"IT… LIVES!" The dramatic pronouncement was followed by a mad cackle as Kate slouched into the room.
"Shut it, Merlin," she moaned, dropping down into a chair and bending over until she could rest her forehead on her knees. Slowly, ever so slowly, the room stopped spinning.
"How are you feeling?" Merlin asked.
"Like crap warmed over," Kate groaned.
"Not surprising." He sounded far too upbeat. "You took a lot of volts. There's a huge electrical burn on your back. The prongs missed your spine by a quarter of an inch." He paused for a moment. "You know, if they had applied that directly to your spinal column, you'd probably be dead."
His voice was dark.
Kate raised her head from her knees and looked at one of her very few friends. Merlin was standing in front of her, all six foot two gangly feet of him. The glare from the computer monitors streaked across the thick coke-bottle glasses that rested on his nose, almost hiding his evergreen eyes. But she could see the concern there.
She managed a thin smile. "I'll be alright, Merlin," she said softly.
"For a while there, I thought your heart was going to stop," he said.
"But it didn't," she said, straightening as much as she could with the way her back was aching. She spotted the tray in his hands. "Coffee?" she asked, perking up.
"Gatorade, painkillers, coffee. In that order and no other," he warned as he passed the tray over to her. Kate sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes, but complied.
Ten minutes later, she started to feel human again.
Merlin had gone back to his computers, typing in code faster than she could follow. The computer screens were the main source of light in the room, turning his carrot-colored hair a strange blue-purple.
"So, are you going to tell me how you were stupid enough to get zapped, or just let me guess?" Merlin asked suddenly.
"It was an ambush," Kate said, taking a long draw of the coffee. "Wait a minute, how did you know I had an electrical burn on my back?"
She had seen it herself, awkwardly twisting around to see the source of the burning pain in her back. The red marks radiated out from a pair of punctures in the middle of her back. The wounds themselves had been dark with dried blood.
Along with the open wounds, she had managed to accumulate an impressive collection of bruises. The right side of her face was purple and blue, from her many impacts with the floor and the back of the Paladin's hand, and she had an oblong black and red patch on her stomach. Since she hadn't woken up to blinding pain, Kate assumed there wasn't any internal bleeding.
"The back of your tank was bloodstained, so I took a look."
Belatedly, Kate realized she was wearing one of his shirts.
She sighed. "Merlin…."
"Your other one was ripped and burned. Besides, how many times have I seen you in a bikini? It's the same thing."
"Three times, because those were the only times I could talk you out of your technohaven man-cave," Kate shot back.
Merlin turned so he could stare at her with his forest-colored eyes as she drank her coffee. The room wasn't quiet, the towers of computers whirring and buzzing with activity, but it was peaceful.
"And now for the most important question. How did they find you?"
"Airport terminal in London."
"I've warned you about London. It has the second highest number of security cameras per block."
"I know, I know," Kate groaned.
"And a plane, Kate? Truly?"
"I was there for a conference! Countries get really itchy when they can't figure out how you got in and out of their borders. I have enough problems with the Paladins, I don't need MI-6 breathing down my neck as well. And don't you dare tell me they don't exist!" she snapped as Merlin opened his mouth.
He leaned back in his chair with a grin. Kate stuck he tongue out at him.
Kate drank half her cup before she spoke again. "They were in my Los Angeles apartment," she said quietly. "Actually, they were in several of my apartments at once. It was a coordinated attack, to make sure that I had nowhere to run to. The others I don't care about, but they were in my Los Angeles apartment."
"That's the one in your real name, isn't it?" Merlin asked. Kate nodded. "Then that means…."
"They know I'm a graduate student at Cal Tech," Kate finished with a growl. The stunned numbness from the sudden attack was wearing of, anger blooming in its place with startling rapidity. "I was so damn close!" she almost yelled, her temper snapping. "Six months and one more paper, and I could have graduated! Gotten my Ph.D. That's all I really wanted. Three and a half careful years of work, all for nothing!"
"If it's that big of a deal, I'll just make you the credentials," Merlin said with a shrug.
"It's not about the title," Kate snapped. It was a familiar argument. "It's about the work. It's about contributing to the advancement of human knowledge, not the letters behind the name."
"There are easier ways to get by, you know. Doctors make terrible salaries anyway."
"Well, we can't all be paid ridiculous amounts to hack into supposedly secure databases. How did the last one go, by the way?"
Merlin smirked. "Their security was better this time, but it wasn't up to withstanding Caliburn for too long." He reached over, petting the closest computer tower like a favorite dog.
The sight of the computer triggered something in her mind. Kate straightened quickly. "I need to check something."
Merlin immediately called up the monitor, stepping aside to give her access. Kate dropped into his chair and opened up a web browser.
"What are you doing?" Merlin asked, leaning over her shoulder.
"Remember that galaxy comparison I was talking about a couple of days ago?" she asked, entering her password to access the Cal Tech astrophysics database.
"Yeah."
"Well, I found it," she grinned widely. "I found a wormhole, just as those Paladins interrupted me. I was sending the data to the offsite server when they attacked…."
Merlin shook his head. "They traced you through the connection, didn't they? I told you that you should have just used Caliburn. Would have gone faster, too. It's…"
"..basically a supercomputer." Kate said with him. "I know, I know. But you were using it for your last job at the time, and I didn't want to…..NO!"
