Desert Roses Have Thorns.
Chapter 6.
"Stupid!" Ebony scolded herself. "Stupid, stupid…".
Once again she'd let Ocelot get the better of her and shown clearly where her flaw lay. He'd worked out that any bad word aimed at Liquid was what set Ebony off.
"But what is his? Why can't I read the bastard?" Ebony had never met such an impenetrable or secretive person before and while the challenge of solving Ocelot was an intriguing one, it also tried her patience to the end. Anytime she asked a question and thought carefully the shutters would come slamming down.
"KGB!" She thought angrily. "Even Liquid knew little of his second in command…"
Ebony threw open the door to her quarters and slammed it shut behind her with a deep sigh and hung her head, her long hair fell like a dark glossy curtain around her face.
"How does he expect me to forget Liquid so easily?" Ebony seethed quietly as the memories began to seep out of the corners of her mind.
"How can I possibly ignore all the years we spent together? Six years working hard and living with him on this base as some of the greatest mercenaries in the Middle East. It was a long time and it's too important…" Ebony pushed her hair out of her face and clasped the gold dog tag in her hand, rolling back into the dream she'd had that morning. Those memories were too precious to abandon.
The nineteen years of Ebony's life had been nothing but war and killing. It was all that she knew. The justification for their fight was to found a nation where anybody who had no real homeland could settle. Her father reminded her every night before he put her blanket over her to sleep why they fought. He'd been the kindest man she'd ever known even although killing was what kept them both alive. Ebony had never known her mother, she had lost her mother when she was barely a few months old but Ebony was always told by her father and the other soldiers that she looked like her.
After Ebony had lost all of her family, Liquid came in to her life. He never filled the space left by the death of Ebony's father but at least drew attention away from it and became another important figure to her. The fighting still went on, it would always be there in her life, but when Liquid came, it faded into the backdrop and no longer was the everything that dictated the rest of her life.
It was hard for Ebony to describe what it was about him that had drawn her to him. His companionship was the obvious reason she could think of, then the endless strength that he seemed to hold. He'd just appeared out of the desert that day her world had begun to fall apart with her father's death and something told Ebony that she had to ally with him. Liquid had asked nothing from her but already had gained her admiration.
Now she'd nothing to do anymore. Ocelot had command of the base and her soldiers, she had nobody to lead now. She didn't want to spend all day inflicting pain on Snake, it did get repetitive after a while. All Ebony could do was wander around aimlessly the base, take herself to the firing range or into the mountains and dunes to see the days she used to have with Liquid again.
Even when she could see them again, they weren't always good memories. Ebony remembered how frightening he was in combat. Without a weapon in his hands and an enemy in front of him, Liquid was quite normal, but in battle Ebony felt like it was as if some devil had taken over her friend. Now she understood how it was. The devil was in his genes.
Out of battle, he did show something else other than blood lust. He was actively involved in recruiting and training new soldiers, Ebony had made that his job when he first joined her. After the first batch of new men had been trained, they choose the best ones to train the soldiers who would arrive later on, while Liquid supervised them. Advice and encouragement was not too far when he was around and he brought in a fresh confidence to the troops.
But when it came to Ebony, she still found it hard to say exactly what she felt about him. Liquid was always a hero to her, a guardian. Even then she knew that was only half-true. Ebony struggled to admit to herself that it was a little more. Their first year together was when he helped to turn the base around after the loss of their old leader and they worked to gain each other's trust. In that first year, Ebony always worried that he'd would leave and return to be her enemy. She had no idea if he had any fears like that, he always faced up to everything that came into his path and conquer it. Of course the only thing that he'd failed to defeat was his heritage.
Ebony found out about Liquid's twin two years into their partnership and until she found Liquid's body on Shadow Moses, Ebony had no idea of the suffering that her friend was feeling. Over the years their friendship always grew much closer, but something always stopped it from going onto something else. He always seemed to be more interested in everything else but Ebony after FOX-HOUND asked him to join their ranks. He became more and more preoccupied with it. Obsessed.
