Author's Note: Okay, I've unleashed one of the twists in the story last chapter! Still looking for reviews!

Chapter 10: Silence

After several more nights of Andrea snuggling up to Lynn in her sleep, Snake, Lynn, Otacon, and Andrea were ready. The night of the mission had drawn in, but it was a while before everyone (minus Otacon) was supposed to meet at the storage facility.

"You two ready?" Snake asked gruffly. The three wouldn't be changing into their stealth suits until they reached the storage facility; so they were supposed to pack them in backpacks.

Lynn was already ready, sitting there with her suit packed and some extra stuff she was bringing, but Andrea was still folding up her suit.

"Remember," Otacon said from his chair, "I'll be in contact over Codec and the two radios. And make sure you don't lose the security system hack."

"Don't worry," Snake said, presenting the device. "I'll have it at all times." Otacon gave him a thumbs-up.

Andrea had finished packing her suit in with help of Lynn, and the two set out. It was quite dark out; it was roughly midnight.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Snake asked Andrea. He didn't know how the rest of the week had gone, or what she had learned. He had asked her and Lynn, but neither of them would respond.

"I umm…I think," Andrea replied.

"Don't think you are," Snake responded. "Know you are. Confidence is key to survival."

"Y-yeah, I was taught that…" Andrea said.

"I know its cliché, but you have to believe in yourself."

"But don't be over-confident," Lynn cut in as the group rounded a corner on Manhattan's dark streets.

"I'll do the best that I possibly can," Andrea replied after a minute's silence. "I want to succeed…"

"Then succeed," Snake said. "Thinking about doing something's a whole deal different than actually doing it."

"I know, Lynn told me the same thing while I was being taught," Andrea answered shyly. "But I do have the will to succeed."

Snake didn't see any reaction on Lynn's face, but he could 'sense' that she was somewhat smiling wryly.

The rest of the trip to the storage facility was walked in silence, each member of the trio mentally preparing for the coming infiltration. They arrived, and walked down the dark access roads to the spot with their number. Lynn opened the lock, and slid the garage door-like door up and across the inner ceiling.

Everything that they had requested was there; Lynn's silenced sub-machine gun, medical supplies, and all the little odds and ends. Snake shut the door and re-locked it. An inventory of the gear was made, just to double check. It was then all sorted out into who it was going with.

"Time to change," Snake said, taking his Sneaking Suit into a darkened corner. He and Lynn started ridding themselves of their civilian clothes, and assembling their sneaking suits. Though with a reddened face from seeing Lynn naked again, Andrea did the same, donning her dark-grey suit that had a medic's patch sewn onto both shoulders. She had practiced several times on assembling the damn thing quickly, though she was still the last one to finish.

Andrea turned around. Snake stood there, in his blue Sneaking Suit, bandanna across his forehead. Lynn looked scary, in her black stealth outfit; she looked like something out of a Tom Clancy novel.

Though, as Andrea looked in the standard mirror that was in every storage room, she looked scary herself in her suit. Her brown hair draped down to the small of her back. She didn't know how many times Lynn had scolded her to get it cut, but…she liked her long hair.

Everyone then put away all their gear into their suit. Andrea felt a bit nervous when she was given the modified Beretta M9, but she calmed herself down by noting that it wasn't a lethal weapon. So she fit it in the handgun holder on her right side, just below her hip. All her medical supplies went neatly into the medical pack she was to carry on her back. After everything was in, she felt a lot heavier, but not as much as she expected. She could still move fairly quickly, and her stealth boots made it feel like she was walking on a cushion of air. The suit fit comfortably.

Lynn quickly packed away some ammo, holstered her modded M9, made sure a magazine was in her SMG with the safety on, and had all her other items safely secured in the suit's many accessible pockets. The armor felt light, and was not very restrictive to her movements. The suit felt like it would function the way it was needed to.

Snake holstered his SOCOM, opting for his more personal and powerful handgun. It had it's silencer on. His M9 went in the holster above it.

Chaff, Smoke, and Stun grenades were shared between the group, and everything was safely packed up.

"What are you going to use for codenames?" Snake asked. "Using your real names on a mission is not recommended."

"Codename?" Andrea asked. She really did find this night to be like something in a spy movie. She then realized how calm she was about the whole affair. Nervous, yes, but calmer than most people would be. Maybe it was from the harshness Lynn had endowed on her.

