Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot (23 page)

Then came the hailstorm of grenades.

It was practically a carpet bombing. The two Sliders shot down by Snake and Little Gray had been nothing more than decoys. Amid the battle, a third Slider had stealthily flanked them.

The van rolled over from the force of the explosions. The vehicle came careening at EVA’s bike, and just as it was about to flatten them, she yanked the handlebar to the side.

The Triumph tumbled sideways. Snake and EVA were flung off, smacking against the wall of a building partially destroyed by the bursting grenades. The van brushed past them and slammed into another house.

Snake had been battered against the stone wall, but most of the impact was absorbed by his sneaking suit. He stood, coughing violently, and looked at EVA. Under her leather jacket, she wore only thin clothing. Not enough to protect against that amount of force.

Her face was chillingly pale.

Beads of sweat ran from her hair and down her forehead. Her right hand reached across her stomach, clutching at her side, trying to hold her life inside while it slipped away. I couldn’t see if it was a fragment of a grenade or a chip of pavement, but whatever the thing piercing inside her was, it looked fatal.

She gazed up at Snake, her eyes distant. “My children?”

He looked down the street. The motorcycle squad had been wiped out. One rider had a caved-in skull, another had bones protruding from all over his body, another was covered in shrapnel—their bodies still upon the drying pavement.

Snake walked over to where the van rested on its side. The rear door hung open, empty. EVA’s hearse was a decoy. With a deeper appreciation for her strength, he walked to the driver’s side door. He checked on the limp bodies of the driver and another youth in the passenger seat, but it was already too late.

Snake turned to EVA and shook his head.

“I’m so sorry,” she said and closed her eyes.

He walked back over to her and said, “So it was a decoy. I’m impressed.”

“Not just this van—all of them were decoys. The pyx is safely floating down the river.”

“EVA, are you all right?”

He inspected her side. Her gloved hand was wet with her own blood. A bird cawed in the distance. Was it a sign of morning’s approach—or was it Death’s scout?

“Big Mama, can you stand?”

“Snake,” she said, her voice fevered and weak. Her eyes were vacant, unfocused. “Is that you?”

What she saw in her half-conscious state wasn’t the Snake in front of her, but another man who once had the same code name. A man who had once saved her when she was gravely injured in the forest in Soviet Russia—coincidentally, that wound too had been in her side.

“The man I once loved. The man whose eyes I knew were only for that strong, righteous, great woman, yet who still I couldn’t stop myself from falling for.

“That’s why I gave birth to them, to your children. To you. Something that not even the woman you loved could do. Yes, maybe I was jealous. What I felt toward her was beyond the concept of love versus hate.

“Maybe it was wrong of me, Snake. To bear your children. Snake …”

“EVA, I need you.”

Then EVA came back to reality. She curled her lips, blood trailing down from the corners, into an unnerving smile. “A mother’s work is never done.”

With one arm still to her side, she pushed herself up with the other. Drops of blood dripped from between her fingers.

Snake gave her his shoulder and asked, “What now?”

“Land and air routes are cut off, but a cruiser is waiting for us at a rendezvous point on the riverbank downstream.”

“Good thinking.”

As she leaned against him, he let her lead the way. But after a few steps, she stopped. She took a few moments to look at her overturned Triumph.

“I don’t need to feel the wind anymore. I don’t need to keep lying to myself.” She pulled away from Snake’s shoulder and walked by her own strength. “I only get off my bike when I fall in love—or …”

She walked to a manhole near the side of the road. She looked down at it, and Snake understood. Together they lifted the cover.

“The underground aqueduct leads to the river. There should be fewer of them down there.”

They climbed down the ladder.

5

FOR THE MOMENT, they seemed safe.

Snake and EVA walked through the aqueduct toward the river. She was moving slowly, and Snake matched her speed. Snake, of course, remained on alert for any sign of danger, but I thought it the best chance we might have to talk.

Over the codec, I said to him, “Snake, I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“It’s Naomi—she’s gone. She’s not in
Nomad
anymore.”

Snake didn’t say anything. I took the moment of silence to scold myself for my lapse in caution. I gritted my teeth.

Then he asked, “When did you notice?”

“Right after she and Sunny got back from Dr. Madnar’s place.”

“Why weren’t you watching her?”

“I wasn’t wearing my …”

The words caught in my throat. Naomi said I looked handsome without my glasses. She’d manipulated me. She used my feelings to trick me. I felt the anguish of it in every cell of my body.

“… my glasses.”

“Naomi said it herself—the experiment can’t succeed without her.”

As soon as I saw she’d left, I had the same thought. As I felt the sting of her betrayal, my mind went straight to the absolute worst scenario. If I assumed she was that evil, then maybe my shame could be lessened if only by a little bit.

Even though I’d already mostly convinced myself that was the case, I asked, “You think she went back to Liquid?”

Snake didn’t answer. He must have known I believed it myself. I felt awkward. After working together for a decade, we pretty much knew all there was to know about each other.

He changed the subject. “What about Raiden?”

“Good news on that front. We managed to get our hands on a dialysis machine and set up an ICU on
Nomad
. Sunny’s keeping a constant watch on him and is handling the dialysis and the treatment of his wounds. But the dialysis is probably going to take forty-eight hours. Until then, Raiden can’t move.”

“Wait, Otacon.”

Snake tensed. I switched over to the Solid Eye’s live feed and saw light up ahead.

Snake readied his M4 and moved ahead of EVA and toward the exit. Outside, a boat was silhouetted by a flickering light in the distance. Was it the cruiser with Big Boss’s ark?

Snake advanced.

