I wonder if I really lost my necklace for good. I tried looking for it again on the weekends with Pierre, but we still came up empty-handed.

What would Uncle Ben think?

Speaking of which, I can't believe he's gone missing too. Who would even want to kidnap him? I mean, he wasn't involved in any sort of suspicious activities as far as I know. Except knowing about the Olympian Artifacts, just like me and the others. Is that why he got kidnapped in the first place? Is it because he knows but he's not supposed to?

Wherever he is, I just hope he's alive and kicking.

And why do I feel that my necklace and my uncle going missing is not a coincidence? There's just something in my mind that I can't seem to put a finger to. . .

A wave of a hand snapped me out of my daze. I blinked as Athena stared at me in anticipation.

"Well?" she said. "What are you waiting for?"

"What?" I stared at her in confusion.

She rolled her eyes. "Did you hear what I just said? Zeus and Poseidon called, we're going to meet them at HQ about something important."

"Oh." I smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I was just thinking about something."

"Whatever. Let's go already."

Soon, the two of us stood in front of the principal's office and we entered the place.

Without hesitation, Athena and I walked into the elevator. She pressed the lowest button from the set and the doors closed promptly. A little screen replaced the buttons and Athena pressed her thumb on the surface. Shortly after, a chime sounded and the doors slid open, revealing the hidden headquarters.

Zeus waved as we stepped out. "Hey girls."

"Hi!" I waved back.

Poseidon looked at us. "Alright, since we're all here, let's get to business."

"Did you guys get a new clue?" I asked.

Zeus shook his head.

"Not really, Amelia," Poseidon replied. "We all know that the Rogues already have three Olympian Artifacts, if not more."

A moment of silence enveloped the room.

"Since they have so many collected in one place, I figured the energy signatures of the Items will be more concentrated." He turned his attention to the large screen in front of him and began typing on a bunch of keys. "We couldn't pinpoint the weak energy of one Artifact before, but what if we could search the location where most of them are?"

Blinking red dots appeared in the world map shown on the screen, popping up around the continents randomly.

"What's happening?"

Athena moved over to Poseidon's side and pressed a few buttons. "The tracker is trying to look for the nearest location of the Artifacts, but it seems that something is interfering with the signal. I'm going to try to manually calibrate the tracker."

She clicked some more keys and the blinking dots slowly decreased in number as the blinks became slower.

"Australia, Antarctica, Africa. . ." I heard Zeus mutter as no more dots showed up in the places he mentioned after a few seconds.

As the dots covered less of the map, more of them began to cluster in particular places until all of them stopped blinking. The four of us stared at the screen in silence.

"That's us," Poseidon said, pointing at the tiny smudge of red that covered a certain place in the USA. "I suppose the tracker spotting Aegis means your adjustments fixed the bugs in it. Good job, Athena."

Athena nodded, then pointed at the other red hot spot, this one much bigger and darker compared to ours. "There's a high energy signature somewhere around Europe."

Poseidon typed a few keys in and the map zoomed in to Europe. The red blotch that was displayed earlier turned into a bunch of red dots sticking across the continent.

"It's. . . everywhere," Athena muttered.

Zeus crossed his arms. "Oh great. Does this mean we'll have to check every place in Europe just to find where the Rogues are hiding?"

His brother sighed. "Basically, yes."

"W-wait. . . We'll have to skip school again?" My eyes widened.

The siblings stared at me like it was the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard.

"What else would you think, Amelia?" Athena put her hands to her hips. "Now that we have a lead, we definitely will take this chance to get the Artifacts."

"But they could be anywhere, not just Europe!" I reasoned. "Why don't we just wait for the next clue to pop up in the scroll? Then maybe when we see them, we could just follow them to their hideout or something."

"Do you think we didn't think of that before?" Athena frowned.

"They have Artemis with them, who's pretty good at keeping herself and her partners undetectable," Poseidon said. "We learned it the hard way when we were in Nepal."

"Who could've thought that wearing pure white will make you that invisible in the snow?" Zeus added. "They jumped at us out of nowhere back then."

"Now that I think of it, it's probably also Vulcan's fault that the homing trackers I've been trying to put on them don't work." Athena pursed her lips. "He must be using some kind of advanced scrambling device to interfere with the signal."

"But I. . ."

Poseidon tilted his head. "Is there something wrong, Amelia?

I froze. "Well. . . I-I was thinking. . . I won't join you in the mission this time."

"What?" they chorused.

"Why not, Ames?" Zeus asked in concern. "Wait a minute. If this is about what happened in Italy again—"

"It's not about Italy!"

"Then what is?"

"My uncle's gone missing." I sighed. "And I— the officer whom I talked to about it said I-I should stay low until they find him so. . ."

The three of them fell silent.

"And don't even try to reason that you'll protect me or whatever," I continued. "I don't wanna hear—"

"Look!" Zeus stepped near the table.

The rest of us turned around to see the scroll on the table glowing. Golden letters started to fill the empty paper word by word.

"A new clue?" Poseidon blurted. "But it's too early."

I squinted my eyes as I stared at the text written on the scroll.

"Once owned by a figure of great importance

A fair ruler who upheld the world's balance

Beside the sky's Master, a strong alliance

Whom she often loathed 'cause his defiance—"

"How are you reading the clue?" Athena interrupted.

I turned to her. "What? I-I'm reading it?"

"Yes, you are!" she exclaimed. "How can you understand Ancient Greek?"

