The Symposium on Military Weapons for Urban Tactical Maneuvering was going to be Snake's one and only flaw in an otherwise perfect plan involving avoidance and silence. While it was technically only for invited soldiers, people in private industry had been invited as well. All of K-Unit was going and Eagle had even managed to snag an invite thanks to his swanky job in private security.
Held at the Marcliffe Hotel in Scotland, it was going to be the most luxurious symposium they'd ever been to. They were also allowed to bring a plus one to enjoy the hotel with them. The symposium would only take up one of their mornings but the host company had booked three nights in order to sweeten the pot. They were hoping that the soldiers would take the good treatment into consideration when it came time to recommending private contractors. It was your basic bribe and K-Unit was well aware of it.
Wolf had given Tom his plus one; Jack had taken Eagle's; Snake had given his to Alex. Despite the fact that his attendance wasn't going to be publicized he knew that he couldn't go to Scotland without thinking about his family. Aside from the one sister he actually liked, he hadn't spoken to any of them since he'd left for the army. There were a few phone calls here and there, sometimes on Christmas, sometimes randomly. However, he had shared few details and being anywhere near his childhood home gave him goosebumps and made him feel sick to his stomach.
He hadn't had a good childhood and he fully blamed his mother for it. They would be only thirty minutes away from the hotel and he was desperately trying to decide if he should stop in and see them. It had been years since he'd been this close.
00000
They were taking two cars between them. Snake met everyone at the Rider home early on the morning they were leaving. Walking into the living room he found a curious sight of everyone sitting wherever they could with Tom standing in front of them, clearly in the middle of a lecture.
"We will be driving straight through with only two stops for gas, food, and peeing. Understood?" Tom said sounding strangely like a diminutive Sargent.
"Why are we only getting two stops?" Snake asked as he took the only remaining seat next to a dozing Jack on the couch.
"The concert starts at 5 pm," Tom replied as if that would mean anything to Snake. "That means if we leave exactly in fifteen minutes we'll have leeway of an hour in case something goes wrong. Has everyone peed?"
"Yes, Tom," Fox said indulgently. Curiously enough he had not given Sarah his plus one. Snake wondered if something was going on; if they were fighting again.
"I need coffee," Eagle mumbled rising up off the couch.
"No!" Tom shouted, jarring Jack straight out her doze. "What part of we only have two breaks did you not understand?"
"If everyone going to the concert takes one car then other car can do whatever it wants," Eagle argued.
"You mean you aren't going?" Tom asked.
"What concert?" Snake asked, hoping for some clarity.
"Tom's brother knows someone who works for Green Day," Jack explained. "He got him like four tickets and some backstage passes."
"Really?" Snake asked, excited.
"Yes, would you like to go?" Tom asked him.
"Yes."
Tom tossed him a lanyard that had been sitting on his backpack. It had a plastic pouch on the end with a ticket and backstage pass. They were good tickets. He was suddenly looking forward to this trip a lot more.
"Alright who's going to the concert?" Tom asked. Snake, Alex, and Fox all raised their hands. "Perfect! We leave in five minutes! No coffee, tea, or excessive water. Let's go!" He grabbed his bags and pelted from the room at full speed. The other three followed at a much more sedate pace.
Snake grabbed the passenger seat of Fox's car and Alex and Tom squeezed their slightly smaller selves into a very uncomfortable backseat. Alex, who was nearly as tall as Snake these days, had his knees resting on the back of Snake's seat. The man wished he could help the poor kid out but if he moved his own seat up any further he'd be sitting on the dash.
Tom, the shortest kid on the planet, was just fine and bouncing up and down in his seat.
"You really need to buy a human sized car," Snake said.
"Why couldn't we take your car?" Fox returned. "Oh wait, it's because the engine sounds like a dying cat when it goes over sixty."
"Screw you Ben," Snake threw back. "At least I can fit in my car."
"Whatever."
"DRIVE!" Tom suddenly shouted from the back, effectively ending their argument and starting the road trip.
00000
They had been on the road for less than an hour and already Wolf was at his wits end. Jack and Eagle weren't interested in talking about anything but their wedding, a subject that Wolf found to be horribly dull. He had forgotten his ear buds in Tom's bag and he didn't even have a magazine. Thus, the only thing he could do was sit in the back seat and quietly hope the subject was changed or one of them would turn on the radio.
"I like the lilac," Jack said holding up two different napkin samples. She had a giant binder resting in her lap that held everything about their upcoming wedding. Wolf had his invitation on his refrigerator but that didn't mean he wanted to be apart of this marathon planning session.
"I like that one," Eagle said, pointing to the pink one.
