"Wouldn't that bypass the wall?" Ed asked, "if someone attack us and they knew about this-"
"Then we'll make it underground," Percy said, "deep underground, and narrow. Even if they had diving equipment the passage would be so small only one person can go through at a time. Plus if they do manage to get in they will be facing me and Mera, I almost pity the fools who think to even try."
Annabeth nodded, "yeah.... this is something that has to happen. The rewards outway the risks. Hm.....maybe we should also have a separate place for grain storage."
"What? Why?" Ed asked, "why not just put it in the Warehouse?"
"No, if somebody is going to attack us they will come from the South, their first target will be the Warehouse," Annabeth supplied, "we need to make sure our food supply is well guarded. Put a grain storage building in the Demeter district, it will help when we are under siege and can't go out for food."
Percy nodded impressed at Annabeth's tactical mind, after all she was the daughter of Athena. Anything less would be insulting. Just then an idea hit Percy, "a school. We need a school/college in the Athena district."
Annabeth bashed her head with her palm, "right, school. How could I forget."
Ed chuckled as he added in the school in his digital map, "it's okay, you can't be expected to remember everything. But you know a school/college will take up a lot of space. And we need to put a library up as well."
"Put it in the Artemis district," Percy supplied, "she won't mind...I think."
"It's okay," Ed said adding the library, "the building won't take up much space. We still will have enough for another building, that is including the apartment complexes that will be built in the Artemis district."
"Are we still doing the horses?" Annabeth asked, "if we are we need to find a place to-"
"There is enough space near the water purifying facility," Percy cut in, "we can put the stables there. And while we will be using cycles to get around the horses will still be useful, maybe they could serve as the cavalry during war time or something."
Ed nodded, "okay....now how about buildings for fun? Like.....a movie theater?"
"Hermes district," Annabeth said, "put it there and put a small post office there as well. People can order things from the post office that they want us to trade for from the outside world."
"Don't you think that might alliante the mortal world in the eyes of the demigods?" Percy asked, "we don't' want them to think that we are no longer part of that world."
"No Percy, I don't think people would think like that," Ed said, "demigods know we are half human, we will never forget that part. Never."
Percy nodded, "okay.....we need a coffee shop."
"Dionysis district," Annabeth said, "and maybe we should think about building a pub or something, for when we grow up."
Ed nodded, "yeah, I'll leave some space for it as well," he adjusted the make shift map on the screen, "what about a gym? I get that you don't' want to train for war, but people still need to keep in shape Percy."
"Ares district," Percy told him, "and put a forge in Hephaestus district as well. But that might cause a lot of smoke....dont' want that."
"Do you think Mera knows a few spells to purify the smoke?" Annabeth asked, "maybe a few purifying spells can help us keep the air clean."
Percy nodded, "I'll ask her, but I think the answer will be most probably yes. Oh, maybe we can put a few charms on the wall, add onto the defence or something."
Annabeth nodded, "good idea.....what else?"
"We can put the cell tower in the Zeus district," Percy pointed at the nearly empty area, "and for the Hera district.....I don't know? Maybe we just fill it up with buildings or something. After all she is the Goddess of family, I'm sure she won't mind."
"Maybe a mall?" Ed offered, "a small one. We'll put it in the Aphrodite district. It would encourage trade and buying, could support a local economy."
Percy nodded, "yeah....sure. But this brings up the matter of money and how it's going to work in the Haven."
"Well I was thinking about that," Annabeth said, "and I came up with a solution of sorts. Basically the way I see it this is basically a monarchy. The land is owned by you Percy, making you the owner and king."
Percy grinned, "sweet, Percy Jackson, king of Gardiner island. Has a nice ring to it, no?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes, "yeah, sure. Don't' expect a crown or something though. Anyway like I was saying, Percy is basically like a king, so let's treat this as a monarchy situation. Let each district be taken care off by one person. Like a head counselor, expect instead of a cabin he/she takes care of the entire district. So Percy basically leases out the land to them under the conditions that it is maintained and improved on."
