***
The owner of the rough voice and his younger companion weren't acting alone. Riordan felt overly conscious of how naked and vulnerable he was. There was no time for that. He crossed his legs and hugged his knees, making himself small on the chair he had been forced to sit on. Let them think he was some mindless doll scared shitless. In the meantime, he was strategizing, while trying to preserve some body heat.
There were five men in the room with him. Their leader, the guy who had dragged him from his hiding place, and the owner of that gruff voice giving him the willies, was fingering the trigger of his automatic weapon, some model that looked like nothing Riordan had seen before, as if he could barely wait to use it. He was bald, with mean eyes gathered in the center of his face, making it impossible to look away for anyone who dared to stare. Riordan pulled his eyes away.
The youngster looked nervous. He was a pretty face, peeking from a helmet that looked like it had belonged to an older brother. His face was smooth. Were they recruiting kids for terrorist operations now? Riordan wouldn't have been surprised. But that was no kid. That pretty face seemed at odds with the rest of him, as he was a big guy, at least six foot five, broad in shoulders, and carrying enough equipment for three men. He had to be their mule, since the others carried lighter armor and weapons.
Riordan set his eyes on him. Whatever the reason for which the youngster was in that kind of shit, it couldn't stand on two legs too well. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there. Interesting. Riordan filed the info away for later use.
The other three looked like drones, with nothing to distinguish them from one another. They ignored the youngster, probably thinking themselves better than him, and had eyes only for the leader, which they obviously feared.
They were inside a square room with sparse furniture. As far as he knew, they were still on Xeno.
"Hey, boss," one of the grunts began in a nasty voice, "why do you reckon these snake fuckers like to put their weird ass dicks in uglies like this dude?"
Now, that wasn't very nice. Riordan hid his face in the crook of his elbows to smirk at leisure.
"I don't think he's ugly," the oversized toy soldier said.
"No one wants your opinion, Lewis," the first grunt retorted.
"Whatever that reason is, it's going to stop happening," the boss replied, ignoring the jabs between his subordinates. "We'll teach them a lesson."
"What's the plan?" Riordan asked, ignoring temporarily the fact that he had been told to shut up and made aware of consequences.
The leader of the group eyed him slowly, without hiding his disgust. He spat on the floor. "These Xeno scumbags are going to let go of Earth or we're going to blow your brains up. What do you say about this plan?"
"I see," Riordan replied. Since he wasn't being told to shut his trap, he could fish for more info. "But it's not like I'm that valuable."
The leader gave him a long once-over. "You obviously know shit, bird-brain."
Riordan gave the man a blank stare, like he couldn't understand what the man was going on about.
"Your owner is very much attached to those holes of yours." The man pointed his gun in Riordan's direction with a scornful expression on his face.
"Yeah, what's so special about them?" The grunt from before neighed like a horse. "Hey, bearer whore, why don't you show us your ass? I bet you miss having something stuck inside it."