Chapter 3

A man sat in a chair in a big room with large monitors in front of him. These monitors showed several important places. The man's eyes were looking straight into a monitor that showed the interior of the oval office, the camera was pointing to the desk of the President of the E.U.A. The man was wearing a large brown raincoat and a brown suit underneath, the only thing off were the two large Colt Single Action Army revolvers, one holster was on his waist and the other over his left shoulder. A door behind him opened and a figure with a lab coat appeared beside him shadowed by the dark.

"Shalashaka."

The man in the chair stood up. He was old, long white hair and a white moustache.

"Yes what is it?" His voice was rough and with a Russian accent.

"I've been meaning to ask you something." The figure came by the light. It was a man more or less in his fifties, slim and semi bald.

"What?" Ocelot asked.

"We seem to have 'misplaced' someone haven't we?" His voice was surprisingly clean for a man of his age

"Yes." Ocelot's voice was to the point.

"Did you have anything to do with it?" The man jerked his head as he asked the question.

"No." Ocelot responded swiftly.

"Did…" The man paused for a fraction of a second. "…'he' have anything to do with it?"

"I don't think so. He hasn't awaken in quite some time." Ocelot grabbed his right hand wrist with his left hand.

"I hope that second surgery worked."

"Yes." Ocelot was staring at his right hand.

"Well, fine then" The man in the lab coat turned to the door as he didn't have anymore questions to ask.

"Shadow?" Ocelot said

"Yes?" The man turned his head to Ocelot

"How's the Doctor?" Ocelot was almost grinning.

"Fine, just fine."

"Are they making progress?"

"Yes" Shadow answered. He however didn't like to answer questions, he liked to make them.

"Good." Ocelot sat again on the chair.

Shadow began walking to the door as Ocelot turned to the monitors. He stopped near the door and not turning asked. "You're time is almost up, you know that don't you?" His voice was calm.

"I know." Ocelot replied in the same manner. "Do you think he's ready to take my place?"

Shadow didn't answer. As he walked out through the door and closed it Ocelot smirked.

In the cold night the only thing that could be heard was a chopper coming near the Washington D.C. area.

"We are getting near!" Otacon said at the Kamov's controls.

"Good." Snake replied from within the Kamov's cargo room. "Raiden you'll probably need one of these."

Snake handed Raiden a small box that contained Night Vision Goggles.

"Thanks." Raiden picked up the Goggles and put them in his equipment.

"Sure." Snake also took a pair and placed in his own equipment.

"Snake, there's a storm coming and it looks pretty bad" Otacon said as he got near the landing spot.

"What's the damage for us?" Snake asked.

"Well it could render the CODEC useless, if it gets worse."

"We'll take the risk." Snake patted Otacon on the shoulder.

"Do we have enough fuel to go back?" Raiden asked.

"Yeah since we were only three, I've brought extra fuel." Otacon looked out the window "We're very close I'm putting it down"

The chopper made a very easily landing and then a question came to Raiden's mind. Wouldn't a chopper be easily seen in the sky, even by night? He turned to Otacon.

"I've constructed a stealth device for the Kamov based on the soldier's model" Otacon said as if guessing what Raiden was going to ask.

"So why don't we use those things?" Raiden asked.

"Well they're kind of a hassle, since human behaviour as so many variables it becomes hard…"

"We don't have time for this." Snake cut in. "We have to move."

Raiden and Otacon stopped talking and began checking their equipment.

"I almost forgot I've got this for you Raiden." Otacon stretched out his hand and in it was something that looked like a very small headphone "A CODEC."

"Thanks." Raiden said remembering he had already used one.

"Remember that's for emergencies, don't call for anyone if it's not important" Snake said, recollecting two years ago on the Big Shell when Raiden was still green.

"Sure." Raiden inserted to CODEC deep into his ear.

"One more thing..." Otacon said. "…my frequency is 141.12, Snake's 140.85 and I've also made an untraceable connection to Mei Ling, her frequency is 140.96."

"Where's the insertion point Otacon?" Snake asked while opening the Kamov's side door.

Now it became clear that they were going into a place they knew nothing about, based on a suspicious phone number and a man that unknowingly used to work for the Patriots. It reeked of suspicion.

"Do you see that sewer entrance?" Otacon got to the cargo room and pointed outside through the open side door. "Go in and when you find a ladder. Go down and head south."

"Did you say sewer?" Snake asked with a frown.

"Yup, it was the best route in." Otacon said with a regretful expression on his face.

"Fine." Snake sounded a bit angry.

"When down there call me, because I've got to the check the plants in my computer."

"Is that all?" Snake asked.

"Yes, I think it is."

The three stood there waiting for something to happen, then Snake turned and headed for the sewer entrance, Raiden followed. Otacon stood in the helicopter, closed the door and activated the stealth device. As Raiden looked behind, he saw a few blue lights and then the helicopter was nowhere to be seen.

Raiden and Snake entered the sewer and found the ladder, however down the ladder the sewer was different it didn't smell that bad and there was no water running. Even the structure of the sewer was different. They headed south for about two minutes when they came to a dead end.

"Nice." Snake said obviously frustrated. "I'm calling Otacon." Snake put his hand by his ear and began talking. "It's a dead end Otacon!"

"It is……well it doesn't appear in the plants." Otacon sounded surprised.

"Maybe those plants were altered too." Snake replied.

"I don't know about that, there should be a ladder there." Otacon insisted.

Snake was silent, looking at the dead end, Raiden was looking back to see if they missed something.

"Could they have changed the ladder into something else?" Snake asked.

"What?" Otacon replied confused.

"Into an elevator." Snake clarified.

"Of course, why didn't I think of that? These plants are pretty old, so it's possible that the ladder is now an elevator. You know Snake sometimes I underestimate you."

"I know." Snake said in his calm voice.

"How do we open it?" Raiden asked now with his hand by his ear.

"There should be a control panel by the side of the elevator." Otacon said. "Like there are in most elevators."

Snake and Raiden began probing the walls, but they found nothing.

"There's nothing here" Snake said looking slightly furious.

"Well there's nothing I can do from this end." Otacon replied not willing to take any blame.

"We need to find another way down." As Raiden spoke they began hearing something coming up behind the dead end. Snake drew out his SOCOM and Raiden took out the HF blade. It came right in front of them behind the door and then it stopped.

"What the hell was that?" Snake said looking at every corner of the wall.

Then a new sound came and in front of them a large door began rising. The dead end was in fact a door, and behind it stood a clear white elevator. Snake holstered his gun and looked at Raiden who was putting his HF blade on his back.

"Otacon what did you do?" Snake asked

"Nothing…" Otacon said sounding mystified "…wait, I got it, it's voice activated, when Raiden said 'down' the elevator came up."

Now they were sure this wasn't a normal place. Snake entered first, followed by Raiden. Once inside Snake looked around and saw a sign. It read "Floor 0 – Floor -1".

"Floor -1." Snake spoke out in a clear voice.

They waited a few seconds and then the large door closed. The elevator began moving down.