on her hat and turn invisible. Thea can cast a spell, but it will only last a few minutes, and it would leave her drained. She can only hope that the three of them look like turnips behind the feed sacks.

The trailer doors creak open. Sunlight and heat pour through, instantly frying the cold sweat on Thea's body from her nightmare.

"Man!" one of the workers says as he waves his hand in front of his nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbs inside and pours a jug of water into the animals' bowls.

"You hot, big boy?" he asks the lion. Thea watches with a clenched jaw as he splashes the rest of the jug onto the lion. The lion's roar is nearly enough to make her burst forward and break his nose.

Grover tensed beside her. Grover was as scary as a kitten, but at the moment, he looked murderous. She was glad his reed pipes weren't with him.

The worker throws a squashed bag with a Happy Meal in it at the antelope while he smirks at the zebra. "How yadoin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

She swears the zebra was looking directly at them, praying for help. Hopefully, it can speak to Percy, she isn't sure if zebras qualify as horses.

There's a loud knock on the side of the trailer, loud enough that it makes Thea's muscles tense.

"What do you want, Eddie?" the man yells.

"Maurice?" someone shouts, who Thea guesses is Eddie. "What'd ya say?"

"What are you banging for?"

Several more loud, harsh knocks.

"What banging?" he yells from the outside.

Maurice rolls his eyes and walks back outside, cursing loudly at Eddie for being an idiot.

A second later, Annabeth appears beside Percy. Of course, it's her doing it, Thea should have guessed it. "This transport business can't be legal."

"No kidding," Grover says. He pauses, no doubt listening to the animals. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

"Gee," Thea says, "we have an Einstein over here."

Annabeth's eyes go wide. "You knew?"

"Well, duh!" She winces as she hits her hand on a sack. "It isn't exactly legal to transport these animals, there's a whole process to go through, and these guys clearly didn't pass it. I mean, they have the brains of a toddler."

Grover frowns. "You're right. I don't understand how I didn't see it sooner."

Thea wants to make a jab at him, but before she can, Percy breaks the lock off the zebra's cage with Riptide. The zebra walks out and bows toward him, which she expects, though it's still a bit jarring.

Grover holds up his hands and says something in his native tongue, which Thea assumes is a blessing over the animals. Her mother has told her about those, and how a satyr friend of hers back in the day did them over every animal he came across.

Just as Maurice is poking his head back inside to check the noise, the zebra leaps over him and out onto the street. It gallops down, between bright neon signs and casinos.

Quickly, Maurice and Eddie run after it, with a few policemen following behind shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

"We should go," Thea says as she starts quickly strapping her sword and bag on. "Before the cops get back."

"The other animals first," Grover says, and Thea shifts anxiously.

Percy cuts the locks with his sword, Grover raises his hands and speaks the same blessing as before, and they're off. Some tourists scream while most back up and take pictures, thinking it's an attraction of some sort.

"Will the animals be okay?" Percy asks Grover. "I mean, the desert and all--"

"Don't worry," he says. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he says. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."

"What can't you put a blessing like that on us?"

"It only works on wild animals."

"So it would only affect them," Annabeth reasons, jutting a thumb over at Percy and Thea.

"Hey!"

"Kidding," she says. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."

They stumble out into the desert afternoon. Thea can only imagine they look terrible, especially her. Her hair had been down, which she never tries to do, so it's the size of the sun with pieces of hay stuck in it from the truck. And, on top of that, her hand is poorly wrapped up with a t-shirt Ares had given her, and she looks like a poor kid's baby doll that they experimented on.

She grimaces as she thinks about her old Barbie doll, the one that she'd cut all of the hair off of and drawn little purple hearts and curse words all over. She imagines she looks worse than that.

Annabeth elbows her in the side to get her attention and Thea looks up with wide-eyes to see a grand hotel in front of them. The Lotus Hotel and Casino. It looks oddly placed, like someone had smashed it down as if it was a board game, but Thea doesn't care. She's enjoying standing there in front of the doors as the nice, flower-scented air conditioning blows on her.

"Hey, kids," the doorman says. "You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

Thea's nervous, she knows that no one in their right mind would let them come inside their nice-looking hotel and sit down, but they walk right in, and with a groan, she follows. She can't just let them go alone, they'll get themselves killed. Or worse, another live broadcast to Olympus.

For the first time, Thea wonders if her father had seen the broadcast, if he knew it was her, or if he was proud, but it quickly gets cut off once they walk inside.

The entire lobby is a game room. Not like the one she had at her house, with a little old Pac-Man game her mother bought at a garage sale for fifty bucks, but real games. Everything she can possibly think of is there. There's even an indoor waterslide snaking up the glass elevator.

On top of that, food. So many kinds of food that Thea has to blink to try to remember the names of them.

"Hey!" a bellhop says. Or, Thea guesses he's one, he's wearing Lotus Casino merchandise. "Welcome to Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

Percy hesitantly takes it. "Um, but . . ."

"No, no," he says with a laugh. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your Lotus Cash cards. They work in their restaurants and on all the games and rides."

Thea takes the card and stares at it like it's a deadly monster.

"How much is on here?" Percy asks.