Liquid began to look for ways to make himself "better"; he spent more and more time training on his own for hours at a time. If Ebony went to see how he was, he would become angry and force her to leave. Ebony could never tell what he would do when he got like that. It frightened her. Then she found what it was like to be on the end his fury.
Yet, still she loved him.
Ebony screamed out, both hands clutching her stomach as she took a couple of giddy steps. Liquid's face had washed out white, utterly petrified. The handgun slipped out of his fingers.
"Why…why'd you…do it?" Ebony gulped as her voice trailed away and took a tumble. Liquid darted over and caught her as she fell. He scooped her up in his arms and began to tear away down the firing range. He didn't stop to answer any questions from the patrolling guards on his way.
Ebony held onto him feebly and looked up as he spoke to himself.
"What have I done…what have I done!?" He muttered over and over again to himself as a couple of clear, sparkling drops fell down from his eyes. Ebony closed her eyelids and squeezed his arm just to let him know she was still alright. The next thing she noticed was being transferred from Liquid's arms and onto a soft bed. After that Ebony couldn't feel anything at all.
She woke up slowly, bit by bit, not quite sure what to expect. She turned her head to one side at the bright light above her.
"Was I caught out in the desert? Is that the sun I see?" She thought briefly, thinking that she'd fallen to exposure.
Ebony turned her head to see a figure by her side, their head bowed over and their face hidden. They looked up at her not sure whether to laugh, cry or just blankly stare.
"Oh…it was you who was shouting earlier…" Ebony breathed with a faint smile. She turned her gaze away back to the white ceiling, noticed the cracks in the paint spanning outwards in all directions then looked on beyond them through the ceiling. Then she watched the bag of intravenous fluid as it's clear contents slowly dripped into the tube and into her bloodstream.
"Why…" She looked back at him again as her eyes narrowed a little, the stare softened by the long eyelashes that rimmed them. "Why do you think…you're weak?" She asked Liquid slowly.
"You could never understand. Nobody can help me now." Liquid sighed and bowed his head again, covering up his face with his hands. Ebony pushed one away from his face and could see that he had not slept. His eyes had that glazed over look to them and were not helped by the dark shadows under his eyes.
"Try me." She coughed painfully as he took hold of her hand with an unusual delicacy that Ebony had never felt him use before, and lay it back down by her side. She felt so confused; one half told her that she should hate him for shooting her like that, but instead she still felt nothing but fondness for him.
"James…if you were truly weak you would have died a long time ago." She added softly. Ebony hadn't used his real name much before but now was maybe the time to start.
"I know but I'm not strong enough to fight them." He answered firmly.
"WHO?" Ebony shouted. She tried to sit up but the wound in her abdomen forced her to stop. Liquid softly put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back down onto her back again.
"Rest…" He whispered from where he leaned over her.
"You still haven't answered my question." Ebony frowned at him. James looked away, avoiding her stare.
"Everything and everyone." He answered simply before sitting back up.
"You're one of the best hired guns in the entire world. You can beat anybody you want!" Ebony smiled.
"But not him." Liquid sighed.
Ebony groaned and shook her head. There was no way she'd be able to talk him out of it; once he got something into his head there was little chance of making him change it, especially if he really believed it. Ebony desperately wanted to know what it was that was troubling him. Without that knowledge she'd have no way of helping him.
"Do you…" Liquid paused. "Do you forgive me?" He asked quietly.
"Yes." Ebony answered simply.
"I didn't think what I was doing." He continued.
"If you would just let me know what it is, I might be able to help you." Ebony smiled at him. "I owe it to you."
"Ebony…" Liquid took her hand, careful of the drip in the back of her hand that was linked to the bag of fluid hanging above her bed. "…I really do appreciate your concern but for once this is something I must do on my own."
