Chapter 6 – Level 01, Area 01.

Snake's helmet was removed and he found himself staring at a familiar ceiling. He jumped to his feet and scrambled away from the table. Everyone in the room was gathered around his terminal, including Meryl and Raiden. It was a relief to see that they were safe.

"What took you guys so long?" Snake asked the technicians.

"The simulation was sped up," Lee replied. "Only five minutes have passed since you went in. Have you ever had a dream that felt like it lasted most of the night only it did not? Same thing."

"Fantastic. I'm not going back in there. If you want me to kill Big Boss, let's go now."

"We did have a small briefing prepared in case something went wrong."

"Where on this base could you possibly have a room fit for a briefing?" Snake asked. "Did you rig up the blast furnace?"

"We'll go upstairs to the first floor basement and use a spare office," Lee replied.

Music erupted from Lee's pants. Her cell phone was ringing. Snake wondered if that was an order to detain him based on what had happened during his VR experience. The two soldiers who had been with them since they got to the base hadn't left. Taking a technician hostage would not get him very far. Snake began walking towards Lee.

"Who is this?" Lee asked.

Her face slowly paled in complexion at the reply. Snake was about to launch past Campbell and get her in a headlock when she held out her phone and put it on speaker.

"Am I on? Yes, I am, I can hear that stupid echo. This is Big Boss. Here's a little secret for all of you. Before I stepped out of my house this morning, I made sure that there were three bombs placed at critical locations across New York. You can find one of them at the Metropolitan Hospital Center. If Solid Snake is not in front of me in the next six hours, I will set the other two off. Does that seem a little dark? It might, but it pales in comparison to what I'll do if I meet with an untimely demise."

Big Boss hung up. Lee's phone immediately rang again. After checking to see who was calling, she left the room without saying anything. Snake positioned himself next to a technician near the door where the soldiers were standing guard. If needed, he could throw the young man at them, get the rifle from the other soldier, and be in command of the situation.

The soldier on the right side of the door coughed, brushed the back of his head, and then cleared his throat.

"Hey, umm. . .I know this might not be the best time and I really do not mean to be rude, but I've got a brother who would kill me if I didn't ask you to sign my copy of In the Darkness of Shadow Moses," the guard said.

"I've got one as well!" a technician added.

Three paperbacks and one hardcover were held like trophies by those who owned them. They had all brought their own black markers for him to use. If they had known he had planned to use them as body shields, they would not be so eager to idolize him.

"I'm the last person any of you should be asking for this sort of thing," Snake said.

"You don't have to sign your real name. Just writing down your code name would be enough," the guard said.

"Why would you want my autograph? Are you inspired by what I do? I kill people for a living. I might have killed enough bad guys to look like the good guy, but that just makes me more of a monster. You should drop out of the military the second you have a chance and go to school for something useful."

"Not this again," Meryl said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "David, just sign the book. Don't use your real handwriting."

"If you don't want to, that's fine," the soldier said. "I can pretend to know where you're coming from. This might sound a little awkward, but may I ask you a personal question? It's something that's been bothering me for a while."

Snake shrugged.

"You didn't really sink that tanker, did you?"

"Nope."

"I didn't think so. Do you remember that photo of you standing over an unconscious woman that was all over the Internet? Several survivors of that incident reported that she was wearing fatigues that belonged to a PMC that invaded the tanker shortly before it was sunk. Were you aware of that?"

"No. What happened to them?"

"They just vanished all at once on the same day every article dealing with a snake was accidentally taken down. I guess you must have missed that. Sometimes that information pops up again in random places, but it doesn't last for very long. I brought that up because I was thinking about what you said about those computers this whole time. Is that really true?"

"Yes. I'm sorry. Give me your book."

Since he had doomed the kid to many sleepless nights, he decided to make up for it by signing the novel. At the very least, he would know that someone he idolized cared enough to do him a favor, and that would help him through the paranoia for a little while.

"Could you make that out to Matt?" the soldier asked.

Snake wrote down his code name on the inside flap and left him a message urging him to go to a technical college in the handwriting he reserved for one of his false identities.

"Also, one last thing," Matt said. "What was it like to fight Metal Gear Rex?"

