Chapter 12

Snake and Otacon reached Strut E Parcel Room via the heliport stairs. It was filled with a multitude of conveyor belts and boxes. From this place all sorts of equipment and nourishments traveled to every Strut of Shell 1. As Snake peeked outside the corner of the stairs he saw a few guards patrolling. "Listen up Otacon stay behind me. If one of the guards spots us you get to safety."

"You don't have to say it twice." Otacon replied skulking behind Snake.

Snake proceeded extremely carefully through the conveyor belts that populated Strut E. The extreme noise that came from them was enough to overshadow Snake's and Otacon footsteps. Not soon enough they reached the door that led to EF connecting bridge, but a guard was on watch by the door. Snake halted his march. "Let's wait till he goes away." Snake whispered to Otacon.

Otacon nodded when all of sudden a beeping noise came from Otacon's coat pocket.

The guard whipped around with his gun held straight.

Snake reacted suddenly and ran towards the guard. A head butt was all it took for the guard to fall unconscious. Luckily the others hadn't been alerted.

"What was that?" Snake asked as he rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"Sorry about that! It was my little gadget. It probably found some more information about the nuclear bomb in Arsenal Gear."

"You can see that later, first let's get to the Core and handle the hostages." Snake said as he noted that his forehead was fine. The connecting bridge was devoid of any human presence, not even cyphers were around. "Weird!" Snake muttered.

They took the way to the Core steadily. "If the hostages are there, then there's bound to be guards." Snake said to Otacon.

"What do you want to do?" Otacon replied.

"There's no time to toy around. We'll face them head on."

"Don't you mean 'You'll face them head on'." Otacon responded.

Snake grinned and placed a new magazine on the M4. "Stay a few feet behind me." He said as he opened the door to the Core Section.

A woman dressed in tiger stripe camouflage stood still watching a closed door. How more of this…The woman's chain of thought was interruptedas the radio on her waist came to life.

"Olga…Snake…he's here. In Shell 1." It was unequivocal. The voice belonged to Solidus Snake.

Olga remembered instantly the Tanker incident two years ago in this place. She had fought with Solid Snake there. He was the only one that had managed to live in battle with her and had caused a shift in Olga's father plan to take over the tanker. "My father had some unfinished business with him!"

"Olga, calm yourself!" Solidus replied. We will not change the plan because of your personnel feelings."

"Then screw your plan! I've been waiting for this day for two years, and I WILL send him to the bottom of the ocean, right next to my old man!" Olga spoke from the heart.

"The launch comes first." Solidus said.

"Damnit!" Olga slammed her fist against the nearby wall. "Where's Ocelot?

"Not here." Solidus replied.

"I don't trust him." She quickly replied.

"Don't talk that way about one of your own."

"He's NOT one of my own. He left my father to die, remember?"

"Olga, we'll talk later. We need to get started on the final checks for the unit " Solidus replied.

"All right. I'm headed back there."

"The upper connecting bridge to Shell 1 is down."

"What about the chopper?"

"The Kamov is out of action. Take the oil fence from Strut L."

"I'll tell my men to start pulling out." She replied.

"Not yet. Their retrieval comes last. The intruder's still at large."

"Snake..."

"What about the other man?"

"He's got luck on his side, certainly." Olga responded closing her eyes.

"Hm, he survived that explosion...Listen Olga, the Code confirmation is in one hour. Keep the President alive until then."

"I know…no one gets in here. Turn the currents on."

"Of course...High-voltage currents on."

A streak of blue light spread through the corridor between Olga and the closed door. Electric current crackled in the floor right in front of her.

"The door stays shut unless the President manages to take out that circuit panel from inside the room. And it's no job for bare hands.

"All right. Come back immediately."

"One more thing..." Olga asked while she stared at the electrified floor.

"What?" Solidus replied.

"We leave for Russia when this business is done. I want half the money for that." Olga started to move down the hall that led to the exit of the Shell 2 Core.