"How about 'Red Cross?'" Snake suggested.

"Red Cross?" Andrea repeated. She would be honored to have that code name.

"How about you?" Snake said to Lynn.

"Night," Lynn said. "As in 'currently, it's night.'"

"Night, Red Cross, and Solid Snake," Snake said to himself. "Tonight is an important night," he said to the girls. "Remember the floor plans that Otacon provided. Avoid being seen at all costs, and stay in the shadows. We will stick together, and quickly infiltrate to the lower section where the offline database is. Otacon can't hack into it because it's not connected to the internet, and as the online database didn't mention anything incriminating, there was a small slip about an offline database that Otacon said will probably hold all the 'black files.' I doubt that this facility holds anything else of interest, so just that computer for now."

"Agreed," Lynn replied.

"Alright," Andrea agreed.

Then, as if on cue, a low rumble approached from outside. Lynn unlocked the access door and glanced outside. A black van came to a stop in front of their storage room, and O'Brian got out of the driver's seat.

"You ready?" he whispered through the darkness.

"Pile in," Lynn said to her comrades. She, Snake, and 'Red Cross' Andrea got into the back, which was devoid of anything except handholds. The door was slid silently shut, and O'Brian took up his spot in the driver's seat. Andrea felt the van move forward, and a few turns.

Time passed, and Andrea could feel nervousness creeping up on her. Acceleration, deceleration, and turns didn't help as her body slightly bobbed in the direction the force pushed her small body.

"We're here," O'Brian said suddenly, through the darkness in the van. The vehicle slowed to a crawl and then stopped completely.

"Out," Lynn whispered, and silently slid open the door. She dropped cat-like onto the asphalt, and moved to the side so that Snake could get out. Andrea followed, and dropped to the ground in a low crouch. Knowing how to land to make such little noise was one of the many things she had been taught in her lessons.

"Keep low and quiet," Snake said, and hooked a thumb to the big metal fence that bordered the facility seen in the distance. Two guards were there talking nonchalantly to each other, silhouetted by the bright light inside their little booth.

The van slowly took off as to not make much noise, and Andrea followed Snake and Lynn in a low crouch to minimize her visible surface area. Not a noise escaped the three of them; Andrea was even controlling her breath with a technique Lynn had taught her.

The three stopped at the fence, a hundred meters away from the security booth and completely bathed in darkness. It was Andrea's guess that the guards wouldn't be able to spot them unless they shone some sort of light their way.

It was funny how drastically the little knowledge that Lynn had endowed on her had changed her. In normal situations it wasn't apparent, but…Andrea was supposedly trained with basics of stealth, something that usually doesn't get taught to high-school age girls.

She followed Lynn and Snake as they crept along the fence to the back of the facility.

"How are we getting in?" Andrea asked quietly.

"Cutting the fence," Snake replied, pulling out a Swiss army knife from one of his pockets. The three continued around the fence outline for ten minutes, until they came to a spot that was nicely covered from view. Snake snapped a square line through the fence, and lightly pulled it out. He set it aside on the grass, and donned his thermal goggles.

"Cameras?" Lynn asked silently.

"Of course," Snake replied. "Not many, though. Best course of action would be to Chaff them." He tugged a Chaff grenade loose and held it in his hand.

"Get ready to run," Lynn said to Andrea. Andrea's heart started racing. She had been educated on what a Chaff grenade was; she had been told that it sets up electronic interference by blasting a cloud of particles in the air that disrupted electronics. And she knew that it lasted for a very short time, so she had to leg it across the long stretch of bare field that ran from the building's wall to the fence.

"Chaff away," Snake whispered, pulling the pin from the cylindrical grenade. He waited for a few seconds, and tossed it, as hard as he could, towards the building but in a high arc. It didn't detonate as so much as it poofed, and a white metallic cloud quickly undulated into the atmosphere becoming invisible except for the occasional quick shimmer.

"Go!" Lynn ushered, and the three darted silently across the short grass. They pressed up against the wall, out of the camera's view. Andrea had also learned about this basic premise as well--flattening against a wall provided a slim silhouette as well as more effectively blending in with the wall. Andrea had become slightly fitter than before the training had began, but she was still panting a little. Yet another technique she learned was in effect for her, effectively reducing the output, but she was still out of breath.

