Terrence Meyers

Terrence Meyers
Meyers in 1902
Biographical Information
Real Name	Lyle Anderson
Aliases	Terrence Meyers Señor Equis Mr. X Ranying
Hometown	Unknown
Home country	Province of Canada
Homeworld	Earth
Multiverse	Murdoch Mysteries Multiverse
Relatives	Laura Söllner (wife) Lyle Anderson, Jr. (son) Lorraine Anderson (daughter)
Physical Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Eye colour	Blue
Skin colour	Caucasian
Hair colour	Brown
Chronological / Political Information
Affiliation(s)	Ministry of Militia and Defence Anderson Insurance Rouge Valley Lands Ltd.
Citizenship	Canadian
Base of Operations	Concession 51, Rouge Valley
Occupation(s)	Intelligence officer Spy
Fictional Information
Created by	Paul Aitken
Portrayed by	Peter Keleghan
First Appearance	The Annoying Red Planet
Final Appearance	The New Recruit

“ Gentlemen, the winds of war never truly die down. ”

—Terrence Meyers

Lyle Anderson (alias Terrence Meyers) was a Canadian Ministry of Militia and Defence intelligence operative and spy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Meyers' activities frequently involved Detective William Murdoch of the Toronto Constabulary and his compatriots. Their meetings were initially beset with a deep and mutual disdain based on their differing ethical standards, though they eventually became begrudging allies.

Meyers first encountered Murdoch in 1895, while posing as a developer in the Rouge Valley as a cover for construction and experimentation with a dirigible for the purposes of espionage and warfare. Meyers requested the assistance of Mackenzie Bowell's administration to shut down Murdoch's investigation. In 1896, still under the employ of Bowell's government, Meyers monitored the research and development of Professor Ezra Dolomore's automaton, in the hopes of being prepared to combat the deployment of the Prussian doomsday automaton on the battlefield. The prototype, developed by Hammerton Industries, was discovered to be a fake, and Meyers took his leave. In 1897, he received warnings of the development of a new microwave death ray being developed in Toronto and sought it out. He asked for Murdoch's assistance, but the latter resisted given Meyers' intentions. The course of the investigation revealed the builder to be Sally Pendrick; Murdoch was forced to capture the weapon when Meyers' pleas failed to convince the government to purchase it. The death ray was destroyed in a chase, leaving Meyers glad that such a weapon could not be reproduced. Regardless, he still inquired whether Nikola Tesla would be willing to construct another. Meyers returned once more to Toronto in 1898, after hearing of the discovery of Defence Minister Mortimer Shanly's corpse. On the authority of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Meyers and Murdoch led an ultimately fruitless expedition into the American of Lake Ontario to recover gold from the wreck of the Elvira May and prevent American spy Allen Clegg from giving William McKinley pretext for war. The gold was subsequently discovered in a cemetery and recovered by the government, preventing open warfare between the United States and Canada. Meyers next appeared in Toronto in 1899, seeking to make certain that a proposed visit to Canada by President McKinley was not derailed by bombings allegedly carried out by Emma Goldman's anarchists. Murdoch and Meyers then discovered that Allen Clegg had already infiltrated Goldman's entourage for the purposes of inciting terror attacks and preventing good diplomatic relations between the United States and Canada. In 1900, Meyers was in Toronto posing as Samuel Mortimer; posing as a millionaire, Meyers sought to challenge avionauts to develop a an aircraft to be used in the South African War to bomb the enemy from the skies. Seeing the inventor's progress, Meyers chose to steal James Pendrick's flying machine, the Pendrick Arrow, in the interests of national security. It was in turn stolen from his agents by Allen Clegg. After Pendrick destroyed the plane, Meyers was left outraged but with no recourse.

In 1901, President McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, a self-proclaimed anarchist, in Buffalo, New York. In response, Emma Goldman and her entourage crossed the border into Canada. To protect Canada from any blowback, Sir Wilfrid Laurier ordered Meyers to work with Murdoch and the Toronto Constabulary to apprehend any and all anarchists in the city as a show of good faith to the United States. With all of the suspects arrested, Meyers ordered the collection of their fingerprints. Clegg travelled to Toronto, and received special dispensation from Laurier to carry out the investigation on his own terms. Chief Inspector Thomas Brackenreid, however, ignored the order and instructed Detective Murdoch to proceed with his own investigation. Meyers suggested that Clegg and himself conduct their own interrogations behind Murdoch's back, but Clegg rebuffed him and demanded all collected information to carry out the interrogations alone. Anton Woycek, an American undercover operative trained by Clegg, was murdered and Meyers framed for it. An attempt to ask Laurier for help resulted in Meyers being cut loose. He was rescued at the border by Murdoch, who had deduced that Clegg was the perpetrator. Meyers subsequently gloated that Clegg's attempt to have Meyers executed showed the esteem in which Clegg held Meyers. In 1902, Meyers was back in Toronto, seeking out alleged an German spy. To lure him out, Meyers put out disinformation about a deceased man by the name of Plantagenet McCarthy. In the course of the investigation, Detective Murdoch discovered that both spies were fictional and Meyers and his men had been duped. In 1903, Meyers and Prime Minister Laurier returned to Toronto to solicit Murdoch's help in foiling a blackmail scheme against New York City made by former Defence Minister William Fergus, who was suspecting of having funded the rejected doomsday weapon Project D. In reality, Fergus had been funding a rocket designed by James Pendrick, with the intention of developing a rocket that could reach the moon. Fergus had then been murdered by Allen Clegg, who had tricked Svetlana Tsiolkovsky into making a second rocket armed with 200 lbs of TNT. Clegg's plans for a false flag attack were foiled by Detective Murdoch, who disabled the rocket. After Laurier spoke with President Theodore Roosevelt, Clegg's diplomatic immunity was waived and he was arrested. Meyers, however, did not get the chance to savour his victory over his foe, as his tinkerings with the rocket in Pendrick's facility lead to him being launched into the stratosphere. Meyers survived the flight, and landed in Borneo, as per Pendrick's original calculations. Meyers was taken to be the god Ranying by the local Murut, and he enjoyed the part, adopting tattoos and tribal wear, as well as other unclear activities. However, he was sought out by an Agent Tanner on behalf of Prime Minister Laurier, who feared that Meyers might divulge classified information. He subsequently became involved in a convoluted scheme hatched by Detective Murdoch and Inspector Crabtree to catch Pendrick's alleged murderer, who was discovered to be Tanner after he attempted to frame Meyers. With Tanner gone, Meyers expected reinstatement to his old position. Despite having been rehired, Meyers was no longer Agent First Class, and his reputation had been sullied by his actions in Borneo. When Clegg attempted to publish a book fictionalising his experiences and aspirations for American conquest of Canada, Meyers took the book as a method of ingratiating himself to Laurier once more. He lured President Roosevelt to Canada to hunt the Great White Moose, with the intention of using Spanish intelligence operative Guillermo Burgos to pose as El Noche and give Meyers the opportunity to con the President into believing the Canadian had saved his life, which Laurier could use during ongoing reciprocity negotiations. Burgos was murdered before Meyers could enact his plan, and another interrogation of Clegg led Meyers and Murdoch to believe that El Noche was real after all. However, the book and the killing had all been masterminded by Clegg, who sought an opportunity to kill both Meyers and Roosevelt. Meyers managed to save Roosevelt's life. He subsequently convinced Roosevelt that it was in both of their interests that none of the excursion's events were ever learned by Laurier, and they agreed to keep the secret.

