Code Talker and Buffalo were bringing them to the hangar building. It concerned a few things he had brought for Taylor, and offered everyone else to be dropped off at the administrative building to rest. Everyone decided to come by. Taylor appreciated the company, even if she suspected there wouldn't be much to do around otherwise that would keep them occupied.
No, that wasn't fair. It was obvious that for Snake and Otacon, the day was revealing a fair bit of secret history in a conflict in which they were already participants, so it would affect them anyway if only indirectly. If anything, this would be business as usual for them.
E.E. would probably want to stay close to her brother, though the jumbled set of emotions Taylor was picking up from her was too confused as to make sense of why exactly, as their relationship seemed… strained. And Sunny, whom Taylor didn't need to look at with her physical eyes to understand that, yes, the kid was afraid of her, only wanted to stay close to her adopted parents. And to Lisa.
However the impromptu operation in the helicopter looked like to an external observer, it clearly wasn't pretty. Nonetheless, it was sweet how Sunny worried about others.
Lisa's reasons were clear too. Taylor didn't understand how simply being a psychic confounded parahuman Thinker powers, particularly when Lisa stated her own worked correctly around her. But Taylor knew that Lisa was playing it safe in regards to the apparent capacity of her masters to track her outside of whatever influence Taylor was radiating. The paranoid inside wanted to blame it in Lisa's self-interest, but Taylor remembered a time when she also hoped anyone at all would lend her a helping hand. The difference was that Lisa was simply far more proactive in seeking help than Taylor remembered being herself. Taylor couldn't really hold it against her.
There was also a feeling in regards to Taylor that she couldn't quite identify. Taylor didn't know what to expect from it, but she'd deal when Lisa decided to.
Dragon was self-explanatory. Their conversation in the plane didn't stop at the older sibling joke — it brought the subject that they barely had any experience in being siblings, spoiled memories with Emma aside. They agreed to, at the very least, be more attentive of how the other was doing at all times, and go from there, learning from whatever stuck to the wall. Dragon opening her heart to someone was intrinsically tied to sharing the truth of her nature as an AI, and she hadn't dared to do it with Taylor until it was almost too late to do so herself. And Taylor herself had failed to see their interactions grow more familiar outside of jobs; long chats while traveling between one place to another, or their banter in the middle of an operation, and had felt she needed to do better to reciprocate Dragon in the future.
In addition, from what Taylor had learned about her directive of always obeying a lawful authority, she imagined Dragon was also basking in interacting with people that had no authority over her, knew her nature, and accepted it. Shady people, perhaps. But people that, until this point, had been honest and accommodating enough. Dragon never had issues approaching people, at least through a screen or a speaker, but now she felt a bit more outgoing and extroverted.
Finally, while Taylor's newfound senses were overwhelmed by Vista's sheer curiosity and giddiness, it was clear she was doing her best efforts to 'inspect' the situation as a professional and make sure nothing was a danger, at least as understood by the PRT. But given that they were dabbling in a world of high level espionage and manipulation, Vista was no more above being out of her element than the rest of the group, Snake and Otacon excepted.
Coming through the tunnel, the two trucks came into what they told them was the hangar building. The blast doors closed behind, and the drivers parked at the far right, near a staircase.
Both trucks occupied less than half the space the hangar provided. Around, both on the lower floor and on the floor above, there were supplies rooms and offices to service whatever vehicles the building was housing. Snake recalled there being two tanks in the middle of their maintenance when he was here the last time, but as with the nuclear weapons, the government had taken them away, so the trucks were currently the only vehicles around. It also wasn't as cold as REX's hangar or the ride on the trucks outside had been; and most of the group felt brave enough to leave their coats open.
On the way from REX's hangar, Drebin had given them the rundown on the state of each building in the island. The forge had been restored to minimal capacity at the beginning to facilitate the rebuilding efforts, and it was now fully restored, after the rebuilding of the communications towers made it a priority.
As the less important facilities, the prison and the armory at the hangar building hadn't been restored yet, while back at the administrative building, both the office and computer floors had been cleaned up. Part of the computer floor had been restored to control all systems, while a small meeting room was currently being added to the office floor.
Drebin had stopped at the administrative building, arguing that he needed to call his 'bosses'. He had declined to mention who his bosses were, mentioning that he himself didn't know except that they had contacted him through his old weapon laundry contacts, and had him restore the island and receive them and HEC, but assuring everyone they could probably expect to be meeting them the next day.
The idea that someone had been paying enough attention to them, possibly with enough time to restore an abandoned facility at the end of the world to receive them at this particular moment, had made everyone uncomfortable and wary of their situation. Code Talker and Buffalo had expressed their skepticism, suspecting Ocelot was behind it all. Drebin didn't refuse the argument, instead choosing to simply smirk in silence before turning around and leaving. Still, there wasn't much they could do at the moment.
Everyone stepped down from the trucks, and stepped a bit away from them. The drivers moved between the trucks and started talking among themselves.
The group saw Tree Frog at a distance, having changed to winter clothes as well, and standing along a couple of technicians. She came closer and stopped in front of the gathered group. "Sir, everyone", Tree Frog greeted them.
"Tree Frog", Code Talker acknowledged her. "What's the word on the cargo?"
"Arrived at the underground dock a bit ago", she said. "They're loading it into the cargo elevator and should be reaching the helipad outside soon."
Tree Frog raised a finger to them and a hand to her ear. "Patch her through." She frowned as she kept listening. "I told you — you are what where now!?"
"All good, Frog?" Buffalo asked.
Tree Frog sighed. "Sorry, gotta deal with this." She then ran back, past the technicians and towards a door, leaving the hangar.
