Chapter 203 - Dr. Chase

"We will never make it," Zoe said. "We are moving too slow."

"I don't get it," Percy said. "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

"The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset," Zoe said. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"What happens if we miss it?"

"Tomorrow is the winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening. And by then, the Olympian Council will be over. We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

"We need a car," Thalia said.

"Thalia's right," Drako said. "Golden Drive is not enough to carry the five of us. We need a car. But there's nobody to help us here. Unless we, uh, borrowed one."

"Wait," Thalia said. She started rifling through her backpack. "There is somebody in San Francisco who can help us. I've got the address here somewhere."

"Who?" Drako asked.

Thalia pulled out a crumpled piece of notebook paper and held it up. "Professor Chase. Annabeth's dad."

...…..

Annabeth dad wasn't what you expect of a normal father. Well, no ordinary human would manage to get Athena's attention. He was wearing an old-fashioned aviator's cap and goggles. He looked so weird, with his eyes bugging out through the glasses, that Percy and Bianca took a step back on the front porch.

"Hello," he said in a friendly voice, "Are you delivering my aeroplanes?"

They looked at each other warily.

"Um, no, sir," Percy said.

"Drat," he said. "I need three more Sopwith Camels."

"Right," Drako said. "We're friends of Annabeth."

"Annabeth?" He straightened as if I'd just given an electric shock. "Is she all right? Has something happened?"

None of them answered, but most of their faces (Drako just showed a poker face) must've told him that something was very wrong. He took off his cap and goggles. He had sandy-coloured hair like Annabeth and intense brown eyes. He was rather handsome, but it looked like he hadn't shaved in a couple of days, and his shirt was buttoned wrong, so one side of his collar stuck up higher than the other side.

"You'd better come in," he said.

…

It didn't look like a house they'd just moved into. There were LEGO robots on the stairs and two cats sleeping on the sofa in the living room. The coffee table was stacked with magazines, and a little kid's winter coat was spread on the floor. The whole house smelled like fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. There was jazz music coming from the kitchen. It seemed like a messy, happy kind of home—the kind of place that had been lived in forever.

"Dad!" a little boy screamed. "He's taking apart my robots!"

"Bobby," Dr. Chase called absently, "don't take apart your brother's robots!"

"I'm Bobby," the little boy protested. "He's Matthew!"

"Matthew," Dr. Chase called, "don't take apart your brother's robots!"

"Okay, Dad!"

Dr. Chase turned to us. "We'll go upstairs to my study. This way."

"Honey?" a woman called. Annabeth's stepmom appeared in the living room, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. She was a pretty Asian woman with red highlighted hair tied in a bun.

"Who are our guests?" she asked.

"Oh," Dr. Chase said. "This is…"

He stared at them blankly.

"Frederick," she chided. "You forgot to ask them their names?"

They introduced themselves a little uneasily, but Mrs. Chase seemed really nice. She asked if they were hungry. They admitted they were, and she told them she'd bring them some cookies and sandwiches and sodas.

"Dear," Dr. Chase said. "They came about Annabeth."

Mrs. Chase pursed her lips and looked concerned. "All right. Go on up to the study, and I'll bring you some food." She smiled at Percy. "Nice meeting you, Percy. I've heard a lot about you."

Upstairs, they walked into Dr. Chase's study, and Percy said, "Whoa!"

The room was wall-to-wall books, but what really caught Drako's attention were the war toys.

There was a huge table with miniature tanks and soldiers fighting along a blue painted river, with hills and fake trees and stuff. Old-fashioned biplanes hung on strings from the ceiling, tilted at crazy angles like they were in the middle of a dogfight.

Dr. Chase smiled. "Yes. The Third Battle of Ypres. I'm writing a paper, you see, on the use of Sopwith Camels to strafe enemy lines. I believe they played a much greater role than they've been given credit for."

He plucked a biplane from its string and swept it across the battlefield, making aeroplane engine noises as he knocked down little German soldiers.

