Percy had just about finished punching in the code for coffee, just as Jason liked it, that Octavian had so helpfully written down on the clipboard, when he heard a deep voice from behind him. “You know, Percy, I’m rather surprised and a little touched that you know just how I like my coffee.”
Percy nearly dropped the cup that he had been holding under the dispenser of the beverage replicator. “By the gods,” Percy gasped. Standing at the dispenser, he had been facing the door to the break room, but he had not seen Jason enter.
As he turned around, half-expecting a holographic projection of his boss, Percy was surprised to find Jason—in the flesh. “Sir,” he said, meekly, as he set down the cup of coffee on a nearby counter, “Please don’t startle me like that. I almost scalded myself.”