97SNAKE RECOGNIZED WHERE HE was as he exited the torture room. It was the tank hangar's first floor basement. The torture room was behind the door he'd seen when he was making his approach to the DARPA Chief nearly eight hours earlier. Before he could stop himself, his mind replayed his initial interaction with Meryl and her escape under the influence of Psycho Mantis.
Meryl… Snake shook his head briskly and forced a short exhale out of his nose. What's done is done. Focus.
An unfamiliar blur registered in Snake's upper periphery. He glanced up and spotted the same sort of gun cameras that had been mounted in the corridor that led to Otacon's lab in the nuclear warhead storage building. Snake frowned, but he couldn't be frustrated with the discovery. With 100% confirmation of an intruder, an increase of security was only natural. A quick glance directly above him showed that a second gun camera had been mounted diagonally from the first, creating overlapping coverage.
Snake's brow furrowed. This is the makeshift brig…maybe Meryl's being held down the hall. Maybe I can break her out, make it right.
He pulled a chaff grenade from his belt, primed it, and tossed it on the ground, between the cameras. Snake held his Level 6 PAN card in his off hand and tucked the FAMAS tight into his shoulder, readying himself for any resistance he might encounter.
The chaff grenade detonated, and Snake lunged around the corner, scanning as he searched for any sign of the enemy. When none greeted him, he pushed forward quickly to the door on the left-hand side of the hallway. Snake quickly readied a stun grenade, then stepped to the door. When it slid open, Snake released the spoon, tossed the flashbang over the threshold, and stepped back. The boom thundered through the walls, and Snake rushed the room.
There was no enemy immediately visible to Snake's right. He rushed around the corner into the guard's office and cleared the dead space, then spun around and made his way to the guard's restroom. Snake cleared that and came up empty. His frustration mounted, but he kept it on lock as he returned to the room's common area. It was then that Snake noticed that both cell doors were still locked open.
"Damn!" Snake shouted. He took a deep breath in through his nose. Of course she's not here, you idiot, he told himself. That'd be too easy. Every fiber in his being told him to tear up every floor until he found her, but somehow, Snake knew that was the opposite of what Meryl would want. She saw him as some sort of hero, and even though he'd denied it in her presence, something inside of him demanded that he live up to her standard, even in the face of a catastrophic moment of weakness.
She'd want me to stop the nukes, Snake mused. She'd want me to stop Metal Gear.
With a deep breath, Snake exited the room and reached to his belt for a pair of fragmentation grenades. He thumbed away the safety, pulled the pin, and tossed the first just beneath the camera mounted adjacent the elevator. Snake angled the second one to the corner closest to him, then ducked back into the cell block and waited.
The ground trembled as the Composition B mixture of RDX and TNT ignited and blew chunks of steel in all directions. Snake paused a beat, then stepped into the hallway. Both cameras were hanging by a thread, sparks leaping from the severed live wires. Snake took a deep, preparatory breath as he marched to the elevator. He had no desire to be in the area when the sentries responded to the loss of feeds.
… … …
OVER THE SPAN OF thirty minutes, Snake had made his way back to the nuclear warhead storage building by hitching a ride in the cargo truck. From there, it was just a matter of making his way back to the commander's room and back through the secret passage, which he managed without incident.
Once inside the wolf cave, Snake retrieved a stun grenade from his belt and took a deep, preparatory breath, then crawled beneath the crevice. As he emerged and stood, one of the wolf-dogs approached. Snake started to reach for the stun grenade's pin when he noticed something that hadn't happened during his previous passage.
The wolf-dog's tail was vigorously wagging. Snake held off on pulling the pin as the hybrid canine approached. It locked onto his left pocket, sniffing intently, before taking a seat and vocalizing a loving squeal. The other adult wolf-dog and the pup also approached, repeating the same actions. All three wolf-dogs looked at him intently, tails wagging, and panting happily.
A confused expression crossed Snake's face. He slowly placed the grenade back in its pouch, and that's when he saw what had triggered the change in the wolf-dogs' behavior. A corner of the handkerchief Otacon had given him protruded from the pocket. Snake removed the handkerchief and lifted it to his nose. It smelled faintly of a perfume which he couldn't place his finger on.
Under most circumstances, the scent would have elicited erotic memories. In that case, the only thing Snake felt was rage. His encounter with Sniper Wolf replayed in his mind.
I'll die after I kill you.
Snake took a deep breath and checked his emotions. He had every intent of delivering on that promise, but that wouldn't happen if he ran off half-cocked. Without further pause, Snake placed the handkerchief back in his pocket and made his way to the other end of the cave. He crawled beneath the exit crevice, then made his way to the double doors.
Upon entering the underground passage, Snake donned his AN/TVS-7 thermal goggles. He scanned for mines and found none. The goggles were returned to their pouch, and he moved forward. Snake only made it a few steps before he found the dried splotches of Meryl's blood on the ground. He slowed to a halt as his eyes fell on the splotches, the memories rushing to the forefront.
He remembered the scream that flew from her lips as the first bullet made impact with her hip. Remembered as she fell to the ground in the wake of the second round ripping through her thigh. Remembered the bullet tearing through the paint tattoo as she reached in vain for her Desert Eagle.
Remembered her tearful pleas for abandonment.
I promised…I wouldn't slow you down…I…I…I…I can still help…I want to help you!
Quiet down, he'd told her. Save your strength! Ever the professional soldier, utterly oblivious to Meryl beating herself up and regretting letting him down, even as she bled out on the ground…only to be betrayed by the man she idolized.