"Oh, right," Percy said.

Zoe came over and studied the battlefield. "The German lines were farther from the river."

Dr. Chase stared at her. "How do you know that?"

"I was there," she said matter-of-factly. "Artemis wanted to show us how horrible war was, the way mortal men fight each other. And how foolish, too. The battle was a complete waste."

Dr. Chase opened his mouth in shock. "You—"

"She's a Hunter, sir," Thalia said. "But that's not why we're here. We need—"

"You saw the Sopwith Camels?" Dr. Chase said. "How many were there? What formations did they fly?"

"Sir," Thalia broke in again. "Annabeth is in danger."

That got his attention. He set the biplane down.

"Of course," he said. "Tell me everything."

It wasn't easy, but they tried. Meanwhile, the afternoon light was fading outside. They were running out of time.

When they'd finished, Dr. Chase collapsed in his leather recliner. He laced his hands. "My poor brave Annabeth. We must hurry."

��Sir, we need transportation to Mount Tamalpais," Zoe said. "And we need it immediately."

"I'll drive you. Hmm, it would be faster to fly in my Camel, but it only seats two."

"Whoa, you have an actual biplane?" Percy said..

"Down at Crissy Field," Dr. Chase said proudly. "That's the reason I had to move here. My sponsor is a private collector with some of the finest World War I relics in the world. He let me restore the Sopwith Camel—"

"Sir," Thalia said. "Just a car would be great. And it might be better if we went without you. It's too dangerous."

Dr. Chase frowned uncomfortably. "Now wait a minute, young lady. Annabeth is my daughter. Dangerous or not, I… I can't just—"

"Snacks," Mrs. Chase announced. She pushed through the door with a tray full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Cokes and cookies fresh out of the oven, the chocolate ch.i.p.s still gooey. Thalia and I inhaled a few cookies while Zoe said, "I can drive, sir. I'm not as young as I look. I promise not to destroy your car."

Mrs. Chase knit her eyebrows. "What's this about?"

"Annabeth is in danger," Dr. Chase said. "On Mount Tam. I would drive them, but… apparently, it's no place for mortals."

It sounded like it was really hard for him to get that last part out.

Mrs. Chase just nodded. "Then they'd better get going."

"Right!" Dr. Chase jumped up and started patting his pockets. "My keys…"

His wife sighed. "Frederick, honestly. You'd lose your head if it weren't inside your aviator hat. The keys are hanging on the peg by the front door."

"Right!" Dr. Chase said.

Drako grabbed a sandwich (like he wasn't going to eat something). "Thank you both. We should go. Now."

They hustled out the door and down the stairs, the Chases right behind them.

"Percy," Mrs. Chase called as they were leaving. "tell Annabeth… Tell her she still has a home here, will you? Remind her of that."

"I'll tell her," Percy promised.

They ran out to the yellow VW convertible parked in the driveway. The sun was going down.

Drako figured they had less than an hour to save Artemis.

......

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Thalia demanded. Zoe glared at her. "I cannot control the traffic."

"You both sound like my mother," Percy said. "Shut up!" they said in unison.

Behind them, Drako and Bianca were amused by their coordination.

Zoe weaved in and out of traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun was sinking on the horizon when they finally got into Marin County and exited the highway.

The roads were insanely narrow, winding through forests and up the sides of hills and around the edges of steep ravines. Zoe didn't slow down at all.

"Why does everything smell like cough drops?" Percy asked.

"Eucalyptus." Zoe pointed to the huge trees all around them.

"The stuff Koala bears eat?"

"And monsters," she said. "They love chewing the leaves. Especially dragons."

Everyone looked at Drako.

"Dragons chew eucalyptus leaves?" Bianca asked him directly.

"Maybe?" Drako said unsurely. "I'm not going to chew them, though."

"Well, you are the first dragon with human form that I have seen, so you could be an exception," Zoe said. "But believe me. If you had to be in your dragon form all time, you would chew eucalyptus too."

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Getting to the end of this volume!