Merlin jumped as she slammed her fist into the table. "Careful! Delicate machinery!"
"It isn't there!" she snarled.
"Ok, calm down. What isn't there, Kate?"
"My data! I thought they might have unplugged the computer before the upload finished, but even the raw data is gone. Look, there's nothing!" she yelled, pointing at the blank screen.
Merlin gently shoved her out of the way so he could get a better look. "You're right, there is nothing." She almost brained him with her mug.
"It took me six months to gather that data," Kate moaned, her head hitting the desk with a thunk. "Ow."
"It can't be that bad."
"Six fracking months of sitting in a cold, dark room in Chile with a massive telescope. Six months of all-nighters, of broken machines and rainstorms and catastrophies. It took me two years to find the right galaxies to look at, another six months to convince my advisor to get me telescope time, because people with more realistic projects needed it. I spent three years putting up with that sonovagun to get this result. I had it, too! I was literally holding it in my hands, and now it's gone!" she cried. She had been forced to leave the print outs scattered across the floor of her French apartment. "My life's work, gone like that," she said with a snap of her fingers.
Merlin was quiet as she stewed in her caustic mix of misery and rage. Kate glanced up just in time to see a calculating and slightly evil look enter his eyes
"What if I told you I knew how you could get it back?" he asked.
Kate stared at him, the hairs on the back of her neck rising. "Get it back?"
He shooed her out of his chair and settled down. His fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up and discarding dialog boxes faster than she could follow.
"You know Paladins, they aren't going to get rid of anything that might give them a lead on us. They probably have all your data on one of their closed servers somewhere, or they will soon. You said this was in Chicago?"
"Yeah," Kate said warily.
"Then they'll probably take it to their Manhattan base."
"Wait just one red hot moment. How do you know they have a base in Manhattan?" Kate demanded.
Merlin paused and looked at her, blinking. "I didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"I jumped to a tech conference in Germany and a few hours later a pair of Paladins showed up."
"We have got to figure out how they're tracking us like that," Kate muttered.
"Anyway," Merlin continued, glaring at her for the interruption. "They didn't know who they were looking for, and I managed to lift this from one of them." He reached over and picked up a smartphone, tossing it to her. "It was filled with all sorts of secrets, including recent phone numbers. I traced one of them to Manhattan. Right down to the building." He paused, as if waiting for an appreciation of his genius.
"Feeling a little kleptomaniacal, are we?" Kate asked with a grin.
"Shut it, Miss Mood Swings. Weren't you depressed thirty seconds ago?" Merlin shot back.
"Yeah, but then you lit a light at the end of the tunnel," Kate said. "Then again, I'm still not sure where you're going with this."
"It's not where I'm going, it's where you're going," Merlin said, his fingers continuing their sprint over the keyboard. "The Paladin's have a closed circuit system, I'm sure of it. But it still has to be dynamic, in order for them to connect with the other systems."
"I don't speak computer, O Great and Powerful Technowizard."
"Their system should be like a clam. When it senses a need, it will open its shell, or in this case it's firewalls. If we can force a satellite link, I can hack into their systems and get your data back."
"Sweet! But how are you going to do that without a way in their computers?" Kate asked.
"That's where you come in. I've been tinkering with this little darling for a while now. It's a seeking virus. Once inserted into the code, it won't stop until it finds and activates a satellite link with my computer. Well, it stops short of the firewalls and I take it from there. But it will force the Paladin's system to open up. All it needs is to be downloaded."
He snapped the enter key, reached under the desk, and removed a flashdrive. He held it out to her.
Kate made the short cognitive leap. More like a step, really. "Oh no," she said, jumping to her feet, then wincing as her bruised ribs complained. "No, Merlin. Hell no."
"It won't be that hard, Kate. All you need to do is plug it into a computer. It doesn't even matter which one."
"Do you see the word 'Bond' after my name? I am not a freaking spy! I am not combat trained!"
"Kate Houston-Bond. It does have a nice ring to it," he said with a grin. Merlin dropped the smile, his tone becoming serious again. "You're a jumper, Kate. You can pop in and pop right back out again."
"First of all, I can't 'pop in' if I don't know where to pop to," Kate said angrily. "You know that; you're a jumper too. So unless you have a picture of the inside of the compound, I'm not going to be popping anywhere. Second, they're going to shoot me on sight. Last time I checked, being a jumper didn't protect me from a bullet to the back of the head!"
"They won't shoot you on sight if you're blending in." Merlin got up and crossed the room. Picking up what she had assumed to be a grey blanket from the back of the couch, he held it out to her. It was a pearly Paladin robe.
Kate looked from the robe to him and back. "How did you even get that? You rarely Avalon," she said, naming the computer haven that he had created for himself.
Merlin shook his head, that hard evil look in his eyes again. "You don't want to know. What do you think?" He tossed the robe to her.
"I think you're trying to get me killed," she said bluntly as she crossed her arms, letting the fabric drift gracefully to the floor.
"I would never do that," Merlin said briskly. "You're the only person who talks to me on a regular basis. Besides, you can always jump out if it gets too hot."
He held out the flash drive, dangling it in front of her. "Your life's work, Kate. Your words, not mine."
She glared at him, growling under her breath as she snatched the slim stick from him. "I hate you."
"You're welcome. Come on, I have a few more toys for you."