"I made preparations to bring a few things", Code Talker told the rest of the group. "While they bring them here", he said as he turned around to face Taylor, "I will tell you about The One That Covers." He looked around the group. "You all know that Taylor is a host for it, so I will share this with all of you. But I must ask to not tell a word to anyone else."
"'One That Covers'. You called it that before", Taylor said. "No, that can wait. You called it a parasite. Why?"
"Because contracting it without due precaution in a safe environment, a process that I first developed when I myself took them into myself that I've come to call parasite therapy, or in circumstances that still elude me, will result in parasitism, and eventual death of the host", he explained. "Only through such a controlled process, the relationship that forms between the parasite and the host is truly symbiotic. That is the only reason I talk of them as parasite, and not a symbiote, though I know it might feel misleading."
"Took them into yourself?" E.E. asked, mouth pursed. "As in… voluntarily?"
Code Talker nodded. "It happened in the Sixties, when my research had hit a dead-end. I was then approached by a foundation with links to ARPA, who assured me they had a sample of an unusual strain of parasite. Well, it would be more appropriate to say that they had the partial remains of an old man, who died in an explosion."
"And you found the parasite in those remains", Otacon said.
"Just so", Code Talker said with a nod. "His flesh not only had not decomposed, but the tissues' cells were still metabolizing. The parasite, which can only subsist within a human, had assimilated the tissues, keeping them alive. Studying it had become an obsession and a cavalcade of discoveries, of the qualities it shared with a host. Until I realized there was only so much I could learn through observation."
"And then you took them", Taylor started, with a slight grimace, "from that dead flesh."
Lisa coughed aside as E.E. whimpered.
"One would have thought you'd have test subjects in the Sixties for that…" Otacon commented.
"As I said, I became obsessed, and I knew it was a considerable gamble", Code Talker admitted. "That step became the basis of the parasite therapy, but I still did not know if they would adapt to me, or my body to them. Or even if, in the end, after all those years of research, my immune system learned to tolerate them."
"Not exactly a research method a university would approve", Dragon said. "Was that the only time you met this parasite?"
"No, there were other corpses with different specimens, each with added abilities. One that controls other insects at will through the secretion of heterogeneous pheromones, for example. Having proof of achieving successful symbiosis, I wanted exposure to them, but my wishes were denied. I had access to their records, but I never knew what was made of them afterwards.
"The parasite awards increased strength, coordination, faster movement… But not only. I also modified samples from the strain I took from that old man, isolating different abilities from each sample: one could blend perfectly into its surroundings, by exposing the pigments in its cells at will; another capable of manipulating rock, raising it from the soil, using it as a barrier or a second skin, and even levitate chunks to be used as projectiles or traps, and that by harboring multiple species of metallic archaea, can instead manipulate the metal in the soil, in addition of being able to oxidize and reduce it. Sahelanthropus' capacity to do the same originates from this infusion of archaea in the parasite."
"Brute, Stranger, Breaker, Blaster, Mover… That's a hell of a skill package", Vista said. "I mean, for something that comes from a little bug and isn't a parahuman power." She glanced at Taylor. "Or psychic."
"Pretty sure it's more of an unicellular organism, and not a bug", Lisa muttered. Code Talker nodded at her in agreement.
Taylor scratched the back of her neck. "You know, I still don't know how it works, but your apprehension just hit me hard, Vista." Taylor turned to her. "I think it's apprehension?"
Vista shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry. Still coming to terms that someone is a mind reader."
"It's fine, but I'm trying to be polite, not reading anyone's mind", Taylor said, then scowled at everyone's questioning looks. "I mean, assuming I even could. It's hard to explain, but all I get are impressions of strong emotions around me without even trying to work for it, and I have to… compare them? To how I feel them to identify them. Like, constant background noise walking through the street, not figuring out what each individual noise is because there are so many, and suddenly jumping around because a car crashed behind you, but until you turned around you didn't know if it was that or a piano falling from above; that's assuming that I know what a car or a piano is. And even if I wanted, it's hard to differentiate one emotion from another, and it isn't like I'm getting much at all." She turned to Dragon. "Except you; I'm not getting anything from you. And I've never been able to track your suits, now that I think about it. I always thought it was because you weren't really there, but…"
"Even with the biocomputer? Maybe it's something about how I'm coded to think?" Dragon suggested. "Curious."
"Drebin said his patrons might know someone that could help you with this", Buffalo said. "Maybe they could give you some pointers, but don't worry too much about it until then."
Taylor returned to Code Talker. "So, the parasite. What should I know? I can't say I feel all that different, but I admit the idea makes me nervous."
"I understand", Code Talker said. "Though he refused, I once offered the Ocelot to join me in this communion with The One That Covers. I might be biased in saying that it's a most wonderful life, but I realize it's not a choice to take lightly." He frowned. "Or have it taken from oneself."
"Well, it saved her life", Dragon said, putting an arm around Taylor's shoulders. "I'll give him that much."
He nodded. "It is called The One That Covers, because now your body is covered with it." He cupped a hand upside. "It starts adding itself to the epidermis, and then starts spreading through the skin itself, observing the host's DNA and mimicking it, taking the place of the cells as they die and flake, falling away. This is a fast process." He then turned his hand upside down. "But slows down considerably as it reaches the flesh, reinforcing the muscle and bone underneath, and only substitutes internal organs in case of critical damage, or when directed to it. With your entire skin surface damaged, this first step was accelerated significantly, followed by your spine and liver. It provides redundant functions as well. This was the case for Quiet; after Big Boss set her on fire, and before it restored her lungs, the parasites compensated for her burned epidermis, and provided her blood with oxygen through cutaneous respiration, instead of pulmonary respiration." He grumbled. "They've acted as my eyes for almost as long as I had them, but in your case they won't, not unless…"
"Right, a saving grace is good, but I'm not keen on gouging my eye out when there's still a chance to recover my normal sight", Taylor said looking at the floor. She gave herself a one-armed hug and looked back up. "Should I be worried that I could start looking… I don't know, different? Will it affect my mind?"
