21. Merlin
21
MERLIN
A pretty blonde gives me an appreciative once over as I approach the reception desk. Yeah, it may sound conceited, but I’m not blind — I see how women look at me. And while it doesn’t interest me in the slightest — my Leila is all I need or want — it does come in handy when attempting to get my own way. Like now.
“Good day, sir, how may I be of assistance?” she asks, giving me a dimpled smile.
“Hi, I’d like to see Ms. Leila Asherton, please.” I return her smile with a grin of my own.
“Do you have an appointment, sir?”
“No, I don’t. I thought I’d surprise her,” I reply.
“Ah, I see. What is your name, sir?”
“Kyle Jackson.”
She nods. “One moment, please.” The woman taps a few buttons and, after a beat or two of silence, I hear her say, “Good morning, Ms. Asherton, it’s Lucy from reception. I have a Mr. Jackson here to see you. He says he doesn’t have an appointment.”
With bated breath, I wait to see whether she’ll agree to see me. Unexpectedly, we found ourselves with some free time today, and the first thought I had on hearing the news was to pay Leila a visit.
“Yes, certainly, Ms. Asherton.” I hear the woman say before she hangs up. “I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Jackson, but Ms. Asherton is unable to receive visitors right now.” Disappointment weights heavy, but to be fair, it is unexpected. But Lucy’s next words rock me back on my heels. “She asked me to tell you the password she couldn’t think of this morning is Armatrout, though.”
“I beg your pardon?” I’m not sure I heard her correctly.
“Ms. Asherton says the password she couldn’t remember this morning is Armatrout.”
“I — er, thanks. I appreciate your help this morning, Lucy. You have a good day now.” I’m barely aware of what I’m saying as my brain scrambles to connect the dots.
Armatrout’s is a name I haven’t heard in five years. The memories associated with the man are unhappy ones, and my brain scrambles to understand why she would say something like that. Is she trying to send me a message? And if so, why? What could she possibly be trying to tell me?
Reaching for my phone, fingers clumsy with the onset of worry that something’s wrong, I dial Ace’s number and wait impatiently for him to answer as I exit the building.
“Yo, my man, what’s happening? You missing me already?”
“Hey buddy, got some time to grab a quick coffee?”
Something in my voice must tip Ace off to my current state of mind. “Everything all right, Merlin? You sound stressed.”
“I’m not sure. I could be way off the mark here, but I think Leila might be in trouble and I need your level-headed advice here.”
“I’m on my way. Where do you want me to meet you?”
“There’s a little coffee shop a few doors down from her office — hang on, I’ll give you the name.” I look up at the signage above the door. “It’s called Daisy Chain.”
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in a few.”
There have been a million moments in our friendship that I am deeply grateful for this man, and this right here is one million and one. Growing up an only child, the Navy gave me the brothers I wish I’d had growing up.
Without hesitation or a second thought, they’re always there for me when I need them. Case in point, how mad at me Ace was over the debacle of leaving Leila. Yet he never failed to take my back where necessary. None of them did.
My mind races as I sit at a table, waiting. What could she possibly have meant? The mere mention of Armatrout’s name is painful. As the man responsible for Maverick’s death, he’s quite possibly the most hated person by everyone on our team.
True to his word, Ace arrives in less than fifteen minutes. I don’t even want to know how many traffic laws he’s broken to get here in such a short time.
“Hey,” he says as he takes a seat at the table.
“Hey.” A waitress appears, and we order our coffee.
“Talk to me,” Ace says as she walks away.
“I’m not sure what’s going on. It could be nothing, but my gut tells me that’s not the case.”
“If your gut says something’s off, trust it. We all do — you’ve never steered us wrong yet, when your Spidey senses get all tingly. But what specifically makes you think that?”
“So, after North dismissed us, my first thought was to come surprise Leila and see if I could talk her into having some lunch with me. When I got here, the lady at the reception desk called Leila to let her know I was there, and she said she couldn’t see me.
“Which is fair considering I showed up out of the blue, without an appointment or any indication I was coming. The weird thing was she told the receptionist to tell me that the password she couldn’t remember this morning is Armatrout.”
I see Ace’s body stiffen at the name and nod.
