"Your spy has been keeping you posted," I guessed.

 

Prometheus smiled apologetically. "At any rate, our forces are growing daily.

Tonight, Kronos will attack. You will be overwhelmed. You've fought bravely, but

there's just no way you can hold all of Manhattan. You'll be forced to retreat

to the Empire State Building. There you'll be destroyed. I have seen this. It

will happen."

 

I thought about the picture Rachel had drawn in my dreams — an army at the base

of the Empire State Building. I remembered the words of the young girl Oracle in

my dream: I foresee the future. I cannot change it. Prometheus spoke with such

certainty it was hard not to believe him.

 

"I won't let it happen," I said.

 

Prometheus brushed a speck off his tux lapel. "Understand, Percy. You are

refighting the Trojan War here. Patterns repeat themselves in history. They

reappear just as monsters do. A great siege. Two armies.

 

The only difference is, this time you are defending. You are Troy. And you know

what happened to the Trojans, don't you?"

 

"So you're going to cram a wooden horse into the elevator at the Empire State

Building?" I asked. "Good luck."