"Unremarkable."

Matt was stunned into silence by that reply. Fighting Metal Gear Rex had been a terrifying ordeal. His concentration had broken once during the battle because he could not believe that he was actually trying to bring it down. Nobody else needed to know that. Lee stepped backed inside the moment he finished the other autographs and gestured for him to follow her. The two soldiers continued to trail the group as they headed back towards the elevator.

"Your orders remain the same," Lee said. "Whatever Big Boss has up his sleeve cannot be any worse than the damage he could cause if he is left alive."

"About those," Raiden said. "Why aren't we securing the hostages first?"

"This operation is off the books and Big Boss must be eliminated at any cost."

"What if his soldiers just start shooting people when we take him out?"

"What if he gets spooked and escapes during our attempt to rescue the hostages first?"

Raiden didn't bother trying to counter her reply and resorted to the only conclusion he could think of, which he vocalized emphatically.

"This sucks."

"It does," Lee agreed.

"How well equipped is his unit?" Snake asked.

"Better than an American soldier," Lee said. "We don't have very much data on them. Big Boss was careful when it came to forming his private army. It might as well be his own country if he gets his hands on a nuclear warhead and a Metal Gear."

She made it sound like this had only happened once. Thanks to Ocelot, anyone could have a Metal Gear in their arsenal. Military groups that had a Metal Gear without the permission of the UN were branded as terrorists and hunted down with extreme prejudice. In a few unclassified documents he had read that were deliberately hidden, there were exactly two instances of a guerilla unit having both a Metal Gear and a nuclear warhead. Military companies not bound by too many rules were needed to deal with them.

"How are we going to get to where we're going?" Snake asked.

"You will be taking an AC-130 and jumping out the back."

"Where's this plane landing?" Raiden asked.

"There's an airstrip on the other side of the base," Lee replied. "We have to go through the caves behind the commander's room, around the communications tower, down into the blast furnace, and out through the underground maintenance tunnels."

"That's nuts!"

"Cue the montage," Meryl said.

X

Naomi asked to be led to the medical lab before the briefing began. Since it was not necessary for her to know any of the specifics, her request was granted. During the briefing, Snake was given the blueprints for Outpost Three. Whoever had designed Shadow Moses had definitely consulted on the construction of their destination. Their bogus objectives were clearly outlined, but they were still not too clear since the map they were given was a bare bones copy of the real thing. None of the labs were marked. It was quite frustrating that they could not be trusted with this information even when so much was at stake.

Snake had a feeling that the room containing the AI was in the basement. Big Boss would not be in there. He would be hiding while some of his most trusted mercenaries forced the scientists who had been working there to drill into the vault. Only when they were finished would he appear to take all the credit for their work.

Campbell and Naomi were to remain on base. Meryl would be on a second plane with a different squad of hired help because this mission was beneath the Delta Force and Green Berets. They would land on a different part of the island and stand by for further orders. Frequencies were assigned. The group took a short break and had a small lunch in the same room they had been briefed in.

Snake saw this as an excellent opportunity to run to the restroom. Bathroom business had rarely fazed Snake, but this trip was special. The side effects of Aglaophotis were rather alarming. He made a mental note to tell Naomi to take whatever it was in the formula that suppressed the urge to go. It definitely felt like he was getting rid of nanomachines. When he finally finished, he washed his face in the sink and drank five glasses of water since he was certain that another hour without water would kill him before he had the pleasure of experiencing dehydration.

The gunship was waiting for them by the time they arrived at the airstrip. Naomi was also present. She gave a needle to Snake and Raiden. It contained a variety of supplements that would make them feel a lot better for the next twenty four hours. Snake's had been specially crafted to provide support to his heart. Snake took his shot at that moment while looking directly into Naomi's eyes. Her lips jittered in an attempt to smile, but guilt kept them hanging low. Snake had done this as a gesture of trust, which Naomi did not feel she deserved. Raiden also shot up on the tarmac. Naomi took the needles from them and scurried off quickly towards the nearest building so she could get inside where it was warm before the tears welling up in her eyes froze.

Two extra soldiers went with them who were well-versed on the equipment they were going to be using. Once they were off the ground, Snake suited up. Commands to the suit were issued using Morse code through the knuckle of the middle finger. To get the suit to stop mimicking every pattern it came across, the user had to dial 'off'. In order to make the suit stick to the body of the person wearing it, 'wear' had to be dialed. Snake felt a little dirty after the suit adhered to the shape of his body.

Since the suit was capable of performing a variety of functions, it became quite evident that it was electrical in nature. A particularly powerful EMP blast could knock it offline. It had thankfully been designed to remain stuck to the body of the user if it was knocked offline. It wouldn't be able to change patterns, but the last pattern it had created would remain operational. The suit would then need to be cut off the person wearing it.

Snake eventually fastened his blue bandanna around his head. This was regrettably not the same one he had worn during Outer Heaven, but it was the same color and fabric. Now it was officially a mission. With the bandanna on, he could allow all the things he usually managed to suppress to surface. His senses heightened. Nobody was going to see him coming.

As had been the case in the VR simulation, Snake and Raiden were given an M9, a combat knife, and a M4A1. Both weapons came with suppressors. The M9 was equipped to fire tranquilizer rounds. They were then given a master keycard and a pair of Solid Goggles. The man supplying the equipment handed them two manuals and encouraged them to go play with their new toys. Snake also wore a pouch that only contained two needles of Aglaophotis.

Snake tried out the goggles in the cargo bay. There was nothing remarkable about his vision. He double tapped the side of his goggles to activate night vision. Upon discovering that it was functional, he tapped his goggles three times. Thermal vision activated. One tap returned his vision to normal. Snake put two fingers on top of his right eye and one directly underneath it as if he was pretending to have a camera in front of his face. The goggles beeped through his earpiece and went into binocular mode. One finger zoomed in while the other zoomed out. Pressing in all three fingers took a picture, which seemed a little silly since the goggles were sending data into a satellite that let Campbell and the Patriots view whatever he was looking at.

He tried a variety of different things to check and see if the goggles would break, but whoever had made them had done a commendable job. Snake wandered into the cockpit and looked at the pilot with his goggles on. The pilot's figure was outlined in blue. He nodded at Snake in acknowledgement and went back to trying not to crash the plane. Snake instantly knew the pilot's name, his rank, his serial number, and his favorite color without having to ask. Snake could barely see the white flashes in the bottom left corner of his vision. Using Morse code, the goggles had sent him a subliminal message carrying all the information he had just received. Snake tapped the man on the shoulder, pulling his attention away from the instrument panel.

"You're Archer, right?" Snake asked.

"Charmed," he replied, nodding.

"I'm sure."

Snake left the cockpit and headed back into the cargo bay. He took off the goggles and briefly considered chucking them out the side of the plane. They really bothered him. If he looked at Big Boss with the goggles on, he might automatically follow the message being flashed into his brain and kill the man on site. Snake had a cigarette once he took his seat on a bench in the cargo bay since he had been allowed to keep his carton of Lucky Strikes as they had been deemed an item critical to the success of the mission.

The shot Naomi had given him was starting to take effect. His body did not ache as much and he had a light buzz. It kept his worries from spiraling out of control. With all that was riding on this mission, he felt as if he should be a lot more nervous, but Snake had agonized over the negatives of the three possible outcomes this mission would have that he no longer felt anything when he thought of them.

His CODEC beeped. Snake accepted the call using the tablet computer strapped to his arm. Campbell's avatar appeared.

"ETA is twenty minutes," Campbell said. "How are you feeling?"

"Take a wild guess."

"I just want you to know that I support whatever decisions you're going to make on the ground. Naomi does as well."

"Could you remind me what the command structure of this mission is?"

"I'm at the very bottom of the ladder. I'm just here to yell at you until you follow whatever order you're given. Lee is technically my superior, but I don't think you're going to hear from her again. They know who you prefer to take your orders from. Some other guy is officially in charge of this op, but I have yet to hear from him."

"I'll be happy just so long as I'm talking to you or Naomi."

Raiden came bursting in and ran up to Snake.

"Snake! You've got see this. Are you ready to laugh?" Raiden asked.