Code Talker shook his head. "It latches onto your DNA, copies it, and uses it like a mason uses the plans the architect gave him to build a house. I have never studied a host as young as you, and you are still growing. But if I had to make an educated guess…" He hummed in thought. "The parasite answers to your emotions, but it avoids replacing nerves and brain cells; it can't replicate their functions, and at most, it facilitates the work of the body in healing those tissues. But it might reinforce the foundations of your body, as you grow up, more than it would do for a grown man. Stronger bones, a more efficient circulatory system, more powerful muscles, better balance and senses, heightened activity and production of adrenaline when both the host and the parasite are in grave danger or emotional distress… While not by much in comparison to parahumans, Quiet and the Skulls were capable of fairly superhuman feats, and I've received its help occasionally as well."
"Most parahumans with a Brute rating have their strength settled by their power to a fixed point, creativity and use aside", Dragon commented. She turned to Taylor. "Sounds like exercise is still good for you."
"We were talking about it at the mess hall before, about the escape from Brockton Bay, and the fight at Boston", Otacon said, scratching one of his cheeks. "It gave me the impression this parasite is photosynthetic?"
"You are correct", Code Talker replied. "After you supply them with water, in return they will provide the sugars they produce when exposed to light. In this way, we can subsist indefinitely without further nutrients. In turn, desiccation is a concern. The surface moisture loss of the parasite is greater than ours." He raised a hand, looking at Taylor. "It shouldn't be a problem for you, not yet. But it's something you should keep in mind, as you age and the parasite spreads over your body. Extreme environments shouldn't be much different for you; I am as capable of enduring this cold weather as any other human. But, stay hydrated, and avoid seawater." He raised an eyebrow. "And moderate the salt in your food."
"Figures, we got our own plant girl", Snake said with a grin.
"We'll have to make a comfortable greenhouse in her bedroom", Dragon continued in a singsong tone.
Taylor threw a stink eye in Snake's direction, but her lips betrayed the shadow of a smile. "You're both asses."
Snake snorted. "You need to work on your comebacks."
"Don't worry, Tay", Lisa told her in a mock whisper while patting her hand. "We'll have you talking crap like a champ in no time."
"Oh, shut up, guys", Taylor said with a eye roll, before turning back to Code Talker. "Now that you mention food, I haven't been feeling hungry at any point", Taylor said, "but I could still eat?"
"Of course. I still eat, myself. Despite the fact that most of my flesh has been replaced by the parasite, it kept my digestive system functional as well", he said. "And even if we don't need it anymore, there's more to the act of eating than nourishment. The skill of the cook. The taste of a balanced dish. The small comforts of life. We receive nature's blessings, and reaffirm our part in it. And in doing so, we express our gratitude."
E.E.'s brows rose up. "That's a funny way of expressing yourself, for a scientist-turned-spymaster. Very… mystic."
"Kazuhira was amused by it as well", Code Talker said with a laugh. "And he would have disagreed with you. After rescuing me from Skull Face, the first time he offered to have the kitchen at Mother Base have something done for me, I asked for hamburgers."
The looks of everyone on him were as flat as a sheet of paper. "Wait", Snake said, "hamburgers? Really?"
"More than you know. When he asked, I was… passionate, in my scientific defense of the hamburger as one of Nature's blessing. Maybe I will tell you another time", Code Talker said with amusement. "but Kazuhira kept bringing me hamburgers; turned out he was bringing them not from the kitchen, but from R&D, and using me as a one-man focus group. He never told Ahab or the Ocelot, but when less I expected it, he had already opened his Miller's Maxi-Buns chain with the critiques he had pried from me…"
"The more I know", Snake said with a shake of his head, "the less I understand him…"
Lisa jumped up to her feet, scaring everyone with a scream and pointing a finger at Code Talker. "I knew it!"
The confusion on everyone's faces was quickly ruined, as Lisa couldn't keep the pose and grimaced, clutching at her belly in pain. "Ow, not my smartest move", she said as Snake helped her sit down again.
"You… knew what?" Code Talker asked, honest perplexity in his tone.
"There are no Maxi-Buns in the West Coast, or in Brockton Bay, but I tried them when I ran from home and got to the East Coast", Lisa said, and she turned to Vista. "And they tasted like the hamburgers at the mess hall. Like Fugly Bob's. And both have the Chemi-Burgers!"
Vista blinked once. Twice. And turned to Code Talker. "Fugly Bob's is yours!? Don't tell me you've been spying on capes!"
Code Talker chuckled. "McDonnell's, legally speaking. But yes, both of Fugly Bob's are fronts and way stations for HEC, and the bulk of your dossiers were put together by the managers there, but only after I asked last night. We only opened them so the Heberts had a local contact with us; as I said, HEC has never been interested in parahuman affairs."
"I don't like it, but I admit it's actually pretty sensible", Dragon said. "If you're invested in anyone's life, you'd keep an eye out for any dangers in Brockton Bay, and that means capes and gangs." She turned to Vista. "Considering Shadow Stalker sent her to a hospital in the first place, one could argue they should have paid even more attention to capes. Even ours."
"Alright, all that is pretty interesting", Taylor said, "but last question I have for now. I'm not going to look forever like the gangly stick teenager I am right now, right?"
Vista shoot her a glare. "Really?" she muttered. "Have you seen how ripped you are?"
"I'm…" Taylor shuffled her shoulders awkwardly. "Forget I said anything."
"No. The parasite will probably defer to the body in the task of the growing process", Code Talker said. "You might not look exactly like you would have without it, barring other divergences, but I would say it'll be close enough to not matter."
"Hear that?" Dragon said as she tightened her hug around Taylor's shoulders. "Nothing to worry about, you won't look like a boy forever."
"PFFWHAT", Taylor sputtered, much to the awkward amusement of the other girls. "Seriously, where is that attitude coming from!?"
Dragon raised her chin. "You're the older sibling, remember? As the younger, it's my duty to needle you." Seeing Taylor's raised eyebrow, she sighed. "Come on, Taylor. I know you aren't a fan of your looks, but I'm just trying to cheer you up. I think we all need some of it right now."
Taylor nodded slowly, seeing Lisa trying to hold back her laughing fit, and failing with an apologizing shrug. Brownie points for trying. Dragon wasn't entirely wrong, and it isn't like she just said anything Taylor herself didn't think more than once. At least before the year began.
"Yeah, you're right." She then looked up at her with a mischievous eye. "I'll get back at you though."
"Oh no, I know how good you are at pranks", Dragon said drily, and raised a mocking hand to her chest. "My biocomputer is quivering inside its life support casing!"
"Code Talker, I've been thinking", Snake said, paying no mind to the scene. "You said you started your research on the parasite around the Sixties. You also said the mines around the Navajo Nation were what moved you into your research, that's twenty years more at least." He frowned, folding his arms. "But then you call yourself 'Code Talker'; that's the term that was used for the Navajo they sent to the battlefield in the Second World War, to rely encrypted messages in that language so that the Japanese wouldn't crack them. So you'd be, what, eighteen then? Eighty five or so now? You have a good spring on your step for looking so old. Is that the parasite too?"
"I was already over the conscription age then. And the name is a reminder of more than the use that the Diné was made of long after our exile", Code Talker admitted. "But good eye. Yes, the parasite confers longevity, within reason. From what I could understand, that old man was already over a hundred years old when he died in that explosion." Code Talker smiled. "Would you believe if I said I am over one hundred and thirty?"
"That's a lot of mileage gained, for taking the parasite so old", Snake said.
The blast door opposite to the one they had come in started to open, a small breeze of frozen air coming through and causing everyone to close their coats; but once a truck showed in the entry bay, they could see the exterior door was already closed.
"So, out of curiosity", Vista said. "This parasite seems like a handy one. Healing, living longer, strength… Why just keep it to yourself and Taylor? From what you say, it could do some good around."
"Even after Skull Face used it as a weapon, I would have offered it openly to those I'd think they'd make good hosts, but even leaving aside the commitment one would be doing in accepting the parasite…" Code Talker shook his head, as the truck came into the hangar, parking at the opposite side of theirs, and the blast door closed again. "I made an oath to not let The One That Covers fall in unworthy hands. Would you guarantee to me, in this time and age, that parahumans would not try to get a sample for themselves, once they knew others were hosts as well? Would you allow villains that to become more dangerous because of it?"
Vista rubbed her neck. "No, I guess not."
"I understand your reasoning", Dragon said while two guards and a pair of technicians stepped down from the truck. "But maybe controlled studies, or…?"
"No", Code Talker answered raising a hand, and he started walking to the new truck, followed by the others. "I am its caretaker; this is a decision I have made long ago, and not lightly. I can be persuaded to make an exception in a desperate situation, someone close like Taylor, but I won't budge in this matter, not now."
The technicians unloaded a few crates from the truck as one the guards turned to Code Talker; His winter clothes were of a different kind to those employed by the Dogs and the rest of guards that they had seen on the island; more civilian looking and in a plain gray color. "Sir. Everything is accounted for."
Code Talker nodded at him and the others. "Give us some privacy, please", he asked as the technicians finished unloading the last crate.
The four men nodded and moved away, walking toward the drivers.
"Ahab and Quiet didn't own many things", Code Talker told Taylor as Buffalo crouched and started rummaging with the crates. "But they are yours now."
"Let's start with the big ones", Buffalo said as she opened the two largest crates. Inside of each one, there was a rifle, both with detached sights and laser pointer. She pointed at the smaller one with the blue frame. "The Guilty Butterfly, Renov chambered for 7.75mm tranq darts." Then the bigger one, with the barrel detached. "And the Sinful Butterfly, a Brennan AMR. These were modified for Quiet; bigger recoil and weight in exchange for greater range, precision, and muzzle velocity for the Sinful. She was stronger than most of us, so she could deal. You should too, at least in time. There was also a normal Renov she had from her XOF times, the Wicked Butterfly; the Dogs modified it too, but she had it when she disappeared."
Taylor noticed the engraved butterfly symbols in the stocks of both rifles. "That's a lot of butterflies", Taylor commented as she crouched alongside Buffalo. "Quiet disappeared? What happened?"
"I was wondering that too", Snake said, standing besides Taylor and looking at the rifles. "The way you talked about them, Ahab and Quiet seemed to have a thing going on, but I never met any enhanced sniper back in Outer Heaven."
"After undergoing parasite therapy", Code Talker said, "she wanted revenge against Big Boss, and Skull Face convinced her to have the English strain of the vocal cord parasite implanted in her. In case she ever met him, and an assassination attempt failed. That is how she became 'Quiet'. But after developing feelings for Ahab…" He looked away. "She vowed to never speak English ever again. She told me in Navajo, the only language I made sure the parasite couldn't react to, and left the Dogs shortly after."
"Ahab found her captured by the Soviets, in Afghanistan", Buffalo said, and grimaced. "She was weakened, and a few of the soldiers… No one is sure what happened, but she had gone apeshit on the entire outpost when Ahab got there. From what he said, the scene wasn't pretty. Then they had to fight off an entire Soviet armored division, and when they tried to escape in the middle of a sandstorm, a snake bit Ahab. She had to call Pequod for help…"
"And she left because she just stimulated the parasite", Vista concluded.
