Chapter 9

"What's going on?" Snake asked as if he had missed something.

"The detonator just woke up. It's counting down."

"What happened?" Raiden asked.

"The big ones were rigged to be activated when all the baby C4's went offline..."

A shock went through Snake. Damn! Snake stood still for a few seconds. I have to get to Pete. When Snake snapped out of the initial shock he focused on the conversation again.

"Raiden, move! Get to the bottom of Strut A now!" Peter said.

Snake heard Raiden signing off. "Pete I'm coming there."

"I'll try and move a little closer Pliskin. Goodbye." Peter turned off his radio and left Snake alone on the line.

Dammit. Snake shook his head and started running towards the exit. His M4 was waving around as Snake raced through the Big Shell. He continued to call Peter on his radio but all it gave was a silent signal. C'mon Pete! Answer me…

"Otacon can you hear me?" Snake used his CODEC to warn Otacon about the imminent threat.

"Yeah Snake…"

"Listen keep away from Strut H, there's a strong possibility that a bomb will go off." Snake hurried his words as he kept running past Strut G.

"What are you talk…"

Snake turned off the CODEC. He was closing in fast on the door to Strut H when Peter's signal came on his headphones.

"Raiden, Pliskin, listen carefully."

"What is it?" Raiden came on and asked.

"I fell for it." Peter sounded unusually calm.

"Fell for what?" Snake asked sensing something was terribly wrong.

"Fatman has my number." Peter replied still calmly. "A proximity trigger. Microwave."

"Microwave?" Raiden said sounding anxious.

Snake entered Strut H and hurried for the storage area.

"With a 7 foot range. It's not a technique I taught him. Neither was that multi-bomb booby trap. Looks Like he's far surpassed me as far as explosives technique goes. As for the rest…"

Snake opened the door to the storage area. "Pete, get the hell out of there!" Snake shouted.

"There's less than 30 seconds left. It's too late."

"No!" Raiden said.

"Pliskin, get away from Strut H, as fast as you can.

"Pete…" Snake stared at the opened hatch on the floor of the storage area.

"Raiden, keep your distance. Use the spray from as far away as possible." Peter gave a few last instructions to Raiden.

"Me?" Raiden replied frightened.

"You can do it. I know that." Peter said.

Snake wasn't sure of what he should do, he was just sitting there watching the hatch and hearing Peter's last will.

"I'm not so sure..." Raiden responded.

"But I am. Do it, I know you can." Peter gave a last push to Raiden and with that Snake heard an amazing light coming from down the hatch. The last thing he heard on his headphones was Peter crying out. "Pete!" Snake shouted as the truth sank in, however the explosion that followed was worse. Snake was thrown backwards into the wall. His headphones fell to the ground and he felt the entire Strut shaking and shifting forward, after that water came pouring out from the hatch. Snake tried to get on his feet, but the water force sent him against the wall one more time. Without being able to fight it Snake slipped into nothingness.

It was the same warehouse and the same mirror Snake was facing. The reflection was not his own. "LIQUID!" Snake shouted, but the reflection smiled back at him. It came closer to him and uttered the words. "Dear brother." The reflection stretched out its right arm and grabbed Snake's neck. The grip was very strong. "Now die…" Suddenly the reflection changed and another man appeared before Snake. "…Solid Snake." The voice had a deep Russian accent. Only the arm on Snake's neck hadn't changed, the rest however belonged to Revolver Ocelot. Snake could see strange markings on the arm as he felt the air coming out of him.

"Ahhhhh." Snake clenched his teeth and tried to breathe, but the hand was too strong. Snake was about to close his eyes when a voice stopped him.

"Snake wake up." It was a friendly voice.

Snake sat up and spitted out water from deep inside his lungs. Once he was done he looked to his right and found Otacon helping him up.

"Otacon." Snake said as he got to his feet.

"It's good thing I never listen to you." Otacon grinned. "C'mon we should leave this place."

Snake looked around and saw that they were near the stairs that led to the heliport on Strut H. The Strut was severely damaged. A few lamps were still flickering, and in some places the ceiling had collapsed.

"Watch your step."

Snake heard Otacon and noticed that the floor was in fact not very straight. "Pete!" Snake said looking over at Otacon.

"If he was down there…" Otacon sighed. "Well I'm sure it was quick. The bomb crippled this Strut and the connecting bridge to the core and it also ruptured the tunnel that went to the core section. The one you took, the water is going there. At this rate the core section won't hold forever."

Snake did notice that the water was going inside the storage area at an incredible rate.

"What about Pete's body?" Snake asked.

"Unfortunately it's probably heading for the filtration chambers in the core section too."

Snake gave a dire sigh. "I need to call someone hang on a minute Otacon." Snake reached for the radio on his back as his headphones were nowhere to be seen.

"How're you doing, kid?"

"Pliskin? Is everything all right?" Raiden sounded a bit worried and tired.

"Could be better. Looks like I was out cold for a while."

"How did you manage to stay alive?"

"Had a little help from a friend." Snake looked over at Otacon.

Otacon heard everything that was coming from Snake's radio and he could only wonder if Snake would call him a friend after he found out what Otacon had kept from him.

"Friend?" Raiden asked.

Snake changed the subject with ease. "What about the bomb?"

