face. "Um . . . yeah.

 

Well, Grover, you won't be alone. Annabeth and the Athena cabin will make their

stand here. And me, and . . . Thalia?"

 

She patted me on the shoulder. "Say no more. The Hunters are ready."

 

I looked at the other counselors. "That leaves the rest of you with a job just

as important. You have to guard the other entrances to Manhattan. You know how

tricky Kronos is. He'll hope to distract us with this big army and sneak another

force in somewhere else. It's up to you to make sure that doesn't happen.

 

Has each cabin chosen a bridge or tunnel?"

 

The counselors nodded grimly.

 

"Then let's do it," I said. "Good hunting, everybody!"

 

We heard the army before we saw it.

 

The noise was like a cannon barrage combined with a football stadium crowd —

like every Patriots fan in New England was charging us with bazookas.

 

At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods —

a warrior in golden armor leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge