chapter THIRTY-THREE: Contact

"By the time contact with Trinket was regained, the clock was all ready ticking. The situation was ready to explode, and Metal Gear was ready for a test-drive. It seemed the whole world was on the brink of destruction. Everything that had happened in the last fifty years had led to this day – to this mission. But, this wasn't like Shadow Moses or the Tanker or the Big Shell or Hell's Outpost or the FACtion Incident. This mission extended beyond the battlefield. It was now a war for the nation."

~*~

Otacon was still standing by the window, looking out over the streets. There was a weight in his stomach. He hadn't spoken to Raiden in a couple of hours. He remembered, then, that he cut out just after reporting that Snake had died.

He had nearly forgotten – not really forgotten, but the pain had faded for a moment. Raiden had requested that he tell the President of Snake's death, but he had not yet made contact with him. He was afraid to. For now it was secret. For now he could try and tell himself that Raiden had placed his words wrong, or seen something that wasn't true. For now he could lie. But once it was no longer a secret, once the President knew, it would be true. Once the word was out, Snake would be dead after all.

Otacon sniffled, blinking his eyes to press out a couple lingering tears, and wiped his face dry with a tattered piece of cloth, its ends slightly frayed. Nastasha still stood behind him in the doorway, a little worried that he wasn't holding together. She couldn't have him break apart like this. She could understand what it was like to lose someone close, but Snake had always managed to get past it. He put his emotions aside when he needed to. He got the job done.

"Otacon?" Nastasha began. He didn't do anything – just continued to stare out that window. "When are you going call?" Still no reaction. "The President needs to know. You knew this was the plan from the beginning. Snake had to go."

Otacon squeezed the cloth in his hand and turned desperately toward Nastasha, tears lighting up on his cheeks. "Snake can't die. Don't you know that? He's Snake…he's a legend. Legends don't die…he wont."

Nastasha watched him as his fist clenched the cloth in his hand and as his glasses slipped down to the point of his nose. He was shaking. She hated seeing him this way, hated to think that Snake was gone, hated to know that Otacon would now feel wholly responsible.

"I'm calling the President," she said, and she left the room, closing the door on Otacon. He just stood there by the window and watched the streets and the people as a tiny shred of light broke through the barrier of gray clouds and filtered through the window, falling into the room.

Nastasha, who held the phone to her ear in the next room, heard the door open behind her. When she turned she saw Otacon standing before her, his face still damp but no longer sopping. The cloth was tucked in his brown jacket pocket and his glasses were straight on his nose.

"I'll call," he said.

~*~

Fox and Brant sat before the monitors and the control panels. They wore headsets, but were not speaking. They both sat idly in their chairs, facing the monitors head-on. The rest of the room was bustling with activity. Folders and twelve-page reports paper-clipped in the top left corners were being passed back and forth, faces checked, background work being done. While the fat man, the moderate man, and both Fox and Brant were dealing with the situation in Trinket the rest of the people were concerning themselves with the START3 signing. They had lists of names and photo sheets, long character descriptions and criminal records. Everyone who had a record was highlighted for surveillance. They weren't letting anything get through on a day like this.

Fox looked over just as Brant had adjusted his headset and pressed his index and middle fingers lightly to his ear. Brant was determined to get a hold on Snake, but Fox wasn't as hopeful. He turned again to face the monitors, their bright colors shining around him and turning his shape into a silhouette from behind. Just then, Brant's eyes lit up and he sat straight in his chair.

"Oh shit," Brant said, quite suddenly. Fox waited a moment, his reaction delayed, before turning his neck and looking plainly on Brant. Neither of them spoke for a few more seconds, but Brant eventually opened his mouth again and laughed a little. Then, turning to face Fox, he smiled. "I've got Snake on the line."

~*~

Snake heard the ringing in his ears and quickly, as if a new memory had returned to him – that of Brant's involvement in all this – his fingers snapped to his ear. "Hello?" he said, his voice stressed and urgent all of a sudden. The red lights were still flashing as he, Liquid, and Spectral all turned right at the end of the hallway.

There was a moment's hesitation on the other end. "Snake?" Brant said in disbelief. He hadn't expected an answer this time – or any of the other times he'd tried.

"Damn, Brant," Snake smiled, "I forgot all about you." With those words a terrible weight was lifted off of Brant's chest. He'd not heard that voice in a long time – too long. But, after another moment he noticed the loud voice crackling over the speakers and the incessant cry of the sirens.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Brant said.

"Metal Gear is active," Snake answered. Grim.

~*~

Brant jumped out of his chair, tossed his headset to the floor, and hurried into the next room where he and Fox had been questioned earlier. The walls were still wet from leaks in the ceiling and the light did not erase the darkness, but instead defined it. Everyone in the main room had taken notice to his departure and Fox followed after him, pressing his hand to his own ear and the conversation bursting into his eardrums.

"Active?!" Brant cried. Fox knew what they were talking about right away.

"Snake, it's Fox. Good to have you back on board."

"Thanks, Jaeger," Snake smiled again. Knowing Fox was still helping out was always a good feeling.

"What's this about Metal Gear being active all of a sudden?" Fox pursued.

"I'm not exactly sure how they pulled it off, but a whole lot has happened in the last few hours that you should know about."

"What about Raiden?" This voice was a new one. In the doorway stood the moderate man, his fingers also pressed to his ear. "How's the kid?"

The mention of Raiden brought a silence to Snake's lips, a cold touch of ice to his heart. But, squeezing his fist once and looking foully on Spectral, he brought himself to answer.

"Raiden's dead."

The moderate man in the doorway didn't seem to react at all, just stood there as straight as he had before. Fox, however, seemed amazed by the crumbling cellar walls all of a sudden, losing himself in their complexity. Brant cleared his throat.

"How did it happen?" the moderate man asked.

"Two bullets – one in each shoulder. He bled to death," Snake said solemnly. It was at that moment that he remembered Spectral was partly responsible for his partner's death, and as the feeling swelled up inside him and boiled in his stomach, he didn't know why they were working alongside each other. "And I met a friend," he added, referring to Spectral with a disgusting tone.

Brant looked quizzically at the moderate man in the doorway. "What friend?" he asked. "Are you with someone now?" Snake almost laughed. That very moment he was hurrying down a hall with Liquid Snake and Spectral Snake – two 'relatives' that Brant and Fox and all of the Red Shirts had not heard news of in a very long time, one of which they didn't even know existed.

~*~

The President sat idly in his chair. The phone was on the desk beside him. His door was closed. The jet was largely quiet. There was no sound, no movement from the halls outside. Many of those on board were catching up on their sleep or trying to look nice for the signing. Of course, none of them would be seen, but that didn't matter so much. They would be in the presence of two presidents and that called for them to be in their best attire. Today was a big day.

"Mr. President?" There was a knock on the door. The President, his eyes half-closed, didn't bother to adjust his stature, just remained slouched down in the chair and nodded to no one in particular. "Come on in."

In stepped the same agent who had been speaking with the President earlier. He closed the door behind him and made his way to the center of the room, stopping there and turning to face the President.

"Mr. Emmerich is on the phone for you, sir," he said carefully. His voice was strangely delicate, forming the words cautiously on his tongue. It was clear to the President that Otacon's message would be a disappointing one. Whether anyone really knew what he had to say or not – that sixth sense remained tugging at his stomach, apprehension and nerves biting along his skin. "We put him on line three," the man continued before going back to the door, glancing over his shoulder to see the President's reaction, and then stepping outside.

The President waited for him to leave before he made any movements. As soon as the door shut he sat up in his chair and leaned over his desk. The red phone was there, as well as another cream-colored one. A light was glowing green above the number '3'. The President lightly gripped the receiver in his hand and lifted it to his ear. He held it there, just like that, for a number of minutes before he finally pressed the number 3 and took a large breath.

"Hello Otacon."

"Hello, Mr. President. How's the flight?" Otacon's voice seemed broken, but only slightly.

"It's...fine." He waited a while. "Do you have any news for me?"

Otacon didn't want to answer. He thought about hanging up or saying 'no,' but Nastasha stood over his shoulder. He had to tell him. He couldn't keep it a secret any longer.

"Snake is dead, sir." His voice cut off abruptly after that, a lump forming in his throat and tears searing his cheeks. He sniffed and wiped his cheeks. The President sat up a little straighter, his eyes sharpening with sudden interest.

"Was it Spectral?" The President asked.

"I'm not sure, sir. I haven't been able to contact Raiden since then." It was hard for him to keep talking. He wanted to hang up and close himself in the next room.

"You can't get in touch with him?" the President asked. Why had communication failed? Maybe…he'd been killed. "Otacon, I need you to do everything in your power to contact Raiden, and as soon as you do I want you to call me. I want to know who took out Snake." There was an excitement and a fierceness in the President's voice now. The news of Snake's death had moved him to action. His heart was beating furiously, his palms beginning to sweat. There was a reason to be awake now, a reason to be alert. He had to understand how this had happened.

"I understand, sir," Otacon said, and sniffed again. The President didn't wait any longer to hang up the phone, and as soon as he had the familiar agent knocked on the door and strode back into the room. He looked concerned, a graveness in his voice when he spoke.

"What did he tell you?" he asked, and the President pushed his chair aside and stood, eye-to-eye with the agent. He smiled brightly, then, and straightened his tie and patted down his shirt.

"I need to speak to Simon."

~*~

"You're with Liquid?!" Brant cried. As soon as Snake had told them, Fox had stood and kicked his chair away. Memories of the hateful clone came back to him now.

"What're you thinking?" Fox said.

"There's more than that, though," Snake said. "Brant, do you remember the DNA traces Mei Ling was trying to dissect – the strand I'd found in the Cold Bay?"

"Yea, Snake. What about them?"

"That's my DNA, just like you had suspected. It looks like the Russians knew a lot more about genetics than we did back in the Cold War…when they captured Big Boss." Brant was confused. "During the Cold War Big Boss was a part of the A: Objective. He infiltrated Trinket and got nabbed on the way out. And, according to what I've been told, his captors were responsible for breeding Liquid and Solidus and myself. We weren't products of the United States government."

"What?" Brant said. "Why would the government claim they created you if they did not?"

"I'm not quite sure. I'll have to get back with you on that," Snake answered.

"Who's the informant you're working with?" Brant continued.

"Another Snake, it seems – goes by Spectral. He says I'm his old man." Snake waited a moment and thought to add that it was Spectral who had hit Raiden with the first shot, but he merely grunted and let the memory slide under the layers of his mind. He wouldn't mention it to the others. Not now, at least.

"I'd stay away from him, Snake," Fox said. "That or kill him."

Snake laughed. "Yea, I'll just kill him then."

"Snake…what're you doing this for? Why are you working with them?"

"Spectral knows something and his word is going to help us stop Metal Gear. And Liquid – well, I don't know about him yet. He hasn't taken any firm sides since he woke up." Snake had told them about the Perfect Cell, and how it had been used on both Liquid and himself.

"Just because he has had some time to reconsider, doesn't mean he's switching sides, Snake." Fox hunched over the table and closed his eyes. "This – you're crazy, Snake. Absolutely insane."

Snake just laughed a little, that coarse scratch running through his voice, looked briefly at Liquid and Spectral, and smiled cockily. "I always thought that was one of my best qualities."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, fans. I'm so very sorry that I haven't updated in such a long time. I hope this was a slightly enjoyable chapter, at any rate. I know not much happened, but it's starting to move along I think. The next two or three chapters should be exciting. Oh, and if you had forgotten who Simon was – the man the President wants to speak to – that was Desperado's real name (or the one by which he is formally addressed). At any rate, I need to go back and read the last few chapters so that I have it all straight in my mind – then, I'll get the next chapter up. I would suggest, if you are really into these stories, to read over a lot of King's Company before reading further. It will probably help you remember some things.

But for now - only a little bit left guys and gals!!! YAY!!