I realized what it was.

 

"I don't . . . hear anything," Annabeth said.

 

That was the problem.

 

Even from this height, I should've heard the noise of the city — millions of

people bustling around, thousands of cars and machines — the hum of a huge

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 Y ew away 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 Y ork had simply decided

to stop whatever they were doing and pass out.