Raiden touched the tip of his tongue with the forefinger of his right hand. The suit automatically generated a pattern that looked exactly like his tongue.

"Cute, but don't forget to reset the suit's sensitivity to default before you jump," Snake said.

"Actually, I was going to run through the entire base like this," Raiden said.

"I wouldn't put it past you."

Raiden shut off the suit. The pattern became black.

"By the way, you're going to have to inject Aglaophotis into your neck since you won't be able to get out of that suit very easily." Campbell said. "We've also been given some dossiers regarding Blue Death. As usual, they all have their own unique weaknesses. We'll tell you about them while you're fighting them."

"Because that's the best time for their backstories."

"It truly is. What would happen if we told you about them after you finished fighting them?"

"I wouldn't care."

"Exactly. Prepare for the jump. I'll contact you again once you are on the ground."

Snake finished his cigarette and got rid of the butt in his portable ashtray.

"Do you have any of those for me?" Raiden asked.

"I do, in fact," Snake replied.

He didn't bother telling Raiden that he had almost forgotten to give them to him. Snake handed him an extra carton of smokes.

"I still have the first carton you gave me," Raiden said.

"That's nice."

"It's in a shoe box in my closet, mangled beyond recognition."

"Do you take it out and stare at it when you're feeling sad?"

"Sometimes."

Snake was tempted to ridicule him for that if it were true, but that would invite Raiden to justifiably mock his box fetish.

"Hey, aren't you going to wear your mask?" Raiden asked.

"What?"

Raiden pulled out his FaceCamo and put it on.

"This thing. You would look terribly silly if you went running around power bombing rookies with a bandana fastened over or underneath the mask and you definitely don't want to go on a mission without it because if you did you would be sending out hand written invitations to people asking them to shoot you in the face."

"What would you do?"

"Put your bandanna in the same pouch as your smokes. That should double your luck, right?"

"I'm going to have to believe that."

Snake followed Raiden's suggestion. A soldier entered the area and helped them gear up for the jump. When they were fully equipped, Snake reluctantly lowered his goggles, giving the Patriots access to his vision. Snake joined all of the fingers on his left hand together and touched the point they made with the forefinger of his right hand, implying that the Patriots had five fathers because their mother was exceptionally promiscuous. They probably wouldn't get it, but it made him feel better.

The remainder of their break was over before they knew it.

"Okay, we're coming up on the jump!" the soldier shouted. "I'm lowering the ramp!"

Snake and Raiden got into position. Snow blasted in through the opening. A chill wind entered the plane, which they hardly felt since the suit would keep their body warm. Snake could feel the cold biting at the nape of his neck. Snake adjusted the face camo until the sensation went away. The Solid Goggles recognized his intent to jump and he was aware of his current altitude, the speed and direction of the wind, and the temperature.

"Jump!" the soldier shouted.

They leapt out of the back of the plane. There were few perks to doing the type of work Snake normally found himself engaged in and skydiving was one of them. This was the fun part of the mission. Once he landed, it would all go downhill. A series of rings appeared in front of his vision, guiding him along the optimal path for his jump. Snake found them very distracting and shook his head once, which caused them to disappear. Raiden went straight down in a nosedive, trying to get ahead of Snake.

"You two are out of alignment," Campbell said. "Get back in – "

Fresh static blasted over the speakers. Snake grabbed at his ear to dull the pain, breaking his beautiful swan dive. He switched off the radio and attempted to get himself back in place when the goggles he was wearing went black, blinding him. Snake tore off the goggles and stuffed them in a spare pouch. He used the tablet to check his altitude, but it wasn't working either.

Technology had always been his greatest enemy. A group of supercomputers even wanted him dead and forgotten. Without anything to determine how fast the ground was coming up to meet him and limited visibility in the snowstorm, he simply had to give this jump his best guess. When he believed enough time had passed, he pulled the ripcord and did not find himself particularly surprised when it failed to open. Sighing heavily in exasperation, he pulled the ripcord for the emergency parachute. It did not malfunction, which was fantastic since falling to his death did not rank particularly high on his list of radical ways to die.