"But why can't you tell me!?" Ebony said her voice getting higher. "I thought that we trusted each other…"
"You would never believe me if I told you the truth."
"Maybe he was right. It was hard enough to accept the truth when I found his body." Ebony told herself. It had seemed so far fetched that he'd been a soldier made to measure with his only purpose being only to kill and destroy the enemy and at first it almost nullified all of Ebony's successful missions with him.
She knew that he would have not wanted her pity, but if he'd just given her a hint it would have made all the difference. He might have been alive now. But he'd let it take over and control him, he'd become so distant just to wipe out every trace of his genetic heritage, following in his father's and his brother's footsteps to find his own path away from them.
As it was however, Ebony still couldn't forget what she'd vowed to do for him despite what had happened. She'd obtained permission to use Gryphus that was just one step to her goal. There were still a few things to take care of…
≈≈≈≈≈≈
Ocelot danced about from one foot to the other impatiently as Ayisha pushed intravenous needles into Snake's forearms. Snake grit his teeth each time; it was uncomfortable enough with being restrained so tightly. His hands had balled themselves into fists and consequently the muscles in his arms had tensed up making it even harder for Ayisha to finish.
"What's taking so long?" Ocelot growled at her. She rolled her eyes and gave Snake a quick glance and mouthed something to him.
"Sorry…" She said silently. Snake frowned at her and looked over her shoulder at Ocelot. The sly bastard had a prosthetic hand fixed to the stump that Grey Fox had left him with on Shadow Moses Island. Ayisha did her best to make it easier for Snake, she clearly didn't share in Ocelot's enthusiasm for inflicting pain on others but right now in his presence she could do nothing but watch unwillingly.
When she was finished she returned to stand with Ocelot behind a control panel with three narrow tubes coiling their way out from underneath it, across the floor and to where Snake was, lying back at an angle so they could see each other. The tubes filled up slowly so they formed a multi-coloured web on the white tiles.
"It's all set then?" Ocelot asked Ayisha quietly. She nodded slowly.
"I'm sorry for taking so long but it had to be done properly." She muttered. Ocelot chuckled as he scanned his eyes over the controls now dancing about in anticipation, pressing a few buttons with a soft beep confirming their entry.
"Let's see…" Ocelot mumbled to himself and pressed a button. A split second later and there was a sharp gasp from Snake and his face crumpled up at the burning sensation in his veins. At first it was restricted to his right arm but soon the drug spread through his whole body. Snake kept his mouth clamped shut, it wasn't too bad yet but caused him enough discomfort to satisfy Ocelot for now.
"Like that?" Ocelot grinned at him. Snake remained silent. There was a steady blip from a heart monitor in front of Ocelot and it filled up the quiet where Snake's answer should have been.
"Not talking? That's no way to treat an old friend…" Ocelot sighed as he tapped something out on the panel.
Something cold ran into Snake's other arm, a pale pink liquid. It hit Snake quickly, going right to his head like he'd had a drink and downed it far too quickly. He shook his head trying to shake off the clouds in his head and blinked a few times. They still hung around and Snake found it difficult to keep himself focused away from the warm drowsy and confused feeling in his mind. There was something else flooding into his right arm but didn't carry the fiery sensation like the red liquid. Instead it cut through the fog in Snake's head and began to root about in his memory, pulling out bits and pieces and sticking them together in the front of his mind. While Snake's body was spiked with pain, his head was locked up in a stored moment of bliss…a chilly winter's night and Meryl was there somewhere…
"…Wake up Dave…this is no time to start thinking about that!" Snake scolded himself and made a conscious effort to get himself back into reality.
"How do you feel now Snake?" Ocelot smirked at him.
