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yanked his hands away and stared at me in terror.
    “Okay,” I said. My tongue felt like sandpaper. “I’m guessing you didn’t see anything good.”
    Hal turned to his computer. He stared at the screen so long I thought he’d gone into a trance.
    Finally he typed, Fire. I saw fire.
    Thalia frowned. “Fire? You mean today? Is that going to help us?”
    Hal looked up miserably. He nodded.
    “There’s more,” I pressed. “What scared you so badly?”
    He avoided my eyes. Reluctantly he typed, Hard to be sure. Luke, I also saw a sacrifice in your future. A choice. But also a betrayal.
    I waited. Hal didn’t elaborate.
    “A betrayal,” Thalia said. Her tone was dangerous. “You mean
someone betrays Luke? Because Luke would never betray anyone.”
    Hal typed, His path is hard to see. But if he survives today, he will betray—
    Thalia grabbed the keyboard. “Enough! You lure demigods here, then you take away their hope with your horrible predictions? No wonder the others gave up—just like you gave up. You’re pathetic!”
    Anger kindled in Hal’s eyes. I didn’t think the old man had it in him, but he rose to his feet. For a moment, I thought he might lunge at Thalia.
    “Go ahead,” Thalia growled. “Take a swing, old man. You have any fire left?”
    “Stop it!” I ordered. Hal Green immediately backed down. I could swear the old man was terrified of me now, but I didn’t want to know what he saw in his visions. Whatever nightmares were in my future, I had to survive today first.
    “Fire,” I said. “You mentioned fire.”
    He nodded, then spread his hands to indicate he had no further details.
    An idea buzzed in the back of my head. Fire. Greek weapons. Some of the supplies we had in this apartment…the list I’d put into the search engine, hoping for a magic formula.
    “What is it?” Thalia asked. “I know that look. You’re on to something.”
    “Let me see the keyboard.” I sat at the computer and did a new Web search.
    An article popped up immediately.
    Thalia peered over my shoulder. “Luke, that would be perfect! But I thought that stuff was just a legend.”
    “I don’t know,” I admitted. “If it’s real, how do we make it? There’s no recipe here.”
    Hal rapped his knuckles on the desk to get our attention. His face was animated. He pointed at his bookshelves.
    “Ancient history books,” Thalia said. “Hal’s right. A lot of those are really old. They probably have information that wouldn’t be on the Internet.”
    All three of us ran to the shelves. We started pulling out books. Soon Hal’s library looked like it had been hit by a hurricane, but the old man didn’t seem to care. He tossed titles and flipped through pages as fast as we did. In fact, without him, we never would’ve found the answer. After lots of fruitless searching, he came racing over, tapping a page in an old leather-bound book.
    I scanned the list of ingredients, and my excitement built. “This is it. The recipe for Greek fire.”
    How had I known to search for it? Perhaps my dad, Hermes, the jack-of-all-trades god, was guiding me, since he’s got a way with potions and alchemy. Perhaps I’d seen the recipe somewhere before, and searching the apartment had triggered that memory.
    Everything we needed was in this room. I’d seen all of the ingredients when we’d gone through the supplies from defeated demigods: pitch from the old torches, a bottle of godly nectar, alcohol from Hal’s first-aid kit…
    Actually, I shouldn’t write down the whole recipe, even in this diary. If someone came across it and learned the secret of Greek fire…well, I don’t want to be responsible for burning down the mortal world.
    I read to the end of the list. There was only one thing missing.
    “A catalyst.” I looked at Thalia. “We need lightning.”
    Her eyes widened. “Luke, I can’t. Last time—”
    Hal dragged us to the computer and typed, You can summon lightning????
    “Sometimes,” Thalia