"Defused. And Fatman too." Raiden sounded a bit proud.

"That's good news."

"How's Shell 2?" Raiden asked.

"It's a mess. The bomb crippled Strut H."

"What about the toxins?" Raiden asked again.

"The what?" Snake looked at Otacon and he seemed as clueless as Snake. Apparently Raiden knew nothing about the mission he was in. Snake knew how Raiden felt, he had been in the same situation four years ago and soon Snake would find out what the Shadow Moses nightmare was really like.

"If the Big Shell blows up, the explosion is expected to produce massive amounts of toxins..." Raiden kept at it.

"Never heard anything about that." Snake answered.

"Huh?"

"Well, looks like there's not much danger of that in any case. But the central core is starting to flood. It won't last much longer."

"What about the President and the hostages?" Raiden inquired.

"They weren't in Shell 2. They must be in Shell 1." Snake replied back.

"We need to get the hostages out of here now."

"It's too far from Manhattan for a swim."

"What about lifeboats?"

"There doesn't seem to be any. Doesn't make sense."

Otacon eyed Snake attentively like he knew something.

"So a chopper is our only extraction?"

"Right." Snake remembered the two choppers he had seen before in the heliport. "And it comes with a passenger limit. Intel has it that there are about thirty hostages."

"It'd take more than a single trip too."

"We'll have to come back."

"Can you pilot a chopper?"

" No, but I brought a gearhead with me. He's a good guy. I'll introduce you later."

"Pliskin, I'm on the heliport right now, but I don't see their Harrier. It's out somewhere."

Snake sighed. "We'd better move now then. Our chances with a Harrier after us are close to nothing."

"Do you know where the President is?"

"No. That one's all yours." Snake had more important matters to take care of.

"The President is at the top of our rescue list. These are our orders."

"Your orders, not mine." Said Snake with a sarcastic tone of voice.

"What?"

"See you later." Snake signed off. "That takes of that. Hopefully he'll find the president."

"Snake I found something. Something I think you should see." Otacon said with a heavy tone of voice.

"Did you find something on Metal Gear?"

"Yes, but not only that. I know where we need to go next, but first I have to show you this."

"Alright." Snake answered back.

Otacon started walking towards the door that led to HI connecting bridge and Snake followed.

"What about Emma?" Snake asked.

"I found out that she's here, but I don't know the exact place."

"How will we find her?" Snake asked.

"I left the computer running trying to decrypt some files, hopefully I'll find out." Otacon replied.

Snake stopped short when he noticed, in the wet ground, his headphones and his M4. He picked the M4 and connected the headphones to the radio and placed them on his head. A signal told Snake that they were still working.

The connecting bridge was slightly tilted and the structure seemed severely affected. The way to the core was brutally damaged. There was no way he could get into the core again. The afternoon sun was right in front of Snake and it dried his wet clothes faster.

Before they entered Strut I Snake got a call on his headphones.

"Pliskin... do you read me?"

"What's up, Raiden?"

Otacon turned around as he heard Snake speaking.

"I just ran into a guy decked out like a... a ninja."

"A ninja?" The image of Gray Fox fighting Metal Gear Rex jumped into Snake's mind immediately.

"Yeah. Do you know anything about this?"

"No." He knew that it couldn't be Gray Fox, but why would someone be in here dressed like a ninja. "Can you trust that costumed freak?"

"I don't know. But the Colonel told me to follow the guy's instructions..."

"And like a good soldier, you'll do it, right? I'll let you in on a little secret, kid...The ninja that was publicized in the Shadow Moses incident no longer exists. The guy you met has no connection whatsoever with the incident." Snake put an end to that discussion.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I do." Snake answer was short and to the point. "Just be careful who you trust. Okay?" Snake was giving advices on trust when he himself had been working behind Raiden's back.

" Pliskin... Do you know anything about a Secret Service agent named Ames?

"Ames?" A name that Snake knew very well.

Otacon gave a weird look at Snake.

"You've heard of him? Listen, if you know anything..."

"No. I got the name mixed up with someone else. Forget it."

Raiden turned off and left Snake immerse in thought. Ames. Nastasha's husband and the Ninja, what the hell is going on here?

Snake and Otacon's eyes met.

"Otacon, Raiden just told me that he encountered a guy dressed like a ninja."

"What?" Otacon sounded deeply confused. "This gets weirder every second."

"What do you mean?" Snake asked sensing something was wrong. "Otacon, what exactly did you find?"

"Follow me Snake." Otacon entered Strut I and so did Snake. "I found out who's behind this terrorist action." Otacon went to the right where, down a flight of stairs, the computer room was located.

"Who is it?" Snake asked.

"You better see this for yourself."

The computer room seemed a little out of place. It looked somewhat like a large container with a door.

"Otacon opened the door and entered followed closely by Snake.

"You see that computer terminal Snake" Otacon pointed to a computer located on top of a small desk. "That computer is connected to another computer. Originally I thought that the other computer was the one located in the computer room, but I was wrong."

"Huh…what does that mean?" Snake asked.

"You see this computer had an incredible amount of information, so much information that I knew it couldn't be the one in the computer room. Not only that but the type of information that it contained surprised me. That's when I found about the leader of this action." Otacon paused for a second. "His name is George Sears."