NINE

 

TWO SNAKES SAVE MY LIFE

 

I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi,

head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and

nobody even looks at you funny.

 

Of course, the Mist helped. People probably couldn't see Mrs. O'Leary, or maybe

they thought she was a large, loud, very friendly truck.

 

I took the risk of using my mom's cell phone to call Annabeth for the second

time. I'd called her once from the runnel but only reached her voice mail. I'd

gotten surprisingly good reception, seeing as I was at the mythological center

of the world and all, but I didn't want to see what my mom's roaming charges

were going to be.

 

This time, Annabeth picked up.

 

"Hey," I said. "You get my message?"

 

"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been

worried sick!"

 

"I'll fill you in later," I said, though how I was going to do that I had no