"Yup. She didn't want to spread it to Ahab and the Dogs anymore", Buffalo said. "Hell, some of the Dogs had already contracted the Kikongo strain before I joined; everyone in Mother Base learned a bit of other language out of simple socializing, and it could have been a catastrophe it Ahab hadn't found Code Talker here. But before that, Quiet chased down one of them with a knife because she noticed he was infected. Managed to stuck the knife between his teeth and chip one until several Dogs and Ahab took her down. And because she didn't speak, no one realized she was trying to excise the parasite, and not kill him. That was while she was still warming up to them."
"Couldn't she just write a note?" E.E. asked with a grimace.
Buffalo shrugged. "What can I say? I joined XOF around the same time she did; Quiet didn't know me, but she already was a known eccentric back when she still hadn't taken the parasite." She took the blue rifle from its crate with some effort, and showed it to Taylor, who took it. She noted the weight, and started inspecting the weapon. "As for the butterfly thing… it was her nickname, back in XOF, and her old rifle had one scratched on it. The Dogs got the idea from that, and even the rank and file called her 'the butterfly' when there weren't officers around. Something about how she moved between targets in close quarters, and between sniping positions."
Dragon looked at Taylor. "Taylor, is something wrong? You suddenly got this…" she started, waving a hand over her optics. "Thousand yard stare…"
"Hmm? No, it's fine", she said. "It's just… snakes from one side, butterflies from the other… Made me think of something."
"Nothing bad, I hope?" Buffalo asked.
Taylor shook her head. "No, it's…" She sighed. "Mom. She called me 'little owl'."
Buffalo gave her a contrite look. "Sorry, kid. Wasn't my intention…"
"It's fine", Taylor said, brushing Buffalo's concern aside. "I miss her, but… it happened."
Buffalo nodded. "A'ight:"
"Well, if you go back to capeing or whatever, at least you aren't limited to repeating the Snake or Butterfly names", Lisa offered. "Something that can be only yours." She hummed. "Little Owl… I kinda like it."
Taylor smiled faintly at her, then looked up in front of her to nothing in particular. "Yeah, I do too…"
Otacon frowned in thought. "Code Talker, wouldn't the One That Covers have protected or healed Quiet from any damage? She might have survived then."
Code Talker hummed. "That is… hard to say. If any test was ever made, only Skull Face would know. It is true that her lungs were by then taken by the One That Covers, but that might have exposed it to the vocal cord parasite just as well. If she survived, it would have been in agony and solitude. But without further notice from Quiet, I'll keep assuming she died."
Taylor noticed Snake behind her, studying the rifle in her hands, and passed it to him. He crouched as he took it, resting the butt on the floor. "The Renov was a derivation of the Vz. 54, right?" He pulled back the bolt, then returned it to its position. "Smooth", he said clinically, and returned it to Buffalo. "But aiming and shooting with that much added weight…"
Buffalo laughed as she put the rifle back in the crate. "Not a problem for her. She once shot her run off the mill rifle at an XOF fighter jet that was diving straight for their helicopter." She put a finger between her eyes for a second. "She put it right between the pilot's eyes before he was in range to gun them down. Another time, Ocelot had her shoot his revolver between the moving blades of Pequod's chopper, just to make a point to Miller."
"Adding a Thinker rating to the parasite", Vista muttered.
"Actually, we were never sure if that was just her instead of the parasite?" Buffalo turned and asked to Code Talker.
"The parasite grants increased senses", he admitted. "But to such degree, it would be only aiding Quiet's own skills."
"Anyway." Buffalo pointed to the bigger rifle. "Not bothering taking this one out, weighs a ton. Anti-materiel rifle. A normal Brennan is already strong enough without modifications to make swiss cheese of modern battle tanks; it's what I used to kick Saint's butt. This puppy? Not a toy. Don't point it at anyone or anything you don't want blowing up in pieces, not unless they're some kind of parahuman who can take it."
Taylor felt a shiver down her spine. "Yeah, I'm not sure I wish that on anyone."
"Good. If for any reason you ever have it with you, and I'm not saying you should: rule of thumb", Buffalo remarked, "unless it's your life on the line, just don't point it at anyone unless you're sure they're tough enough that you're just wounding them. The R&D guys wouldn't give something the moniker 'Sinful' for nothing."
"Yikes, why would you even want something like this?" Vista asked.
"Quiet preferred her Renov. But there were plenty of armored vehicles back then, and Ahab worked on foot or riding his horse. It was a good precaution." Buffalo closed both rifle crates, and stood up, moving the the back of the truck, where a small plastic container waited there. "Just to be clear, I'm not saying you should use them, Taylor. It's just that they're yours now."
Vista tilted up an eyebrow to Taylor. "So you know horse riding too?"
Taylor didn't quite laugh, but she found it funny enough to quick up a corner of her mouth. "Not that I can say. I can't know whatever skills they gave me until I need to use them. I think."
"We can arrange something to…" Everyone was following Buffalo, and she interrupted herself when they heard a muted buzzing outside the building, ending in a small thud.
Buffalo turned around and shared a look with Code Talker. "You don't think she…?"
He sighed and shook his head. "If she called Tree Frog, we would be safe assuming she did, indeed."
"Is there a problem?" Otacon asked.
"Nothing to be overly worried. You'll see soon enough." Code Talker walked up to the truck, left his cane leaning against it, and pushed the container closer to Taylor so she could reach to grab it. "Inside, you'll find all that's left of Ahab's earthly possessions. It's not much, and old, but it is yours now. There's also two recorded messages, one from Kazuhira, and another from your parents."
"From…?" Taylor whispered as she put her hand over the box.
"You had not been born yet", Code Talker said. "I don't know what they contain, except that they recorded them in case you became aware of your origins. You don't need to listen to them in public."