I was a fool, she'd said. I wanted to be soldier. But war is ugly…there's nothing glamorous about it. Snake remembered the look in her tear-brimmed eyes, a mixture of fear, regret, and urgency. Snake, please! Save yourself! Go on living and don't give up on people! Don't forget me…
It was a moment before Snake realized the Codec was ringing in his ear. He stepped off behind cover, took a knee, and keyed up the transmitter. Colonel Campbell's face filled his wrist-worn display.
"Snake," Campbell said, "about Meryl…"
Snake hung his head. "Colonel, I'm sorry."
Campbell shook his head. "Listen to me," he implored.
"I wasn't able to protect her," Snake said, his voice hollow.
Campbell also hung his head and let out a long, heavy sigh. "Snake, it's okay," he said somberly. "You did what you could. Now, let it rest."
Snake looked back to the screen. "Colonel…"
Campbell took a deep breath, then returned his eyes to the screen. His commanding presence returned to his voice as he continued. "Snake, she's a soldier. She knows that prisoners are a part of war. She joined up of her own free will."
"No," Snake said quietly. "You're wrong." An inquisitive glimmer filled Campbell's eyes, prompting Snake to elaborate. "Meryl thought she had to become a soldier…thought it was the only way. She said she thought that it would bring her closer to her dead father."
Campbell's eyes widened as he nearly choked on his responsive words. "She said that?"
Snake nodded as his eyes returned to the ground. "She wasn't ready for real combat," he admitted. "I shouldn't have pushed her so hard…it's all my fault."
Another voice broke into the conversation. "That's not like you, Snake."
Snake looked up and saw McDonnell Miller's visage on his screen. Campbell broke in and said, "Master? What is it?"
"Sorry for eavesdropping," Miller said, "but I just couldn't listen anymore."
"Master…" Snake said quietly.
"Snake," Miller said, "you can have regrets if you want to. It's only natural. But you can't keep attacking yourself for things that happened in the past. That road leads to madness. Believe me."
"He's right," Mei Ling interjected. "Don't kick yourself. It doesn't suit a legend like you." Snake winced at the honorific, and Mei Ling scrambled to placate him. "Besides that, for all we know, Meryl's okay, right?"
"Mei Ling…" Snake said quietly.
"Snake, forget about Meryl," Campbell ordered. "Stop Liquid. That's what Meryl would want, too."
Naomi entered the conversation. "Snake?"
"What?"
She approached the question with trepidation. "Meryl…she's pretty special to you, huh?"
Snake nodded. "Yes. She's special. There aren't many women like her around."
Naomi rolled her lips in irritation. "That's not what I meant."
"She's the Colonel's niece, and a combat buddy."
Her eyes narrowed. With a coaxing tone, she said, "Is that all? C'mon…"
Snake arched his eyebrows. "This is like a police interrogation."
"No," Naomi said quickly. "I just—"
Campbell returned to the screen with a small smile on his face. "I guess it's in the genes."
"The genes?" Snake's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about, Colonel?"
Campbell chuckled. "No, I just remembered about Naomi's grandfather. I think Naomi said he rose as high as executive assistant director in the FBI during Edgar Hoover's time."
Snake nodded with impress. "Is that right?"
Naomi took a deep breath before she responded. "Yes…yes, he was Japanese, and he became a special undercover investigator to nab the Mafia."
Miller interjected. "When was that?"
Naomi glanced off to the side as she attempted to recall. "Oh…sometime in the 50s, I guess."
"Where?"
"Uhm…New York, I think."
Miller's tone was even. "Naomi, I thought that you didn't have any family."
Naomi was unusually flustered. "Well, I…I researched it after I became an adult. My grandfather was already dead by the time I learned about him. I never even had the chance to meet him…"
"Oh," Campbell said.
Naomi inhaled deeply once more before saying, "Snake…good luck."
"Watch your back, Snake," Campbell said before terminating the call.
Snake rose to his feet, forced a short breath out of his nostrils, and rounded the corner. He held the FAMAS at the ready, scanning left to right. Every few steps, he would look back and scan his rear flank. He'd be damned if he'd get ambushed a second time.
As he crossed a crevice, a shot rang out, and Snake dove to the other side, narrowly avoiding being hit. He scanned both ways and searched for inbound enemy. When none came to greet him, Snake looked at the bullet impact in the ground. Had that come from a hidden enemy, it would have been in the parallel wall. That meant it came from on high, which meant it was a gun camera.
Snake pulled a chaff grenade as he glanced towards where he'd been captured earlier. It was about a 200 meter dash from his current position to the door. He could cover the distance in that interval, but he'd need to keep his head on a swivel, just in case there was another nasty surprise awaiting him.
He pulled the pin, tossed the grenade high, and bolted. The chaff grenade detonated as he was nearing the next crevice. Snake covered the distance and slowed as he reached the corner. He spun around and scanned. There were no waiting sentries or additional gun cameras. Snake slowed his pace and moved methodically to the door. He dug the Level 6 PAN card out of his pocket and held it in his off-hand.
Snake pushed forward to the door. As he reached it, he spun around and scanned his six. There was nothing. He let out a long, drawn-out sigh, turned back to the door, and approached. It opened without fanfare, and Snake stepped over the threshold.
Eight hours and seventeen minutes until doomsday.
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Just to give you guys a head's up: this may be the last update for a while. I'll be starting work on my next novel soon, and all my time and focus will be going into that.
There won't be a seven-year gap between updates this go around, though. I began my most recent updates during the editing of my most recent novel (which is live in Kindle and will go live soon in paperback), and my plan is to return to it during the next round of edits.
Thank you for your everlasting support. This novelization will get finished.
