![]() The arrow slammed into the lever and forced it backward. I remembered the other campers’ encouragement the day on the beach when I’d made a shot that brought down the Colossus of Nero. I imagined her calm voice as she coached me through the frustrations of mortal archery. I thought of my daughter Kayla back at Camp Half-Blood. Now it was nearly impossible: shooting from a moving train, aiming for a point where the focused impact of an arrow would have the maximum chance of triggering the switch. Once, such a shot would’ve been child’s play for me. “Calypso, hold this!” I tossed her the Tots and unslung my bow. There was no time to stop the train, no time to run ahead and turn the switch by hand. Then I saw it-not on our console, but ahead of us on the side of the tracks-an old-fashioned hand lever. ![]() Up ahead, almost hidden behind a screen of bamboo, a fork in the track was marked by a sign in Latin: BONUM EFFERCIO. The cars shook dangerously as we picked up steam. Their zookeeper frowned as we trundled past. On our left, the terrain opened up, revealing the majestic butts of African elephants who were picking through a pile of hay. The station disappeared behind a line of trees. The track curved as we continued to accelerate, our wheels squealing against the outer rail. We shot forward at three times our previous speed, which meant our enemies would now have to jog at a moderate pace to catch us. Given the progress we were making, they probably assumed they’d have plenty of time to come after us.Ĭalypso hopped onto the running board. Rather than give chase, they began clearing the beams and vines to free their boss. (Commodus was definitely buying his barbarians by the imperial family-size pack.) The bodyguards stared at the screaming mass of roof wreckage, then at us choo-chooing away. “Push some more levers!”īehind us, from somewhere under the wreckage of the canopy, came a mighty “BLARG!” Ivy shivered as Lityerses tried to bust his way out.Ī half dozen Germani appeared at the far end of the platform. Since the train was only going half a mile an hour, she simply stood up, brushed off her skirt, and walked alongside me, glaring. This is a blatant lie.) I pushed Calypso off the bench and onto the ground. (Calypso will claim she found the ignition switch. “This isn’t the sun!” Calypso elbowed me in the ribs. “If I can drive the sun, I can drive this!” We both jumped onto the conductor’s bench, which was barely wide enough for one, and jostled for space while punching pedals and turning random levers. A SLOW-MOTION GETAWAY was not what I had in mind.
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