by Jenn Lyons
FOUR.Merlin
When I came down the elevator to the first floor, I saw Campbell was right: my boss was waiting for me.
He wasn’t a large man—maybe a few inches taller than me. He’d once had a gymnast’s build, but that was years ago before he’d started spending so much of his time filling out forms. He was far from fat, just a bit soft around the middle. He had dark skin and intelligent eyes, with frizzy short black hair that was starting to silver in distinguished streaks at each temple. His voice was smooth velvet whiskey, but he didn’t drink anything harder than orange juice and he was no fun at parties.
His name was Tal-Aneirin Khalid, but the only thing I ever called him was the call-sign printed on his freshly pressed Solar Independence League uniform: Merlin. I didn’t know where he’d picked up that particular call-sign either, except he did seem to know a trick or two. I’d once heard Colonel Tallman say it was because Merlin had a talent for making problems disappear.
If that was the case, I’m sure Merlin counted me as his only major failure.
I’d known Merlin long enough to know that he wouldn’t yell. He wouldn’t say a word, but the soft disappointment in his eyes made me cringe. This time when his gaze met mine, that disappointment was dampened with sympathy: he knew about Paul.
He stood up as I walked over. “The people at MOJ were kind enough to lend me a transport. Do you have quarters yet?”
I nodded, and fought the desire to light another cigarette. Even considering Campbell’s donation, I didn’t have that many left and they would be hard to come by in a megacity. “I put in the request as soon as word came down. Housing authority rubber-stamped it yesterday. 1600x2100x22.”
“Good. I have your belongings in the transport. I’ll drop you off.” He stopped once and sniffed the air. Merlin could tell I’d been smoking; he could smell it on me. He didn’t say anything.
No one tried to stop us from leaving the Hall of Justice. Campbell had no doubt sent word down. Outside, not far from the front steps, a slick red unmarked MOJ transport waited.
“Nice! Do you get to keep it?”
“I wish.” He opened the side door for me. A large wire basket rested on the floorboard next to the padded bucket seat. It contained a set of microwave vambraces, data lens, one non-standard pistol, vid ID card, earrings, a gold metal chain blouse, white silk lace skirt, gold slippers, 10 antique music CDs still in their jewelry cases, and Medusa’s data link, which looked like a gold and crystal pectoral of her namesake. A small note was taped to the pistol: “Are you willing to sell this? Call me. CYG-387621.” Also tucked into the basket was a digital film.
Merlin sat down in one of the seats and programmed the destination into the onboard computer. The transport hummed up to a nice pitch and took off like a spider riding out over a bridge thread.
I strapped on the earrings, the vambraces, gloves, gun, and pectoral. “Medusa, scan the transport and stop all outgoing video eavesdropping.”
“Done. Are you okay?”
“As good as I can be, considering.” I frowned out the window. “Why didn’t you warn me Tal-Campbell hadn’t stayed down?”
“Because on the other side of that air lock were a dozen MOJ personnel in MEP powered armor. If Tal-Campbell hadn’t stopped you, I was locking the doors myself.”
Merlin chuckled. I glared at him, annoyed.
He smiled. “You’re the one who built yourself an AI, Weaver. She’s going to protect you whether you want that protection or not.”
“I guess I’m too smart for my own good.”
“On the contrary,” Medusa corrected in a haughty tone. “Creating me is the smartest thing you’ve ever done.”
I laughed. She was almost as arrogant as I was.
I returned to staring out the window. It was a nice day, as nice as advanced technology could make it. Not too bright, not too hot, not too exciting.
“What now?” I finally asked.
“I was thinking about making an eggplant tagine tonight with that honey couscous recipe you like so much. Or should I make potatoes? You like potatoes. Potatoes are delicious.”
“Merlin...”
“I can find those cute little hot-house reds here. Those are my favorite.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “Jockey’s put you on vacation for the next month. After that, mandatory psychiatric counseling.”
I winced. “And if I say no?”
“Then you’re out. A dozen MOJ officers when we’re trying to convince these people we’re not their enemies? Maybe not the way I’d have gone with that one.”
“Eight MOJ officers,” I corrected. “Okay, nine if you count Campbell. Okay, to be fair, you might want to count him twice.”