"Right," Snake whispered, "there should be a ventilation shaft somewhere along this wall at my height." He searched along the wall to the right, while he motioned for Night and Red Cross to search to the left.

Just then, a call came over the radio.

"How's it going?" Otacon's voice asked through Andrea's earpiece. "Have you guys made it in yet?"

"It's in progress," Andrea heard Snake say over the radio. "And for the record, Andrea is Red Cross, and Lynn is Night."

"Okay," Otacon answered. "So, 'Red Cross,' are you holding out okay?"

Surprised by the man's concern, it was a few seconds before Andrea could reply. "I'm uhm…doing okay, I guess," she answered silently.

"How about you, 'Night?'" Otacon asked diligently.

"Status green," Lynn replied. It sounded kind of funny to Andrea, and she embarrassingly stifled a laugh. She then cursed herself for her lack of control

"I found the vent," Snake said over the radio. Andrea slid over to his position. Snake pulled out a screw driver and silently undid the screws on the covering. It took a few minutes, but the last screw dropped and Snake gently unearthed the rusty covering and put it inside the vent. Snake then hoisted himself up and disappeared into the dark shaft.

"Night vision on," Lynn told Andrea, so she slid the heavy goggles on her head down over her eyes. It was kind of cool for her to see the area suddenly glow with green iridescence. She felt like James Bond.

Snake poked his head and arms out of the shaft to help Andrea up. She grabbed hold of his infinitely larger hands, and climbed up the side of the wall into the shaft. She moved further in so that Lynn could climb in.

"I hope you're not claustrophobic," Snake whispered from in front of Andrea as he started moving forward in the small shaft. The shaft was a meter and a half wide, which was more than accommodating for Andrea, but Snake was obviously a tight fit for it.

Andrea kept up pace, making sure to keep from banging the flimsy metal surrounding her as she did so.

They reached a fork in the shaft.

"Which way?" Andrea whispered.

"To the left," Snake replied, and started down the left fork. Andrea followed, Lynn right behind her. They crawled at a slow pace for what seemed like ten minutes, before Snake stopped. He lifted up a grating, and gently placed it on the other end of the large opening that had dull light pouring into the shaft from.

Snake motioned for quiet, and wedged his legs against the sides of the shaft as he slid his head out of the shaft. He motioned to the girls, and Andrea remembered that it meant there was one person in the room below.

So, Snake slid out of the shaft without any noise, and dropped noiselessly to the floor.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Snake motioned to his two compatriots to indicate that there was one person in the room they had to exit the shaft in. Snake slid into the room; the person appeared to be a simple office worker in his chair, looking at some papers. The situation was well engineered for Snake, as the lighting was dull and he landed quite literally right behind him. It was probably an innocent white-collar doing his job, but since this was the most viable room they could exit from, he was going to have to be subdued. Snake slid out his M9 and held the barrel near the oblivious office worker's neck, and pulled the trigger. The guy flinched as he felt the dart penetrate his neck, but was sawing logs before he could raise his hand to inspect the foreign object. Snake retrieved the dart and tucked it inside a pocket inside his Sneaking Suit. Traces were not advisable.

"All clear," Snake whispered silently over the radio. Andrea slowly but silently made her way out of the shaft without making any noise. She was definitely exceeding Snake's expectations.

Lynn was next, and landed silently next to Andrea. Snake used that opportunity to look at the two girls in their stealth outfits. Lynn looked natural in one, but Andrea was extremely out of place with her long brown hair.

"It's late hour, so civilians should be at a small number," Lynn whispered. "We're still at ground floor, but we need to access the bottom floor."

"There's three ways to get down there," Otacon said over the radio. "There's the main elevator, which is out in the lobby and under constant watch from receptionists, cameras, and two security guards, there's the staircase which is locked up at night, and there's the service elevator, which has little security."

"Obviously we take the service elevator," Snake said. "Where is it?"

"Down the hallway from your position, to the left," Otacon said.

"H-how does he know our position?" Andrea asked.

"Encrypted GPS," Lynn replied.