"Like my head is a kids balloon filled with helium and about to float off into the sky…" Snake thought to himself. He smiled. "There's a nice idea…Just float away and nobody can catch me…" He laughed out loud to himself and was soon cut short. Snake came back down to terra firma with another shock to his body. The red liquid was flowing again, Snake ground his teeth together as it scorched its way in his blood and in every fibre in his body. He struggled but found his arms seizing up in protest at the alien substance that invaded them, the restraints had automatically tightened down on him. Every time Snake moved it forced his blood to circulate, spreading the drug through him more quickly before it thinned out too much. The drunken feeling returned and Snake soon found his legs giving up. Memories flooded out again and mixed up like they'd been put in a blender.
"Keep that rifle clean soldier! I expect much better next time we have inspection David. Or maybe you enjoy doing push-ups in the mud?"
"You'd kill your own brother?"
"Urrgh…fight it…" Snake heard himself utter.
"Born on the battle field…raised on the battle field."
"Hal…I'm sorry…" Snake cried.
"Quite revealing stuff this." Ocelot chuckled over the top of the mess. Snake was distracted by a memory of Meryl. He could almost see her standing to the side of him, waving to call him over, but quickly snapped himself out of it.
"What you mean Ocelot?" Snake asked, his words came out thick and sludgy. He hadn't noticed but he'd been reciting his thoughts out loud for everybody to hear.
"Hush now." Ocelot laughed hitting a few more buttons. Ayisha's eyes widened.
"That's too much!" She warned looking up at Ocelot. "You'll kill him if you do that!" Ocelot glared at her and she promptly fell silent as he drew his revolver and confirmed his settings.
"I want a report on his condition later. You stay right there and don't move an inch before I leave!" Ocelot growled at her. He glanced over at Snake who was starting to feel the effects of the latest rush, everything being pushed into him at once. Ocelot left by a door just out of Snake's view. Ayisha had covered her ears with Snake's howls, as his body seemed to burn from the inside. Ayisha was just a white splodge with a few other coloured blobs sticking out in Snake's rheumy eyes. He blinked his eyes shut for a moment and then found her standing by his side.
"Sssh…sssh!" She hushed Snake. "Calm down please." She begged him and began to quickly remove the needles in his arms, darting back to shut down the machine. Ayisha stood by his side waiting and placed her hands together like she was in prayer up to her mouth. There was little she could do but wait for him to recover.
Snake slowly turned his head to his side and looked up at her. His eyes still ran, his face was glowing red, beads of sweat stood out on his skin. Ayisha gently wiped his brow and drew up a stool.
"I know I work on this base but you have to understand that I don't agree with that man and what he does to amuse himself." She managed to smile a little and brushed a few loose strands of hair that had fallen out of place behind her ears. "I don't always agree with Ebony too…"
Ayisha got up and pushed a stainless steel trolley over. The various pieces of equipment rattled as it bounced over the grooves in between the tiles. She sat back down and picked up the bottles examining their labels, searching for the one she wanted.
"I don't have anything that will counter what Ocelot put into you. The drugs he used are specifically for torture and interrogation so I doubt that they bothered to come up with any antidotes. Even if there were, he would never let me have them. All I can do is help make you feel a little better." She whispered softly, placing a hand firmly against Snake's forehead and poured water into his eyes. Then she carefully dabbed his face dry, avoiding the slash on his cheek that Ebony had given him. Snake blinked and found that all the sand had been cleared and his eyes no longer stung. Ayisha took out a ration pack from her white coat pocket and broke off small pieces for Snake to chew on.
"Why are you doing this?" Snake murmured with a cough and swallowed the last piece of ration down with a gulp. His stomach still growled and gurgled at him, Ayisha couldn't help but laugh before her face returned to the sorrowful expression that she always seemed to carry with her.
"I don't like Ocelot." She sighed and clasped her hands on her lap. "Ebony was foolish to join with him. He means trouble and I'm frightened that he'll be the end of her. My job is to heal, but ever since he came here I've had no end to the soldiers that come into my infirmary needing my help. He doesn't care for this place or the people who call it their home. I don't like to stand and let him get away with it. It's not my idea of fun to see anybody take punishment for one's sick pleasures."
