Chapter 35

Annabeth had led us to an alley down Church Street, and it was there that she confronted us with her questions, her sharp gaze locking onto Taylor.

"You know I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with her around."

Taylor appeared baffled. "Laistry-what?"

"Laistrygonians," Annabeth explained. "The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once, but I've never seen them as far south as New York, but that's the least of our problems."

"I know, as I had told you earlier, something just went horribale at Camp, we need to get there as soon as possible. I have a gut feeling that Grover will need our help soon."

Annabeth's face paled, and her tone became urgent. "Grover? No, what about Grover?"

"It is only a guess, but I believe he ran into trouble while searching for Pan." I responded as I twisted my ring back and forth. "We will have to take Taylor with us, although she is a Japanese monster she is connected to our world."

Annabeth nodded in agreement. "We need to take her with us. Now come on."

I followed Annabeth, still feeling uneasy about what lay ahead. Annabeth stopped us at the corner of Thomas and Trimble, and I wondered what she was up to as she rummaged in her backpack. Her appearance was was a mess, and it was clear she had been through a lot.

"What are you looking for?" I asked. Sirens wailed all around us, I spotted a police car speeding past us and I could make out Sloan in the backseat in a straightjacket thrashing like some crazy guy.

"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth finally found what she was searching for—a gold coin that I recognized as a drachma, the currency of Mount Olympus.

Taylor looked puzzled. "You know, New York taxi drivers won't take that."

"Oh we are not taking a normal New York taxi." I laugh as Annabeth walks to the curb.

"Stêthi," she shouted in Ancient Greek. "Ô hárma diabolês!" As usual, I understood it. She'd said: Stop, Chariot of Damnation!

She threw her coin into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the drachma sank right through and disappeared. For a moment, nothing happened. 

Then, just where the coin had fallen, the asphalt dark-ened. It melted into a rectangular pool about the size of a parking space—bubbling red liquid like blood. Then a car erupted from the ooze. It was a taxi, all right, but unlike every other taxi in New York, it wasn't yellow. It was smoky gray. I

mean it looked like it waswoven out of smoke, like you could walk right through it. There were words printed on the door. GRAY SISTERS

The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out. She had a mop of grizzled hair cover-ing her eyes, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, and in my opinion she looked really high.

"Passage? Passage?" she muttered.

"Three to Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. She opened the cab's back door and waved at me to get in, like this was all completely normal. I shrug and follow her in.

"Ach!" the old woman screeched. "We don't take her kind!" She pointed a bony finger at Taylor.

"Extra pay," I spoke up. "Four more drachma on arrival."

"Done!" the woman screamed. Soon we were all sitting in the backseat, with me in the middle. Luckly Taylor had shrunk back to her normal height of 6ft 2.

The interior was also smoky gray, but it felt solid enough. The seat was cracked and lumpy—no

different than most taxis. There was no Plexiglas screen separating us from the old lady driving ... There were three, all crammed in the front seat, each with stringy hair covering her eyes, bony hands, and a charcoal-colored sackcloth dress.

The one driving said, "Long Island! Out-of-metro fare bonus! Ha!" She floored the accelerator, and my head slammed against the backrest. A prerecordedvoice came on over the speaker.

"Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!"

The cab sped around the corner of West Broadway, and the gray lady sitting in the middle screeched,

"Look out! Go left!"

"Well, if you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could see that!" the driver complained.

"Wasp!" the third lady said to the driver. "Give me the girl's coin! I want to bite it."

"You bit it last time, Anger!" said the driver, whose name must've been Wasp. "It's my turn!"

"Is not!" yelled the one called Anger.

The middle one, Tempest, screamed, "Red light!"

"Brake!" yelled Anger. Instead, Wasp floored the accelerator and rode up on the curb, screeching around another corner, and knocking over a newspaper box. She left my stomach somewhere back on Broome Street. The three gray ladies were too busy squabbling to pay us any attention. I looked over at Annabeth, who was hang-ing on for dear life, and I gave her a why-did-you-do-this-to-me look.

"Hey," she said, "Gray Sisters Taxi is the fastest way to camp."

"Give me the tooth!" Anger tried to grab at Wasp's mouth, but Wasp swatted her hand away.

"Only if Tempest gives me the eye!"

"No!" Tempest screeched. "You had it yesterday!"

"But I'm driving, you old hag!"

"Excuses! Turn! That was your turn!"

Wasp swerved hard onto Delancey Street, squishing me between Tyson and the door. She punched the gas and we shot up the Williamsburg Bridge at seventy miles an hour.

The three sisters were fighting for real now, slapping each other as Anger tried to grab at Wasp's face and Wasp tried to grab at Tempest's. With their hair flying and their mouths open, screaming at each other, I realized that none of the sisters had any teeth except for Wasp, who had one mossy yellow incisor. Instead of eyes, they just had closed, sunken eyelids, except for Anger, who had one bloodshot green eye that stared at everything hungrily, as if it couldn't get enough of anything it saw.

Finally Anger, who had the advantage of sight, managed to yank the tooth out of her sister Wasp's

mouth. This made Wasp so mad she swerved toward the edge of the Williamsburg Bridge, yelling, "'Ivit back! 'Ivit back!"

"God's help me," I mutter, "we're going to die!"

"Don't worry," Annabeth told me, sounding pretty wor-ried. "The Gray Sisters know what they're doing. They're really very wise."

"Yes, wise!" Anger grinned in the rearview mirror, showing off her newly acquired tooth. "We know

things!"

"Every street in Manhattan!" Wasp bragged, still hitting her sister. "The capital of Nepal!"

"The location you seek!" Tempest added.

Immediately her sisters pummeled her from either side, screaming, "Be quiet! Be quiet! He didn't even ask yet!"

"The last time we told, it was horrible!" Tempest said.

"Eye tossed in a lake!" Anger agreed.

"Years to find it again!" Wasp moaned. "And speaking of that—give it back!"

"No!" yelled Anger.

"Eye!" Wasp yelled. "Gimme!"

She whacked her sister Anger on the back. There was a sickeningpop and something flew out of

Anger's face. Anger fumbled for it, trying to catch it, but she only managed to bat it with the back of her hand. The slimy green orb sailed over her shoulder, into the backseat, and straight into my lap.

"I can't see!" all three sisters yelled.

"Give me the eye!" Wasp wailed.

"Give her the eye!" Annabeth screamed.

"I don't have it!" I said.

"There, by your foot," Annabeth said. "Don't step on it! Get it!"

"I'm not picking that up!"

The taxi slammed against the guardrail and skidded along with a horrible grinding noise. The whole car shuddered, billowing gray smoke as if it were about to dissolve from the strain.

I grabbed the eyew and threw it into Wasp's lap.

The old lady snatched it up, pushed it into her eye socket like somebody putting in a contact lens, and blinked. "Whoa!"

She slammed on the brakes. The taxi spun four or five times in a cloud of smoke and squealed to a halt in the middle of the farm road at the base of Half-Blood Hill.

"Hmm," The three turned to me.

"Why didn't you ask for the information you needed?" Anger asked.

"You did have our eye, you could have bargained for it." Tempest rasped

"I already know the coordinations," I responded as I grabbed my things and got out the car as I handed them the coins. "30, 31, 75, 12."

The gray sisters looked amused as they rolled their window up and sped off before vanishing. I looked up to Camp Half-Blood and sighed as I looked at the crest of the hill to see a group of campers. And they were under attack.