Snake had a few minutes to think while he searched for the ground. He was off course. The mission had officially been in operation for ten minutes and just about everything had gone wrong. Raiden either was being stupid or wanted to eliminate Big Boss by himself so that he knew the job would be done because he couldn't bear to condemn his family to a slow death. Snake didn't blame him. He could only hope for the best since nobody knew what was really going on except for Big Boss.

His heart rate was elevated. Happy thoughts didn't help and neither did the sudden realization that he was heading right for a patch of trees. Snake readjusted his approach, but it wasn't enough. A tree branch was coming up fast. He unhooked himself from the parachute and passed underneath the branch. Snake rocketed toward the ground and landed in a snow patch a mere inch from the trunk of a tree next to a very disinterested moose. The impact hurt a lot more than he had anticipated. If he had hit the ground any harder, he would have broken something.

Groaning, Snake got to his feet. A quick check of his gear revealed that he hadn't lost anything and that his suit was working perfectly, which was one less thing for him to worry about.

"Snake, can you hear me?" Campbell asked.

Before answering, Snake looked at his tablet, which had gotten over its performance anxiety and now displayed the frequency his radio was receiving. His radio had magically turned itself back on. Snake hadn't known that Campbell was capable of doing that.

"I'm here," Snake replied. "I just finished landing. I'm pretty sure I'm way off course."

"Put your goggles back on."

"I think there might be something wrong with them."

"Put them back on. They should be working perfectly now."

Snake did as he was told. The goggles had recovered from their psychotic episode. Snake looked over at the moose. The moose looked over at him. The silence was deafening.

"What happened in the air?" Snake asked.

"Nothing. Do not remove your goggles or attempt to switch off the radio. You should now see a marker on your HUD. That's the base. Proceed forward and eliminate Big Boss. That is all."

"Is something wrong?"

"Focus on the mission."

Snake looked at his CODEC and dialed Raiden's number. There was no answer. He tried calling Campbell again and did not receive a reply. This did not bode well, but he couldn't do anything about it. Snake began heading towards the dot that was imposed over his vision of the wintery terrain.

He jogged in complete silence for twenty minutes until Outpost Three finally came into view. Snake activated the binoculars and surveyed the area. A few SAM units were nearby. They had to have been disabled before Big Boss flew in. Due to the numerous helicopters in the area, the bulk of his PMC had arrived by air. Troops must have already been on the ground prior to the invasion. It felt too convenient. Big Boss had to have had help.

Snake brought up the radar and was able to scan a small portion of the base from where he was crouched in the snow. Big Boss' force was relaxed. Many of his soldiers were inside of the building. A red dot appeared near where a garage was. Out of all the possible entrances, this was the best to use. He would need to sneak past a few helicopters to do that. The pilots were still around, waiting for orders. Two soldiers were near the back door, but both of them had their attention focused on the voluptuous snowwoman they were building.

A few of the watchtowers around the base were manned by soldiers carrying M110's. One man appeared to be dozing off in perceived privacy while the other facing the path he was going to take was watching the area diligently, clearly taking his job as contract murderer very seriously. Snake had been told that he could not be detected by thermal imaging. It was time to put that to the test because he was sure that the guard was going to gloss over him.

Suddenly, the guard was looking in his direction. His silhouette turned yellow. Snake's tablet began vibrating in a pulse pattern. Though it was impossible for the guard to see him at this distance without assistance, Snake remained perfectly still until he turned around. When Snake closed the binoculars, the guard was a tiny blue dot. He removed the goggles for a minute and rubbed furiously at his eyes. This gadget was going to give him a ferocious headache. Snake waited for five minutes until the guard looked over where he was sitting. The tablet vibrated again even though he had not zoomed in on the guard. He had to be transmitting data wirelessly into a satellite somewhere. It was comforting and horrifying.

Snake got down on his belly and started crawling towards the base. The approach was always the part that required the most patience. He knew that he was leaving a small trail in the snow and could only pray that he would not be noticed. It took time, but eventually he made it past the tower without raising an alarm.

After checking his map, he felt confident enough to stand up enough to crouch and run behind the helicopters. The demanding work was taking its toll on his aging body. He had not paced himself correctly. There was still much more that he could do, but normally he would not be feeling it at this point. Snake paused for one moment near a helicopter and arched his back. The sharp cracked sounded as if he had broken a bone. Immediate relief rushed through him, but it wouldn't last for very long.

