Chapter 36

Ocelot stood watching the screen as Snake, Raiden, Naomi and Big Boss left the room. Whilst the soldier that had been knocked out by Meryl was getting up Ocelot turned to him.

"Get her down to the hangar." Ocelot ordered.

"Hum…yes…sir." The soldier was still a bit dazed as he grabbed Meryl, trying to wake her up.

Meryl felt someone grabbing her. She was being carried out from the tower to the hangar floor.

Ocelot remained alone at the control room. He pushed a few keys on the computer and changed the camera. Interesting! The camera that was pointing to the elevator on Floor -4 revealed a few soldiers beside it. Shadow! Somehow those soldiers had remained in Floor -4 awaiting the appearance of any intruder. This wasn't in Ocelot's plan, but he thought that Snake and Raiden were more than capable of handling it. After a few seconds he heard the soldiers getting ready for something, then all of a sudden the camera went dead and the computer screen turned black. Ocelot guessed what had happened. He made his way into the hangar floor. Meryl was already down there looking up as Ocelot came down the stairs with a confident look in his eyes. Meryl examined as he came down, his manners were different from when he had met Ocelot in Shadow Moses.

"Snake's almost here. Soon he'll find out about everything." Ocelot smirked at Meryl. She knew that his devious plan was working like clockwork.

He got near Meryl. "Do you know what that is?" He pointed to what Meryl guessed to be Metal Gear Ray. "That's the weapon of the future, the one I'll use to restore…" Ocelot paused and got closer to Meryl. "No I'll save my speech for when Snake arrives." He got even closer, their noses were almost touching. "I really don't know why he likes you so much." Ocelot moved his hand swiftly towards Meryl waist. She flinched.

"You don't need this anymore." Ocelot took out her radio, tuned it to a frequency and took it near is mouth. "Remove the protective cover." Ocelot ordered.

"Yes sir right away." The radio spat back.

"See for yourself." He grabbed Meryl's arm and twisted her so she would face the giant cloth.

Raiden and Snake proceeded carefully towards the elevator.

"How many soldiers do you think?" Raiden's questioned as blood kept coming out from his left hand and his shoulder. He was in no state to fight, but nevertheless he wanted to help.

"Probably half a dozen judging from the size of the elevator." Although it was a small number the corridor gave almost no protection to them, so it was an uneven fight.

"But we'll deal with that because we have to, right?" Raiden smirked.

Snake nodded.

"We're nearing the corner." Raiden spoke, this time not for Snake, but to Otacon.

"You're there, be careful…" Otacon replied.

Snake stopped right by the corner. "Raiden I'll draw their fire with the machine gun, hopefully I'll bring some of them down, the ones I don't you take care of. Understood?"

"Got it." Raiden responded without any doubt in his eyes. "Radio silence Otacon." He turned the CODEC off.

Snake pressed himself against the wall and peeked out. Seven men with two bullet proof shields. Snake would attack them and move to the other side of the corridor letting Raiden take care of the others from behind the corner. It was risky, if Raiden cringed Snake's chances would be greatly diminished.

"They have shields, so be careful not to waste ammo." Snake said as he jumped from the corner and began firing and running towards the corridor wall on the other side.

Raiden immediately took cover behind the corner and peeked out with his gun pointed.

The soldiers hastened and took cover behind the two shields while Snake commenced firing. Two fell down instantly, and Raiden took another out while he tried reaching for cover.

Snake reached the wall and continued firing. Some of his shots were astray and hit both the camera that pointed to the elevator and a fire extinguisher. Raiden took careful aim at the shields as Snake stopped firing.

"Stay on the look out Raiden."

The contents of the fire extinguisher spewed out towards the soldiers.

"Damn I can't see." A soldier yelled out.

"I'll take care of them." The other said reaching for something on his waist belt.

They were waiting for the soldiers to make a mistake; suddenly something was thrown by a soldier.

"Grenade!" Raiden yelled as he saw it making its way to Snake. He acted on instinct and shot at it, provoking a premature explosion.

