"You don't think—" Lara cut herself off. She had to. The thought they had come out here, two men had been killed and that they were stranded for nothing was not aggravating, it was almost paralyzing in its emotional complication. She didn't get far, though."

Snake's hand was heavy, his grip slight in its benign weight. "Don't get worked up. I don't mean we're here for a bogus mission, it's just… Something doesn't click. Call it intuition."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't explain it, but something doesn't align. Theoretically, we're assuming Ocelot is selling REX's data to deep pockets, but Bolivia doesn't qualify."

"Do you know much of the coca plantations out here?" Lara asked.

Snake shook his head.

"Most of the agricultural work here is for coca leaves. Which, as I'm sure you've guessed, can be refined—"

"Not the word I'd use."

"-into cocaine. And a lot of industry is just that. But the days of huge plantations, massive operations with hundreds of workers churning out the stuff just isn't around anymore. There's no drug barons out here. Just…"

"People," Snake said.

"Right."

"Damn. That would almost simplify it. If the boys of El Che could afford the cost, I mean."

From across the stream, Otacon stirred.

"We should cut this short. Lara, you feeling okay?"

She felt nauseated by the idea that there could be something they knew even less about that posed a threat, something they were even less prepared for, but not scared. That was a small blessing. Lara nodded at him.

"Alright. You know, you sound like you've been out here once or twice."

Lara thought it sweet of him to change the subject. "I have. Once or twice. My travels lead me about town is all."

"I believe it. You're a tough lady."

"Sweet of you. But I'd be more worried about him than me." She waved a hand at Otacon.

"Him? Hm." He said nothing. Seemed to think for a moment. "Maybe you're right. He's taking it pretty hard."

"How well do you know him, Snake?"

"Not very, I guess. We'd only been working together about eight weeks before you came along."

"Keep an eye out for him, would you? He hasn't done this sort of thing before, and it's showing. If something happens and he snaps—"

"He won't snap."

Lara thought she detected a trace of defensiveness in Snake's voice. "Easy, I'm not judging him. Or you. Are you certain? When we came down, Hal panicked. If I hadn't right out descent, we could have been tangled in our chutes. He might not have even deployed his right. I just want to make sure he stays safe is all."

Snake seemed a little eased by the gentle quality of her tone. "Alright."

The birds overhead threw their notes back and forth, changing octaves as it suited them, cravats of bright down on their breasts.

"I think," Snake said, "If he were going to snap, he would have done it on Moses. It pushed him. He lost someone out there, you know. I don't know if that's in the book."

She looked at the man, laying on his bedding, snoring quietly, glasses set aside on a small outcropping of rocks."It doesn't matter if it is or not."

"What do you mean?" Snake asked.

Lara thought of the moments where she could feel a dim pain bake off him, like a mist. Something cool, that made him seem smaller, more inward. And the fury he threw himself into his work. No one she knew did that without some kind of skeleton in their closet. Something haunting them. It could be anything, but she thought it went back further that his encounter with Snake. A weight in his shoulders and a hesitation to talk about himself made him look like he'd learned to keep those things to himself a long time ago.

"I don't know," Lara said. "Call it woman's intuition."

They sat, listening to their compatriots breathing, and the sound of the forest rousing its life, the exhalations it made expanding, the cold the ground held evaporating.

"If you see that, what do you see about me?" Snake said.

Lara thought for a long time before replying.

"Certainly the same things you see in me, Snake. It doesn't matter, I imagine." She looked skyward. When Lara stood, she was surprised as her legs protested. She ignored them. "We need to get going."