Chapter 5

Raiden saw Snake going deep into the room. There two paths he could take, to the right of the room there was a small room, but Snake decide to check the left side. Raiden found everything that had happened so far very suspicious, how could they easily enter one of the Patriots nerve center? Raiden shook these thoughts from his mind as finding Rose was more important.

Snake's soliton radar mapped out the room with perfection, the big lobby where the elevator was, then a bifurcation, a path to left and another to the right. Upon turning left Snake saw a door with a little window. He peeked, and inside were four people that seemed scientists with white lab coats and old faces. Snake moved on as there was another nearby door, this one had no window. Snake opened it and saw that it seemed to be a personal office. Maybe of some scientist or someone important, he began searching the desk drawers for some kind of key to use on the elevator. The silence was suddenly interrupted by a voice that echoed from speakers across the room.

"All scientific personnel, security level back to normal, return to your workstations."

Snake knew this was because of them; security was pretty tight and although Snake ordered the guard on the top level to report in to say everything was fine, security measures were applied to the scientific personnel for quite some time. They had to be working on something big. Raiden heard it also and retreated a bit more, hiding better.

A shadow began to appear beside him, he didn't notice it, the shadow grew bigger and bigger.

Snake didn't found anything on the office so he decided to check out the right side of Floor 2, but before he got there the CODEC rang, it was Otacon.

"What is it?" Snake said.

"It's Raiden I can't make contact with him, I called him to check on your progress and he wasn't there."

Snake exited the office, and found the scientists moving towards the elevator, his thoughts were on Raiden, was he hiding well enough or would he be seen by the scientists? The scenario became even worse, from the right part of the lobby, directly in front of Snake a door opened and four guards walked out. They were protecting the scientists and they seemed to be very well organized.

"This is bad." Snake said to himself.

Snake went to the corner and peeked into the lobby, he could see the scientists and the four guards, but no Raiden.

"He's not here Otacon." Snake said looking across the lobby.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure." Snake hid himself again behind the corner.

"Should we abort?"

"I don't think he would want us to do that, I'll find him."

The scientists went into the elevator and it went down. It stopped in Floor 1 and Snake tried to remember the names and numbers of the floors "Top – Floor 3; Security Office – Floor 2; Research and Development Labs. – Floor 1" The rest was a blur.

"How will you find him?" Otacon asked bringing Snake back to reality.

"I'll find a wa…"

Snake was abruptly startled. "What the hell is that?"

Snake was interrupted by a guard that was standing by the door on the right, he hadn't left the room like the others did.

"Damn!" Snake said as he took out his SOCOM and pointed it to the guard. It happened very fast. The guard responded and instead of going for the radio he took out some kind of gun from his holster. Snake couldn't make out the model but it was modern. The guard pointed it to Snake. The other guards were alerted too, but from the lobby they couldn't see Snake. Snake took aim, as did the other guard and then a shot broke. A direct hit to the head and the guard fell down. The others were coming and Snake had no real place to hide, but he improvised. He quickly shot a few lights rendering his surroundings a bit dark. As the guards were getting very near with their guns ready to fire Snake was faster, he put on his night vision goggles and when the first guard appeared by the corner, he shot, no hesitation, one after another they all fell. They couldn't see what killed them. After that Snake kept pointing his gun, he knew they were all dead, but he kept pointing, until.

"Snaaaake, what the hell happened!" Otacon asked sounding effusive. "Snake answer me."

A few seconds of silence. "I'm here Otacon" Snake answered calmly, he holstered his gun and got up. He began walking to the elevator as he took out his Night Vision Goggles and surveyed the area. Raiden was nowhere to be seen.

"Did you find him?" Otacon asked.

"I'm going to check the right side of this room." Snake headed back again.

"What about Rai…"

"He can take care of himself." Snake knew Raiden was tough, but he wondered what happened to him, did someone take him? Did he decide to go find Rose alone? Or the worst scenario, a scenario that Snake couldn't believe, but had to contemplate. was Raiden working for the Patriots and was all this just a trap?

Raiden woke up and started opening his eyes. He saw nothing but white. He sat upright and noticed that he was on a bed. He opened wide his eyes and surveyed the room, the walls and ceiling were all white, the floor was like a big mirror, and there was no apparent exit, there was no one there with him. Raiden's head became clearer and he reached for his CODEC but he got a "No Response" signal. He had no equipment on him only his sneaking suit. He got up and began probing the walls to see if there was a switch for a door or something like it, but found nothing. He then stared at his reflection. On the other side of the mirror someone talked.

"I see you got him." Ocelot said.

"Yes, somehow he found us." Shadow replied.

"How is that possible?" Ocelot sounded curious.

"Someone told him of course."

"Maybe it was him." Ocelot grinned and jerked his head towards a figure that stood by a corner looking up at Raiden through the special mirror. The figure didn't move or made a sound.

"I don't think so." Shadow replied sure of himself.

The figure then moved towards a door, it was a tall man with dark sleek long hair, with some kind of dark military trousers and black gloves. He had no shirt whatsoever, his body was full of marks, several scars probably from a knife and bullet holes. When he reached the door he turned to Shadow and Ocelot, he had a bullet hole on his forehead. "I hope I can fight with him again." Vamp's voice was clean and with a bit of accent.

"I don't think that'll happen." Shadow replied.

"Huh." Vamp smiled, and went through the door.

Ocelot turned to Shadow. "Was he alone?"

"Yes." Shadow said looking surprised "Why?"

"No reason." Ocelot turned and left the room.

Shadow looked up to Raiden and after a few seconds he said.

"What I'm I going to do with you?"

Outside the room a soldier stood vigilant. First he saw Vamp and then Ocelot leaving the room. As Ocelot left the room he held the door from closing and looked inside. There he saw someone looking up and saying "What I'm I going to do with you?" The soldier looked up and saw a figure with a strange suit that made him remember someone else. The soldier closed the door quietly and waited for the man inside to get out. Shadow left a few seconds after. When the path was clear the soldier entered the room. As he surveyed the room he found some type of hatch that led to the cell upstairs, there was a button near it. At first the soldier hesitated, could this man know something important to his mission? He risked it, he pushed the button. Stairs appeared from the ground and the hatch opened.

Raiden looked to the corner of the white room where some kind of hole was opening up. Someone appeared from the hole, a man with black military suit and with a weapon that Raiden couldn't identify.

"Who are you?" The soldier spoke and it sounded like a feminine voice. "That suit, are you FOX-HOUND?"

Raiden froze for a second, and then he spoke.

"Former FOX-HOUND." He wasn't going to say anything else

The soldier and Raiden exchanged looks. The soldier began walking around him, checking him out. Raiden didn't try and take him down, it would be foolish. He didn't even know where he was.

The soldier stopped. "You look like a girl" The voice sounded more feminine. Somehow the soldier knew Raiden wasn't a threat.

Raiden became a little annoyed, but not for long for the soldier began removing the balaclava from his head and the mystery was gone. The soldier wasn't a he. It was in fact a she, a beautiful red haired woman. She was wearing a bandana to keep her voluptuous hair beneath the balaclava. She also removed her shirt to make visible a few bullet holes in her arms and a tattoo of FOX-HOUND which she pointed to Raiden.

Raiden raised his eyebrow. "Who are you?" He asked surprised.

"My name is Meryl."