The Demigod Diaries (The Heroes of Olympus)(34)

“Over here!” he yelled. “Party at my house!”

He grabbed Piper’s wrist and sprinted for the bunker.

He could hear the Maenads closing fast—bare feet running across the grass, branches snapping, eggnog goblets shattering against rocks.

“Almost there.” Piper pointed through the woods. A hundred yards ahead rose a sheer limestone cliff that marked the entrance to Bunker 9.

Leo’s heart felt like a combustion chamber going critical, but they made it to the cliff. He slapped his hand against the limestone. Fiery lines burned across the cliff face, slowly forming the outline of a massive door.

“Come on! Come on!” Leo urged.

He made the mistake of glancing back. Only a stone’s throw away, the first Maenad appeared out of the woods. Her eyes were pure red. She grinned with a mouth full of fangs, then slashed her talon fingernails at the nearest tree and sliced it in half. Little tornadoes of leaves swirled around her as if even the air were going crazy.

“Come, demigod!” she called. “Join me in the revels!”

Leo knew it was insane, but her words buzzed in his ears. Part of him wanted to run toward her.

Whoa, boy, he told himself. Golden Rule for Demigods: Thou shalt not Hokey Pokey with psychos.

Still, he took a step toward the Maenad.

“Stop, Leo.” Piper’s charmspeak saved him, freezing him in place. “It’s the madness of Dionysus affecting you. You don’t want to die.”

He took a shaky breath. “Yeah. They’re getting stronger. We’ve got to hurry.”

Finally the bunker doors opened. The Maenad snarled. Her friends emerged from the woods, and together they charged.

“Turn around!” Piper called to them in her most persuasive voice. “We’re fifty yards behind you!”

It was a ridiculous suggestion, but the charmspeak momentarily worked. The Maenads turned and ran back the way they’d come, then stumbled to a halt, looking confused.

Leo and Piper ducked inside the bunker.

“Close the door?” Piper asked.

“No!” Leo said. “We want them inside.”

“We do? What’s the plan?”

“Plan.” Leo tried to shake the fogginess from his brain.

They had thirty seconds, tops, before the Maenads poured in.

The Argo II’s engine would explode in—he checked his watch—oh, gods, twelve minutes?

“What can I do?” Piper asked. “Come on, Leo.”

His mind began to clear. This was his territory. He couldn’t let the Maenads win.

From the nearest worktable, Leo snatched a bronze control box with a single red button. He handed it to Piper. “I need two minutes. Climb the catwalks. Distract the Maenads like you did outside, okay? When I shout the order, wherever you are, push that button. But not before I say.”

“What does it do?” Piper asked.

“Nothing yet. I have to set the trap.”

“Two minutes.” Piper nodded grimly. “You got it.”

She ran to the nearest ladder and began to climb while Leo raced off down the aisles, snatching things from tool chests and supply cabinets. He grabbed machine parts and wires. He threw switches and activated time-delay sensors on the bunker’s interior control panels. He didn’t think about what he was doing any more than a pianist thinks about where his fingers are landing on the keyboard. He just flew through the bunker, bringing all the pieces together.

He heard the Maenads rushing into the bunker. For a moment, they stopped in amazement, oohing and ahhing at the vast cavern full of shiny stuff.

“Where are you?” Babette called. “My fake lord Dionysus! Party with us!”

Leo tried to shut out her voice. Then he heard Piper, somewhere in the catwalks above, call out: “How about we square dance? Turn to the left!”

The Maenads shrieked in confusion.

“Grab a partner!” Piper shouted. “Swing her around!”

More cries and shrieking and a few CLANGS as some of the Maenads apparently swung each other into heavy metal objects.

“Stop it!” Babette yelled. “Do not grab a partner! Grab that demigod!”

Piper shouted a few more commands, but she seemed to be losing her sway.

Leo heard feet banging on the rungs of ladders.

“Oh, Leo?” Piper yelled. “Has it been two minutes?”

“Just a sec!” Leo found the last thing he needed—a quilt-sized stack of shimmering golden fabric. He fed the metallic cloth into the nearest pneumatic tube and pulled the lever. Done—assuming the plan worked.

He ran to the middle of the bunker, right in front of the Argo II, and yelled, “Hey! Here I am!”

He held out his arms and grinned. “Come on! Party with me!”

He glanced at the counter on the ship’s engine. Six and a half minutes left. He wished he hadn’t looked.

The Maenads climbed down from the ladders and began circling him warily. Leo danced and sang random television theme songs, hoping it would make them hesitate. He needed all the Maenads together before he sprung the trap.

“Sing along!” he said.

The Maenads snarled. Their blood-red eyes looked angry and annoyed. Their wreaths of snakes hissed. Their thyrsus rods glowed with purple fire.

Babette was the last to join the party. When she saw Leo alone, unarmed and dancing, she laughed with delight.