"Even if I'm an enemy?" Snake asked.
"It may sound crazy to you, but I think you might be able to save Ebony." Ayisha whispered again.
"What?!" Snake wakened up. "Save her? She's taken me prisoner and I have every intention of fighting back. Saving her is the last thing I'm going to do. It's her problem that she got involved with Ocelot!"
Ayisha shook her head slowly.
"I can't tell you much right now, Ocelot is expecting you to be back in your cell shortly. If I get the chance I'll tell you more…" She reached over to the trolley and picked up a syringe, filling it up, tapping the bubbles to the surface and pushed out any trapped air.
"Hey…Hey!" Snake panicked. "What's that for?!"
"I can't have you on the way to getting over those drugs when the guards come, can I? Ocelot will ask for their report on you too along with my medical opinion. This will just make it more convincing…"Ayisha explained as she pushed the needle in close to where the other marks were on his arms. Snake felt the drifting sensation come back strong again and tried to stay awake. He was thankful that there was no pain and let himself go. At least if he slept he wouldn't remember all the things that he'd rather forget, like the nameless faces of the people he'd taken lives from.
Snake never liked being knocked out, but right now it seemed to be the lesser of the two evils.
≈≈≈≈≈≈
Meryl had no idea of how long she'd been crawling in the tunnel. It was completely dark and by the smell, it was dusty and hadn't been used for a while. It was pleasantly cool too, being buried under the ground out of the sun. The only good thing about it being so dark was that Meryl couldn't see what else was creeping in the passage with her. She didn't have to see what creature it was that had slithered up her leg or what that thing was that bumped into her face.
It was very slow going. There were a few places where the metal had fallen in leaving only a small gap for her to squeeze through and there had been frightening moments where she almost got stuck. Meryl really hated the idea of being trapped underground and not being able to get out, it was to her a horrible way to die.
Meryl inwardly sighed when she felt the tunnel starting to gradually wind upwards in a slope, it meant that she was starting to go back to the surface.
"What was that?" She whispered to herself. She heard a beeping noise in her ear and at first assumed it was her ears still ringing from the gun battle.
"The codec!" She gasped and quickly answered it.
"Meryl?" A male voice whispered. It took a little time for Meryl to register who it was calling.
"Lieutenant!?" She jumped up and almost banged her head on the ceiling of the duct. "You're alright! I thought that…"
"I'm okay. Just. But never mind about me. Are you safe?" He asked.
"I'm okay. I'm inside a small tunnel that an old friend told me about when I hid out in a wadi. He's enjoying a nap out of the sun…" Meryl chuckled remembering the hapless soldier she'd met on Shadow Moses.
"Old friend? Never mind…" Armstrong muttered. "Good. Just be careful when you come back up…" The signal crackled with static. "My nanomachines are playing up for some reason, they're probably too busy helping me patch up to keep the transmission going."
"What about the others?" Meryl asked hopefully.
"All dead. There was nothing I could do, the only way I managed to escape was play dead until everybody left and got myself into hiding. I'm okay for now. I set up a foxhole for myself, keeping eyes on the base but I won't shoot unless I have to. I'll call the colonel and let him know about my status." Armstrong explained.
"You'd better, they said that Naomi had lost track of your nanomachines." Meryl added.
"Is that right? Okay. For now, good luck and be careful."
"Right…" Meryl sighed and wiped away a tear and smudged dirt onto her face. "You too."
"Y'know before I finish, it makes me wonder why that tunnel goes into a wadi at all. My best guess is that it was used for base defences. It would save a lot of time and a few lives by carrying supplies underground rather than over it to any troops that would be out this way. You might just strike lucky and find some stuff when you come up like a cache of weapons and equipment that everybody's forgotten about." Armstrong mused.
"I'd better go now. I'll call you if I need you." Meryl smiled and shut down the codec continuing on into the darkness.
