Desert Roses Have Thorns.
Chapter 3.
By the time Meryl had reached the airport it had begun snowing gently. Hopefully it would get no worse and delay any flight she might have to make out of Alaska.
"Come on Hal…" She muttered taking a look at her watch. Meryl was waiting in the arrivals for him, and his flight had arrived only a few minutes ago. She'd had no time to think about what would happen next. Meryl's main concern was what the government would do about Snake's kidnapping if anything at all. If they said no she did not know what she would do.
"As far as they're concerned he's only good for ensuring their security and stopping them from falling down in from of the rest of the world. They only care about him when they need him." Meryl thought sadly with a shake of her head. She looked up wondering where all the people had come from all of a sudden, before realising that they had all unloaded off the plane. In amongst the crowd she saw one tall, skinny, grey haired man heading her way, a laptop in its carry-case in one of his hands and pulling a suitcase along behind him on its wheels with his other.
"Meryl!" He called out to her. She smiled and walked to meet him.
"Hal!" Meryl threw her arms around him.
"Warm welcome." He smiled and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and they slid down again a little. They stood around for a moment or two not sure what to say to each other, neither of them wanted to be the first to speak out about what had happened.
"Roy…told me the news just when I got off the plane." Hal said gently.
"I…know, he said he would." Meryl hung her head and her shoulders drooped.
"It's not much of a birthday for Dave is it?" Otacon put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry… I'm not much good at trying to cheer people up." He apologised. "I'm in the doldrums myself, and misery loves company."
"No, it's okay!" Meryl smiled. "We'll have to make it up for him later."
"I'm sure Dave will like that. Anyway, I'd better tell you what's happened so far." Hal looked around briefly and moved to another spot so nobody could eavesdrop easily.
"When I first heard what happened I really couldn't believe that the government would take it seriously, but from what your father told me, this is being stepped up to a full blown mission." Hal said quietly. Meryl perked up.
"Great!" She grinned but her smile vanished when she noticed that Hal held onto the sombre expression on his face.
"Yeah, it's good that they are doing something about it but think about it. They would never go to so much trouble to get Dave back just because he has gone missing. You know what happened on Shadow Moses. They were quite happy to blow us all into dust with a nuclear strike. The other thing is Roy said that they would need me to take part in the mission too." He continued in hushed tones.
"You?" Meryl's eyebrows arched up in surprise.
"I don't know, well…I have an idea but I don't want to say it in case I'm wrong. But one thing is certain; they would never do this unless something came up and they needed Snake."
Meryl nodded in agreement. She had an idea of what Hal was hinting at but couldn't understand how it could be possible so soon after Shadow Moses.
"So what do we do now?" Meryl asked.
"There's a flight waiting for us, laid on by the government to take us to the airbase where the mission is going to be monitored and controlled." Otacon looked at his watch. "Roy said it should be there just after my flight came in so we should hurry and get there now."
He took Meryl's bag for her and led the way ahead for. Meryl could only follow; her mind was stuck in automatic as it had been when she realised that Snake had gone.
When she returned to normal, Meryl found herself on the plane, Otacon sitting next to her belting up. Something squishy in her pocket attracted her attention and she took it out to see what it was.
"Oh…what's that?" Hal asked still wrestling with his belt. Meryl clipped herself in and began to help Hal out with his own seat belt.
"You know for somebody who's more in touch with modern technology, I'd have thought you'd be able to figure out the simple stuff like your seat belt." Meryl smiled once she was done helping Hal and then held up the object she'd plucked from her pocket.
"It's Dave's bandanna…" Meryl pulled it around her own forehead and scowled. "Think it suits me?" She laughed.
"He'd go mad if he saw you doing that!" Hal laughed.
"It's just special to him and I thought that whoever goes to find him should take it to give to him." She sighed, folded it up again, and put it back in the pocket she had found it in.
"You think…he'll be alright?" She asked quietly.
"Yeah. If I know Dave he'll be fine. He'll come back alive; he knows how to look after himself fine." Hal smiled reassuringly at her.
"I suppose, yeah." Meryl sighed, settling down before take off.
»»»»»»
Snake had managed to grab some sleep until a guard came in earlier to check up on him and left the lights on. Since then he hadn't been disturbed and it had given him a chance to view his surroundings. To his disappointment, there were no windows and no air ducts and with him tied up the way he was, escape was impossible.
Time meant nothing right now, Snake had no idea if it was day or night outside, and the base ran the same way whatever the time was so this was just simple denial of any kind of method to gauge time as it passed.
He lifted his head at the sound of the lock in the door being released and lay it back down again as Ebony entered accompanied by two of her mercenary soldiers, one Arab just like her and a white man. They were kitted out in desert camouflage gear carrying sub machine guns. The Arab had a scarf wrapped round his face so that only his eyes peeped out; the other had a hat on shading his eyes. Ebony took a couple of steps forward and looked down at Snake.
"Hello Snake." She grinned at him and flicked her long black hair out of her eyes.
"Hmmpf!" Snake simply grunted ignoring her. Ebony folded her arms across her chest and waved the two men forwards to Snake.
"You're going to have to drop that attitude Snake; I won't tolerate it for much longer."
One man kneeled down next to Snake and drew out a small dagger concealed in his uniform and started to saw through the ropes round Snake's ankles. Once it was done, the man stood up, took up his rifle again, and trained it on Snake.
"What do you want?" Snake breathed, sitting himself up against the wall.
"Answers to some questions I have bothering me about you." Ebony replied bluntly.
Snake frowned and looked up at her.
"Well whatever they are I don't have the answers you might be looking for."
Ebony nodded to one of the men and they forced Snake up onto his feet, stood behind him, and rammed the barrel of his rifle into the small of Snake's back, pushing him onwards to Ebony who took hold of the ropes around his wrists and prompted him to start walking. One guard followed along beside her. The other one followed behind.
While they walked along the corridors, Snake tried to take in as much as he could about the place just in case the opportunity for escape came up. They hadn't thought of denying him of the brief recon, perhaps Ebony was confident of him not escaping or she just had not thought of that possibility.
"Pity Otacon wasn't here with his tomato ketchup!" Snake smiled to himself remembering the trick he had used to break out of the cell when he was captured on his mission on Shadow Moses.
It didn't take long before they reached their destination still on the same floor and deep inside the building. A large, clean room, brightly lit, a couple of computers, lockers and other storage cabinets along the walls.
"What the Hell!" Snake breathed to himself. Ebony heard him and peered around from where she was behind him.
"That thing was on Shadow Moses." Snake thought when he saw the torture machine in the center of the room. It was exactly like the one Ocelot used, just like the one Snake had seen in his bad dreams so many months ago.
Snake went rigid at the sound of metal clinking on the floor tiles. Boots. With spurs.
"Ocelot!" Snake spat as the old man and ex FOX-HOUND member came into view from an adjoining room. He had a pleased look on his face, the kind of happy look that could only be found on Ocelot just before he was about to start indulging in his hobby.
"Ah, Snake!" He smiled. "Decided to come back for more?" He sneered.
"Ocelot…"Ebony warned and pulled Snake closer in front of her. "…we had a deal."
"Just a figure of speech, nothing to be taken seriously Ebony, dear." Ocelot chuckled. "I've made last minute checks. Everything is ready to go smoothly for you." He said gesturing to where he had just appeared. He's all yours…" And turned to leave the room.
"I thought you would want to stay and watch." Ebony stopped him.
"I would love to see if I've taught you well but you know I have other things to attend to. Another time perhaps." He shot a glance at Snake and grinned as the two soldiers clamped Snake into the machine.
Ebony waved a hand at them and whispered something to them both. They nodded in acknowledgement before leaving with a quick salute. She watched as they both left then turned to face Snake, her arms folded in front of her. Snake didn't care to look at her, he was too tired and trying to focus himself in preparation for what was about to come.
Something caught Ebony's eye and she took a few steps until she was standing right in front of Snake.
"Hmmm…" She hummed softly and ran a hand over his bare chest. "This is nice…" Ebony leaned closer and Snake felt her lift the chain Meryl had given to him that morning. She stood up straight and ripped it off him.
"Hey!" Snake shouted at her. Ebony didn't listen; she was too busy admiring it.
"Let's start on this then." Ebony said holding it out at one end between her finger and thumb and slowly walked to stand behind the control panel in front of Snake.
"Something nice and easy for you…who gave this to you?" Ebony questioned him ad held up the string of silver links once more. "It's very nice, whoever gave it to you has good taste. It's not cheap junk either." She noted as she took a closer look at it and the small hallmarks stamped into the clasp.
Snake remained silent.
"What business is it to her who gave it to me? Why is it important anyway?" Snake thought. He knew that this was just something Ebony was using to try to get a rise out of him.
"Snake…" Ebony called. "Answer me. If you do not I won't be so nice anymore and so far I have been quite pleasant by my standards towards prisoners. You know, other prisoners have not been quite as unfortunate as you have. At least for them it didn't take long before they died but I intend on making it as long and as painful as possible for you. So, I'll ask again; who was it that gave this to you?"
Ebony waited expectantly for a minute, studying her prisoner from head to toe before deciding that she had been waiting for long enough.
Snake could hear her pressing buttons on the control panel. He clenched his fists, tried to relax and brace himself at the same time. The machinery began to hum all around him and slowly pitched into a thin whine. It steadily got higher until it became a dry buzz. Suddenly the buzzing snapped out, sending pain throughout his body and left numbness behind. It was not long before the muscles in his body became confused and wouldn't follow the instructions he sent to them. The shouts he'd been keeping inside eventually came out in one long scream.
The current stopped, but it still pulsed away in the machine. Ebony stepped into Snake's view; she twirled the chain in one hand and put her other hand on her hip.
"Well let's guess stop me if I'm right. Was it a friend? Couldn't have been family, you don't have any. Yourself?" Ebony lifted up his chin and looked him in the eye. She tilted her head to one side with a frown.
"No, you're not vain enough." She stood back and put the chan in a pocket on the chest of her shirt.
"Ah!" Her eyes seemed to brighten and she grinned, flashing white teeth. "Girlfriend…Meryl isn't it?" Ebony teased. Snake's head snapped up at the sound of her name.
"Why does she keep on mentioning Meryl?" He thought.
"What do you know about her? I've never seen you before, you seem to know a lot about me and…" Snake hissed, his eyebrows knitted together into a scowl. His words were a little blurred with the electric shock. Ebony grinned again.
"Your twin brother told me." She laughed. "Liquid Snake."
"WHAT?" Snake shouted. "But he's…he's supposed to be…"
"…dead. He is dead." Ebony spat and breathed in deeply.
"I've known Liquid a long time and I hadn't seen him for a few years. When I heard about him on Shadow Moses through other mercenaries, I left here to check it out, hoping that I would see him again. And when I got there, he was dead. Shot and beaten…"
Ebony returned to the controls and pressed a button, watching Snake intently.
"Dead because of you!" She screamed and more volts of electricity surged through Snake's body. He watched through half closed eyes and tried to remain strong until it was over. The power died down.
"I met Liquid soon after he was released from Iraqi imprisonment. He appeared in a gun battle I was in and he took the matter of my father's death into his own hands. He was unwell, and starved, yet he chased down the sniper who killed my father and wounded me. Ever since then we worked together for years. Never once were we apart. Then he was recruited by FOX-HOUND and he had to leave. We never saw each other again after that day." Ebony explained calmly.
Snake noticed her rubbing her thumb on something gold hanging on a chain round her neck but it was difficult for him to see clearly, what it was.
Snake was not sure what to make of Ebony's sudden calm; it was when she was cool that he couldn't work out what her next move would be. At least when she was angry he knew that she would hurt him.
Ebony pressed a few more buttons on the console and soft beeps confirmed the new settings. She turned back to face him.
"You killed the only one I could ever trust, the one who I could truly believe in. You should know yourself that good friends are hard to find when you are a mercenary and they are all too easy to loose when suddenly you find yourselves on opposing sides. When I did reach Shadow Moses I found Liquid's mission log and that's where I learned more about you and your involvement. Revolver Ocelot was still on the island and we've been working together. He told me about the mission and let me see the camera recordings."
Ebony had been pacing around while she spoke and after finishing, she spun round and stared at Snake sharply.
"I know how you go about your killing. I saw you murder Liquid." She snarled savagely.
"I did kill Liquid but get one thing right; I never murdered Liquid." Snake growled back.
Ebony bit her lower lip in frustration and bumped the settings up just that little bit more.
"SO WHAT WAS IT THEN?" She screamed at Snake. More electricity crackled through Snake, stronger and caused no end of agony for him. He began to howl out again.
"How long is this going to last?" Sake thought weakly over the jagged confusion in his mind.
Finally, it ceased.
"Did you enjoy killing Liquid? Did it feel good that you could go back home with Meryl, Snake?" Ebony snapped at him.
"Stop dragging her into this, it's me you've got axes to grind with, not Meryl!" Snake shouted. "Of course I didn't 'enjoy' killing Liquid. I had no choice, it was the only way I had. Don't tell me that if I captured you, threatened to kill you and Liquid, he wouldn't have done the same." He argued.
Ebony seemed to deliberate over the question for a second but quickly returned to her attack.
"What matters to me is that you killed Liquid. You took away the life of the only man I could trust, have complete faith in. I had hoped to repay my debt to him while he was still alive but you have prevented that. Now the only way I can even with him is with your blood." Ebony said coldly.
Snake had no time to ready himself for the next shock. Ebony put the power up higher. Snake could hardly breathe, he'd lost all control, and the only shred he had left was a faint instinctive effort to try to work himself free despite the fact that it was futile. His cries came out as strangled howls and gurgles, choking as he struggled for a lungful of air. The electricity still ripped away inside and over him.
The power was shut down and Snake slouched down in the restraints, his head hung down and his every breath rasped as he battled with himself to simply breath. Ebony walked slowly up towards him and lifted his chin up.
"That'll be enough for now. I will be back soon Snake. Until then I'll send some of the soldiers to keep you company." She smiled at him.
Ebony unclipped the radio from her belt and spat a few words of Arabic into it. Seconds later four soldiers arrived.
"See you later Snake!" Ebony waved to him and span round to leave him.
The soldiers crowded round Snake, looking at each other, silently exchanging ideas to one another.
"It's starting again…" Snake shook his head before his teeth were rattled with the first punch in his face.
»»»»»»
Meryl was woken up by a soft nudge and opened her eyes, looking round for where it had come from. Otacon smiled at her and pushed his glasses into place again.
"Huh? What's up?" Meryl yawned.
"We've just touched down at the airbase." He said quietly and unbuckled his belt. "It's just a short ride in a jeep before we get to where it's being handled."
"Uh, okay." Meryl yawned again and stretched out of her dream.
"What time is it now?"
Hal pushed up his sleeve to look at his watch.
"Early evening. Come on we'd better get a move on." He said to her as he got up, and collected his bags.
They found their way to the door and Meryl wobbled down the stairs to the runway. There were armed soldiers all around on patrol or waiting for them.
"Doctor Emmerich and Miss Silverburgh?" Asked a soldier as he stepped forwards from the rest of the men standing guard.
"That's us." Hal answered.
"Okay, just this way. A quick trip before we get to the comms center to meet up with the rest of the team for mission briefing." He explained leading the pair over to a dark green jeep and opened the door for them both. An open top jeep with a mounted machine gun was loaded up with four soldiers and escorted them as they were driven deeper into the base.
From the window, Meryl could see more armed soldiers patrolling, equipped with heavy body armor and weapons. Minutes later, they pulled up outside one large building with a tower topped off with satellite dishes, radar domes and several aerials. It was surrounded in chain link fence and barbed wire and was heavily patrolled too. As she got out of the jeep, Meryl saw her father Roy Campbell, Mei Ling and Doctor Naomi waiting for them flanked by more soldiers. Meryl didn't wait for somebody to open her door and leapt out to meet her Dad.
"Meryl!" Roy called with a smile on his face as she ran up to greet him with a hug.
"Dad!"
"Are you alright?" He asked. Meryl stood back as Hal came to stand beside her.
"I'm fine I guess…" She suddenly stopped noticing that Naomi and Mei Ling were watching on. Meryl shook her head. "No…that's a lie…I miss him. I'm…afraid…" Hal put a hand on her shoulder telling her not to worry. At least now, she was with people who wanted Snake back as much as she did.
"Well…" Roy drew himself up to stand tall. "Meryl, Hal…" He said addressing each of them. "Come inside and we shall go over the mission briefing and orders." He smiled lightly but it seemed that everybody did it, just to hide and make themselves feel better.
The small group were ringed by the soldiers, ushered into the building where Roy was saluted by any soldiers that they passed.
The corridors were clean and shiny, brightly lit like they were going on parade instead. They passed through two sets of doors, which had soldiers on guard and were sealed shut with security passes. Stairs took them down under to the basement with more security. All signs that the government and military were deadly serious about the mission.
Meryl looked up at Hal to see if she could make anything of his feelings by looking at him. He just walked along with a plain expression, lips pressed together to form a straight line; he was starting to get anxious about the mission and what it entailed.
The actual briefing room was quite large, a long table in the center with chairs on either side. On the furthest wall, a white projector screen had been set up, on the opposite wall, a digital projector was tucked away in a separate room with an opening for it to show slides via a connection to a computer.
Meryl collapsed into one of the high backed chairs and spun round in it once to momentarily forget all that was bearing down on her mind while Hal sat down next to her and the others sat on the side opposite them. A clerk brought in a laptop computer and placed it in front of the Colonel and set it up to the projector. The clerk quickly left and the door was shut as soldiers took up their posts outside.
Roy glanced around the table at everybody before he began.
"Well…" He began and stood up. "I won't gloss over what happened in Alaska a few hours ago today and I understand that everybody present has an idea of the situation but I will recap to make it clear what has brought on the order for this mission to go ahead." He paused at the head of the table.
"Meryl called me after Snake was captured at their home in Alaska. No traces were found and no witnesses to the scene. At first, this mission was not going to happen but soon after I'd contacted the authorities, military and government officials including the president received a message which confirmed Snake's disappearance. Mei Ling," The Colonel swept a hand towards the young lady who smiled kindly at everybody. "…traced the transmission to a base in the Middle East where it originated and where we believe Snake is being held."
Meryl sighed and Otacon smiled at her.
"At least we know where he could be now…" Meryl told herself.
"But…" Roy continued. "…Snake's disappearance is not the only thing which ruffled a few feathers. At the same location and as mentioned in the video transmission something… something very unexpected has appeared. A new Metal Gear has revealed itself."
Meryl went stiff at the sound of its name and Hal closed his eyes, and placed his hands over his eyes pushing his glasses up onto his forehead.
"Metal Gear…!" Meryl spluttered out.
The colonel nodded.
"We don't have visual confirmation that the mercenaries have a Metal Gear in their hands but it at least explains why Solid Snake is also there too. They know that Snake is the only one who can take on Metal Gear. Taking him out of the reach of the military or government so that he could be pulled into a mission to destroy it puts us in a very awkward position. We don't have anybody nearly as qualified or as experienced as Snake in these situations. That is why they have sat up and taken note of Snake's disappearance." Roy explained. Meryl pushed back her chair and got up, slamming her palms down on the table.
"You mean to say that before Metal Gear got thrown into the mix, they couldn't have cared less about what might happen to Snake!" Meryl asked raising her voice. Hal put a hand on her arm.
"Meryl…calm down." He said quietly. Meryl shook it off and remained standing, looked her father hard in the eye demanding an answer.
"Dad tell me!" She shouted.
"I will admit that it was looking like they were not going to take it any further until Metal Gear was revealed." Roy swallowed nervously. "The entire mission is only happening because of the threat and we need Snake to find out if the statement is true. If it proves to be genuine then Snake will have to destroy it."
"I can't wait to see what Snake makes of that…" Hal sighed shaking his head. Meryl sat down again, still seething but in a way glad that something had kicked their backsides into action.
"Whoever gets lumbered with this is going to have to be able to argue with him!" Meryl smiled to herself.
"Exactly that Hal. We have no way of contacting Snake so the first objective is to send in somebody to contact him and then allow us to directly contact Snake. However we have very few operatives that are capable of this kind of mission but Snake is not going to find it easy to swallow orders coming from a green infiltration specialist. And even then the ones we do have aren't finished with their training. I also believe that he wouldn't take to a VR trained operative very well. We must try to gain contact with Snake to find and destroy Metal Gear. Failing that the last resort is an air strike but this means we run the risk of many complications concerning the presence of Metal Gear and international relations with other countries." Roy finished.
Meryl leaned back in the chair and sighed. She had something in her mind, an idea that was maybe worth trying.
"Didn't I see one of those VR soldiers anyway?" She thought. "That blonde with the long hair who I thought was a girl? The one with Jack on his name badge? I can't let somebody like that go and rescue Snake. He wouldn't last a second against Snake!" Meryl smiled to herself.
"I want to go, but look what happened when I tried to help him out." Meryl thought. "I got captured by Wolf and then he got captured to and tortured. Mantis took over my mind… I was a failure even though the mission was a success." Meryl paused. "But I did help him…the wolf-dogs, the mines, the cardkeys… and I guess trying to save me helped him too." Meryl remembered him telling her how trying to save her had given him a proper goal to the mission when before he hadn't really had a purpose to doing it only to keep his freedom after the government had threatened him with blackmail.
Meryl got up out of her chair.
"Send me!" She announced. Everybody looked up and stared at her.
"Meryl!" Otacon hissed at her. "What are you doing?"
"Trust me." She whispered back to him.
"Who better to send than somebody who knows Snake than some fresh grunt who's probably all excited about being let out of their video games and onto the field?" Meryl asked. Roy looked over to Naomi who shrugged her shoulders.
"They wouldn't last in an argument with Snake for a second. At least he trusts me, and I can probably talk him round into completing the mission much better than them." Meryl added. She looked at her Dad hopefully.
There was a sign that the colonel was fighting with himself over the decision to send his own daughter into a dangerous mission. On one hand she would probably prove to be more successful in the most crucial part of the mission; persuading Snake. But then she was his own flesh and blood and didn't want to risk loosing her and no doubt Snake wouldn't want that to happen either. But then again when she reached Snake, Meryl would be in safe hands under his protection.
Roy sat and cogitated over the pros and cons for a few minutes before sitting back up.
"I can see how letting you go into the mission would be advantageous and while I don't want to send you away, I've think it might just work." The colonel finally stated.
"YES!" Meryl said to herself in her head. "At least then I'll be able to give whoever took Snake a piece of my mind." Meryl thought venomously.
Meryl looked up at her father.
"Tell me about the mission. I have to know everything you have. I want to know who's behind it all. I want to see that video message…" She began. Roy smiled at her and began to access the files on the mission for the official briefing.
"I know. Just take it one step at a time!" he laughed at her.