The bellhop's eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughs. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

They take the elevator upstairs, and once they arrive at the room, Thea can't help but gasp. She doesn't like this, it's very, very weird, but what the hell? There are four rooms, each one stocked with candy, soda, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy white towels with water beds and feather pillows. A giant flat-screen, high-speed internet, satellite TV. The balcony has a hot tub, and the view is amazing.

"Oh goodness," Annabeth says, "this place is . . ."

"Sweet," Grover says. "Absolutely sweet."

Thea leaves them and declares the room closest to the door her own. There's an entire closet full of clothes, most that fit her, and all the ones she likes. And a shower. A large, grand shower that she probably would cry at if she could. It's been way too long since she took a shower.

She doesn't even try to guess how long she's in there. It can easily have been an hour, most likely longer, but she can't seem to care. She's scrubbed her body three times with a loofah, each time making more blood and dirt go down the drain. They even have shampoo that works well for her hair, and she should question it, because hotels never have those, but she feels too good to think about it.

Once she gets out, she changes into her clothes. She even does her hair. It's been so long since she's had the time and products to do her hair. That should be her major red flag, because what hotel has products to use on her hair type? Easy: none. But she's too happy, almost giddy.

As soon as that happens, everything fades away. She isn't worried. She feels happy. She can't remember the last time she thought she was happy. Still, she tucks her clothes into her bag and keeps it on her shoulders. Somehow, that doesn't go away, no matter how happy she is.

When she's done, she practically raids the mini-fridge. She can't remember the last time she had ice cream, either. Or something that tastes this good. Somehow everything in the Lotus Hotel tastes better.

By the time she leaves her bedroom, they're already gone, the TV rolling a nature documentary on National Geographic. She guesses they've gone to the lobby, where all the games were, which makes sense. Grover and Percy will never pass up the opportunity to play unlimited free games.

The first thing Thea does is ride the water slide six times. She hasn't ever been on one before, and they're a lot more fun than she thought they would be. Then she goes bungee jumping, which is incredible, and then she drinks some fruity drink that a waiter passes her, which she hopes doesn't have any alcohol in it.

Then Thea finds what she's going to call the best game in the history of games. Though, she's never actually been to an arcade, so she doesn't really know.

It's a virtual reality game that's so lifelike she almost believes it's real. There's a plastic sword that is somehow just the right weight and length for her, and when she swings it, it moves in the game. It's incredible. She's in the Trojan War, then some Greek battle she doesn't recognize, and then an entirely made-up one--but it doesn't matter.

Thea doesn't know how many battles she wins, she only knows that she loves it. She can do this forever. It doesn't sound too bad.

When a hand closes around her shoulder and shakes her, she gasps and spins around. Her VR goggles get wrenched off by someone else and she sees Percy, who chokes in surprise as her plastic sword slaps into his throat.

"Thea!" he coughs. "What the hell?"

"I almost had them!" she yells. "I had the last few people pinned down to the hillside, and you ruined it!"

Grover's trying to make a getaway, his shoes' wings flapping wildly, but Annabeth holds onto him tight.

"We have to go," Percy says. "Now. Everything here is wrong, if we stay, we'll stay forever."

"And?" Thea says. "So what? It's nice here, I like it. It's been so long since I've felt safe." Her eyebrows pinch together as she goes to draw her real sword. "I'm not leaving. You can't make me."

Annabeth tightens her grip on Grover, even after he kicks her in the shin. "Don't you want to find your dad? If we go, you can find him. But you'll never find him here."

It feels like a bucket of cold water has been dumped over her head. "What the--shit. What's going on?"

"There's a kid here," Percy says, "from the seventies. And he doesn't even know it."

Thea's eyes widen. "They trick you in with all the free stuff." She clenches her fist until her nails dig into her palms. "Of course! I'm such an idiot!"

"We have to go," Annabeth says. "Before we can't."

Thea nods. "You're right, let's--let's go."

At that, they hurry towards the way they came in, Grover struggling significantly less since he heard about the seventies kid, but still talking about some game with rednecks and shooting. She almost asks, but she doesn't.

The Lotus bellhop hurries up to them. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"

"We're leaving," Percy tells him.

"Such a shame," he says, and it sounds like he's genuinely hurt by it. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."

Thea almost reaches out for one of the cards. She wants to stay. When she's here she forgets about everything. There isn't a need to find her father, or the worry of it, or her dead mother that she misses so much it hurts, or the fear of dying so big it seems to suffocate her--she feels safe here. She hasn't felt safe in so long.

Annabeth pinches her arm and she snaps out of it.

They make their way to the doors, and Thea stumbles, nearly going back as the smell of food becomes stronger, but she forces herself to go forward until they burst through the front doors. For a moment, she's relieved, relieved that she hasn't been taken prisoner again, but then it's gone as quickly as it came.

Because it wasn't thundering when they went into the hotel, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky. And it's still afternoon even though she knows it has to be at least midnight. Something is very, very wrong.

Percy tugs her forward and they grab a newspaper to check the date. Thank the gods, it's still the same year.

But it's June twentieth. They've been in the Lotus Casino for five days.

There's only one day left until the summer solstice.