The night shift dispatcher, a man named Reyes who’s been on the desk for twenty years, once said: “Merilyn doesn’t arrest you. She outlasts you.”
She wrote in the log: “Subject fled on foot. Trike undamaged. Louise performed admirably.”
She calls the trike “Louise.”
She pats the trike’s dash. “Good work, Louise.”
Most of Sector 7 is a ghost after 2 AM—shuttered warehouses, the slow drip of pier water, and the occasional stray dog that knows better than to cross her path. Merilyn doesn’t patrol for speed. She patrols for presence . Trike Patrol Merilyn
A trike isn’t a motorcycle. It doesn’t lean into corners. It grumbles through them. It sits lower, wider, more stubborn. You can’t chase a speeding sedan on three wheels. But you don’t have to. Merilyn’s job isn’t pursuit. It’s witness .
Patrol Unit M-847, callsign “Merilyn” Vehicle: Modified Cushman Model 53, three-wheeled electric trike. Armored saddlebags. Single floodlight. Jurisdiction: Dockside Bypass, Sector 7 The night shift dispatcher, a man named Reyes
Merilyn doesn’t draw her weapon. She just idles. She waits. She records in her head.
Last spring, a stolen forklift tried to run her trike off Pier 9. She didn’t swerve. She just turned on her floodlight, full beam in the driver’s eyes, and sat there. The forklift hit a pothole and died. The driver ran. Merilyn finished her coffee, then called it in. Louise performed admirably
Then she lights a cigarette, watches the fog roll in off the water, and waits for the next stupid thing to happen.