≈≈≈≈≈≈
The room had long fallen silent but the sound of his bones crunching and the loud smacks when the soldiers attacked Snake still echoed in his ears. The strange words of hate, beating and being spat at had not lasted much longer than a few minutes but it had been non-stop and intense.
The four men stood about in the room talking to each other or smoked. Occasionally they shot glances at Snake and ask him questions which he never answered. He just clammed up now that he'd accepted that he really was a prisoner of Ebony's. Snake couldn't afford to say too much.
One of the soldiers walked up towards Snake and held up a packet of cigarettes, one of them was pulled out a little from the rest.
"Smoke?" The soldier offered quietly. Snake slowly lifted his head, the craving for nicotine emerged and he smiled a little. The soldier's eyes lit up and smiled back at Snake from where they peeped out of the gap in the scarf he had around his head. The soldier was only young. Just a teenager and not much older than seventeen.
Snake carefully and graciously took the cigarette out with his mouth, rolled it between his lips so it wouldn't fall and the young man lit it. One of the older guerrillas looked up from his rifle and saw the tiny act. He came rushing up to the boy screaming at him, knocked the packet out of his hand scattering them everywhere onto the floor and raised his rifle up into the air. The boy shrank and threw his arms up to fend him off.
"Poor kid…" Snake sighed to himself.
"Oh shut up!" A female voice shouted as the door opened. Snake glanced up and almost dropped his cigarette. Ebony had returned.
"Leave the boy alone! If I see you raise your hand to him again, I'll personally see that Ocelot is told. You forget that out of the two of you, he is the better fighter." Ebony growled to the older man and pointed to the boy.
She bent down to gather up the young soldier's cigarettes and put them back into his hands with a kind smile. Standing up again, she waved her hand and barked a single word for the order to dismiss the soldiers from their task.
"Ugh!" Ebony wrinkled her nose up at Snake as she turned round to face him. "What have they been doing to you?"
She stood right in front of where Snake was still clamped into the machine and took out a handkerchief. She began to wipe spit of his face and chest.
"Don't think that this means I'm softening up on you. I send soldiers to stand guard and to keep an eye on you, not to make a pest of themselves. She said glancing up at him.
When she was done, Ebony wiped her hands on her trousers and stuffed the tissue into a pocket, folding her arms across her chest.
"You may finish your cigarette but that will be the last." Ebony said firmly.
Snake tried to make it last hoping that it would somehow put her off the next round of torture. He took in small drags at a time, took the time to enjoy it before he let the butt fall onto the floor. Ebony paced about the room and while she was out of his view Snake heard some noise as she fidgeted with something. The sound of a popper opening and a faint swish was behind him, then Ebony returned to face him again.
"So…" She began standing in front of him with her hands behind her back. "…do you remember this when you last saw Liquid?"
Ebony took her hands from behind her and held up a knife. At first it looked like any other that Snake had seen but soon remembered that it had been the one Liquid had tried to use on him.
"Liquid's last entry in his logbook was about this. It was me who gave it to him after we first met and I'm sorry that he never got to use it as he'd planned." Ebony snapped. She suddenly stepped right in front of Snake and brought the blade up so that the edge was pressed against his throat. It was just hard enough to hurt him but soft enough that she wouldn't kill him by accident. Snake held his breath afraid to move in case he moved and managed to cut himself.
"No…not yet." Ebony whispered to him. She lowered the knife before bringing it up again at the last minute, flicked the tip of it up and scored a deep cut across Snake's cheek. He turned his head away at the sight of the light flashing off the metal and hushed his shout to a quiet growl. It had drawn blood, trickling down the rest of his cheek. Ebony smiled as she wiped the knife on her trousers and put it back in its sheath on her belt.
"Now…" She stood herself behind the control panel. "…where did we leave off?" The machine switched on and almost immediately a quick shock leapt out and lasted for a few seconds.
"Just getting you warmed up a little Snake." Ebony laughed at him and looked back down at the console.
"No, that wasn't what I had it set at before…" Ebony muttered to herself and mashed a few buttons. The pitch of the whining got higher and she nodded in satisfaction.
