Scout Stories: Bruised Beginnings

Old Friends

"Not me," he lied.

Thom nodded, but his smile was shaky and uncertain. Cuno went back to looking at the shelves, much more aware of the time constraints.

"Do you see the obvious problem with your story, Thom?" he asked. He couldn't look his old friend in the eye.

"What?"

"You said that the only way you had money at the start was to sell information, right?"

"Yeah."

"But they found you when you were quite small. You were never much of a scholar. You never have to learn about spying or fitting in with the important people."

"Cuno..."

"You're gift is strength. So you can't claim that it worked like a Scout gift and helped you get information on people. So all you could do is sell information, but there's only one thing you really knew anything about."

Cuno bent down in front of Thom, who tried to stand up and fell back over. He smirked and shook his head at Cuno.

"You lying son of a bitch."

"Maybe. I mean it's possible. I can't remember my mother."

"I was happy here."

"I know. I'm glad. Now, I need you to answer my next question."
"Why the hell should I?"

"Because you didn't bring her home," said Cuno.

"She didn't want you doing stuff like this."

"That's why she went with you. Now, Thom, as we've already established, you didn't have anything to sell except information about the Council. It's a shame that you didn't keep track of who you told what to. But I only care about one thing. One piece of information that you might have told that old fanatic."

"Damn you."

Cuno sighed. "Did you tell him about the Scouts?"

Thom coughed again and said nothing. A blotch of blood was on his lips now.

"Fine, hate me. You don't have to forgive me. I'm not going to say sorry. You don't have to like me, but you liked Katie. You liked Faye and Mac Tíre and the others."

The guilt trip wasn't working. Thom kept glaring up at Cuno in silence. It was too bad. Cuno had hoped to get this over with withou giving him something to actually feel sorry about. It hated adding to a man's conscience at the end. It seemed crueler than anything else he did.

"That old man you told me about earlier isn't alone anymore, Thom," said Cuno. "He's got a group now."

He paused, not because he expected Thom to say anything but because the next part was hard to say.

"They've been killing Aedly" he said. "We had no idea how he was finding them. Not at first. Then we found out he had talked to someone. He talked to you. If you told him about the Scouts..."

Thom cursed and hit the back of his head against the counter.

Cuno closed his eyes. Sometimes he hated his job. 

Note: Sometimes I hate your job too, Cuno. 

Only two parts of each story left guys! *excited squealing* I can't wait to hear what you guys think. So leave a comment and let me know. While praise is always awesome-criticism makes my stories better. So, to paraphrase an old song, ~Help me entertain you!~