01_-_The_Alchemyst

Nicholas bundled up the remains of their breakfast and shoved them into
a paper bag. Then he leaned forward and tapped the screen of the satellite
navigation system set into the dashboard. “Do you know how this works?”
Josh shook his head. “In theory, I guess. We put in a destination and it
tells us the best way to get there. I’ve never used one before, though. My
dad’s car hasn’t got one,” he added. Richard Newman drove a five-year-old
Volvo station wagon.
“If you looked at it, could you make it work?” Flamel persisted.
“Maybe,” Josh said doubtfully.
“Of course he can. Josh is a genius with computers,” Sophie said
proudly from the backseat.
“This is hardly a computer,” her twin muttered, leaning forward and
hitting the On button. The large square screen flickered to life, and an
incredibly patronizing voice warned them about typing addresses into the
system while driving, then instructed Josh to hit the OK button,
acknowledging that he’d heard and understood the warning. The screen
blinked and immediately showed the position of the Hummer on an unnamed
backroad. Mount Tamalpais appeared as a little triangle at the top of the
screen, and arrows pointed south to San Francisco. The little track that led to
Hekate’s Shadowrealm wasn’t shown.
“We need to go south,” Flamel continued.
Josh experimented with the buttons until he got the main menu. “Okay. I
need an address.”
“Put in the post office at the corner of Signal Street and Ojai Avenue in
Ojai.”
In the backseat, Scatty stirred. “Oh, not Ojai. Please tell me we’re not
going there.”
Flamel twisted in his seat. “Perenelle told me to go south.”
“L.A. is south, Mexico is south, even Chile is south of here. There are
lots of nice places that lie to the south….”