"So you all won't be collecting taxes?" Ed asked, "because you need some capital if you eventually plan on trading with the mortal world."
"No, no taxes," Annabeth shook her head, "and wait, I'm getting to that part. So each district will be under one person, let's call him a manger. Their job is to take care of their districts and for doing that they get payed by the government, AKA Percy. Now, we need people to maintain the place, people who will actually go and build or change. Basically government workers. This will be the first job offers we can give and they will again be payed by the government."
"We have to be careful," Edward told her, "we can't afford to flood the market with money just like that. Giving people too much money which they then refuse to spend is what causes trouble in the economy."
Annabeth nodded, "and then comes the second job offers. We use buildings like the movie theater, coffee shop, gym to buy and sell products. They buildings will be owned by the government, but the workers will be played properly. And obviously some money will be returned to the Government's pockets."
Ed nodded, "so essentially Percy will just have to supply money out his own pockets at first. But after the trade flow picks up and the government starts building its own coffers-"
Annabeth nodded, "it will be self sufficient. Maybe we can even have the food on sale, if it isn't war times or something similar. The farmers will be payed by the government and the crops produced will be sold by the government to the people. A small portions of money is given to the farmers as a bonus, while the government gets in the rest."
"Should we also price WIFI and electricity?" Ed asked.
"Yeah, maybe we-"
"No," Percy cut off Annabeth, "things like that which are vital to living will not be priced. Maybe we set a limit on the date used, and if they go beyond that they will have to pay, but I don't' want people to be charged for WIFI or electricity or water."
"So we give out the buildings for free?" Ed asked.
"No, we rent them out," Percy told him, "we charge them based on how much funds the Haven needs that month. If our coffers are full then we don't' charge them anything, if we need extra cash, we increase the rent. And as long as it is maintained properly we don't bother with what they do with the land. They can change their apartment to whatever they wish, it will basically be their house, only thing is we own it."
"So.....we are basically building a communist society?"
"Honestly Ed I don't' care," Percy said with a shrug, "we honestly can't afford to be capitalists right now. I mean most demigods might not even want to stay in the Haven in the first place. What with the scent destroying pills you supplied us. So we can't take any chances with money or property."
Ed nodded, "I see.....makes sense. But you know now that you mention it are you even sure people would want to live here? I mean most would probably do what I did and run away from camp the first chance they get. With no more monsters coming after them it will basically be open season. Plus we are demigods, we can do things better than humans ever can. Why would they want to live in a closed off community like this?"
Percy sighed, "honestly Ed I have been thinking about that as well. And the more I did the more I realised people would probably just leave camp after they get old enough. Right now we are at war with Kronos, so people might not have the guts to do so, but when it is over you are right, they might just leave camp entirely.
"But I also realised that people would want to live a place surrounded by those similar to them. It's like the legacies living in New Rome, their scent is non existent, they don't have to worry about monsters eating them. But you see they didn't leave, they stayed. Because it is where they belong."
Ed smiled, "brilliant reasoning Percy."
Percy smiled, "thanks Ed. I have my moments."
Annabeth smiled, "you know we still haven't given it a name. We can't just continue calling it the Haven project."
"No, not yet," Percy told her, "I want it up and running first before anything else. When the last brick is set and the place is filled with people, then we give it a name."
Ed and Annabeth agreed as Ed saved the edited image on his table screen. He then displayed it fully as they admired what was a basic sketch of their future.
"Percy......it really does kind of look like a pizza pie," Annabeth told him narrowing her eyes, "you sure you didn't have anything to do with this?"
Percy blinked, "Annabeth I swear, I didn't plan this out at all."
Lie failed!
'Shit!'
"Percy Jackson I'm going to murder you!" Annabeth cried out.
"Okay okay, I may have had one or two ideas that might have involved a pizza based structure, but I didn't think they would actually work!"
Ed chuckled as Annabeth hit Percy upside the head hard causing the son of Poseidon to grumble under his breath about violent girls.
"So," Ed said, "I think we basically covered everything of importance when it comes to the Haven. Now, moving on to the next thing, supplies."
