Chapter 13

The shiny floor of Shell 2 Core reflected the brown boots and the silver spurs of a man. Ocelot entered the Core section fully aware of what he was about to do, but he was somewhat proud by the burden of the work he was about to execute. He was thrilled that he had such a power, such a gift.

Ocelot turned left and walked over the electrified floor, which was off. There were sounds of a heated argument going on inside. A little grin appeared in Ocelot's face. As he got closer to the door he heard a distinctive voice.

"There's no time to argue! The final check for my vital ID will start any second! If you kill me now, you'll at least prevent the nuclear strike!"

Ocelot smiled as the door was just a few inches from him.

"Cut that out!" Another man inside the room shouted.

"Do it! That's your role!" The man shouted again.

The door opened up and Ocelot quickly whipped one of his Colts from the holster.

"Pull!" As the President shouted again a gunshot broke.

"That's abusing your right to free speech Mr. President. Or is it...Ex-President?" Ocelot said with is cold voice.

The President fell to the ground. Raiden quickly turned around and pointed his gun to Ocelot.

"The President! Why did you…?" Raiden asked stricken by the whole situation.

"Alas, my finger must have slipped..." Ocelot said while giving a faint smile.

He rapidly spun his Colt around and placed it again in his holster. Then he looked straight into Raiden's eyes. "I'll see you around, 'Carrier boy'..." Ocelot backed up to the door and before Raiden tried to shoot him the President grabbed Raiden's leg giving Ocelot the opportunity to leave the scene.

Everything is on schedule. Now only if I knew who brought Snake here? Ocelot thought as he walked off the Core section.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Words appeared on Otacon's small device. 'I'm coming for you Snake'.

"You have any idea who sent this?" Otacon asked perplexed.

"No, but whoever it is I have the impression it doesn't like us." Snake said.

"Snake I'll try and locate my sister and try find out more about Arsenal Gear, maybe I'll find who left us the message." Otacon said pushing the keys in his small device, that apparently was able of doing too much for Snake's grasp.

"You do that. I'll get the hostages out of here." Snake replied.

Otacon left the conference room and Snake headed towards Jennifer who had freed most of the hostages.

"Jennifer?"

She turned to Snake. "Yes?"

"We have to get the hostages out of here. There's a chopper over at Strut E, it may take while before it cools down, but it's the only way out of here."

"Some of them are too weak to make that journey." Jennifer said. "Maybe they could rest a little in the lounge area upstairs."

Snake sighed but ultimately agreed. "Sure." Snake nodded and turned around to leave the room, but not before noticing a body that was lying on the floor to the right. He got close, but it didn't take much for him to notice who it was. Richard Ames. He had seen a photograph of him before on Nastasha Romanenko's file. Now however he looked like he had seen a ghost, his face was all twisted up.

"His pacemaker failed I think, that's what we heard the guards talking about." Jennifer spoke out as she noticed Snake standing beside the body.

Pacemaker…weird…Snake gave a dire sigh and headed for the exit linking up with Otacon in the lounge.

"Snake I found where my sister was last located. According to this…" Otacon was pointing towards the small screen in his device. "…she was last seen in the Shell 2 Core."

"I didn't see her there." Snake replied.

The hostages were coming up the stairs just beside Snake. They all seemed apathetic and quite disturbed. Jennifer was guiding an elderly lady by the arm into the lounge area that stood by the left.

"We should talk someplace else." Snake advised.

Both went to the far right of B1 where a small room with the node was located. "Do you think she's…" Otacon asked clearly preoccupied.

Snake could notice Otacon's hands shivering. "Let's hope she's okay. I'll call Raiden and check on his situation, maybe he found something." Snake went for his radio, not using the headphones so Otacon could hear it also. "What's your status, Raiden?"

"Snake? The President..." Raiden sounded alarmed. "…he's been assassinated."

"What?" Snake eyes opened wide as he heard the news. Otacon gasped as he heard everything.

"There was nothing I could do…" Raiden replied back with a slight tone of regret.

"What about the nuclear strike code sequence?" Snake asked unsure if Raiden knew the whole story about the nuclear bomb and the password input.

"He died before his vital ID could be reconfirmed."

"Then the enemy's lost their nuclear strike capability…" Snake said realizing Raiden probably knew the whole cover up story.

"But, that Ocelot guy obviously killed the President on purpose."

Otacon's and Snake's eyes met. Ocelot! "Why?" Snake asked.

"It doesn't make any sense. They had to know that they couldn't launch the nuke if they killed the President." Raiden pointed out.

Otacon jumped into the conversation. "Maybe there's a way to launch without reconfirming the vital ID?"

"Or maybe they've found a more effective weapon within Arsenal Gear." Snake replied sensing something else was in motion.

"You knew about Arsenal Gear?" Raiden asked quite surprised.

"Yeah..." Snake answered.