Taylor nodded slowly, and as Dragon put a hand over her shoulder, she opened the box.
The first thing she saw, if only because of the anachronism, was an old cassette player in a faded silver. The blocky device displayed 'Recording WALKMAN' proudly on the front. At its side there were two cassettes casings. Taking them out, she looked over the first one. It had a white label with green markings. "'Quiet's message'?"
Code Talker hummed in thought. "She must have left it for Ahab when she left. No one else has listened to it. Except perhaps Kazuhira."
"I'm guessing there never was much thought put into Taylor when you gathered his belongings?" Buffalo said.
He shook his head. "Kazuhira did it before Project Athalia was even an idea. I never touched this box or its contents."
Taylor looked over the other cassette. The label on one side a read 'Miller to Athalia'. Obviously, that must have meant herself.
Turning around the cassette, the label read 'Heberts to Athalia'.
Letting out a breath, she put everything at one side of the box. "Maybe later."
Dragon peered over the box and took a device from it. "What's this?" It was like a gray thin walkie-talkie, with an orange grip, and several buttons on its side. Up front was what looked like a lens, with holes marked as 'mic' below.
"Ohh", Buffalo gushed. "Miller kept Ahab's iDroid!" She extended a hand, and Dragon gave her the device. "It was the last invention by MSF, before XOF took them down, but the Dogs kept using it", Buffalo said as she inspected the 'iDroid'. "Battery is probably dead though."
"So, what does it do?" E.E. asked.
"Well, our comms were designed to be used alongside one of these, and it allowed communication by satellite, if it was available, but it was used for anything you programed the operating system for." Buffalo left the iDroid next to the cassettes, and took out a different iDroid from a pocket, laid it face up in her hand. The lens lighted up with a buzzing, and projected a faint blue light, flat objects hovering over it.
"A holographic interface", Otacon stated aghast.
"Yep. Most of the Dogs used it for a satellite-based map, though Ahab's model had a suite of tool to manage Mother Base when he was out", she said as she flicked a stick on the device and the interface changed to show an aerial view of Boston. With some fiddling of the controls, the map rotated, zoomed in and out, and a mark was made in a random spot of the map, which prompted the device to vocalize a 'checkpoint A added' with a stiff Atlantic accent. "It had some limited capacity to communicate with satellites; you could request artillery or aerial support anywhere you pointed at in the map, and scan documents that then you could send to Mother Base. And if you were anywhere close to any equipment for satellite communication, the Intel team could send you all they had for your current assignment. Visuals, reports, audio summaries…" Another flick and it was now showing photos of a big cottage and a stock photo of the Dragonslayers in armor during one of their mercenary jobs.
"Made in the Seventies", Lisa muttered. "They made military purpose, satellite, holographic GPS guiding spy smartphones in the Seventies."
"Would have appreciated one of those in FOXHOUND", Snake grumbled, "Instead of just the radio rig."
"Indeed, such a piece of technology… why didn't you market it?" Dragon asked incredulous. "I know some Tinkers produce their own holographic tech — hell, I do. But a mass producible one that it's already packaged and ready for the military? I'm sure you would have gotten a contract before you explained the details. Even better, just change a few things and you would have pioneered the civilian cell phone industry."
"Kazuhira… was a paranoid man", Code Talker said. "His R&D teams were the most motivated researchers and engineers I've ever met. And while McDonnell's started from anything that could have a purely civilian use, he didn't trust the Patriots ever gaining access that way to most of what they developed or confiscated from XOF. Advances in personal weapon and armor, medicine, vehicular magnetic levitation, non-standard artillery, the iDroid itself." He scowled. "Wormhole technology."
Everyone was stunned at the last mention, but the two more scientifically inclined people muttered swears of incredulity.
"Wormholes?" Otacon said. "As in, open a hole to a different place?"
"The same", Buffalo said. "You planted the device somewhere or on something or someone, an entry hole opens up in the air, and an exit in a set place; back then, it was the floor of a repurposed cargo bay back in Mother Base. The entry hole sucks whatever and whoever is near it, but the cargo bay had a crane to help with that. We really didn't use it much, though. Word was that it was expensive; capital E expensive."
Otacon blinked once. Then twice. "How… How did they even got to do that!?" he exclaimed.
"Are you all familiar with the Fulton device?" Code Talker asked.
"Those are the balloons Taylor and Dragon used to take people from the field, right?", Vista said.
"It was developed by the CIA for recovery and rescue", Snake said, and turned to Dragon. "Would have imagined you would be using something less… mundane."
Dragon shrugged. "Another of Armsmaster's suggestions for Taylor's equipment. It was simple enough to adapt my drones and ships for its use."
"As Kazuhira told me", Code Talker started, "a now deceased R&D team leader got the idea. The Dogs used the Fulton extensively, and he was in charge of advancing its development. He was single-handedly responsible of developing a Fulton balloon capable of retrieving heavy weights like cargo containers or battle tanks. But there was only so much the conventional retrieval system could do. Then, the Dogs captured a rare jackal specimen in Africa, one that they called 'Anubis'."
"The Egyptian god of the underworld, protector of the dead… and the passing to the afterlife", Snake said, chin propped over a hand. "I'm starting to see the connection."
"So what, the Dogs developed wormhole technology because one researcher was too impatient to wait to retrieve normal balloons?" Dragon snorted. "As far as reasons go…"
"I see why anyone would fear this being misused, though", Lisa said. "All the things the Undersiders could have done with it… and I can tell you right here and right now that you don't want it in Coil's hands."
"Still, I'm still hung up on the idea that someone developed honest to god wormhole technology capable of allowing physical travel through it", Dragon insisted, "even before Haywire opened the breach between our Earth and Aleph's alternate dimension."
