I ran through the exhibits and ducked behind a tour group. I looked for my friends, but I couldn't see them anywhere. Where was the dam snack bar?
"Stop!" The metal-detector guy yelled.
There was no place to go but into an elevator with the tour group. I ducked inside just as the door closed.
"We'll be going down seven hundred feet," our tour guide said cheerfully. She was a park ranger, with long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and tinted glasses. I guess she hadn't noticed that I was being chased. "Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen, the elevator hardly ever breaks."
"Does this go to the snack bar?" I asked her.
A few people behind me chuckled. The tour guide looked at me. Something about her gaze made my skin tingle.
"To the turbines, young man," the lady said. "Weren't you listening to my fascinating presentation upstairs?"
"Oh, uh, sure. Is there another way out of the dam?"
"It's a dead end," a tourist behind me said. "For heaven's sake. The only way out is the other elevator."
The doors opened.
"Go right ahead, folks," the tour guide told us. "Another ranger is waiting for you at the end of the corridor."
I didn't have much choice but to go out with the group.
"And young man," the tour guide called. I looked back. She'd taken off her glasses. Her eyes were startlingly gray, like storm clouds. "There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it."
The doors closed with the tour guide still inside, leaving me alone.
Before I could think too much about the woman in the elevator, a ding came from around the corner. The second elevator was opening, and I heard an unmistakable sound—the clattering of skeleton teeth.
I ran after the tour group, through a tunnel carved out of solid rock. It seemed to run forever. The walls were moist, and the air hummed with electricity and the roar of water. I came out on a U-shaped balcony that overlooked this huge warehouse area. Fifty feet below, enormous turbines were running. It was a big room, but I didn't see any other exit, unless I wanted to jump into the turbines and get churned up to make electricity. I didn't.
Another tour guide was talking over the microphone, telling the tourists about water supplies in Nevada. I prayed that Thalia, Zoe, and Grover were okay. They might already be captured, or eating at the snack bar, completely unaware that we were being surrounded. And stupid me: I had trapped myself in a hole hundreds of feet below the surface.
I worked my way around the crowd, trying not to be too obvious about it. There was a hallway at the other side of the balcony—maybe some place I could hide. I kept my hand on Riptide, ready to strike.
By the time I got to the opposite side of the balcony, my nerves were shot. I backed into the little hallway and watched the tunnel I'd come from.
Then right behind me I heard a sharp Chhh! like the voice of a skeleton.
Without thinking, I uncapped Riptide and spun, slashing with my sword.
The girl I'd just tried to slice in half yelped and dropped her Kleenex.
"Oh my god.'" she shouted. "Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?"
The first thing that went through my head was that the sword hadn't hurt her. It had passed clean through her body, harmlessly. "You're mortal!"
She looked at me in disbelief. "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I'm mortal! How did you get that sword past security?"
"I didn't—Wait, you can see it's a sword?"
The girl rolled her eyes, which were green like mine. She had frizzy reddish-brown hair. Her nose was also red, like she had a cold. She wore a big maroon Harvard sweatshirt and jeans that were covered with marker stains and little holes, like she spent her free time poking them with a fork.
"Well, it's either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world," she said. "And why didn't it hurt me? I mean, not that I'm complaining. Who are you? And whoa, what is that you're wearing? Is that made of lion fur?"
She asked so many questions so fast, it was like she was throwing rocks at me. I couldn't think of what to say. I looked at my sleeves to see if the Nemean Lion pelt had somehow changed back to fur, but it still looked like a brown winter coat to me.
I knew the skeleton warriors were still chasing me. I had no time to waste. But I just stared at the redheaded girl. Then I remembered what Thalia had done at Westover Hall to fool the teachers. Maybe I could manipulate the Mist.
I concentrated hard and snapped my fingers. "You don't see a sword," I told the girl. "It's just a ballpoint pen."
She blinked. "Um… no. It's a sword, weirdo."
"Who are you?" I demanded.
She huffed indignantly. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now, are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?"
"No!" I said. "I mean, I'm kind of in a hurry. I'm in trouble."
"In a hurry or in trouble?"
"Um, sort of both."
She looked over my shoulder and her eyes widened. "Bathroom!"
"What?"
"Bathroom! Behind me! Now!"
I don't know why, but I listened to her. I slipped inside the boys' bathroom and left Rachel Elizabeth Dare standing outside. Later, that seemed cowardly to me. I'm also pretty sure it saved my life.
I heard the clattering, hissing sounds of skeletons as they came closer.
My grip tightened on Riptide. What was I thinking? I'd left a mortal girl out there to die. I was preparing to burst out and fight when Rachel Elizabeth Dare started talking in that rapid-fire machine gun way of hers.
"Oh my god! Did you see that kid? It's about time you got here. He tried to kill me! He had a sword, for god's sake. You security guys let a sword-swinging lunatic inside a national landmark? I mean, jeez! He ran that way toward those turbine thingies. I think he went over the side or something. Maybe he fell."
The skeletons clattered excitedly. I heard them moving off.
Rachel opened the door. "All clear. But you'd better hurry."