"Then why didn't you tell me about it?" Raiden sounded obviously unhappy.

"You never asked." Snake said bluntly.

"Am I correct in assuming you also knew that the Big Shell's a front for the project?

"You mean, did I know that the Big Shell, a fully functioning environmental cleanup facility, was designed to camouflage Arsenal Gear? Yeah I did. It's exactly what the President described... a massive cover story." Snake said aware that Raiden had probably heard it from him. "The good news is that it hasn't really done much in terms of cleaning up the environment so we won't have to worry about any toxic gas being released if we have to blow the house down."

"Right... and when did you find all this out?" Raiden asked.

"It took a while, but we uncovered the info around the time you took out that mad bomber."

" ..." Raiden kept silent.

"There's no doubt that Arsenal Gear is being built here... then it was all set up two years ago on that day…all of it." That rainy night…Snake thought to himself.

"Two years ago... What really happened here?" Raiden inquired.

"I took photos of the Metal Gear Ray two years ago..."

"I know those pictures…they were on the news, on several websites. If I can remember right, the reporters blamed you for sinking that tanker..."

"That's right. Otacon... Me... We were used…" By the Patriots.

Otacon jumped in. "We'd hoped that by going public with photos of the new Metal Gear we could 'persuade' the government. At least, that was the plan at the time..."

"Two years ago... the Hudson River...We had learned that a new Metal Gear model was being secretly transported. When I think about it now, we should've known better than to trust the information." Snake replied.

"I've gone through VR training of the tanker mission before." Raiden replied trying to convey a connection between them.

"Yeah?" Snake replied with a tone of sarcasm. "I doubt it accurately simulates the events of that mission. I'd infiltrated the dummy tanker to obtain proof that a Metal Gear was under development. Shortly after I made it aboard, an armed group led by Colonel Gurlukovich raided the ship and gained control." He was telling Raiden everything, there was no use for hiding it anymore.

"Olga and Ocelot were among the raiding party." Otacon said.

"Yeah. And him..." Snake said remembering Ocelot and his weird behavior.

"Who're you talking about?" Raiden inquired.

"A man that was supposed to be dead." Snake spoke with a vacant look in his eyes. "Their target was also Metal Gear RAY. But Ocelot eliminated Colonel Gurlukovich and Marine Commandant Scott Dolph, and he hijacked RAY."

"So he betrayed them?"

"I don't know what kind of deal was going down. All I remember is what Ocelot said at the time…something like 'I'm taking it back'..."

"Ocelot then sank the tanker along wit the soldiers of the Marine Corps..." Otacon said while fixing the position of his glasses.

"How did you manage to get out?" Raiden asked sensing a refreshed amazement at Snake's story.

"Otacon managed to have a small boat ready for me."

Otacon carried on. "That was the easy part. The tough part was not getting dragged under with the sinking tanker, small miracle when you think about it. It turned out that the whole thing was a setup to lure us. Photos of Snake taken by the Cypher were released to the public. In turn, we became the world's most wanted environmental terrorists..."

"It was definitely a move aimed at putting a stop to our anti-Metal Gear activities." Snake replied.

"But why did they choose Snake?" Raiden asked.

"Since the Shadow Moses incident, Snake became sort of a hero. I think the Patriots weren't too happy about that." Otacon replied unwillingly saying the word 'Patriots'

"You know about the Patriots?" The question was made in an alarming tone from Raiden.

"Well, yes... to a certain degree." Otacon replied.

"It seems like everyone knows about them except me." Raiden said sounding obviously irritated.

"They didn't choose Snake to be a hero..." Otacon continued.

"So they decided to do a smear campaign?"

"I think the Patriots wanted to make an example of him so everybody would think twice before opposing them."

"That's it? They set up all this just to nail you guys?" Raiden said, pushing the envelope too much.

"No. There's more to it than that. The Marine's Metal Gear RAY project headed by Commander Dolph was carried out in opposition to the Navy's Arsenal Gear project. To be more precise, the Patriots considered Metal Gear RAY to be a thorn in their side. Hence, they attacked the dummy tanker and stole RAY…They followed this up with the perfect plan. They immediately sent a fully loaded tanker to the same location and sank it, then set up the facility to camouflage the development of Arsenal Gear." Otacon said making a little more sense of the story to Raiden.

"And we fell for it - two more puppets in their show." Snake replied.

"Colonel Gurlukovich ...and his daughter, Olga?" Raiden asked.

"Both fell victim to Ocelot's plot." Said Otacon.

"Was Solidus behind all this? He used Ocelot to get a hold of RAY, huh?"

"No, he was underground, keeping a low profile at the time." Otacon replied.

"Then it must be the Patriots..."

"If that's the case, what's Ocelot doing alongside Solidus?" Otacon asked to both.

"..." Raiden kept silent.

"Forget it. We're wasting time. We can figure this out later. The nuclear strike's been prevented, but Arsenal still has a massive payload of missiles to deal with." Snake stepped in.

