Maude looked up at the light shining over the table and winced. Her bruised right eye narrowed and for all purposes closed while the left remained slightly open.
"So...Care to tell us exactly how you got that shiner again?" Lt. Boyd said flatly, "not that I expect your story to change much. The truth is a lot to ask from a Legion conspirator."
"I was cleaning the cell area. That Legionary started harassing me again. I stepped to close, he grabbed me, slammed my head into the wall, and I guess he pulled my key off my belt and made himself free."
Boyd then parted her hands and move the fingers apart slowly, like a bird opening it's feathers. "Free'd himself? hmmm. You have to understand my hesitance to think you'd be so careless around someone as dangerous as a Legion Centurion. Maybe you liked what he had to offer. Not telling us what really happened is in your best interest. After all, some of Colonel Hsu's files are missing. Don't you think that's interesting to happen the same day Silus makes himself a 'free man'?"
Maude closed both of her eyes, feeling the stiff ache of the hurt eye and meekly replied "Hsu is bad at file keeping? Isn't there a solider you can scold for this...I've got cells to clean."
Maude stood slowly, the chair shrieking behind her. Boyd then reached over the table and put a hand on Maude's shoulder and guided her back down into her seat. "If you don't mind, I am not finished with our friendly little chat. You know the chat we've been having about my old pal Silus. I do miss him so, and am eager to find out why you let him go home early."
Maude felt trapped, scared, like Boyd could see through her and know that over the past few days she smuggled clothes from the laundry into Silus's cell and armed him just well enough to stage his escape. She folded her hands on the table and looked down at them sadly. Was she some kind of idiot to think she could fool NCR soldiers trained to look through this kind of deception? She knew she's break...It was just a matter of Boyd figuring out how to make her.
"Nothing to say?" Boyd retorted with a smug sense of self satisfaction. "That's fine. You know... I think I know why you did it. You've got a crush. That's why you made that crude comment in the hallway the other day. That's why you talked to Legion scum int he first place. Do you get off on flirting with men that want to keep you collared and tied up like an obedient dog?"
Maude felt anger rise into her gut, and she spit back at Boyd with a rage, "NCR dog, Legion dog, Crimson Caravan bitch! What does it matter! In the end I'm still scrubbing someones floors for the rest of my life!"
Boyd grinned a little bit, lit a new cigarette, cocked her head back, and blew smoke towards Maude's eyes. "So I take that as an admission of guilt. You figured you'd rather be Caesar's whore."
"No! No! He grabbed my arm and slammed my head into the wall...I had no choice..."
Boyd then nodded and stood, moving towards the door. "A traitor to the NCR is a traitor to the NCR. The sooner you admit your roll, the better. I figured you'd be a though nut to crack. I bet Hsu is right and you're the spy we've had in our midst the entire time. Sense you're as unwilling to talk as Silus is, I'll let my friend who's standing outside take up the same interrogation tactics with you."
Maude watched as Boyd finally walked all the way out of the room, and a tall fair haired man in leather studded armor stepped inside. He didn't ask any questions at first, he just grabbed Maude by the neck and slammed her into the wall. After several minutes of him demanding information and using Maude as a punching bag the door opened and another man stepped in. The fair haired man let Maude fall to the floor, where she ran her arm across her nose and drew a line of thick red blood across her arm.
As the man stepped closer Maude recognised him as Curtis, the Captain under Hsu. "Who authorized non-military interrogation of an NCR citizen?"
Curtis looked around the room, his cruel brown eyes carving into the people in the room. "Boyd? Do you have an explanation for this woman receiving a beating today, on top of the one she had at the hands of that Legion dog yesterday?"
Boyd then stepped into the room, her usually cockiness giving way just enough to not seem insubordinate. "Colonel Hsu was concerned she was the spy that my friend here has been looking for. I decided that intense interrogation tactics were necessary to try to extract the truth of this situation, sir."
Curtis looked at Boyd with a long scolding look. He then dismissed Boyd, ordered her friend to be escorted off base, and turned to Maude once the door closed and they were alone. "Do you think you can stand?"
Maude flinched, moved back from his hand, and looked up at him with purple watery eyes. "He...He...He looked so much like Paul...I thought maybe...maybe...I miss him so much." Maude then broke down sobbing, letting go a depth of sadness that had been bottled up for years. Curtis found himself taken aback by how wracked with despair this woman had allowed herself to be all of a sudden.
Maude looked up at the Captian and said "Please...I don't care anymore...I just don't care...It doesn't matter what she knows...just make this all stop...Make it stop."
Curtis then pulled her up close to him, letting her weight rest on his body, and said harshly in her ear "Pull yourself together woman. Boyd's gone now, the worst is gone, and if you think Caesar will let you suffer to long after doing him such a favor you're foolish."
Maude stifled her tears and stepped back from the bronze skinned man next to her. She looked at Curtis with a wild stare, as if he had morphed into a monster upon telling her she was safe. Curtis then put his hand on her shoulder and steadied her "I figured if you've kept this many secrets, one more won't hurt. I'm going to check you into the medical ward. You'll be gone before you're in shape for Boyd to continue harassing you. I promise."
Maude stared longer, the shock of who Curtis really was keeping her mute. She then extended her arm and wrapped it around his neck, and let Curtis help her out of the interrogation room into the medical area of the camp. As they walked past Boyd, she sneered, and said after the girl "You know we will catch the spy, and she'll find herself looking down the barrel of an executors rifle for it."