Snake was unscathed by the explosion and used the smoke as a diversion. The soldiers peered out the shields and saw a cloud of smoke.

"Check it out." One of them ordered the other three.

"He can't have survived that…."

Suddenly shots broke from the smoke and went through the three soldier's flesh. The one that had remained in cover witnessed them fall to the ground dead. He put only his weapon outside of cover and began firing randomly. After wasting all the bullets he surveyed the corridor, the smoke had cleared and one man stood crouched down looking him straight in the eyes.

"Oh god…" The soldier hurried, in panic, reloading his gun.

Raiden left the corner and started to run towards the soldier. Their eyes met. The soldier hurried to reload his gun and lifted up the bullet proof shield. Raiden wheezed past Snake that stood crouched on the ground also reloading his machine gun. Raiden held up his gun and while running shot directly at the shield. With each bullet the shield weakened. After a full clip it was cracking and without reloading the gun Raiden drove his leg in a kick towards the shield.

Snake witnessed as the strike broke the shield apart and landed right on the soldier's face.

The soldier fell to the ground, blood coming from his nose.

Raiden had his eyes opened wide.

"I gather from your face that you didn't know what you were doing." Snake asked sensing that Raiden had just acted on instinct.

"It worked didn't?" Raiden smirked.

"I'll get Naomi, you call the elevator." Snake handed Raiden the card that Ocelot had given him and doubled back to find Naomi.

Raiden swiped the card across the card reader and the elevator doors opened. He then held the door open and waited for Snake, Naomi and Big Boss to arrive. As he did Vamp came to his mind again. If he had passed through here these soldiers would be dead. He shook the thought from his mind as Snake and the others approached the elevator, now it was time to think about Meryl.

As they all entered the elevator Raiden had a question.

"Snake what about what Meryl said?"

"It's a trap, Ocelot wants us unharmed." Snake knew that was Ocelot's plan and although it was a great plan something didn't add up. It was too obvious for Ocelot, but then again Ocelot wasn't quite himself.

Raiden used the card again and the elevator doors closed and began moving.

"Snake…can your hear me?"

Snake reached his ear. He sensed panic in Otacon's voice. "What is it?"

"I didn't tell you before, but there are people here near the abandoned factory where the other elevator is."

"I thought that elevator didn't work?"

"So did I. That's why I think they were already here. Anyway they almost found me and I got airborne. I don't think they can see me but they now I'm here"

Snake didn't know what to make of it, men that were outside but hadn't used the elevator.

"They are getting inside jeeps and…oh my…" Otacon sounded surprised.

"What is it?" Snake asked confused.

The cloth was being pulled up and began revealing the dreaded machine.

"Meal Gear!" Meryl said. The grip of Ocelot tight on her arm.

"Yes…" The cloth was pulled all the way up and revealed the Metal Gear Ray. It was very different from the one that Ocelot used two years ago. It was almost completely black apart from its joints. It had no markings whatsoever and its surface glimmered. The other difference was some sort of obelisk that stood behind the head.

Ocelot started laughing out loud at the sight of it.

Meryl however was not laughing. She gazed at the Metal Gear as if it was already inevitable to stop.

Ocelot stopped laughing and reached for his radio. "Activate the tracks." Noises were coming from the floor. Tracks similar to those used by trains rose from under the floor.

"Very good." Ocelot was about to turn the radio off when someone came on.

"Sir we have intruders at the top! They had a helicopter we couldn't see."

Ocelot thought before he answered. Stealth camouflage? It has to be Emmerich.

"Is he gone?"

Meryl knew by the sound of Ocelot's voice something was off.

"We can't be sure."

Ocelot thought about it, but it was too late for Otacon to cause any real trouble.

"Forget about it and start opening the door."

"Very well sir."

"It seems you have a few problems." Meryl said defiantly.

Ocelot stared at her and started laughing. "If it hadn't been for me you wouldn't be here. So shut up."

Meryl recoiled while Ocelot glared at her.