"Did you hear that?" the pilot asked.

Snake got down on the ground and remained completely still.

"I did. It sounded like somebody hit two bowling balls together," a soldier inside the helicopter replied. "I'll go check it out."

The mercenary came around the front, saw nothing, and went back inside. Snake had been three feet away from him.

"There's nothing out there. It must have been the wind," the soldier said.

"You barely looked for a second."

Snake's blood boiled as the pilot came around the front and had a look around. He had the M9 aimed right at his chest the entire time. The pilot shrugged and went back inside the helicopter.

"It's freezing out there. How do you think that Shadow Raccoon guy gets around without a shirt on?" the pilot asked.

"I'd rather spend my time fantasizing about Chill Penguin and Anna making out in a dressing room at the mall."

"What, you wouldn't want to be in on that?"

"No, you misunderstand. In that fantasy, I am the dressing room."

It got really quiet after that. Snake continued past the helicopters. The soldiers working on the snowwoman were too transfixed on making her breasts as perfect as possible that they did not notice Snake as he snuck by them. For one brief minute, Snake was completely exposed to detection. One of the helicopter pilots could notice him as he made his way to the exterior wall of the facility and there was a chance that the soldiers working on the snowwoman could turn around and spot him. Footprints in the snow were heavier in the area, which gave him less to worry about.

His suit picked up the pattern of the building the second he put his shoulder up against it. Snake paused for a moment to see if he had made the mistake that would cost him his life, but no alarms were raised. He made his way carefully to the door. A card reader was installed in the door. Snake reached into a pouch and pulled out the master card that would bypass whatever system the door operated on.

He looked at his radar and saw that there was a guard in the room he was about to enter. Snake would have to be quick. He stuck the key in the lock and checked to make sure that the tablet was attempting to hack past the security. It took an entire minute to break through. The reader turned green and the door slid open. Snake pocketed the master keycard and went in with his M9 ready to fire. A moving part of the floor would have been more than enough to confuse the guard if he wasn't currently preoccupied.

As the door automatically shut behind him, Snake realized that he had stepped into a supply room. The mercenary was bent over a box of Grandma's Buns, which were the most delicious cinnamon rolls available that were somehow less than three hundred calories apiece.

"I'll just have three more," the guard said to himself. "After all, I did work out today."

Snake snuck up behind the man, put him into a headlock, and wrestled him onto the ground.

"No! My cinnamon buns!" the guard wailed. "I had to sneak those past everyone!"

The guard struggled to break free, but Snake easily managed to stay on top. Snake put his gun against the guards head, which ended his futile squirming.

"Keep your voice down!" Snake ordered. "I'm here to save you."

"From what?"

"From giving yourself diabetes, you selfish glutton. What's your name?"

"Why?"

Snake strangled the soldier for a moment to punish him for not answering the question.

"So that when I write my biography I won't have to refer to you as 'that one guard'."

"Pat!"

"Nice to meet you, Patrick. I'm Solid Snake."

"I gathered."

"Now that we know each other so well it's time to start sharing secrets. You start."

"Sure, what do you want to know? Our orders? We're supposed to capture you alive and bring you to the blonde chick with the stupid fangs and surgically altered eyeballs," Pat said.

Something didn't seem right about that.

"Is she the one who is in charge around here?" Snake asked.

"No, somebody else is. That blonde girl is always talking to him on the radio."

Pat did not seem to know that he was working for Big Boss. Snake decided to keep that detail to himself.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're stealing a Metal Gear. It's kind of like ED-209. You've seen Robocop, right?"

"I have."

"It sure was a great movie, wasn't it?"

"I didn't like it because it reminds me too much of work."

"You don't like Robocop?!" Pat asked.

Judging by his tone, not liking Robocop was such an unimaginable concept that it struck fear into his heart.

"What about Terminator 2?" Pat asked.

"Not a fan."

"I absolutely cannot believe that I am hearing this. Robocop is one thing, but Terminator 2? What are some of your favorite movies? I have to know."

