The Son of Sobek (4 page)

I had a few seconds at best until the crocodile broke free and attacked. Then Percy and I would both be dead.

I felt the four symbols that made up the god’s name:

The last symbol didn’t actually represent a sound, I knew. It was the hieroglyph for
god
, indicating that the letters in front of it –
SBK
– stood for a deity’s name.

When in doubt, I thought, hit the
god
button
.

I pushed the fourth symbol, but nothing happened.

The storm was failing. The crocodile started to turn against the current, facing Percy. Out of the corner of my eye, through the haze and mist, I saw Percy drop to one knee.

My fingers passed over the third hieroglyph – the wicker basket (Sadie always called it the ‘teacup’) that stood for the
K
sound. The hieroglyph felt slightly warm to the touch – or was that my imagination?

No time to think. I pressed it. Nothing happened.

The storm died. The crocodile bellowed in triumph, ready to feed.

I made a fist and slammed the basket hieroglyph with all my strength. This time the clasp made a satisfying
click
and sprang open. I dropped to the pavement, and several hundred pounds of gold and gems spilled on top of me.

The crocodile staggered, roaring like the guns of a battleship. What was left of the hurricane scattered in an explosion of wind, and I shut my eyes, ready to be smashed flat by the body of a falling monster.

Suddenly, the cul-de-sac was silent. No sirens. No crocodile roaring. The mound of gold jewellery disappeared. I was lying on my back in mucky water, staring up at the empty blue sky.

Percy’s face appeared above me. He looked like he’d just run a marathon through a typhoon, but he was grinning.

‘Nice work,’ he said. ‘Get the necklace.’

‘The necklace?’ My brain still felt sluggish. Where had all that gold gone? I sat up and put my hand on the pavement. My fingers closed round the strand of jewellery, now normal-sized … well, at least
normal
for something that could fit round the neck of an average crocodile.

‘The – the monster,’ I stammered. ‘Where –?’

Percy pointed. A few feet away, looking very disgruntled, was a baby crocodile not more than three feet long.

‘You can’t be serious,’ I said.

‘Maybe somebody’s abandoned pet?’ Percy shrugged. ‘You hear about those on the news sometimes.’

I couldn’t think of a better explanation, but how had a baby croc got hold of a necklace that turned him into a giant killing machine?

Down the street, voices started yelling, ‘Up here! There’s these two guys!’

It was the mortal kids. Apparently they’d decided the danger was over. Now they were leading the police straight towards us.

‘We have to go.’ Percy scooped up the baby crocodile, clenching one hand round his little snout. He looked at me. ‘You coming?’

Together, we ran back to the swamp.

Half an hour later, we were sitting in a diner off the Montauk Highway. I’d shared the rest of my healing potion with Percy, who for some reason insisted on calling it
nectar.
Most of our wounds had healed.

We’d tied the crocodile in the woods on a makeshift leash, just until we could figure out what to do with it. We’d cleaned up as best we could, but we still looked like we’d taken a shower in a malfunctioning car wash. Percy’s hair was swept to one side and tangled with pieces of grass. His orange shirt was ripped down the front.

I’m sure I didn’t look much better. I had water in my shoes, and I was still picking falcon feathers out of my shirt sleeves (hasty transformations can be messy).

We were too exhausted to talk as we watched the news on the television above the counter. Police and firefighters had responded to a freak sewer event in a local neighbourhood. Apparently pressure had built up in the drainage pipes, causing a massive explosion that unleashed a flood and eroded the soil so badly several houses on the cul-de-sac had collapsed. It was a miracle that no residents had been injured. Local kids were telling some wild stories about the Long Island Swamp Monster, claiming it had caused all the damage during a fight with two teenage boys, but of course the officials didn’t believe this. The reporter admitted, however, that the damaged houses looked like ‘something very large had sat on them’.

‘A freak sewer accident,’ Percy said. ‘That’s a first.’