"Ancient Greek?" I echoed, then turned back to the old parchment. "But it looks like normal letters to me."

Zeus grabbed the paper from the table and put it close to his face. "Uh, I'm pretty sure it's not, Ames. It looks like weird shapes and squiggles, not English letters."

Athena rolled her eyes. "They're Ancient Greek letters, idiot. I can't read the words but their letters are familiar enough for me to identify it."

"Never mind that," Poseidon said. "Amelia, can you read the rest of it?"

I nodded. "I think so."

Zeus handed me the paper and I took a deep breath.

"She who reigned by her symbol at hand

A beautiful fowl with eyes of a thousand

Embedded with gems of nature's hue

A staff gilded and coated in shiny blue.

"From lost to found to lost again

This Artifact is now stolen

By a beloved one you have always known

Who seeks revenge for what was once overthrown."

While I rolled the scroll close and placed it back on the table, the Olympian siblings stared at me, their eyes showing different emotions.

I looked at them pointedly. "What?"

Athena pressed her lips into a thin line. "We can't let you stay back."

"What? But you can't force me!"

"As much as I care about you and your choice, she's right, Amelia," Poseidon said. "You've just read the riddle, this means you're meant to find the Artifact. I don't mean to pressure you, but you have to join us in the mission."

"Plus, you somehow easily read the scroll like it was nothing." Zeus shrugged. "For the first time, you made Athena utterly useless in her job."

Athena glared at him.

"I'm kidding, sis," he said, holding his hands up. "What we wanna say is, don't go just yet. Help us one more time, then you can take a break after the mission, whether we win or not."

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to." I shook my head. "I'll only help you out once the police find Uncle Ben."

"But, Ames—"

I felt something vibrating under my pocket. I took out my phone and a message popped up on the screen.

Miss Kingston, come to the station ASAP. We got a possible lead on your uncle you might want to check out.

- Officer Williams

Eyebrows furrowing, I quickly pocketed my phone and walked towards the elevator

A hand clamped over my shoulder. "Where are you going?"

I turned to Poseidon. "We'll talk about this later. I have to go somewhere."

As soon as the bus pulled into a stop on a curb, I sprinted out of the door and headed for the police station.

I ran as fast as my feet could take me, dodging people walking in my way. My eyes darted around the place, searching for the fastest route I could take to get to my destination.

Why did the bus have to stop that far? I should've just told the driver that my stop was still a couple of blocks away, even though he was a bit grumpy to talk to.

Sighing, I continued on my way until the police station came into view.

I pushed the door opened and everything inside looked the same just like when Pierre and I visited the other day. Seeing no one familiar around, I went over to the desk where a lone woman in police uniform sat while drinking a cup of coffee.

"Excuse me."

The woman put down her drink and looked at me. "Yes, miss?"

"Um, is Officer Williams around?" I asked. "I'm here to meet him."

She pointed a finger to the hallway. "I remember seeing him going to one of the jail cells to release someone. Just take a couple of turns to the right it the hallway and you'll get there."

"Okay, thanks."

I followed the policewoman's instructions, walking to the end of the hallway and taking two right turns, and soon reached a wide area with holding cells at the opposite side and some tables and chairs scattered around.

"Hello?"

Curious, I peeked at the cells across the room and saw no one inside.

Weird. Is there supposed to be someone here?

"Hello there," a voice behind me said. "Looking for someone?"

I swiveled to see Officer Williams smiling at me.

"O-officer, I was looking for you," I said, smiling back. "I got your text and came here as fast as I can. What did you get?"

He nodded at the chairs nearby. "Let's take a seat first."

We both walked to a table with a couple of seats and settled in. As I sat down, I put my hands on the table while Williams cleared his throat.

"Do you know why you're here, Miss Kingston?" he asked.

I stared at him in confusion. "Of course I do, sir. Y-you told me to come."

"Oh, did I?"

He suddenly grasped both of my hands down and took out a pair of handcuffs.

"W-wait! What are you doing?" I said as he put the handcuffs onto my wrists.

"Miss Kingston, you're under arrest for getting involved in Benjamin Miller's murder," he said. "Anything and everything you say can and will be used against you."

"W-what? No! Let me go!" I yelled. "I-I didn't do anything!"

Officer Williams ignored my screams and continued dragging me into an open holding cell. He threw me inside and slammed the bars shut. I stumbled, almost tripping down the floor.

My hands began shaking. "Why are you doing this? I'm innocent!"

The officer shrugged. "No, you're not, missy. Didn't you hear me just now?"

"Nonono. . ." Tears started to fall from my eyes. "This can't be happening. . . Is Uncle Ben really. . . dead?"

To my surprise, he suddenly groaned, rolling his eyes. "Are you seriously crying right now? You look completely stupid with snot coming out of your nose. Gross!"

I blinked. "What. . ."

"I wanted to get some funny reaction from you, but instead I got this!" He shook his head in disappointment. "You're no fun, Amelia. You just ruined the joke."

"J-Joke?"

"Yeah! My joke!"

He passed a hand on his face, and his features slowly warped from an old man's into a teenager's. His wrinkled skin smoothened, the thick beard on his chin disappeared, and his eye color changed from dull black to piercing emerald.

I inhaled sharply as I recognized who he really was.

"Hermes."

Hermes grinned like a kid getting ice cream, showing his perfect white teeth. "Hey, redhead. How does the first few minutes in jail feel like?"