Valor ↠ Prequel [0] ✓

12 | Reindeer Games

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VALOR
xii. REINDEER GAMES

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   RILEY WAS GETTING NOWHERE. Though only a few hours had passed since Director Fury had left her to interrogate their guest, it felt like much longer. Riley sat in the small detainment room across from a potentially dangerous alien with nothing but a bottle of water and a sliver of sanity to spare. She was afraid she would actually murder him if he didn't start talking.

   See, Riley had mistakenly assumed that the alien was being uncooperative in the sense that he was giving them the silent treatment. Instead, he was just being incredibly annoying and defensive by giving Riley a bunch of non-answers, which she assumed was the case for all the other agents who had tried to interrogate him.

   "Alright," started Riley, "I'm gonna try this again. And this time, you're gonna give me some answers." The alien on the other side of the glass stared at her, disinterested. "What's your name?"

   "Does it matter?"

   Riley refrained from sighing loudly. "A little bit," she sarcastically replied.

   The alien hummed. "That doesn't sound like much," he taunted.

   Riley felt her frustration grow again. "Look, you're not leaving this place until you answer my questions," she sharply told him. "Do you really want to rot here? 'Cause there's a lot of bad teen movies you could be watching instead."

   He clenched his jaw. "I was fine where I was before your buddies dragged me here."

   Riley raised her eyebrows. "You crash-landed in a spaceship," she sassed. "That doesn't sound like you were fine if you asked me."

   The alien became visibly annoyed again. "Look, kid, why don't you just let me out of here?"

   Riley felt her eye twitch. "Kid?" she repeated. "You're hardly older than me!" At least, that was what she thought. From the looks of it, the alien was a few years older than her—maybe 17 or 18-years-old. But when the alien snorted, Riley started to second-guess herself. "What?"

   "I'm a few thousand years old. You humans wouldn't know a thing about living that long," the alien revealed. He smirked at her. "But that was cute—thinking you had me figured out and all. They would've loved you on Asteria."

   Riley initially felt her aggravation return to her, but then a lightbulb went off in her head. She was getting somewhere.

   "Asteria," repeated Riley. "That's where you're from?" The alien hesitated. He hadn't even realized what he had said until it processed in his brain. Riley decided to take another approach in her interrogation. Maybe the problem was that everyone was being too hard on him. After all, she had no clue what he had been through prior to landing on Earth. "It sounds cool."