"Really? With our tablecloths?" Jack asked, flipping around in her book. "I don't think that will work, sweetie."
"Yeah, but I like that one," Eagle reiterated and Wolf contemplated shooting himself. He pulled out his mobile and texted Snake.
How far are you? The response told him that they were at least an hour ahead. You need to stop and wait for us.
Why? Snake texted back.
They only want to talk about wedding stuff. SOS!
I'll see what I can do.
However, when the next text came in, it wasn't from Snake but from Tom.
We have a schedule to keep. Just plug your ears and hum AC/DC.
Wolf's reply to him was entirely rude but completely self-satisfying.
Mean!, was Tom's final text. He refused to talk to him for the rest of the trip and Wolf was left stranded in the Wedding Mobile.
00000
Tom was mumbling under his breath about his time-table, clearly agitated that Fox was taking so long to pee. Alex was sleeping through every argument, text message alert, and Snake's bribing attempts to rescue Wolf from the other car. While Snake was inclined to feel sorry for his friend, Tom was inclined to leave him behind to suffer.
"Tom, calm down," Snake told him. "A few minutes isn't going to make that much of a difference."
"You don't know that," Tom replied. He was on his mobile, looking up traffic reports, and gazing longingly at the petrol station's dingy glass door as if he could will Fox to hurry up. Snake rolled his eyes and finally answered the recent barrage of text messages from Wolf who was begging for help as Eagle and Jack moved on to discussing the color of bridesmaids dresses. Snake chuckled quietly and sent what he thought was an appropriately sympathetic response. Just as he pressed send, Fox slid in behind the wheel.
"Drive, drive, drive, drive," Tom chanted, kicking the back of the driver's seat. Fox reached around and grabbed Tom's ankle in a very hard grasp that the poor boy would never be able to get out of although he certainly tried. He even bent down to bite at Fox's fingers but he really wasn't willing to hurt him and so all that earned him was a smack to the back of his head.
"If you don't calm down I'm going to leave you here," Fox said, sounding perfectly calm. It was at this point that Alex woke up and he removed Fox's grip with a trick that Snake hadn't seen since training. Fox attempted to draw back his captured limb and Alex followed between the seats as he attempted to keep his control. The car was far too small for this and Snake tried to keep Alex from going all the way to the front, effectively hugging him around the waist.
"Whoa, whoa!" he yelled. "No! Do not start a fight! Alex, sit back down."
"You sit back down," the kid replied lamely. However, he did release Fox and the two of them straightened their clothes, sat in their seats, and buckled their seatbelts.
"Drive, Ben," Snake ordered, already exhausted. He really hoped the rest of this trip was not like this.
00000
They did manage to arrive at the concert on time and they even managed to have a rather good time. The only real hiccup was when they were backstage and Snake and Fox had been forced to interfere to keep Tom and Alex from being arrested. Apparently, they had gotten a little too excited about the spread of food that was meant for the band and their staff and not for the fans who had scored backstage passes.
Tom maintained that if they were going to put out all that food they should at least have a sign specifying who it belonged to. By the time they got to their hotel and checked in, it was pushing two in the morning. Snake was exhausted and quite frankly, he was ready to be left alone. He enjoyed the company of his friends but with so many antics his introverted personality was starting to tell him that he needed to be alone for at least ten hours.
He was sharing a room with Ben and thankfully his friend was perfectly aware that Snake was growing cranky. They didn't say a single word to each other as they dropped their bags and got ready for bed. Unfortunately they had to wake up at six the next morning in order to be at the symposium on time. While K-Unit was more or less used to operating on this little amount of sleep, poor Eagle was no longer used to it and was thus thoroughly cranky.
"Why didn't you go to bed early?" Wolf asked as he shoveled the hotel's complimentary breakfast into his mouth. "We got here early enough."
"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled. Snake knew that to mean he had either been fighting with Jack all night or making love all night. He was inclined to believe the latter as they certainly didn't have a reason to fight and they had a room all to themselves. He had never really seen a couple that got along as well as Jack and Eagle. In all the time they'd been together they'd had two fights neither of which had been serious enough to actually threaten the relationship and both hadn't lasted more than a day or two.
Fox snorted in amusement and clutched at his cup of tea a little more tightly. There were several other SAS soldiers floating around the dining hall, all of whom wanted to talk to Eagle. Many of them hadn't seen him since before he'd been run over by a car and all of them wanted to know how he was doing and, more importantly, what he was doing. Snake was silent through it all.
