Chapter 10

"What!?" Snake was stunned. How could he possibly be related to this man?

"For you see, you are also connected to the lineage of Snakes…Did you think that codename a coincidence? My boy, have they told you nothing?"

Snake thought about this for a moment. He knew the codename structure of the new Foxhound unit was based loosely around the previous generations. He heard people kept talking of his similarities to people of old. But he did not know his parents. He was an orphan, a man who knew only solitude in his personal life and regimentation with the military. He had some questions of his own when he spoke to Commander Silverburgh next.

"I don't care where I come from; it doesn't change who I am and who you are. You're just someone that I need to stop." Snake was angry now, that this man was casting doubt in Snake's mind and questioning his loyalty. He had to remember whose side he was on. Snake raised his pistol from its holster and aimed it between the Li's eyes.

Li gave out a sadistic laugh, an obvious indication that he had no plans to come quietly. "Pinyin…Snake, do you really think you can stop this now? Metal Gear is ready to launch. There is nothing the Americans can offer to stop this process. A strike against North Korea will spark a retaliation and further worldwide reaction, and China will emerge victorious and the world's greatest superpower."

"You're sick! You're prepared to kill millions of people just to inflate your own economy?"

"Isn't that what an army really does Snake? I mean for example, how many men of mine have you killed today just to preserve America's dominance on the world stage?" The question took Snake back a little, but still, he had to remain firm and not fall for the mind games. This man was deluded and a terrorist.

"That's not the same!" The tensions were rising and Snake was now shouting. "I do what I do to prevent war, not start it!" And with that Snake's trigger finger was getting restless, he had to end this. His right index finger tightened on the trigger and began to squeeze. Li sensed the danger instinctively and dropped to the ground surprisingly quickly for a man of his age. The bullet flew harmlessly into the wall behind Li and before Snake could react again Li was already out the door immediately to his left and onto the struts. "Damn!" Snake muttered under his breath as he gave chase, he hoped he would not live to regret that miss.

As Snake rounded the corner, a troop of Li's men were waiting for him and opened fire, forcing Snake to retreat to cover. This was covering fire to allow the General to escape, nothing more. If any bullets hit Snake, it was a bonus for them. Looks like this battle will have to wait Snake thought to himself.

Once the last stray bullets had died down, Snake brought up his codec. "Meryl, what the hell!?"

"Okay Snake, I know you have questions, I think now it's time you knew your past..."

"Snake, there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to come out with it…" She drew a deep breath "You're a clone." Meryl looked down after she said this, as if disappointed in herself for keeping this a secret for so long. Snake had his suspicions that he was different, but how is someone expected to react to news like that? This explains his lack of a proper upbringing, but this raised more questions than it answered. "Snake, your surrogate mother is a lady named Rosemary and for a while you were raised by her and a man named Jack who went by the codename of Raiden, but your genes are actually from a man also named John, and his codename was… Naked Snake."

"Big Boss?" Snake had read the files. He knew who Naked Snake was and who he had become.

"That's correct. When Solid Snake, one of his first clones passed away people were worried that a legacy of soldiers would die out and be lost to the world."

"People? You mean the Pentagon?" Snake snapped.

"Yes that's right. When they made plans to reform the Foxhound unit, they also commissioned another clone project from Naked Snake's original DNA to preserve those genes for the future. As David or, Solid Snake was the most successful of the Snake clones, your genes are modelled on his. You're a living time capsule, a legacy."

"Lucky me" Snake snapped sarcastically.

"Snake, I know this must be a lot to take at the moment and we can continue this conversation later. But right now Li must be stopped, you still have a mission here and the fate of the world depends on it"

"Meryl, I will continue this mission and my orders, but once this is over consider me done" Not waiting for an answer to this statement, Snake closed his codec off and took the first steps to finishing this, once and for all.