"Never thought Master Miller would be sitting on this kind of technology", Snake said. "Where did he keep it though?"
"Kazuhira built a series of secure vaults around America, under the care of HEC. They hold copies of all research and all that survived the dissolution of the Diamond Dogs. Including the parasite, and Volgin's body. Sadly, I am afraid someone had access to the research", Code Talker lamented. "Barely months after Kazuhira died, someone infiltrated one of the vaults and destroyed it."
"So out there, there is someone who can open a portal from one side of the world to another", Vista said.
"It is possible", he said, "though there has been no reported use of the technology anywhere. It produces a very distinctive hole that gives out an intense orange light. It is not subtle, by any means."
"Wait, Dragon mentioned Professor Haywire and the breach he made to Earth Aleph", E.E. interrupted. "Is there any chance this wormhole technology is capable of dimensional travel too? That it could be used for something in that vein? You wouldn't be noticing its use because they aren't using it in this reality, not anymore."
"I admit, this is far beyond my speciality", Code Talker said, but he then raised an eyebrow. "It is a possibility that might have been raised during the investigation of the infiltration. Though if it did, I don't remember. I'd have to ask one of the members in that research team about that; fortunately, I asked a few men that were part of the R&D department back then to help with our current issues, so one of them might have an idea."
"What are these?" Taylor asked as she went through a small photo album. Inside, there were old photos depicting different situations. Soldiers and civilians partying, sunbathing, fishing, feeding a cat… and in all of them… "There's this blonde girl in a student dress showing up in all of these." It was a stick thin girl, just like Taylor was before, with short curly hair and a cute face and demeanor. It reminded Taylor of Madison Clemens, in a way.
Buffalo and Code Talker exchanged a look. "Let me see", he said. Taylor complied, and he looked at the photos. Buffalo did the same at his side.
"Those are MSF fatigues", she said. "Remember the wandering soldiers? Didn't they say they were carrying photos from back then when they found them? Maybe these photos are these."
"Who?" Taylor asked.
"Some survivors from the '75 attack. The Dogs found them later wandering around, still shell-shocked." Buffalo grimaced. "They never told what happened to them in detail, but they weren't… exactly in a healthy state, or very sane for that matter. Besides one called Mosquito, who started his own PMC, but the rest needed medical attention for the rest of their lives."
"I believe", Code Talker started as he returned the album to Taylor, who left it along the other items outside the box, "that this lady was Paz Ortega Andrade, also known as Pacifica Ocean. An agent of Cipher who infiltrated MSF to steer Big Boss during the Peace Walker incident, and later tried to steal Zeke. Kazuhira never told me much about her, so I am not sure the meaning of leaving these photos in the box. Other that they are from the time of MSF."
Taylor scowled to herself. This Paz was even a bigger piece of work than Madison, who limited herself to stupid pranks and stealing her homework.
The blast door opened up again, and Tree Frog strode inside covered in snow, patting it off herself as she was followed by another truck. This one had a big metallic cylinder loaded in its back, red thin lights circling around the top and the bottom, with a big lens just above the middle.
The truck moved up to park nearby as Tree Frog approached them. "I'm sorry, we just got an… ahem." She waved her hand at the cylinder. "Unexpected guest."
Suddenly, the lens started flickering in a red light, and a disembodied female voice, slow and low pitched, sounded off from the cylinder. "I apologize for the distress, Tree Frog. I was only told you were on a mission. Given your age and how long you've been inactive, I was worried for your safety."
Everyone except Buffalo and Code Talker took a step back surprised. "Ouch. The big AI lacking dexterity coming to your rescue", Buffalo said. "Low blow to your pride, woman."
Tree Frog frowned. "Really? You, talking about age and inactivity to me, of all things?"
E.E. gasped in fascination. "Is this…?"
Code Talker nodded, more in frustration than acknowledge. "Yes, this is the Mammal Pod, Imago." He turned around to face it. "I wonder though, if you are conscious of the unwanted attention your journey here might have garnered."
The lens flickered again, throwing a flash of light over Code Talker. "Greetings, Code Talker. Unlikely. I was connected to the supercomputer at HEC, and calculated the necessary precautions to avoid being detected by most overwatch routines."
Frog narrowed her eyes. "Most?" she said drily.
Imago was silent for a moment until the lens flickered once again. "Admittedly, parahuman abilities are hard to evaluate."
Taylor noted a weird change in Lisa's emotions, and gave her a look. She was glaring at the pod, knuckles white from gripping the armrests of her wheelchair. She was still getting used to the emotion reading, but Taylor got the impression that it wasn't quite fear. It was something closer to confusion.
I didn't last long. Lisa composed herself, even if her confusion remained. Taylor left her be. If Lisa wanted or needed to share what had spooked her, she'd do it in time.
"Wait, don't tell me that sound outside before", Snake interrupted, "that was Imago coming here on her own?"
"She's equipped with a rocket and navigation system", Tree Frog explained. "It was part of the original pod design, something to escape when the vehicle a pod was attached to was destroyed. It was how the Dogs recovered her; she just flew up to Mother Base on her own. From Afghanistan to the Seychelles, no refueling needed."
Otacon took a step forward, eyes fixed on Imago, and followed by E.E. and Dragon. "Is she… how much is she aware? Sentient?"
"Sentient enough to pass the Turing test", Tree Frog said. "The original design was… well, what you'd expect from computer technology in the Seventies. Lots of big chip and processor modules forming a compact supercomputer inside a refrigerated container with armor rated against nukes. The main ones, those that keep her memories and personality, were fixed to the core. Part of the reason Strangelove created Imago was to revive The Boss and clear her name; she didn't pull any punches on recreating the full personality and making sure it was preserved. At all effects, you're talking to The Boss' ghost. A ghost in the machine, if you will."
