Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot

by Project Itoh

  She took a moment, absorbed in the noise of the idling engine, then let out a sigh of ecstasy and said, “With so many wars being waged, oil and biofuel have become as precious as diamonds. It’s been a while since I went out for a ride.”

  “You sure about this?”

  She threw him an over-the-shoulder grin. “I only get off my bike when I fall in love … or fall dead.”

  Then Snake saw it in her eyes. Saudade—yearning for something that is lost. Perhaps she saw Big Boss’s face in the man who was both her son and a clone.

  “Call me EVA.”

  She signaled the departure, and her fighters raced out the open gate.

  They split into three teams—one for each van.

  Motorcycle squads ran alongside each vehicle. The one led by EVA was likely the real one, with Big Boss’s body inside. If the enemies got their hands on it, everything would be over.

  With the curfew in effect, the streets were empty save for PMC troops, and there was no reason for the Paradise Lost to watch their speed. But the European city, with its long history as a fortress town, was built with a complex network of twisting roads—much to the detriment of both past-day invading armies and the present-day commuters.

  The city had been untouched by Allied tank battalions during World War II, even escaping Hitler’s wrath. So the streets remained perfectly preserved in all their nuisances. The narrow, winding roads held back the speed of EVA and her men.

  But the same was true for the PMC forces. And they probably didn’t have motorcycles either. Hard to imagine them gaining much ground in their armored personnel carriers.

  A sound cut through the air, and something flew by overhead.

  “A Slider!” I yelled.

  A birdlike unmanned combat aerial vehicle like the one we saw in the Middle East, gliding around with wings like a raven and coming at Snake head on.

  “Snake!” EVA shouted. “Do something!”

  He took out his submachine gun and fired on full auto. But head on, the Slider had a slim profile and was exceptionally hard to hit.

  “Shit!” Snake said.

  The Slider’s mounted gun began to shoot. The weapon was located where the bird’s head would be—unlike the wings, that part of the machine could remain steady during flight.

  “Hang on!” EVA yelled. She deftly maneuvered the Triumph to the side in a movement so quick the bike didn’t seem to turn at all. The drone’s machine gun fire passed beside them. The rear van and bikes managed to evade the attack, but their riders hadn’t managed to fire back like Snake.

  “I’m turning!” EVA threw her kickstand into the ground and spun the bike around in a bowel-wrenching turn.

  The rest of the squad managed to follow, but Snake felt sorry for anyone having to keep up.

  They came onto a thoroughfare with PMC patrols stationed here and there alongside the road. Those quick enough to notice the resistance’s motorcade fired whatever weapons they had, but the vehicles shot by too quickly. Nearly all of their shots missed their targets.

  A high-pitched shriek made Snake turn to see a Slider fly out onto the road, right on their tail, firing indiscriminately after the resistance forces. Several PMC soldiers were struck down by the bullets. The Slider gave no regard to friend or foe.

  “Snake,” EVA said, “in front!”

  Another Slider was rapidly approaching.

  “What do we do?” Snake asked.

  “Push through, what else? Just pray for luck!”

  “What about that side road up ahead? Can you make the turn?”

  “That goes backwards! It can’t be more than a thirty degree angle!”

  This was essentially a U-turn. Not even EVA, and that maneuver she pulled before, could make that turn at their speed—let alone the rest of their entourage. It was as EVA had said—all they could do was try to pass under the oncoming Slider.

  Then an APC came out from the side road. Its loudspeaker cheerfully called out, “Snake! You need me?”

  “Drebin!” What got Snake’s attention even more than Drebin’s sudden and surprising entrance was Little Gray, standing atop the APC, an RPG-7 in hand. The vehicle slowed to let EVA’s motorcycle catch up.

  “You think we can make a deal here, Old Snake?”

  “Please!”

  The APC pulled right up next to the Triumph, so close they were almost touching. Little Gray stretched out his long gibbon arm and handed Snake the rocket launcher.

  EVA yelled, “Snake, it’s coming!”

  Snake stood on the back of the bike, lifted the RPG-7 to his shoulder and took aim at the Slider in front.

  “I’m throwing this one in for free,” said Drebin.

  Snake glanced at the APC. Sitting in the gunner seat was Little Gray, another RPG-7 at his shoulder. He was aiming at the Slider in back.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on here,” said EVA, laughing. “But you guys are really fucking weird.”

  Snake didn’t have the time to laugh, but he was bemused by the idea of a monkey and a Snake fighting together.

  “Fire!” Snake said.

  The monkey and the Snake simultaneously fired.

  Just as they had launched together, so did both rocket-propelled grenades find their targets. Before and behind the racing squad, orange flames burst into the night sky and cast their light upon the city.

  “Well, Snake,” Drebin said. “Gotta run!”

  The APC turned down a side road and parted with the convoy. I wasn’t sure if he activated the OctoCamo or not, but I lost sight of him within seconds.

  “What an odd man,” EVA said. “Who is he?”

  “A gun launderer. For some reason, he seems to like me.”

  Another howl. This wasn’t over yet.

  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.