??. ??????

"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,
But despair for your life entombed within stone,
And fail without friends, to fly home alone."

"Ouch," Grover mumbled.

"No," Percy said. "No... wait a minute. I've got it."

He searched his pockets for money, and found nothing but a golden drachma. "Does anybody have any cash?"

Annabeth and Grover shook their heads morosely. Noelle's brows furrowed as she pulled out two arcade tokens. Clarisse pulled a wet Confederate dollar from her pocket and sighed.

"Cash?" Tyson asked hesitantly. "Like... green paper?"

Percy looked at him. "Yeah."

"Like the kind in the duffel bags?"

"Yeah, but we lost those bags days a-g-g—"

Percy stuttered to a halt as Tyson rummaged in his saddle pack and pulled out the Ziploc bag full of cash that Hermes had included in their supplies.

"Tyson!" I said. "How did you—"

"Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow," he said. "Found it floating in the sea, but only paper inside. Sorry."

He handed Percy the cash. Fives and tens, at least three hundred dollars.

Percy ran to the curb and grabbed a taxi that was just letting out a family of cruise passengers. "Clarisse," he yelled. "Come on. You're going to the airport. Noelle give her the Fleece."

Percy didn't wait for Noelle to shrug off the Fleece letter jacket, taking it off her shoulders himself. He tucked the cash into the pocket and put it into a shocked Clarisse's arms.

Clarisse said, "You'd let me—"

"It's your quest," Percy said. "We only have enough money for one flight. Besides, I can't travel by air. Zeus would blast me into a million pieces. That's what the prophecy meant: you'd fail without friends, meaning you'd need our help, but you'd have to fly home alone. You have to get the Fleece back safely."

They could see the girl's mind work— suspicious that this was all some grand scheme Percy was pulling, then finally deciding he meant what he said.

She jumped in the cab. "You can count on me. I won't fail."

"Not failing would be good," Noelle grumbled.

The cab peeled out in a cloud of exhaust. The Fleece was on its way.

"Percy," Annabeth said, "that was so—"

"Generous?" Grover offered.

"Insane," Annabeth corrected. "You're betting the lives of everybody at camp that Clarisse will get the Fleece safely back by tonight?"

"It's her quest," he said. "She deserves a chance."

"Percy is nice," Tyson said.

"Percy is too nice," Annabeth grumbled.

"Glad to know he learned something from me," Noelle joked, but Percy could tell that his friends were impressed with his bold decision to trust Clarisse.

Percy had rolled his eyes. "Come on. Let's find another way home."

That's when he turned around and found a sword's point at his throat.

"Hey, cuz," said Luke. "Welcome back to the States."

His bear-man thugs appeared on either side of them. One grabbed Annabeth and Grover by their T-shirt collars. The other tried to grab Tyson and Noelle, but Tyson knocked him into a pile of luggage and roared at Luke. Noelle followed up by unsheathing her knife and pointing it menacingly at the downed monster.