‘For you, maybe,’ I grumbled. ‘I seem to cause them everywhere I go.’

‘Cheer up,’ he said. ‘Lunch is on me.’

He dug into the pockets of his jeans and pulled out a ballpoint pen. Nothing else.

‘Oh …’ His smile faded. ‘Uh, actually … can you conjure up money?’

So, naturally, lunch was on
me
. I
could
pull money out of thin air, since I kept some stored in the Duat along with my other emergency supplies; so in no time we had cheeseburgers and fries in front of us, and life was looking up.

‘Cheeseburgers,’ Percy said. ‘Food of the gods.’

‘Agreed,’ I said, but when I glanced over at him I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was: that we were referring to
different
gods.

Percy inhaled his burger. Seriously, this guy could eat. ‘So, the necklace,’ he said between bites. ‘What’s the story?’

I hesitated. I still had no clue where Percy came from or what he was, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask. Now that we’d fought together, I couldn’t help but trust him. Still, I sensed we were treading on dangerous ground. Everything we said could have serious implications – not just for the two of us but maybe for everyone we knew.

I felt sort of like I had two winters ago, when my uncle Amos explained the truth about the Kane family heritage – the House of Life, the Egyptian gods, the Duat, everything. In a single day, my world expanded tenfold and left me reeling.

Now I was standing at the edge of another moment like that. But if my world expanded tenfold
again
I was afraid my brain might explode.

‘The necklace is enchanted,’ I said at last. ‘Any reptile that wears it turns into the next
petsuchos
, the Son of Sobek. Somehow that little crocodile got it round his neck.’

‘Meaning someone
put
it round his neck,’ Percy said.

I didn’t want to think about that, but I nodded reluctantly.

‘So, who?’ he asked.

‘Hard to narrow it down,’ I said
.
‘I’ve got a lot of enemies.’

Percy snorted. ‘I can relate to that. Any idea
why
, then?’

I took another bite of my cheeseburger. It was good, but I had trouble concentrating on it.

‘Someone wanted to cause trouble,’ I speculated. ‘I think maybe …’ I studied Percy, trying to judge how much I should say. ‘Maybe they wanted to cause trouble that would get our attention.
Both
of our attention.’

Percy frowned. He drew something in his ketchup with a French fry – not a hieroglyph. Some kind of non-English letter. Greek, I guessed.

‘The monster had a Greek name,’ he said. ‘It was eating pegasi in my …’ He hesitated.

‘In your home turf,’ I finished. ‘Some kind of camp, judging from your shirt.’

He shifted on his bar stool. I still couldn’t believe he was talking about pegasi as if they were real, but I remembered one time at Brooklyn House, maybe a year back, when I was certain I saw a winged horse flying over the Manhattan skyline. At the time, Sadie had told me I was hallucinating. Now, I wasn’t so sure.

Finally Percy faced me. ‘Look, Carter. You’re not nearly as annoying as I thought. And we made a good team today, but –’

‘You don’t want to share your secrets,’ I said. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to ask about your camp. Or the powers you have. Or any of that.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re not curious?’

‘I’m
totally
curious. But until we figure out what’s going on I think it’s best we keep some distance. If someone – some
thing
– unleashed that monster here, knowing it would draw both of our attention –’

‘Then maybe that someone wanted us to meet,’ he finished. ‘Hoping bad things would happen.’

I nodded. I thought about the uneasy feeling I’d had in my gut earlier – the voice in my head warning me not to tell Percy anything. I’d come to respect the guy, but I still sensed that we weren’t meant to be friends. We weren’t meant to be anywhere
close
to each other.

A long time ago, when I was just a little kid, I’d watched my mom do a science experiment with some of her college students.

Potassium and water
, she’d told them.
Separate, completely harmless. But together –

She dropped the potassium into a beaker of water, and
ka-blam!
The students jumped back as a miniature explosion rattled all the vials in the lab.