"Of course. That was part of the agreement." Solidus answered.

Olga turned to the exit door. "We start living for ourselves after this. If there's anyone who wants to stay here, I want you to take good care of them."

"Gladly, Gurlukovich soldiers are the cream of the crop."

"It's time they went free..." Olga sounded filled with remorse.

"What happened to rebuilding Mother Russia?"

"The old man is dead. The world is a different place now..."

"It's your life."

"Just as a reminder, I'm going to say this again, one last time: Don't try anything on us."

"The feeling is mutual..." Solidus replied

Olga turned off the radio and exited the Core section. A few seconds after, her radio came back on. "Sir, we found something suspicious in Strut I, some kind of remote mechanism in the computer." The voice had a Russian accent.

Olga picked up the radio. "Don't tell anyone else, I'll be right there…and good job." She turned off the radio and started running. Snake I hope it's you. My comrades…I'm sorry.

The door to the Core section closed behind Otacon. Snake was point man looking left and right hoping to see any guards. "I don't like this, without the radar they might catch us from behind." Snake stated as he noticed two paths that they could take.

"I think we should go left!" Otacon whispered.

"Why do you say that?" Snake asked looking at him.

"Because there's a guard coming from the right."

To their right stood a long corridor with several surveillance cameras on the walls and a guard was coming from the left corner at the end of the corridor.

"Alright, let's move."

Both Snake and Otacon rushed to the left. A door opened revealing a room filled with lockers with a door opposite the one where Snake and Otacon were. A small dot on Snake's radar told him that the node was there.

"I'm going to log in." Snake said while rushing over to it. The node was located near some boxes behind what seemed like office panels, the kind that are used to separate on cubicle from another.

"Okay." Otacon responded.

It took only a few seconds for Snake's radar to show every guard on the floor, but there was a more imminent problem. A guard was about to enter the opposite door.

"Otacon hide quickly!" Snake said while making its way to Otacon again.

"Wha…" Otacon had no time to question Snake. The door in front of him had opened and a guard stood there looking at him with his eyes wide opened.

"Who are you!" the guard shouted with a deep Russian accent while pointing his AK 74u directly at Otacon. A tiny red dot could be seen in Otacon's chest.

"…" Otacon had no idea of what to say.

The guard was putting more pressure on the trigger as Otacon silence grew longer.

"Answer me!" The guard raised his voice.

Snake acted instinctively and pointed his M4, from where the voice of the guard had come, towards the panels.

The guard applied a little more pressure on the trigger seeing that Otacon was just standing still. Another two guards arrived behind him and another one appeared behind Otacon.

With no chance of being able to flee Otacon was about to lift his hands when a deafening noise filled the room.

Snake fired his M4. The bullets began shredding the panels and hit the first guard on the chest. The other two behind him pointed the gun towards the panel and through the bullets holes they saw the shadow of a man. They opened fire just as Snake launched himself to the ground behind some boxes.

"Damn!" Snake cursed as the fired raged overhead.

Otacon in the other hand was thrown to the floor by the guard behind him. He too began firing towards Snake.

Snake reloaded his M4 while the situation got worse. "This box won't hold forever!"

After a few seconds of taking heavy fire an enormous 'bang' sound and a flash of light went across the room. A Stun grenade! It hadn't gone off near Snake. Otacon? Snake got up from behind the box and ran towards Otacon. By the panels stood the three guards all with their hands on their faces. One of them was still trying to look for something but couldn't. Snake was quick in putting them out. As the light and noise died Snake saw Otacon sitting by an opened locker holding a pin.

"Good one!" Snake pointed his M4 and went over to Otacon whilst he got up.

"This time I didn't chicken out." Otacon said with an obvious satisfied look in his eyes.

Snake grinned. "We better get moving."