A lone figure emerged from the ship, stepped down onto the walkway, and took something from his pocket. Snake watched down the sights of his M4. The figure flicked open a lighter, lit the object in his hand, and put it to his mouth.

A cigar.

“Liquid!” Snake said.

The man himself—Liquid Ocelot.

Snake moved out into the open where he could clearly see the boat. Not the cruiser Big Mama had mentioned, but rather a military patrol boat. On its deck the main cast had assembled—Liquid’s armed private guard, along with Vamp and Naomi.

Just as we’d thought. My predicted worst possible scenario had been dead on, but I was wrong about one thing: my shame and guilt weren’t lightened in the slightest.

Liquid triumphantly exhaled a mouthful of smoke and said, “Not bad.”

With unsteady steps, EVA moved forward and grabbed Snake’s shoulder. She knew Ocelot’s face well. He was her comrade once. Together, they freed Big Boss from the Patriots and left Zero truly alone.

But his behavior, his mannerisms—those didn’t belong to the man she once knew.

“Where’s the pyx?” she asked.

Liquid replied without bothering to look at her. “That no longer matters.”

With the last tattered bits of her strength, EVA yelled, “Where is it?”

On the ship’s deck, Vamp had turned to face the flickering light across the water. That was when we realized what it was. Fire.

“EVA,” Snake asked, “is that your boat?”

She removed her hand from his shoulder. Her legs lost the strength to carry her, and she slumped to the concrete. Keeping his M4 aimed at Liquid, Snake glanced down at EVA, now on her knees within a slowly spreading pool of blood, her face lit by the flickering light of the sinking cruiser’s blaze.

Snake gritted his teeth. “Naomi …”

“She told me everything,” Liquid said, his voice calm and composed, with no trace of the triumphant boasting he had displayed in the Middle East. “And now, thanks to her, I finally have him. The one I’ve sought for so long—Big Boss.”

Snake moved his eyes to Naomi. She turned away out of guilt—whether actual or feigned, I couldn’t tell.

“Put down the gun,” Liquid said. “It’s already too late. You almost did it.”

Half a dozen of Liquid’s elite guards in power-assist armor similar to Snake’s sneaking suit appeared from below deck. Snake lowered his weapon.

Exuberance edged into Liquid’s voice. “Looks like I win after all, brother.” He let out a puff of smoke. “This brand was Father’s favorite. What do you say? Care for one last smoke?”

“You think you’re Big Boss now?”

Liquid blew smoke into Snake’s face. Now he was just being childish. Snake coughed.

“Guilty as charged.” He tossed the cigar to the ground. “But all that ends today.”

As Liquid put out the cigar with his boot, Snake raised the M4 and aimed at him. But before he could squeeze the trigger, Liquid had stepped to the side. In one swift movement, he lunged forward and stole the gun out of Snake’s hands.

He pulled out the M4’s magazine and ejected the chambered shell. At the same time, Snake drew his Operator, but Liquid just snatched it away. In a flurry of elbows and knees, Snake was sent to the ground.

“Nice try, brother, but when it comes to CQC, I’ve got the upper hand.”

The private guard stepped out of the boat and encircled EVA and the disarmed and powerless Snake.

Then Liquid pointed the Operator at its owner’s face.

Snake looked his brother in the eyes.

So this is it
, he must have thought.
It’s been nine years since our hand-to-hand battle on Shadow Moses Island. And he’s dogged me ever since. I shot down his HIND D, threw him from the top of Metal Gear REX, killed him with FOXDIE—but each time he found a way back to life and back in my face
.

I don’t think I’ll be so lucky
.

But Liquid turned the Operator aside and threw it into the river.

Why won’t he kill me? Does he just want to prolong his enjoyment? Or is there some reason he needs me alive?

Snake glared at Liquid. “Even if you do get ahold of the System, you’ll only have one part of the Patriots’ AI—the military part.”

Liquid shrugged. “What of it, brother? It’s only a matter of time before I’ll have everything.”

He lifted Snake by the shoulders and threw him against the wall of the aqueduct. With the wind knocked out of him, Snake slumped against the bricks and struggled to breathe. Liquid leaned his arm on the wall and put his face right in front of his brother’s, so close they could smell each other’s breath.

“Remember GW?” Liquid said. “The AI you think they lost? It’s mine—a part of my army.”

I yelled at my computer screen. “Impossible!” My sister’s worm destroyed it. Emma gave her life for it.

“Your worm only managed to cut GW into little pieces. Tiny, functionless, disconnected fragments. Fragments we were able to reconstruct and stow away inside JD’s network.

“Revolver Ocelot’s body has served me well. He was, after all, one of the founding Patriots. It allowed me to pass every security barrier between me and GW. Now GW is like a ghost inside JD. They used to be separate entities, like brothers, but as bits and pieces of GW were added to its information network, JD could no longer recognize it as an external threat.”

Liquid pulled Snake from the wall.

“Once I destroy JD with a nuclear strike, the Patriots’ network will be mine. And then, I’ll build my Haven, free from all forms of control. I’ll cast aside my old identity and take my own name for the first time.”

“You’re planning to take the place of the Patriots?”

The punch landed hard in Snake’s stomach. He spit out every last bit of air from his lungs like a boxer who had just taken his finishing blow.

But Liquid wasn’t finished with him yet.

“Snake, we were created by the Patriots.” He sent another punch to the same place. “We’re not men. We’re shadows in the shape of men.”

Snake was utterly defenseless, with no strength left within him. Liquid pushed him back.

“We’re freaks who never should have existed!”

This time the punch came straight at Snake’s face.

“We’re a system to stifle the prosperity of future generations.”