Percy was water. I was potassium.

‘But we’ve met now,’ Percy said. ‘You know I’m out here on Long Island. I know you live in Brooklyn. If we went searching for each other –’

‘I wouldn’t recommend it,’ I said. ‘Not until we know more. I need to look into some things on, uh, my side – try to figure out who was behind this crocodile incident.’

‘All right,’ Percy agreed. ‘I’ll do the same on my side.’

He pointed at the
petsuchos
necklace, which was glinting just inside my backpack. ‘What do we to do about that?’

‘I can send it somewhere safe,’ I promised. ‘It won’t cause trouble again. We deal with relics like this a lot.’

‘
We
,’ Percy said. ‘Meaning, there’s a lot of … you guys?’

I didn’t answer.

Percy put up his hands. ‘Fine. I didn’t ask. I have some friends back at Ca– uh, back on my side who would love tinkering with a magic necklace like that, but I’m going to trust you here. Take it.’

I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until I exhaled. ‘Thanks. Good.’

‘And the baby crocodile?’ he asked.

I managed a nervous laugh. ‘You want it?’

‘Gods, no.’

‘I can take it, give it a good home.’ I thought about our big pool at Brooklyn House. I wondered how our giant magic crocodile, Philip of Macedonia, would feel about having a little friend. ‘Yeah, it’ll fit right in.’

Percy didn’t seem to know what to think of that. ‘Okay, well …’ He held out his hand. ‘Good working with you, Carter.’

We shook. No sparks flew. No thunder boomed. But I still couldn’t escape the feeling that we’d opened a door, meeting like this – a door that we might not be able to close.

‘You too, Percy.’

He stood to go. ‘One more thing,’ he said. ‘If this somebody, whoever threw us together … if he’s an enemy to both of us – what if we
need
each other to fight him? How do I contact you?’

I considered that. Then I made a snap decision. ‘Can I write something on your hand?’

He frowned. ‘Like your phone number?’

‘Uh … well, not exactly.’ I took out my stylus and a vial of magic ink. Percy held out his palm. I drew a hieroglyph there – the Eye of Horus. As soon as the symbol was complete, it flared blue, then vanished.

‘Just say my name,’ I told him, ‘and I’ll hear you. I’ll know where you are, and I’ll come meet you. But it will only work once, so make it count.’

Percy considered his empty palm. ‘I’m trusting you that this isn’t some sort of magical tracking device.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘And I’m trusting that when you call me you won’t be luring me into some kind of ambush.’

He stared at me. Those stormy green eyes really were kind of scary. Then he smiled, and he looked like a regular teenager, without a care in the world.

‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘See you when I see you, C–’

‘Don’t say my name!’

‘Just teasing.’ He pointed at me and winked. ‘Stay strange, my friend.’

Then he was gone.

An hour later, I was back aboard my airborne boat with the baby crocodile and the magic necklace as Freak flew me home to Brooklyn House.

Now, looking back on it, the whole thing with Percy seems so unreal I can hardly believe it actually happened.

I wonder how Percy summoned that whirlpool, and what the heck
celestial bronze
is. Most of all, I keep rolling one word around in my mind:
demigod.

I have a feeling that I could find some answers if I looked hard enough, but I’m afraid of what I might discover.

For the time being, I think I’ll tell Sadie about this and no one else. At first she’ll think I’m kidding. And, of course, she’ll give me grief, but she also knows when I’m telling the truth. As annoying as she is, I trust her (though I would never say that to her face).

Maybe she’ll have some ideas about what we should do.

Whoever brought Percy and me together, whoever orchestrated our crossing paths … it smacks of Chaos. I can’t help thinking this was an experiment to see what kind of havoc would result. Potassium and water. Matter and antimatter.

Fortunately, things turned out okay. The
petsuchos
necklace is safely locked away. Our new baby crocodile is splashing around happily in our pool.

But next time … well, I’m afraid we might not be so lucky.