Name: Given—Margaret Morgan
Adopted—Molly Mercury
Alias—Maximillian Frost

Background:

Margaret Morgan was born on a ship en route from the Canary Islands to Morocco, and by the age of four had been carried across two continents and fourteen nations before finally setting foot on her ‘native’ American soil.  She is the only child of famed explorer/anthropologist Dr. Phineas Morgan and Boston heiress Sara Snowe.  An unlikely couple by any measure (particularly by the measure of Sara’s socialite mother), the two met when Morgan applied to Sara’s father for funding for one of his early expeditions.   Fascinated by his description of exotic locations, she fell in love and was able to convince her family to let them marry.  Much to their dismay, upon marriage she also joined him on his travels.  The pair organized scientific expeditions to the ‘last forbidden lands’ around the globe, accompanied not only by Morgan’s students and colleagues, but also by a shifting collection of romantic-minded friends and assorted jaded socialites.

Molly’s education was handled equally by both her mother and father.  Her mother made certain that the civilities recognized by her American relatives would be maintained despite their long absences, and additionally started her training in Latin and the Romance languages.  As she grew older, her father delegated at least one or two of his students to her more general tutelage, but since the students were generally overburdened with their other tasks, this meant that Molly’s formal education was as much experiential as academic.  By the age of 14, she’d participated in more native rituals, helped transport more native artifacts, and had more hair’s-breadth escapes from ‘misunderstandings’ with native elders than most of her father’s colleagues.

She proved an apt pupil, coming to understand from observing her father’s work that all of life is based on systems and one has only to watch to understand and then manipulate the mechanics of the system in question.  So, just as her observations of a brief string of big game hunters gave her the keys to developing a prowess for trick shooting, and just as her experiences riding camels and horses gave her the keys to later leap onto motorcycles and trains, so too her early instruction in language gave her the keys to acquiring virtually any language-living, dead, or otherwise—which she was exposed to.

On a return to the family homestead in Massachusetts between expeditions, the extent of Molly’s prodigious skill with languages was discovered after she was overheard abusing her cousins in a variety of arcane dialects.  The surprised listener was a colleague of her father’s: Dr. Nicolo Murcuri, an Italian linguist working at Harvard.  He immediately requested a place on the next expedition in order to focus her education on that single area of study.  Over the ensuing years, Murcuri becomes integral in not only her continuing development as a scholar, but also as a mentor and friend.    

The War

The two are separated seriously for the first time with the advent of the war, when Murcuri is called away to assist with encryption and ciphers for the government.  Before he leaves, he encourages her to join him and put her skills to use at something more than just assisting her father with his research.  After some time and thought, she agrees.  With a letter of introduction from Dr. Murcuri, Molly approached the officials and was unequivocally rejected.  In response, she reapplies under the pseudonym Maximillian Frost.  Styling herself as one of Dr. Murcuri’s more eccentric, reclusive students, she appeared only rarely at the central headquarters and conducting most of her business through Murcuri himself.  Her work revolutionizes the art of ciphers and codebreaking, (which will come to be very important in WWII.)

After ending her work with the government, Molly feels at a crossroads.  She knows that she can go back to working strictly academically with her father’s team-gathering artifacts for museums and guiding high-profile tourists through exotic locales.  Yet, she wonders whether there aren’t more options for helping humanity.  It was around this time that Murcuri revealed himself to be a member of the Century Club and suggests that it might be a place for her. 

After his mysterious disappearance while in the far East, she formally changed her name to Molly Mercury as an homage.

Novel

Molly Mercury and the Zanzibarbarians!


When excavations deep in the Zanzibar forest reveal the ruins of an ancient fire temple, Molly Mercury is called in to translate the mysterious stone tablets hidden beneath the temple floor.  But some secrets were meant to remain hidden, and Molly soon discovers that even the most civilized of men can turn savage! 

Meanwhile, Detective Alex Petrenko is hot on the trail of Pandora Blackheart and she follows the notorious killer and thief to Zanzibar . But the adventure doesn’t really begin until the trail unexpectedly leads her to Molly and the fire temple. This is not the sort of danger Alex is used to dealing with. It’s a whole new world for this city girl.

Follow Molly and Alex on their amazing adventure across the exotic Spice Islands .  Marvel!—as they are stalked by the legendary witch-leopard.  Thrill!—at the terrifying Shirazi rituals.  Shiver!—at the showdown in the maze of mangrove islands.  Can anyone survive the domain of…the Zanzibarbarians?

Calculated Self-Confidence:

Invoke:  Molly knows that survival really all comes down to things like angle and airspeed.  However, a soupcon of pure dead arrogance never hurt anyone.

Compel:  There’s always the possibility of overconfidence.  After all, one tropical death swamp isn’t really like all the others

“She’s more than just my gun.” 

 Invoke: Molly knows that with leopards and lawbreakers, sometimes cold steel is the only way to make one’s point.  Her points are made swiftly and without ceremony.

Compel: Cold steel masks a hot temper.  When provoked, it can be difficult to make that crucial, improbable shot.

Phase 4: Co-Starring in

Alex Petrenko in Lady Liberty Lost!

It’s a beautiful summer morning in New York City, but something is missing…out in the harbor, Liberty Island sits empty.  Someone has stolen the Statue of Liberty and is holding her for ransom!  But who could have pulled off such a bizarre kidnapping?  Alex Petrenko of the Burns Detective Agency believes criminal mastermind Luther Lawless is involved and she’s hot on his trail.  However, also on the case are detectives from the rival Pinkerton Agency.  Solving this crime could make or break a detective’s reputation.  There’s more than just Lady Liberty on the line…

An ocean away, an intercepted transmission hints at the unlikely final resting place of the statue: a place which Molly Mercury is all too familiar with.  Will her experience be enough to help Alex and the Burns Agency get their man?

Rex Tesla, Science Hero versus the League of Shadows!

:  Nikola Tesla has been kidnapped! Rex Tesla, the great man’s son-from-another-universe, must rescue him before the Madame Phantom and the League of Shadows gain the horrible secret of the one invention Nikola never dared to build… an invention so dangerous, it would threaten the very Earth itself!  

Meanwhile, the League of Shadows is terrorizing post-WWI Serbia with “magic.” Will they succeed in their attempt to control the newly minted state of Yugoslavia? Not if Rex Tesla and his friends have anything to say about it!  Superstition and myth run rampant in Nikola’s birthplace as these seemingly unexplainable miracles are perpetrated by the League…  Madame Phantom may try to cow the populace and frighten the fledgling government into naming her Queen, but a Science Hero can shine the Light of Reason on her tricks!

But will it be enough? After all, a Science Hero can do all of the analysis, but it’s going to take a people person to make all the right contacts to get the full story of what’s really going on. Luckily, Rex has brought in Jack Incognito to grease the wheels and loosen the tongues. 

Superstition and myth are never without foundation, though, and Molly Mercury is determined to riddle out the ancient truths and beat Madame Phantom at her own manipulative game.

Can a Science Hero rooted in Logic, a Scoundrel rooted in Deception, and an Academic rooted in Fact bring the Light of Truth and Science to a populace accustomed to Darkness? Somewhere in the middle Rex, Jack, and Molly must contend with Shadows to determine the outcome!