In 1906, Meyers was overseeing security for a meeting between diplomats of Great Britain, France, and Russia, who sought to form the Triple Entente. The treaty went awry when French Ambassador Gaetan Vidal was assassinated, but Meyers and French spy Régine Rivière were able to pass off Detective Murdoch as Vidal. While they initially suspected Kaiser Wilhelm II of having attempted to disrupt the talks, it was proven that British Ambassador Montague Ainsworth was at fault, having wanted to sabotage the treaty to give Britain a reason to side with the German Empire. In 1907, Meyers was held once more to be put on trial for treason. Prime Minister Laurier had uncovered Clegg's plot against Roosevelt and Meyers was suspected of being involved in an assassination attempt. However, with the aid of Murdoch, Odgen, and Brackenreid, he was able to prove his innocence and save Laurier's life from a second polonium poisoning attempt. He remained unaware that the entire plot was orchestrated by Allen Clegg.

Biography

Early Life

Meyers described himself as a child of the Great Lakes. (TV: The Spy Who Loved Murdoch)

Intelligence career

Early on in his activities as a spy, Meyers had a falling out with Régine Rivière over an operation in Prague due to their mutual distrust. Years later, they still both despised each other. (TV: The Spy Who Loved Murdoch)

Personality

“ If you have nothing to hide, you should have nothing to fear, sir. ”

—Terrence Meyers

Views

Meyers was deeply devoted and loyal to the Dominion of Canada and to the British Empire as a whole. Meyers was racist and unafraid to express his views.

Weapons and Abilities

Inherent Abilities

• Pain Tolerance: With an arrow puncturing his lung, Meyers was still able to crawl for an extended difference and fire his rifle at an enemy before succumbing to the pain. (TV: The Great White Moose)

Armaments

• Firearms: Meyers would occasionally carry firearms when the need for them would arise.
  • Meyers procured a rifle from Station House No. 4 when expecting to need to combat El Noche. (TV: The Great White Moose)
  • Meyers carried a handgun with him when he suspected danger. (TV: The Spy Who Loved Murdoch)
• Pump: A pump meant for inflating airships; with the right configuration it could suck out all of a body's internal organs. (TV: The Annoying Red Planet)

Assets

• Knowledge of Spycraft: As an experienced and accomplished spy, Meyers proved himself adept at many of its facets.
  • Upon being told the symptoms, Meyers immediately recognised them as being caused by polonium. (TV: From Murdoch to Eternity)
• Polonium: Meyers had easy access to polonium. (TV: The Trial of Terrence Meyers)

Technology

• Dirigible: A classified airship developed by the Canadian government developed alongside American and British intelligence for the purposes of espionage and warfare. (TV: The Annoying Red Planet)
• Automaton: A mechanised suit developed by Hammerton Industries to convince the Canadian government to invest more money into the industry, which was presented as a machine controlled by artificial intelligence. (TV: I, Murdoch)

Notes

Behind the Scenes

• Meyers was played by Canadian actor Peter Keleghan.

Appearances

• Murdoch Mysteries
  • The Annoying Red Planet (first appearance)
  • I, Murdoch
  • The Tesla Effect
  • Confederate Treasure
  • War on Terror
  • Murdoch Air
  • The Spy Who Came Up to the Cold
  • Election Day
  • 24 Hours Til Doomsday
  • From Murdoch to Eternity
  • The Great White Moose
  • The Spy Who Loved Murdoch
  • The Trial of Terrence Meyers
  • Beyond Time
  • Code M for Murdoch
  • Murdoch Knows Best
  • Patriot Games
  • Murdoch and the Sonic Boom
  • The Fantastic Mr. Fawkes
  • The New Recruit (final appearance)

Links

• Terrence Meyers on the Murdoch Mysteries Wiki