"I didn't like Alaska much when I visited. It never stops snowing and it is always so cold. Why do you live there of all places Snake?" She asked with a curious look on her face.
Snake didn't bother to question her and decided to answer.
"It's peaceful there. Nobody bothers me in Alaska." Snake replied simply. "Just people like you and Liquid come to spoil it."
Ebony reached out to slam her hand down on the buttons, and quickly stopped. She shook her head.
"I feel like a change from watching you frizzle away." She sighed and walked up to him. Ebony first let Snake's wrists free, quickly tying them together before he could make a move and then ducked down to release his legs. She grabbed hold of his wrists and led him out of the room.
Snake didn't bother to try and stop her, it was at least a chance for him to see some of the barracks; essential and useful recon if he managed to escape.
They found their way outside in a small yard boxed in by the building. Looking around, Snake saw that it was night, no clouds in the sky, the stars all out for show.
"Don't think I'll be able to enjoy them tonight." Snake thought as Ebony pulled him along.
The ground was covered with sand, razor wire ran round the building tops. The only source of light was a single flood light. The bulb inside it was on its way out and only cast a dull glow. Ebony left Snake standing on his own for a moment, took a couple of steps away and crouched down, her fingers digging away at something in the sand and came back up with a fistful of sand, throwing it into Snake's face.
"Arrgh! Hey!" Snake shouted and shut his eyes. He put his hands up to his eyes and rubbed them to get the sand out forgetting that he was only making it worse. Ebony chuckled away to herself as she watched him stumble around then walked behind him and pushed him over onto his front.
"Only a little sand Snake. Your brother could take it." She sneered at him and pulled him up onto his feet again. Snake couldn't help himself from blinking, his eyes were puffy, red and watery like he was about to burst into tears. Ebony led him blindly by his hands.
"It shouldn't be a problem for you to stay out here for the night when you're so used to living in Alaska. Nights are cold here, but Meryl won't be here for you to cuddle up to." Ebony laughed at him and forced Snake to sit down on the ground.
Soldiers were leaning out of the windows above waving rifles and handguns. Ebony knelt in front of Snake, a tall, metal light post in between them as she carefully untied his wrists.
"She's not paying much attention. Especially to that knife she's got." Snake thought as he peered through his gritty eyes. He focused his attention on it and watched Ebony with one eye. The opportunity came when she pulled the ropes apart and left herself open. Snake quickly snatched out and pulled the knife away from her.
"What the…!" Ebony gasped glancing down and then looked up as Snake began to make a stab with the blade. Just before the tip met her stomach, Ebony grabbed Snake's wrists and forced them back with surprising strength. She fought back and the guerrillas above began shouting and calling to each other in a panic as their leader was in danger.
Snake ground his teeth as Ebony dug her nails into his arms, still forcing them backward over his head. His arms began to shudder and feel weak. Ebony kept the pressure on.
"Let go Snake!" She spat at him and sank her nails in deeper. Metallic clicks echoed out all around them and Snake looked up to see the soldiers pointing their weapons at him. He looked back to Ebony and let the knife fall from his grip.
"Very good. Now next time don't try to pull a stunt like that again." She growled at him and forced one of his arms back. There was a dull crack in his shoulder, sharp and painful but nothing had been broken.
Ebony scooped up her weapon after she'd finished with tying Snake up to the post hand and foot and kicked him in the face, throwing up more sand into his eyes. Snake shrank away from the blow and when he looked up again, Ebony was gone, a door slammed shut signalling that she had left him alone.
"Looks like I'll just have to get used to this…" Snake sighed to himself. "I doubt anybody knows I'm gone except for Meryl, or even cares." He took a look up at the soldiers who just sat watching him from their dormitories. Snake shivered in the cold and tucked himself up a little.
"Meryl…what is this doing to you?" He muttered to nothing forcing his sore eyes to close shut.
Continued in chapter 4.