Xenapistia: n. extreme distrust of strangers
"Just trust me," Hogan said confidently to a scientist with critical information. It was a mistake.
"Sir, the last time I trusted someone, I barely escaped with my life. You will excuse my lack of trust."
"Who betrayed him?" Hogan quietly asked the agent who got the scientist this far. Something about the way the man said it had sent chills down his spine.
"His brother," the man said blankly, as though it was expected. The last war did not end all wars, and brother still fought brother. He vowed again to hold tightly to the home he had here.
Author's Note: A couple of weeks ago, I read an Agatha Christie short story first published in 1933 and set in 1921 ("The Hound of Death"). One of the lines about WWI stunned me: "We were, thank God, beginning to forget…" I was always told that it was called the War to End All Wars because people thought it was so horrific that no one would ever forget and decide to start another war, but here was something saying that the people wanted to forget. Although in the United States we say that the Civil War was the war where brother fought brother, it was true in other wars too.