“Why didn’t you ask Medusa to call me? I could have come down and made sure all the little glass soldiers behaved themselves.”
I sighed. “I didn’t know you were in town, Merlin. I came early so I could meet up with a few friends, remember?”
That answer stopped him. “Oh.”
“Oh indeed. If I’d known backup was available, I’d have used it.”
The glance he threw me was irritated. “If you thought of it. But you weren’t thinking, were you? You were spoiling for a fight. That is a bad habit and you’re going to need to break it.”
I tapped my fingers on the armrest, biting my lip. I stared at the CDs, then the film. “What is that, anyway?”
Merlin looked uncomfortable. “Paul’s papers. I thought you’d want to deliver them to his next of kin.”
“Paul doesn’t have any next of kin.” I reached for the film.
“Only by marriage.”
My fingers froze in place, touching the sheet. I threw a sharp look at Merlin. “What?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“Paul—” I shook my head. “Paul was married?”
His stare was back to being sympathetic. My feelings towards Paul had been a badly kept secret between us. “Any time one of our agents marries, it has to be approved. Usually that’s a rubber stamp process, but this time the partner was a bit more unusual.”
“Alexander.” I bit my lower lip between my teeth.
“So he did tell you.”
“No. Only the name. Just that they were—” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, so I used the euphemism instead. “—partners.”
“After word came in of the withdrawal, Paul went to the Colonel and asked for formal permission to marry. Tallman said yes. It was nice to see a happy ending for once.”
I ground my teeth. So not only married, but newly married. Just married. He hadn’t told me. I corrected myself: I hadn’t let him tell me. He’d wanted to, but Paul was good at reading people, almost as good as I am. He’d known how I’d react.
Merlin reached down, plucked up the film and thumbed it to the first page. “I know you have your own feelings in the matter, but he deserves to hear the news from someone other than one of the normal League social service workers. MOJ is keeping it out of the news feeds, for now, but it’s only a matter of time.”
I rubbed my temples. “You can’t ask me to do this. I can’t. I just can’t.”
“Yes, you can. You owe it to your friend. Look at it this way: I hear Keepers’ Island is a beautiful slice of paradise with lots of coconut palms and naked black sand beaches that flirt with crystal blue waters for miles and miles. A vacation there would do you a world of good.”
“Oh, and there’s a volcano. You know how you love volcanoes.”
“Three years of my life on Prometheus, Medusa. If I never see a steam vent or a lava stream again I can die happy.” I yanked the film back into my lap. “Paul wasn’t killed by accident, Merlin.”
“MOJ said—”
“If MOJ told me I was female with blonde hair and gray eyes, I’d hunt for a mirror just to make sure.” I chewed on a knuckle. “He was killed by one of Lorvan’ bodyguards. I think...I think they killed who they meant to kill. Paul wasn’t near where those Sarcs should have been aiming their vambra
ces.”
Merlin nodded. “Still might have been an accident.”
“Maybe, but Paul was being blackmailed.” I stopped. “No, no, not Paul was being blackmailed. His husband, Alexander, was being blackmailed. Paul was what Alexander was being blackmailed about. Paul was clear on that point. He also made it clear people would be willing to kill him over the matter if it went public.”
“Under Sarcodinay law, same-sex couplings are a capital crime...”
“Oh come on. Any unauthorized mating is a capital crime under Sarcodinay law, regardless of the genders involved. Even the Sarcodinay look the other way unless they’re looking for an excuse to arrest someone. No one is trying to enforce a thing like that now.”
“Did he say who was blackmailing him?”
I shook my head. “No. He didn’t have a chance.”
Merlin had the good grace to look worried. “He should have come to Intelligence Operations.”
“I know, and yet he didn’t.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t.” I looked away. “But it’s not necessarily sinister. I was his oldest friend. Maybe he wanted to talk to someone he knew would be sympathetic, before he took the matter further up.”
“Maybe.” Merlin gracefully forgot to comment on just how sympathetic I would have been.
“There’s no other reason, unless he wanted someone to tap a computer somewhere. I was always better than he was with computers.” I was better at one other thing too, of course, but that wasn’t an ability I felt like offering up to Merlin. I also didn’t feel like suggesting that Paul might have come to me because the people willing to kill