He didn't find a reason to speak throughout the symposium either which was so boring that he'd had to shake Fox awake two different times. Wolf was rubbing at his eyes in an effort to stay awake, Eagle's eyes were glazed over, and Snake was entirely sure that he was the only one who had any idea of what the presentation had been about. However, even he was easily distracted and each time Fox went to sleep he stole his mobile from the table in front of him to read his text messages. He had been correct in assuming that he and Sarah were fighting again. Whatever it was about, the two of them were turning nasty.
Finally, they were turned loose and Snake took advantage of the resulting confusion of nearly a hundred people making their escape to grab Fox by the sleeve of his jacket.
"Hey!" he protested as he was dragged from the room. "What are you doing?"
"We're going somewhere," Snake replied. He had not woken up with this plan nor had it formed while he sat through the symposium. It was an impulse decision and he was determined that Fox would go with him.
"Can you be a little more specific?" Fox asked. Snake stopped just outside the hotel and dug around in Fox's pockets for his keys. Fox was so used to this kind of treatment that he just stood there and let it happen. "Seriously, where are we going?"
"Just get in the car," Snake replied and despite being clearly confused Fox followed the order. They had been friends for too long for Fox to think that this was some sort of trick. Snake sometimes did very odd things without seeming to have any reason for doing them. He was by far the quietest and least obtrusive member of their Unit and many people were actually surprised to learn that he even existed. Unless they worked with K-Unit in the field they were usually unaware of Snake. He was by no means social and he had once spent an entire month in his flat not speaking to anyone.
Wolf had finally gone over to make sure the man hadn't killed himself and instead had found Snake perfectly content with a huge pile of books he'd taken out of the library. Snake had claimed in a rather raspy, disused voice that he had simply lost track of time. Wolf had been inclined to believe him.
Whatever problems Snake had were not normally things he wanted to bring up with even his closest friends. However, every now and then he would ask one of them-sometimes using actual words-to at least stand by him in silent support. Fox suspected that this was what was happening now. He sent a quick text to Eagle claiming that Snake had kidnapped him.
What's wrong with him now?, was Eagle's reply. Fox glanced over at Snake in the driver's seat and contemplated what was going on.
No idea, he wrote. I'll let you know when I do.
Call if you guys need back-up.
Sure thing, mate.
About ten minutes later he got a text message from Jack.
Is he okay?
While all of K-Unit had come to be friends with Jack they were undeniably on Eagle's side for most things. However, Snake and Jack had a genuine friendship outside of their relationship with Eagle. They went to movies and used bookstores together; they went to lunch and cafes together; quite often Eagle would come home from work to find Snake and Jack sitting on the porch discussing various topics that Snake would have never talked about with his army friends. None of them thought much of it except to marvel that Snake was capable of making a friend outside of work. Jack was likely the only one he had.
Don't know. Seems pretty typical so far.
They drove for maybe another twenty minutes until they pulled up across a row of shabby looking houses in a very poor neighborhood. It was the type of place that had rusting cars in the yard and bars on the windows.
"What are we looking at?" Fox asked. Snake pointed to a house with a scratched blue door.
"Number Five," he said.
"And who lives in Number Five?"
"My mother. Maybe one of my sisters and a few of my brothers. I think there's some kids there too but I've never met any of them."
"Okay," Fox said slowly, concerned. Rarely did Snake talk about his family. They had mostly been operating on the idea that Snake had been hatched or simply sprung out of ground the same as when they'd first met him in training. He had no pictures and they had only met one of his sisters purely by accident. They had popped by Snake's flat unexpectedly with every intention of dragging him out to a club only to find that he had company. She had been a perfectly pleasant individual, far more normal than her brother, and infinitely more open. During their dinner conversation she'd told them about the existence of five other siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, and even a mother that none of them had ever heard of. Snake had scowled the entire time as if he had never wanted them to know about these people and on reflection he likely hadn't.
"Are we here to visit them?" Fox asked. Snake seemed like he was going to just sit in the car and watch the house.
"I don't know yet," he replied and continued to stare at the front door. The car was silent for another few minutes until Fox finally cracked.
"Okay, dude, seriously. You never talk about your family except for that one sister and even then trying to get any details about her is more difficult than prying teeth out of your head. So why are we here?"
"I talk about Adelaide," he replied looking a little offended.
"You do not," Fox said. "The only time I've ever heard anything about her that didn't come from her directly is when Alex told us about that cyberbullying problem. So what gives? Why are we here?"
"I just want to make sure they're all still alive is all," Snake responded.
"And you had to come all this way instead of just doing a search on the Internet?"
"I didn't bring you here to question me," he said.
"So why exactly did you bring me? If you wanted honest to god silence you should have kidnapped Jack."