And so they spent the next two hours talking about what the building's were going to made out of, how they were going to be transported to the island, and what to build first.
Ed had a building company called Tekton, Greek for craftsmen, really subtle there Ed. Tekton would supply all the materials to the island. They would bring it in by boat, and Percy would take the supplies onto the island. Super strength came in handy from time to time.
The first thing that was going to be laid out would be the water supply and waste disposal pipes. Percy planned on installing them himself, he didn't know how, but a quick trip to the DVD store and renting out a DVD on plumbing should help with that.
Annabeth decided it would be best if all the waste was gathered outside the city limits and stored in large containers. She wanted to create organic fertilizers for the Demeter kids to use on the farms. Percy found that extremely gross, but it was very green and people had been doing it for ages before.
But he would still be making sure all the Demeter kids has proper protection when dealing with the stuff. Plus maybe washing the produce once or twice wouldn't hurt.
Then after the pipes would come the electricity lines, which again Percy would put down. Then and only then would he begin construction of the Hearth, the building in the center of the Haven.
Soon they had all the matters settled and on paper. This was a huge deal for Tekton, in fact it was Ed's very first deal. Ed had formed this company for the sole purpose of delivering goods to Gardiner island.
So in order to make sure this was all in the up and up, and Ed wouldn't be sued, Percy payed the man. The first order would feature drainage and water supply pipes, meters of electric wiring, marble by the cubic meters and a few other miscellaneous items, like tools. The cost came up to 1.5 million dollars, including manual labour and transportation.
The price was affordable by Percy, but considering this was just the first shipment in many to come, Percy realised me might have to sell off another piece of Alcyoneus platinum skeleton soon.
With their business over Annabeth and Percy quickly got ready to return to camp. But before they left Ed stopped Percy and handed him several steel briefcases. Inside them were several hundred scent destroying pills. Percy had asked for them before, he wanted them to give to the Romans.
The next day;
Percy and Thalia walked through the Labyrinth towards the camp Jupiter side of the tunnel.
"So how do you think they are going to react?" Thalia asked walking hand in hand with Percy.
"No clue," Percy told her, "honestly I don't expect them to believe me. After all why should they? A pill which destroys the scent of a demigod is kind of a farfetched idea, even for me. Some might believe us, like Jason and Julia, but the others....well we'll just have to see."
Thalia nodded, "I just hope the Senate doesn't try to screw us over, again."
Percy chuckled, "oh Sparky you know they are going to at least try. After all, what decent citizen of Rome would just allow two Greeks to walk about unharassed?"
"You really need to stop bullying the Roman's Percy," Thalia told him, "and don't try to deny it. You're twice as hard on them then with us."
Percy sighed, "yeah, but that's because they need that tough love Thalia. They have been trained to think and act a certain way by very angry and scary men. If I have any hope of getting them ready to fight Kronos's army I need to be louder, angrier and scarier."
Thalia nodded, "yeah....I suppose you're right." Soon they reached the exit, Percy pressed his hand on the closed wall causing it to open up revealed the service tunnel leading to camp Jupiter.
They quickly made their way to their camp, and after a few moments of arguing with the gate gaurd, they managed to get inside. They walked down the military encampment, nothing had changed at all, everyone kept going about their business, a few suspicious looks were thrown their way, but none of them were hostile.
As they walked to the center of the camp Percy noticed that a new addition was made. Right in the middle of crossroads was a circular slab of black marble 4 feet high. On the sides and on the top were the names of dead Romans along with a few words written out in Latin that Percy' couldn't make out.
But that was not what captured his eye. In the middle of the marble slab was the Golden Eagle embedded deep inside the marble structure, standing tall, proud and free. Percy smiled at it, and he could have sworn it smiled back.
"Well I didn't expect you two so soon," Julia's called out walking up to the couple with Rob behind her, "it's not the weekend already, right?"
"No Julia," Thalia shook her head, "it isn't. But does that mean we can't visit our favorite Romans?"
