Overview
Martin Mercure is a supporting character in “Dark Peak.” He is an American master sergeant assigned to the co-pilot’s seat of Sea Witch during its postwar decommissioning flight.
Role
Mercure enters the story as a handsome, confident American airman whose manners and uniform irritate Irving Platt. He jokes about Platt’s mood, reads from the mission dossier, and drinks from Platt’s brandy despite Brendan Childs’s warnings about regulation and safety.
The tension changes when Platt mentions Mercure’s wife. Mercure says that Peggy’s arms were the only place he cared to be on the nights he went over the edge, exposing the grief beneath his bravado. During the storm, he tries to help handle the aircraft but is lost from the co-pilot’s seat as Sea Witch breaks apart.
After the crash, Mercure appears on the moor and reunites with Peggy Mercure, who has been searching for him. Their reunion is one of the first signs that the moor is a place where the dead find one another.