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Really? About what?"
"Sarah."
Fox turned away from him, not wanting to open that line of conversation. Of course it was Snake who had caught on first. At least he was positive that no one else would know yet. Snake wasn't the type to gossip and he certainly wasn't the type to gossip about his friends.
"I'm not blind," Snake continued. "I know you two are having trouble."
"How could you possibly know that?"
"You haven't been bringing her around as much and when she's not there you never talk about her anymore. Also, I read all of your text messages." Fox laughed at that. If there was one person who searched through people's things more than Alex it was definitely Snake. At least Alex knew not to do it to anyone but Eagle and possibly Tom. Snake did it to everyone. If you left him alone in a room for more than five minutes by the time you came back he would likely have memorized the contents of your drawers. He never took anything, didn't usually touch anything either. He was just extremely nosy.
"Yeah, well, we're getting a divorce." Fox looked over to try and catch the man's reaction but he was a blank wall, as always.
"Why?"
"Because she knows I'm lying to her," he said. "She doesn't care about the stuff with the SAS but she knows that I don't tell her everything about Tom and Alex. I don't think she would care two licks about the boys if she didn't sense that we're all covering something up. What's worse is she knows that Jack knows all about it. She says I don't trust her. How could I possibly tell her about Cub and Accomplice?"
"You can't," Snake said bluntly. "MI6 would have your job and quite possibly your life."
"I know," he said. "And I can't just start talking about Alex. He'd be furious if he thought that some random civilian knew about him. He doesn't really know Sarah other than as my wife. I doubt he would trust her."
"He might give you something to tell her. You are his friend."
"I thought about it," he said. "I even asked Alex, discreetly of course. He said no. It's just too dangerous. If she got mad and told someone out of spite the consequences could be disastrous. Besides, Alex just does not trust civilians outside of the few he allows to be his friends."
"Jack and Tom you mean?" Snake asked. Fox nodded looking horribly dejected.
"This isn't our only problem, not by a long shot but it's definitely the one she won't forgive. She thinks I don't trust her and I guess I really don't in a way. Not with that."
"Has she ever asked you why you can't tell her?"
"Of course she has but I can't answer that question either. It's a bit weird to say that my friend's girlfriend, her ward, and that ward's best friend all know classified information and that I can't tell her about any of it."
"You could say they were witnesses," Snake suggested. "She might buy that."
"I tried. She told me to get out."
"Are you living there now?"
Fox nodded, "Yes, but I've been on the sofa mostly." Snake hummed a little.
"Well, I for one think that this is an interesting problem."
"Jesus!" Fox exclaimed, hand on his gun the second he realized it hadn't been Snake who'd said that but someone in the backseat. He had managed to pull the weapon halfway out of its holster before he figured out who it was. Alex had popped his head up from where he'd been laying on the car floor.
"Did you hear all of that?" Snake asked, absurdly calm for someone who had probably been as surprised as Fox.
"Really?" Alex asked sarcastically as he hoisted himself onto the seat. "If I were you I'd be a little more concerned that you didn't notice I've been in this car ever since you got in and a little less worried about what I might have heard."
"You've been in this car the entire time?" Snake asked, sounding more than a little impressed. Fox was not as impressed.
"Yeah, I saw you two sneaking out of the hotel and I decided to see what that was all about. Is that where you grew up?" he asked, pointing to the shabby house with the blue door.
"Yes," Snake replied simply.
"Are you planning on going in or are we just gonna sit out here?"
Despite the fact that Fox had pretty much had this conversation with Snake several minutes ago, it was Alex's question that finally forced Snake to make up his mind. He rolled his eyes, grumbled a little under his breath, and started the car. As he eased back onto the road, Alex turned to talk to Fox.
"Sorry about your marriage," he said patting Fox on the shoulder. The soldier smiled a little and patted the back of Alex's hand.
"It's not your fault," he said.
"Feels like my fault."
"It's really not, kiddo."
"Hmph."
00000
The trip back home was much calmer than the trip away from home. Wolf had banished Tom and Alex to the Wedding Mobile, absolutely refusing to be stuck through another planning session. It had taken Tom all of an hour before he was texting for help. Apparently Alex had already fallen asleep and Tom was desperately bored.
Wolf had no sympathy.
There was silence in the car for nearly the entire ride home. It wasn't heavy, simply companionable. This was how Snake preferred his friends. With him and peaceful. Even Fox seemed okay now that he was no longer carrying the secret of his crumbling relationship. They would deal with whatever came their way and until then the road trip was only being disturbed by Wolf's constantly buzzing mobile.