Chapter 17
"What do you mean my father has the bolt!" Clarisse shouted. The waiter shot us a stern look, but my icy glare made her retreat.
"Okay, to be honest, I'm only about 99% certain. I believe he will try to frame us. Now here's the plan, and please trust me on this," I said, wagging a fry at them.
The sun was sinking behind the mountains when we found the water park. According to the sign, it had once been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, leaving it to read WAT R A D.
The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, enormous dry waterslides, tubes, and pipes curled around, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night approaching, the place looked eerie and desolate.
"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I remarked, staring at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."
"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Show some respect."
"Relax, I'm only joking. Now, let's get this over with so we can continue our quest." I willed some water out of the air, creating a long tendril, and slashed through the fence, creating an opening. We walked through it one by one. As we moved deeper into the park, the shadows grew longer, and we explored the various attractions, including AnkleBiterIsland, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?
We stumbled upon a souvenir shop that had been left open, with merchandise still lining the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—
"Clothes," Annabeth exclaimed. "Fresh clothes."
"Yeah," I said. "Don't tell me that-"
"Watch me."
Annabeth grabbed an entire row of clothing items off the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later, she emerged dressed in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, commemorative Waterland surf shoes, and a Waterland backpack slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.
"What the heck," Clarisse shrugged. Before long, all three of us were adorned like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.
We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the entire park was holding its breath.
In front of us stretched an empty pool that would've been ideal for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.
Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!
Clarisse approached the edge cautiously. "Guys, look."
At the bottom of the pool sat a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. On the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a bronze spartan shield.
"This is too easy," I remarked. "So, we just walk down there and get it?"
Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. "There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder..."
"Don't touch those; they might be cameras made by Hephaestus to catch Ares and Aphrodite. They could also trigger a trap," I cautioned, causing Annabeth to pull her hand back.
"Percy is probably right," Clarisse agreed as she examined the statues, which indeed had that Hephaestus-made look.
"Anyways, I'm going down there. Annabeth, come with me—"
"There is no way in Hades I'm going on the "Thrill Ride of Love" with you." Annabeth protested indignantly.
I groaned. "And why not?"
"Because... you and I... we're not... because I mean it's a gross idea."
"It's just a ride."
"CALLED THE THRILL RIDE OF LOVE." She exclaimed.
"So? I'm lovable." I cracked a grin.
She felt her face turning a shade of pink. "No."
"Yes I am."
"Gods no. You're a little fish. You remind me of fish."
"Just because you want to gut me out like a fish doesn't make me one." I rolled my eyes.
"That does sound appealing." She muttered. "But I know my mom will not approve of a daughter of Athena going on Aphrodite's love ride with a son of Poseidon."
"I am also the son of Hades, but fine," I relented. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she reluctantly followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.
We reached the boat. Ares's shield was propped on one seat, next to a lady's silk scarf. Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from above: mirrors lined the entire rim of the pool, all facing this spot. They could see themselves no matter which way they looked. That had to be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were busy smooching with each other, they could admire their favorite people: themselves.
I picked up the scarf, which shimmered pink, and its perfume was indescribable—rose, or mountain laurel. As I was about to pocket it, Annabeth yanked it from my hand. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."
"Scared I'll use it on you or something?"
"Just get the shield, Ghost-Fish, and let's get out of here." Annabeth's cheeks flushed.
I took one look at the shield and noticed something connecting it to the dashboard. It looked like a cobweb, but when I held a strand of it on my palm, I realized it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A tripwire. "You've got to be joking..."
"Wait," Annabeth said.
"Too late."
There was a cacophony of noise, like a million gears grinding, as if the entire pool were transforming into one massive machine.
Up on the rim, the Cupid statues drew their bows into firing position. However, they didn't shoot at us but at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, forming a giant golden asterisk when they anchored. Smaller metallic threads magically wove together between the main strands, creating a net.
"We have to get out," I urged. I grabbed the shield, and we tried to run up the slope of the pool, but it wasn't as easy as going down.
"Come on!" Clarisse shouted.
She was attempting to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever she touched it, the golden threads began to wrap around her hands.
The Cupids' heads opened up, revealing video cameras. Spotlights around the pool illuminated us, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight..."
We were almost at the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches, releasing thousands of tiny metallic creatures. Annabeth screamed. It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.
"Spiders!" Annabeth yelled. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"
Oh, right, children of Athena and spiders. The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us.
Annabeth and I climbed into the boat. I froze each wave of spiders, shattering them as I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.
"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.
The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg, and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.
The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.
"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.
Damn it. I thought as I willed the water to flood the floor before freezing it and shattering it all, destroying all the spiders. Then, I forced the ice to melt and shot the water towards the Cupid statues, breaking the nets holding them.
"Five, four, three, two, one, zero!"
Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, washing away the spiders and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.
Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.
"Hey Olympus! Perseus Jackson here. As you can see, we are crashing through the tunnel of love because the god of war got scared he would get caught ," I spoke toward the cameras. "So, I hope you are all enjoying this little show, as we try to escape this death machine." I concentrated on controlling the boat, willing it to ride the current and keep away from the wall. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel, and we rocketed through into the darkness.
Annabeth held on tight, screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners, taking forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff. Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.
If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the Golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.
"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.
"Are you crazy?"
"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. As Annabeth stood up, I lifted her in a bridal carry and jumped off the boat. I used the wind to carry us as I flew over the gate and landed on the sidewalk. Annabeth held onto me tightly until Clarisse cleared her throat, and Annabeth quickly got off me, looking away and fixing her clothes while muttering something about me.
A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.
"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"
The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with our oh so friendly god of war."