Lisa started to massage her temples as Taylor heard her breath out a whisper. "Oh, fuck me."
Taylor put a hand on Lisa's shoulder as Tree Frog kept talking. "Hey, are you fine? Tired?", she whispered to her.
Taylor almost didn't caught Lisa's surprised reaction before she hid it behind a reassuring smile and a shake of her head. "Yeah. Yeah, just the migraine. Don't worry, I'll be fine once I get in a bed."
Taylor nodded and pulled back her hand. She wasn't completely convinced that Lisa's reactions wasn't caused by Imago, whatever the reason might be, but no one else seemed to notice that. Taylor bumped up the subject of talking to her in her priority list, if only to make sure it wasn't anything serious.
"Then there were a bunch of secondary modules that controlled her cognitive capacities. You start taking them out, and she starts going loopy." Tree Frog looked up to the pod, and sighed. "She still was a bit off when she came to us, likes to quote dead people at the drop of a hat for example. Made a hobby of updating her hardware after the turn of the century, though adapting her to the new computing architecture was a pain in the arse, and I'm still hunting for bugs and glitches…"
Another flash of light went over Otacon. "Are you…" Imago started, but she changed to a different voice, high pitched and shouting in distress. "Huey! Damn it Huey!"
"Yeah, like that." Tree Frog grimaced. "That's Strangelove."
Otacon was taken aback. "What? No! My name is Hal!"
Another flash of light. "… Hal?" Imago said in her own voice. "I… remember a Hal. Her Hal." Then it changed to the second voice again, this time sorrowful and exhausted. "Oh Hal…"
Tree Frog jumped on the truck, and patted Imago strong enough to produce noise, but not in a ungentle way. "Hey, that's enough for now. Let's keep that for another moment."
"I apologize", Imago said promptly in her own voice. Her lens flickered again, as if thinking on how to follow her response, but she kept silent.
Tree Frog turned around to Otacon. "I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen. And the recording she was playing… that's a matter better tackled in private."
Otacon nodded slightly. "Right… in private."
As the closer person behind Otacon, Imago's lens flashed over E.E. and immediately after over Dragon. "Curious. I see you're employing armor. But your anatomy can't be human. Not quite."
"I'm… actually, I'm not", Dragon admitted. "I'm an AI, too. This is just the body I'm occupying."
"Is that so?" Imago said. "Interesting. I knew of other AIs that Strangelove made. But they weren't really functionally sapient. Are you?"
"Well, I think so!" Dragon breathed out a small laugh. "Sorry, I'm Dragon. I just… I never thought there would be another; capable of socializing, I mean. This is something new for me."
Imago hummed. "Pleased to meet you, Dragon. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about in time."
Tree Frog chuckled. "Careful. When I said Strangelove didn't pull her punches in recreating the Boss, I mean it. Imago is full of stories and opinions, and not all of them of public knowledge." Her lips went flat. "And very few of them are happy, for that matter."
The next flash of light passed over Snake and Taylor. "Wait… Jack?" Then twice over them, and a third time as well. "No… None of you are Jack."
"Now I look like a Jack…" Taylor groused.
Snake ignored that. "Jack? You mean… Big Boss?"
"Big Boss?" Imago repeated. "Ah… yes, they called him that later. Naked Snake. Jack. My pupil. You look like him… but you aren't. Just like that other one. In fact." The light flashed over Taylor. "You look more like that other one."
Despite the gut punch that felt being compared to Ahab, Taylor blinked, suddenly realizing what Imago meant. "You can see the similarities? Even this long after you met Big Boss and Ahab?"
"I was designed for strategic and tactical control of nuclear warfare", Imago said. "As such, my creator deemed it was needed of me to be highly cognizant of information provided to me. This includes anything that could be compared to my memories." A pause, followed by a flash of light over the small box. "Like… that."
Taylor looked at the box, intrigued, and took out the last item from inside: a old strap of blue cloth, similar to Snake's bandana. "This?"
"I haven't seen it in so long", Imago said, nostalgic. "It was my bandana."
"I don't understand", Snake said. "I thought these were Ahab's possessions. Why would he have it?"
"To serve my country, I committed treason", Imago explained. "Jack was sent to kill me, and kept the bandana with him. A way to hold on to the memory of his beloved mentor."
Snake and Taylor exchanged a look. He picked the bandana from her and gave it a look. "But this kind of memento… you don't lose it. You throw it away."
"And he did", Code talker said. "Kazuhira saw Big Boss throw it into Lake Nicaragua, when Imago drove Peace Walker into it. Strangelove boasted that Imago's actions would completely reflect the real Boss, and he apparently understood that Imago drowning Peace Walker meant that the Boss accepting her death at his hand a decade earlier was herself forsaking who she was, a soldier; and him, by implication."
Snake closed a fist tightly around the bandana. "Are you really telling me that Big Boss, all he did… was because of a tantrum? A feeling of dejection?"
"No. Only the direction of his acts." Code Talker leaned his head to a side slightly. "The Patriots were divided in two halves; the history of the world until the turn of the century was dictated by both of them. One being Cipher, led by Zero, and the other being Big Boss, followed by the Ocelot and a woman called EVA. Both groups collaborated and came to the other side's aide, when externally threatened, but were still opposed as each other had a different interpretation of The Boss' will, an interpretation that they had as their ultimate goal."
"And what was The Boss' will?" Taylor asked. She was almost dreading to know what terrible reason could have caused such a long conflict, one that directed world history until recently.
The reason that Snake and herself had been born.
Before Code Talker could answer, a new voice came from Imago. A man, with a similar voice to Snake, though younger. "Boss, why are you doing this?"
"Why?" Imago said in her own voice, patient and understanding as Taylor had barely heard anyone ever speak like. "To make the world one again."