A few minutes after Armstrong had called her, Meryl could feel the air start to get warmer and smell a bit fresher. A sign that she was near the end. It grew lighter in the passage and Meryl found herself on level ground. Eventually she reached the end and found that there was a shaft that she could stand up in. There was a ladder fixed to one wall and it led to a trapdoor up above about two meters above her head. Meryl climbed up a few rungs so that she could reach up and touch the hatch with her hand. She listened but could hear nothing from above and slowly undid the catch. Then Meryl tried to push the door upwards.
The door was quite heavy and it was made all the more difficult by trying not to fall down. Meryl let the door back down gently.
"It's no good I need both hands." She sighed to herself and hooked her feet in the rungs so that she was able to free both her arms. She began to push up again. She felt it move and dust fell in on top of her. Meryl held in a sneeze and struggled on. She was just about there…
"WAAAAHH!!" She screamed out and found herself falling backwards. She caught one of her feet in the ladder and then fell back down to the ground. The trap door slammed shut and she jumped at the noise. She waited, her heart pounded at the fright, praying that nobody had heard the commotion. Her ankle throbbed a little but it was alright when she got up onto her feet again and climbed right up to the top of the ladder. Meryl took a deep breath and pushed the door again. A last shove and it flung open suddenly and Meryl almost lost her balance again but quickly caught hold of the ladder with one hand, shielding of the dust and cobwebs with her other arm.
She peeped up cautiously to see that the passage went up into a dim room, quite small with several boxes stacked up and covered in dirty brown tarpaulins and sand. It definitely looked as if nobody had used the room for a while and like the tunnel, it was in some disrepair. Meryl scrambled up the ladder and had a quick look in the boxes. There was some ammunition that would fit her USP, binoculars, some machine guns but they were of no use to her right now. She already had the M-16 Johnny had surrendered, but if Snake needed anything and it wasn't too much trouble, they could always come back to kit him out. Besides that, there was nothing left that was of great importance.
"Anyway…if Metal Gear is really here, Ebony is bound to have enough money to equip her soldiers with far better equipment." Meryl thought to herself as she tiptoed towards the door.
She hung on for a second and pressed her ear against it. It was fairly quiet; quieter than she'd expected. Meryl had imagined the whole base swarming with mercenary soldiers.
"Maybe Mei Ling can tell me a little more about the base before I head out…" Meryl muttered and hid behind a box and sat down reaching up to put out her call.
"Hello Meryl, what's up?" Mei Ling answered cheerfully. Meryl could never understand how she managed to sound so happy even when things got tough, she always had something encouraging to say. What impressed Meryl even more however was that Mei Ling had the incredible ability to put up with Snake. It was something that Meryl hadn't quite got the hang of yet after living with him for eight months.
"Listen do you have anything on this base before I head out? Y'know satellite photographs, recon stuff, maps…anything that would be useful to me. It would save me a lot of time if I had an idea of where to start searching." Meryl asked.
"No problem. Hold on a sec and I'll find what we've got." Meryl listened while Mei tapped away on the keyboard, and heard her father's voice in the background.
"What I can tell you now is that the base is almost as big as Shadow Moses island so you've got a lot of land to cover, so it was a good idea to call me. Where are you at the moment?" Mei announced after her typing had ceased.
"I don't know…I'm inside the base I think. I got in by an underground tunnel and it's led me to a small storage building." Meryl replied taking a look around where she was crouched down.
"Oh…" Mei sighed. "The colonel said you should maybe look for places that look like they have lots of activity close to them. Large buildings where there's a higher security presence might mean that they've got something important to guard…or somebody they don't want getting out." Mei Ling added.
"Right." Meryl nodded.
"And Meryl…I know this might not be a good time to mention this but Hal has been looking over these satellite photos with me before you called, and we both agree that there's a high probability of a Metal Gear being inside the base with you." Mei added solemnly.
"How? If you can't see inside the buildings how can you be so sure?" Meryl sighed and put a hand on her forehead.