Snake and Otacon exited the room and went across a big corridor. They soon reached the elevator that lead to the hostages, a surveillance camera was by the entrance but was apparently down. The elevator connected the first floor to B1 and B2, the first according to Raiden was where the hostages were, the second was the computer room. As Snake pressed the call button on the elevator a voice came on through his radio.

"Snake, do you know where I can find some remote-controlled missiles?" Raiden sounded like he was in a hurry.

"Remote-controlled missiles?" Snake remembered seeing something like that. "I saw something on B1 in the core of Shell 2. But be careful, contaminated seawater's broken out of the tanks thanks to that explosion. Most of B1 is probably flooded by now."

Raiden turned off hastily while the elevator arrived.

"What was that all about?" Otacon asked as he continued to look at his device.

"I don't know." Raiden is up to something…"c'mon we better hurry. We still need to find your sister." Snake stepped into the elevator closely followed by Otacon who had somewhat of a sad look in his eyes.

"I'm not sure I'm ready to face her. I left…so abruptly."

Snake had only seen Otacon like that when a woman that he cared about died in front of him.

"It's been a long time, you are different and so is she. I'm sure she'll understand." Snake tried to reassure Otacon having no idea of what had happened between the two.

"Humph." Otacon grunted.

Snake pressed the 'B1' button and the elevator door closed and made its way down. Only a few seconds later the elevator door opened up revealing a somewhat torn scenario. The walls of B1 seemed to be slashed all over the place and populated by bullet holes.

"What the hell happened here?" Snake asked not waiting for an answer. He stepped out of the elevator and headed for a door that was just in front of them.

"Please!" A female voice was screaming from the top of her lungs. It didn't seem to be very close to the door.

Snake ran to the door quickly and noticed that beside stood a retinal scanner.

"Biometric scanner." Otacon said as he beside the door.

"Can you open it?" Snake asked.

"Maybe, I need to access the scanner's database and fool it." Otacon replied reaching for his small device in his coat pocket. A message alert was flashing on the small screen but Otacon had to deal with the scanner first. "Just give me a minute."

"Let us out please!" The woman shouted once more.

"They're getting impatient." Snake pointed out the obvious.

"I got it." Otacon said and placed himself near the scanner. "I've fooled it into thinking that the next person to access it is on the database, even if it isn't."

"Alright." Snake replied as he got the M4 ready incase guards were inside.

"Retinal pattern recognized. You're cleared to enter." A female computerized voice came from the scanner as the door began to open.

"It's opening!" The woman inside screamed again.

Snake and Otacon entered and saw what seemed to them as a conference room. The hostages were spread across the floor tied with duct tape and no guards were visible.

"Down here!" As the woman shouted again Snake noticed who it was. A slender woman dressed in a black suit seemed to be the only one without a piece of tape over her mouth.

A flight of stairs separated the entrance from the conference floor. Snake ran to her and peeled the tape that was over her eyes off.

"Oh god who are you?" The woman shouted deeply afraid and with teary eyes.

"We're…er…good guys. Are you okay?" Snake asked.

Otacon was still coming down the steps that led to the conference room. He was deeply absorbed in thought while looking at his device.

"I've been screaming for quite some time but I'm fine." The woman answered.

"What's your name?" Snake asked while ripping the strands of tape that prevented her from moving.

The other hostages were all mumbling as they heard someone was there to save them.

"I'm Jennifer." Jennifer was missing a shoe and her black hair was in a ponytail but even still she was a very attractive woman.

"Can you help me?" Snake asked while looking Jennifer from top to bottom.

Jennifer answered. "With what?"

"Help me removing the duct tape from the others." Snake said wondering what she had thought at first.

Jennifer nodded and made her way to the other hostages.

What is this…"Snake you need to see this!" Otacon said startled and ran towards Snake. He had been on top of the stairs looking at his small device.

"What?" Snake promptly asked.

Otacon placed the digital device right in front of Snake's face. "Look!"

"What the hell?" Snake asked surprised.