Scriostóir - 5

A light rap on the door to the suite announced the arrival of room service. Cerdic smiled as he allowed the man, pushing a cart laden with food, to enter.

“Hamlin, it has been a while,” Cerdic said, clapping the young man on the shoulder.

“Indeed it has, sir,” Hamlin replied, he face lighting up with pleasure.

“Please call me Cerdic.”

“I—alright but it’ll seem strange.” He started setting the meal out on the table, then stood back at attention when he’d finished, a quirky grin on his face. “Will there be anything else?”

“Yes. Join me for supper. I need to know everything you’ve managed to find out. If staying is going to be a problem I shall call down and let them know that I ordered you to.”

Hamlin shook his head. “I’ve been assigned to you for the week, as per orders from the hotel’s higher-ups.”

“Then sit, damn it.” Cerdic sat himself, waiting for Hamlin and then filling two plates with food, sliding one to his underling. “Eat, and then we’ll talk.”

Eat they did, Cerdic passing on messages from the boys and telling Hamlin how they were faring. Hamlin was especially happy to know that Jakie was doing so well. He had been the one who had recruited the boy into the group. He’d found Jakie, half-starving on the streets, just two months before he’d been sent to London and had taken him under his wing like the younger brother he’d never had.

Once they were finished and coffee was poured, Hamlin filled Cerdic in on the information he’d gathered. When he’d wrapped up his report Cerdic nodded, reading over the papers in the file Hamlin had handed him.

“You have done an excellent job, young man. I knew I was correct, placing my faith in you.”

Hamlin thanked him before saying, “May I ask just what you’re going to do with all this information?”

Cerdic lifted one eyebrow as he studied him. Then, having made a decision, he asked in turn, “Given what you brought me, what would you think it would be used for?”

“Well,” Hamlin said slowly, “there is a royal wedding coming up. If something were to happen to disrupt that, and said something was caused by one of the persons on that list, all of whom will be in the city at that point,” he tapped on of the papers spread out on the table in front of them, “it would certainly increase tensions between the British and the home country of whichever person is involved.”

“A very logical conclusion.” Again Cerdic studied Hamlin before saying, “If, and it is only ‘if’ that was the reason I had you collect this information, how would you feel about it?”

Hamlin shrugged. “I’ve been with you long enough that I have no illusions about you. You are not some super spy trying to save the world. On the other hand, you’re not a terrorist in the usual sense of the word. Best guess, you like manipulating people so that they cause problems that increase local or world tensions. It’s almost as if you were trying to throw the world into turmoil, one country at a time.”

“That still begs the question of how you feel about it.”

Resting his elbows on the table, Hamlin looked at his mentor. “I have no reason to care what you do one way or the other. I’ve got no love for people in general. I was used and abused from day one by everyone around me. Until you found me I didn’t believe that anyone gave a damn about me or anyone else for that matter. In general, I know that’s the truth of the world. Kill or be killed, use or be used, rule or be ruled, every man for himself. Even you use, but at least what we, the boys and I, get in return makes it worth it; a home, three squares a day, friendship among us which none of us had before.”

Hamlin paused, chuckling low. “Sorry, didn’t mean to go off on a rant like that. Anyway, bottom line, if you want to try to set people on each other until the world explodes and countries wipe each other out, have at it. It’s no skin off my nose.”