"Well, there's evidence of some construction work on the base in one particular area. An extension had been added to the main part of the base and according to our other sources those buildings hadn't been there until eight months ago." Mei answered.
"What were these 'other sources?' I know it's probably none of my business where you dug that up but…" Meryl folded her arms.
"When we got the transmission I traced it back to the base you're in right now, but there were one or two mercenaries who were happy to part with the information for a reward. They'd been in the area and don't really like Ebony… But getting back to the point, Doctor Emmerich wants to talk to you."
There was a little shuffling and then Hal was on.
"Meryl?" He asked softly.
"Yeah, I'm here." Meryl answered.
"Good. Sorry that you won't be able to see this, but on the satellite photos I've got here, we've got several buildings clustered together at one end of the base, boxed in from the rest by heavy defences. There's even a reinforced bunker. But everything here looks to be just the right size to produce and hold a Metal Gear." Hal explained calmly.
"Okay but besides how big the facility is, how are you so sure Metal Gear is here?" Meryl asked again.
"First of all I don't think the threat Ebony issued us with in her message was an empty one. She kidnapped Snake, she knows that having him held hostage will make things tough for us. Secondly there was something in this guarded section of the base that got my attention."
Meryl perked up a little.
"What was it?" She quizzed him.
"There's a large number of solar panels, a good sized power station and even a storage facility for the excess. It's too much to simply run a base for lighting, some machinery and day to day use. Constructing and running a Metal Gear swallows up a large quantity of energy and when it comes to charging Metal Gear up it pays to have some energy stored away. It saves you from having to tap into the supply for the rest of the base and plunge it into a full blackout to charge it up."
"Of course right out here in the desert there'd be no shortage of energy with the sun." Meryl muttered to herself.
"Exactly. Not only that it's far safer and cheaper. They don't have to pay for it and transport firms would slap on an extra fee to cover the risk involved. Anybody who isn't in league with Ebony would probably attack the fuel deliveries. Plus this lets Ebony keep a much lower profile too. Adding it all up, it looks quite probable we've got a Gear on our hands." Hal finally stated.
Meryl slouched down with a sigh. She knew that this would make things even more difficult when the time came to tell Dave.
"But…how did they get the data in the first place?" Meryl piped up after a few moments of silence.
"That's what I'm trying to work out myself. There are even a couple of other countries with their own Metal Gear program. They're inferior clones of REX but still these cannot be ignored. I know that Snake obtained an optical disc from President Baker which contained all of the data and specifications for REX, but how that got from him to Ebony and these other countries is still a mystery to me." Otacon sighed.
"I don't think Snake told me either." Meryl added.
"One Gear is enough as it is…"
"C'mon it wasn't your fault. You were lied to about what your designs were being used for." Meryl comforted Hal. She had met up with him after his run in with Snake and the truth about his project but Meryl couldn't imagine what it was like. Poor Hal who had to find that everything that he'd been working on, pouring hours of his life, hopes and dreams into had the potential to be used for death and destruction on a scale that hadn't been seen before.
"Do you think Snake will take on the mission?" He asked hopefully after a minute.
"We have to do something. Snake can't turn around and say no." Meryl replied.
"It would put my mind at rest for a little knowing that just one Gear is out of action. But…I'll never be able to rest completely until they are all wiped out and the data destroyed forever." Otacon whispered.
"If we find a Gear here Hal, we'll make sure it gets destroyed. For you."
There was a little laugh.
"Thanks Meryl." Hal said a little more cheerful.
"I should go now. The sooner I find Dave the quicker we can find Metal Gear."
"Good luck." Hal answered warmly and signed off.
Meryl closed her eyes for a second, not sure if this was really happening or just another of those bizarre dreams she was in. She looked up again. She really was in Snake's place right now and she almost felt like she shouldn't have been there.
"But if not me then who else?" She thought. "Let's just hope that this doesn't get any worse."
Continued in chapter 7 coming soon…!