"Right. If the opposition gets control of those missiles... "

"Raiden, you've got to find Emma." Snake said putting his hand over Otacon's shoulder.

"Wait a second. Isn't Emma Emmerich..."

"...My sister."

"What's she doing here?"

"You got me. She's a computer whiz who specializes in neural AI and ultra-variable volume data analysis using complex logic. How she got involved in weapons development is beyond me." Otacon replied remembering once more his family dark past. Maybe it was fate…

"..." Raiden was silent for a few seconds.

"Whatever her reasons, we need her in order to stop Arsenal." Snake said.

"Raiden - find her." Otacon concluded, whatever Emma had done she was still Otacon's sister.

"I'm on my way." Raiden signed off.

"That'll take care of your sister." Snake said.

Suddenly Jennifer appeared behind them. "The hostages are resting. When are we leaving?" She sounded eager.

"I'm not sure, hold on. Otacon?" He faced him. "If Raiden's gets to Emma and gets her virus will that stop Arsenal?" Snake asked thinking of a plan to follow.

"I think so…" Otacon seemed to be thinking about something. "You know I could speed up the process if I went to the computer room, since I can't do much with this, only retrieve info…" Otacon showed his small device to Snake.

Snake turned around and faced Jennifer. "It may take a while. Otacon is the only one who can fly the chopper." Snake asked as Jennifer had a weird expression on her face.

"So you don't know when we're leaving." Jennifer talked back.

"Soon." Snake said with an emotionless face.

It took a few seconds but after a sigh Jennifer answered. "Alright." She walked away. In all this it seemed she understood that Snake and Otacon's reasons for being here were more important than the lives of the hostages.

"Oh no! I almost forgot" Otacon blurted out. "B1 of the Shell 2 Core is flooding…

"What do you mean?" Snake asked.

"Well EE…she's afraid of water…the last time she almost drowned." Otacon replied.

"You should call Raiden and tell him." Snake handed his radio to Otacon.

"Yeah you're right." Otacon took it and called him. "Raiden, are you reading me? This is Otacon. What's your situation?"

"Wet and miserable... The place is flooded. The seawater that's been pumped up is pouring into the building."

"I see. Listen, there's something I have to tell you about EE."

"Don't worry about her. I'll get her out…"

Otacon interrupted. "She's afraid of water."

"What?" Raiden sounded deeply astonished

"Yeah... when she was six years old, she almost drowned with my father in our swimming pool.

"She can't swim?" Raiden asked.

"Well yes and no...we used to swim a lot together when we were kids. In fact, she swam like a fish until that day when she almost drowned...When the accident happened, I was in my room. I heard later that EE was calling me for help...She didn't doubt for a minute that I'd be there. You could see the pool from my room... but I didn't realize at the time that she needed my help." Otacon sounded guilty.

"What were you doing?"

"I... I was..." Otacon didn't seem to want to reply, it felt almost like that was a intimate question.

"So Emma survived the ordeal..." Raiden resumed.

"Yeah, but my father didn't..."

"So you blamed yourself and left your family?"

"No. EE seems to believe that was the case. The fact is... I betrayed her."

"And you think she can't swim because of the traumatic experience?"

"I haven't seen her since that day... but yes, I think so. I got a letter from Julie, her mother - after they moved back to England. In her letter, she mentioned that EE couldn't swim anymore... that she refused to even wear a bathing suit.

"Damn! If she still can't swim we're in trouble... level B1 of the core is pretty much flooded."

"Look... maybe you can help her get over it?" Otacon sensed that maybe Raiden could instill some confidence into Emma.

"You want me to help her get over it?"

"It's still going to take some time to repair the Kamov..." Otacon replied realizing it would take some time for it to cool down.

"Sorry, kid. Emma' rescue is up to you." Snake replied

"Thanks." Raiden replied giving out a sharp nasal snort. "An underwater mission... well, this is a first. Look - I'll see what I can do.

"I suggest you drum the map of the building into your head. Cause you won't have the time to look at it when you try to bring Emma out." Snake advised remembering that the core section had a lot of turns and corners.

"I'm counting on you, Raiden." Otacon replied.

"I covered most of the core when I had to take out the C4's... if there's anything you need to ask me, call me." Snake said finishing up the conversation.

"I'll do that." Raiden said and signed off.

"He didn't seem very confident." Otacon spoke out sounding anxious while he gave the radio back to Snake.

"He'll get the job done. What about you? What's the story behind that drowning?" Snake asked only because Otacon seemed rather stricken at the mention of it.

"It's…it's…" Suddenly the small device on Otacon's hand faded to black. "What? It had battery for at least four more hours.

"Maybe it was disconnected…" Snake replied. "We need to move, there's something against us and I'm not sure I'd like to find out what it is." Snake said sensing complications were coming his way.