"If it makes you feel any better, I can tolerate the original Star Wars trilogy."

"Oh, thank goodness."

"Why were you back here goofing off?"

"I'm very hungry. I didn't get to have breakfast this morning. The rations we're given are garbage and the guy who owns our unit isn't fond of nanomachines, so I was starving. That's when I found out that they make Grandma's Buns right here on this base!"

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm serious! Listen. Those buns are engineered to be as delicious as possible so you eat them by the dozen. You're familiar with high fructose corn syrup, right?"

"Who isn't?"

"A lot of people, actually. Anyway, did you know that it comes in a raw form that is even sweeter than the regular one?"

"Nope, didn't know that. It's probably even worse for you, isn't it?"

"Absolutely. If this base is actually owned by the government, I guess that means that they want us fat."

"Of course they want you fat. Let's change the subject. What is the name of your PMC, how many of you are there, and how did you sack this base?"

"We were handpicked from three separate PMC's. We don't actually have a name. It helps to keep us anonymous. I didn't ask any questions when I saw how much this job was going to pay, but I'm starting to think that I should have because this seems like a lot of work to just go after one little thing when this base has so much going on. There are around fifty of us. A few of us have been in place a month before this operation. Those guys disabled the Metal Gear's they have here before we came in since they can be operated via satellite. I'm pretty sure nobody expected something like this to happen, because they were really caught by surprise. The only thing we came here for that we don't have is you. Speaking of which, how about you and I go see Anna? It might be pretty hype."

"I think I can find her by myself, but thanks for offering."

"Well, good luck, I suppose. Can I start begging you not to kill me?"

"No need. You've been quite cooperative, so I'll spare your life. Sweet dreams, kid."

Snake shot Pat in the arm with a dart that he pulled out and put away. He put Pat's unconscious body next to the box of Grandma's Buns. Snake stuffed an empty wrapper in his hands and put his helmet back on. If somebody found him, they would think that he fell asleep on the job. They would not believe that Solid Snake had knocked him out. Snake was known to be a killer right up until the point where Otacon had given him the modified M9 shortly before the Tanker Incident. In retrospect, he wished he had received it much earlier in his career.

He took a minute to examine Pat's inert body. Pat had a 92FS at his side. A black FN SCAR-H was leaned up against the wall a few feet away. Chaff grenades dangled from his tactical harness. Snake shook his head at the outfit Pat was wearing. Even his socks were better than what a regular soldier would be given.

Snake looked at his tablet again. A large amount of dots greeted him. The hostages had been put shoved into one room. A few lone dots were exploring the base in groups of four. It was impossible to tell which dot belonged to Big Boss. He could even be wearing something that masked his signature. The best thing to do would be to find Anna. She seemed arrogant enough to be wandering around by herself while she made sure that the whole base was running like clockwork.

There was one other thing bothering him. Snake opened up his CODEC and sent a call to Raiden. He didn't respond. Snake sent a call to Campbell.

"Yes?" Roy answered.

"Have you heard from Raiden?" Snake asked.

"Don't worry about him. It's a good thing you called just now. You have a new mission objective. You must ensure the safe return of a computer Big Boss is after. Trick Big Boss by saying that you will join him. Dispose of him once you get the computer."

Snake could not believe what he was hearing. Campbell had to have been forced to say that.

"What about Raiden?"

"Since the nature of this operation has changed, he has been ordered to stand down until further notice."

"Where is he?"

"Don't worry about him. He's fine. Continue your mission. Over and out."

Campbell closed the connection and didn't respond to the next call. Something had to have happened to Raiden. He had probably gotten himself captured, but Patrick surely would have said something if he had known about that. Now that the mission was to trick Big Boss and then kill him, Raiden did not have a reason to go off on his own. If he didn't have a good reason for screening his calls, Snake would beat him senseless and tell everyone that he sometimes had to sleep with a night light due to his graphic nightmares

On the map, a solitary dot was moving around inside of the garage, which wasn't too far from his current location. Snake decided to investigate. Even if it didn't turn out to be Anna, it would be another soldier he could squeeze information out of. Or call her over to his position so he wouldn't have to run around the whole base looking for her. That was a much better idea.