I do not own the characters from the series. I do own the other characters.

Pronunciation Guide:

Karolin: kah-row-leen

Gammie: gahm-me

History:

Merlin was, supposedly, an early 10th century magician, prophet, & advisor to King Arthur.

Codes & Heretics-Chapter 1-Codes & Equations

"I hate to tell you this, Professor Eppes, but your equation is flawed."

Professor Charlie Eppes barely heard his visitor enter the classroom. He did, however, hear her soft voice give the offensive statement. He quickly turned and met the blue-grey-green eyes of a young blonde woman.

"What makes you say that, Miss…"

"Karolin Gammie. I'm telling you this because it appears that your equation is flawed."

"You already stated that. You don't really know, do you?"

"Okay, you want to know why? It's because you used a 4 instead of a 5."

"What?" He checked the part of the equation she was pointing to. "You're right. Huh. Thanks. What can I do for you?"

"My roommate is one of your students. She suggested I show you this." Karolin took out a large envelope and gave it to Charlie. "I keep getting these letters. I think they're some kind of code, but math isn't my forte, so I'm not sure."

"Huh, you say math isn't your forte, and yet you managed to catch my mistake." Charlie looked through the letters and was amazed by what he saw in the letters. "You're right; it is some kind of code. And I've seen it before."

"You have?"

"Yes. Do you have time to come with me to visit someone?"

"Umm, yeah. I don't have anymore classes until tomorrow. Why? Where are you going?"

"We're going to see the FBI."

"Okay."

The Los Angeles offices of the FBI

"Don!" Agent Don Eppes heard his name called by non-other than his younger brother Charlie.

"What can I do for you, Charlie? And who is your friend?"

"This is Karolin Gammie."

"Hello."

"Hi."

"I've been getting these letters in the mail for the past 3 weeks," she said as she handed the envelope that held the letters. "I think they're some kind of code."

"And I have to agree with her. I looked at them, and it appears that there is actually some kind of code in them."

"Code? What do you mean by a code? It's all numbers."

"Exactly."

"What?"

"Look at them," Charlie said as he began writing an equation on the board. "Don't they look familiar?"

"Yeah, why, what are they?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Karolin said.

"Do you remember the train accidents (Sabotage)?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah. That psycho who sabotaged the trains. He used numbers as a code, right?"

"Right, it's called cryptography. Now, I briefly looked them over, & from what I did see, it says something about killing heretics-"

"That would be me," Karolin said.

"What do you mean?" Agent David Sinclair asked.

"I mean, I'm a Druid. I'm still considered a heretic, since I'm pagan."

"Wait, a Druid? As in the wizard Merlin?"

"Yeah, except Merlin lived about 100 years after Arthur, and he was most likely a priest. Or close to that. My aunt told me about it once."

The agents looked at her skeptically.

"What?" They looked away.

"So, you brought this to us because one of your students is being threatened?"

"I'm not the only one. I just happen to be the only pagan that isn't afraid to come forward."

"You mean, there are others?"

She nodded, took out a flyer, and handed it to Don. "The religious group leaders have been passing these flyers around at school to all of the students. The school is afraid of religious intolerance and persecution. They want to make sure that they don't get blamed for anything bad happening. Or something like that."

"Okay, so what do you know now?" Don asked his brother as Charlie finished writing his equation.

"I'll know more after I've gone through more of the letters."

Well, what do you think so far? More to come later. Reviews are welcome!