Snake approached the office door and motioned for quiet. He silently turned the knob and opened the door a crack. The hallway was also dully lit, probably to conserve energy. Snake opened the door some more, and stuck his head out. He looked around, but didn't see anybody. It was a standard office hallway. The labs were more than likely in the basement, and the top floors kept sparkly for the public eye.

Snake proceeded down the hallway in Otacon's indicated direction, in a low crouch. The 'dynamic girl duo' followed behind him. Snake heard movement--

--a man came out of one of the offices, looking tired and stressed. Boy, wasn't his day about to get more interesting. He closed the door, and turned to face the three silent trespassers. His eyes lit up behind his glasses, and he stood there, frozen.

"Don't move or make a sound," Snake growled, whipping out his M9 and aiming it at the guy. The guy eyed Lynn's sub-machine gun uneasily.

"Go back in the office," Snake said, jerking the barrel of his M9 in its direction. The guy nodded and entered the office, scared shitless. Snake was quickly inside as well. He heard Lynn give Andrea an order to take up position with her to keep an eye in the hall.

"W-what d-do you want?" the guy stuttered.

"None of your business," Snake replied, aiming his M9 at his center of mass.

"D-don't shoot!" the guy pleaded, covering his face.

"Relax, it's a tranquilizer. I can't have you running around, so I guess you're gonna take a nap." A small inaudible cough erupted from the M9, and the guy flinched as the dart penetrated his chest. He slowly collapsed onto the ground. Snake removed the dart and stored it in his pocket with the other one. The guy breathed in and out peacefully. Snake went back out into the hallway, quietly shutting the door behind him.

"D-did you…" Andrea started to ask, trailing off.

"No, I only tranquilized him. There's no need to kill innocent civilians." Snake saw Andrea's face light up with relief.

The three continued on their way, and reached a T-junction. On the wall in front of them, where the hallway split sideways, a glass and metal window lay imprinted.

"Otacon, I think we've reached the service elevator," Snake said.

"That's it," Otacon replied. "It only goes to the first basement floor, but there might be more floors below that you need to find access to."

Lynn and Andrea checked the two hallways to make sure no one was in them. Snake opened the elevator door, and pulled himself into the two meter wide elevator shaft. Lynn followed, Andrea tailing them. She shut the door. Snake was already halfway down the shaft by the time the door was closed, and he un-wedged himself from the sides of the shaft to take a look through the window. There was yet another T-junction hallway, but this one was metallic and spotless. Snake eased out of the shaft and moved aside so the young girls could plop down beside him.

"This is different than upstairs," Andrea noted.

"Where do we go from here?" Lynn asked over the radio.

"Hold on," Otacon said. "I'm searching through the floor plans here, but there's only one for the first basement floor."

"So once we're down further, we're on our own," Snake implied.

"Sorry, I'll dig around some more, but there's not much more I can do…" Otacon answered. "For now, the floor plans say there's a network access computer down the hall to the right, but it has some security measures in place."

"So how do we get past them?" Snake asked, heading down the specified hallway.

"I can hack them if you want, but I'd need time."

"Is there a quicker approach?" Snake asked.

"Well," Otacon said, "if you can find someone with a proper keycard, you can gain access."

"Where do we find someone with a keycard?" Andrea inquired.

"My guess would be that only high-level employees carry them," Otacon answered. "No one on the higher floors probably has them, but they're probably abundant with the lab workers."

"So we need to find someone down here at this late hour," Snake mused. "Sounds like Big Shell all over again."

"We'll split up," Lynn suggested. Andrea looked worried.

"Okay," Snake agreed, "but you're taking Red Cross with you. She can't handle herself alone."

"Why with me?" Lynn responded.

"Because you're a lot closer to her," Snake joked. "Seriously, though, you both have a small profile and no matter what you say, you don't have much experience." Lynn had a pained look on her face. She turned and crept away, Andrea tagging along.

Snake was now free and alone for a bit to search for himself. He set off in a different direction.

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Liquidus Snake had managed to tap into the infiltrator's conversation, thanks to O'Brian bugging the radios before he gave them to the customer. He sat in the back of O'Brian's black van.

"Solid Snake, hero of Shadow Moses," Liquidus said to himself. "Killed my brother and assisted in the death of the other one…Nothing better happen to my daughter."

Author's Note: So the mission has started! The search for the security keycard is on! Stay Tuned for next Chapter!