opposite stairs and faced his comrade.
Lion Head slammed his shield into Wolf Head’s chest. He smashed the pommel of his sword into his comrade’s helmet, so Wolf Head became Flat, Deformed, Not Very Happy Wolf Head.
Leo was getting the hang of it now. He commanded both suits of armor to drop their swords and shields and slap each other repeatedly.
“Yeah,” Leo called out. “Who’s possessing who now, Casper?”
The machine men tumbled down the stairs, and Leo forced them to jitterbug like 1920s flappers. Their joints began smoking. The other spheres around the room began to pop. Too much energy was surging through the ancient system. The control sphere in Leo’s hand grew uncomfortably warm.
“Frank, Hazel!” Leo shouted. “Take cover!”
His friends were still dazed, staring in amazement at the jitterbugging metal guys, but they got his warning. Frank pulled Hazel under the nearest table and shielded her with his body.
One last twist of the sphere, and Leo sent a massive jolt through the system. The armored warriors blew apart. Rods, pistons, and bronze shards flew everywhere. On all the tables, spheres popped like hot soda cans. Leo’s gold sphere froze. His flying ruby orb dropped to the floor with the scroll cases.
The room was suddenly quiet except for a few random sparks and sizzles. The air smelled like burning car engines. Leo raced down the stairs and found Frank and Hazel safe under their table. He had never been so happy to see those two hugging.
“You’re alive!” he said.
Hazel’s left eye twitched, maybe from the Taser shock. Otherwise she looked okay. “Uh, what exactly happened?”
“Archimedes came through!” Leo said. “Just enough power left in those old machines for one final show. Once I had the access code, it was easy.”
He patted the control sphere, which was steaming in a bad way. Leo didn’t know if it could be fixed, but at the moment he was too relieved to care.
“The eidolons,” Frank said. “Are they gone?”
Leo grinned. “My last command overloaded their kill switches—basically locked down all their circuits and melted their cores.”
“In English?” Frank asked.
“I trapped the eidolons inside the wiring,” Leo said. “Then I melted them. They won’t be bothering anyone again.”
Leo helped his friends to their feet.
“You saved us,” Frank said.
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Leo glanced around the destroyed workshop. “Too bad all this stuff got wrecked, but at least I salvaged the scrolls. If I can get them back to Camp Half-Blood, maybe I can learn how to recreate Archimedes’s inventions.”
Hazel rubbed the side of her head. “But I don’t understand. Where is Nico? That tunnel was supposed to lead us to Nico.”
Leo had almost forgotten why they’d come down here in the first place. Nico obviously wasn’t here. The place was a dead end. So why… ?
“Oh.” He felt like there was a buzz-saw sphere on his own head, pulling out his wires and gears. “Hazel, how exactly were you tracking Nico? I mean, could you just sense him nearby because he was your brother?”
She frowned, still looking a bit wobbly from her electric shock treatment. “Not—not totally. Sometimes I can tell when he’s close, but, like I said, Rome is so confusing, so much interference because of all the tunnels and caves —”
“You tracked him with your metal-finding senses,” Leo guessed. “His sword?”
She blinked. “How did you know?”
“You’d better come here.” He led Hazel and Frank up to the control room and pointed to the black sword.
“Oh. Oh, no.” Hazel would’ve collapsed if Frank hadn’t caught her. “But that’s impossible! Nico’s sword was with him in the bronze jar. Percy
“Either the dream was wrong,” Leo said, “or the giants moved the sword here as a decoy.”
“So this was a trap,” Frank said. “We were lured here.”
“But
A hissing sound filled the control booth. At first, Leo thought the eidolons were back. Then he realized the bronze mirror on the table was steaming.