“Yeah, see? For starters, it’s not a conversation we had this morning. And it is highly unlikely she’d use his name for a password. So, what the fuck? Is she trying to tell me something without actually saying it? What’s so significant about Armatrout?”
Ace is quiet so long I’m not sure he’s going to answer me, as he stares off into space. He’s got what we all refer to as “the look” on his face. Next to our friend Tex, tech genius extraordinaire, Ace has got the sharpest mind of anyone I’ve met.
“So let’s start with our last encounter and work backwards to see if we can find a clue as to what she might have been alluding to,” he finally answers, a pained expression in his eyes. “The last time we saw the man, he killed Maverick.
“I’m sure that’s not what she’s referring to, but is it a metaphor for something else? Could someone have been killed in her office? Unlikely but not impossible. If that’s not what she’s trying to tell us, what’s next? What preceded the shooting? The hostage situation — holding Commander North prisoner to get back at Knight’s lady.
“Holding the guys at gun point ...” His words fade away. Shit, shit, shit. If he’s thinking what I think he’s thinking, I don’t even want to think about the implications of that. “Do you think that’s what she’s trying to tell you? That there’s a hostage situation going on that’s she’s caught up in again?”
I feel sick just thinking about it.
But his reference to her being in another hostage situation sparks a memory from the briefing we had before rescuing the hijacked ship. Edgar Mason works for StanCorp. And recent intel would suggest that he might well have been behind the hostage taking.
It would seem Phillip Stanford has been looking into irregularities going on in his firm, and he might well be connecting the dots back to Mason. Could he have decided to confront the man? If cornered, evidence suggests Mason wouldn’t hesitate to commit murder to cover his tracks. A man in his position can’t afford to be squeamish, considering how much he stands to lose if he is.
“Fuck. Do you think that’s what’s going on? Maybe Stanford confronted Mason about the shit he’s been getting up to, and Leila’s gotten caught up in the backlash? I mean, her office is right outside Stanford’s. She’d be right there if shit got crazy.”
Ace looks about as sick as I feel as my words hang in the air between us. Neither of us want to think of what could happen if Mason feels trapped.
“It could be nothing. We might be buying trouble here. But knowing our girl, I doubt she’d have said anything if there’s nothing to be concerned about. So, we err on the side of where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and plan accordingly. Let’s head to your place and call the cavalry in. Many heads make light work.”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s how the saying goes.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Ace laughs and shakes his head. “Only you would think of that at a time like this. Pay the nice lady and let’s get out of here.”
Dropping notes on the table, we call out our thanks as we head for the door, Ace already on his phone calling the rest of the guys to meet us at my place. “Meet you there.” He lifts a hand in acknowledgment, or farewell, and keeps walking. I hurry to my vehicle, praying every step of the way that Leila’s all right.
By the time I get home, the rest of the team’s already there waiting for us. Faces grim, they follow me into the house, no one uttering a word until we’re inside.
“What’s happening with our care bear?” Kansas is the first one to break the silence. “Ace says you guys think she might be in some kind of trouble. What’s going on and how can we help?”
And there it is. Yet another reason I consider these men family. No hesitation, just “how can we help?”
Before I can reply, Ace does. And I’m grateful he does, because I’m not sure I can get a word out past the lump in my throat. “First order of business is to figure out how to get eyes on her. If we can see what’s going on, we can assess and plan accordingly.”
“I’m sure there must be surveillance in the building. Considering what they do, I would think security would be top priority. Security equals surveillance, equals eyes in the sky, so to speak,” I say, finally finding my voice.
Ace nods. “Yep, I reckon. So, the second order of business is to give Tex a call and ask him to tap into their system. See if we can get eyes on the situation. From there we can make more informed decisions.”
“I still don’t understand how he does a fraction of the shit he does. Like how he even finds a company’s security network, let alone taps into it.”
Ace chuckles. “I’m no slouch in the tech department, but even I’m mind blown by some of the stuff he does.”
“Yeah, I don’t even bother — it hurts my brain,” I add. “Right, so let’s get things moving. I don’t have a good feeling about this. Leila knows how we all feel about that fucker, so it has to mean something that she used his name specifically.”
Ace nods. “With you there, bud. I’m on it.”