Solitary (for The Cobras)

[nagaya-zmeika.livejournal.com]

Snake had been thinking. Not much else to do, when you were the lone American on a Russian base with a murderer on the loose, and every time you showed your face you could hear the tension level ratchet up one more click. He was the obvious choice for scapegoat, but after meeting the investigators from Moscow, Snake didn't think that was what they wanted. Neither of them had approached him since the interview, aside from the time the quiet pale guy asked him if he'd seen any crickets around. As far as he could tell, he'd been dismissed as a suspect. Maybe The Boss had something to do with it, before she left, without ever telling him what she was doing there.

What he was doing there.

If the Shagohod was the main objective, Snake had it covered. It was the most blatantly destructive thing on the base, after Colonel Volgin, and all the information commonly bandied around about him was, while interesting in its own way, probably not of high strategic importance. Snake had been lucky no one spared attention to wonder how he knew about the tank. No use pushing his luck by snooping around it. Besides, at this point, the only way he was going to learn more was by taking a socket wrench to the thing. It wouldn't do much for his cover.

Whatever that was.

Snake kept out of sight and wondered if he was the only one around here who was exactly what he seemed.

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"Hold on a minute," Snake interjected.

The Cobras seemed to have forgotten he was there, but he couldn't fault them much. His mind kept wandering back to that night.

It was hard to get used to the idea. The mysterious ADAM had been Ocelot all along. Probably had as many names as he had faces. Like that look of shock trampling across the fine, sharp features, until the customary chill calculation shut them down again. Slowly, deliberately licking his lips.

In any case, it was interesting that Snake knew something the Cobras - some of them, at least - didn't.

"So we're on our own." Snake made it half a question. That was what 'no side' tended to mean, in his experience. It wasn't a good place to be.

"The...Philosopher's Legacy," Snake said. "You've said that before."

Which brought him to other unanswered questions. He was tired of diving in blind.

Liking what The Boss said was no prerequisite to doing it, but unthinking obedience wasn't going to do any of them any good.

"I haven't found anything on Sokolov. Not even a location."

Of course, that might be for the better. If they weren't planning on handing Sokolov over, having him already alongside would make things difficult. But that wasn't the point.

Snake shook his head like a grizzled bulldog coaxing a fly out of its ear.

"Boss. I can't keep this up forever. I've got no cover but your word. People are already asking questions. It's only held up this long because there's more important things going on."

The long, level looks the investigators had given him had practically said as much. The sleek MVD in particular had a smile that said Uncle, if I felt like it I could lift a finger and have you fucked six ways from vosskresseniye, and aren't you lucky I don't?

"Right now, Colonel Volgin's got too much in front of him to waste time worrying about me, but if he's got any sense at all, before the Shagohod rolls out, that'll change. Playing dumb won't cover all the cracks."

[the-cobra-unit.livejournal.com]

“First things first. I never said it would be easy. I also never said we were on our own.” Pursed her lips, fighting back the urge to scold Snake for making such unfounded assumptions. Such miscalculations were lethal on the battlefield, but she suppressed the urge to scold him, at least in front of the Cobras. “My word is the only cover you need.”

“Let me tell you something about how Groznyj Grad works.” The Fury offered, leaning to the side just far enough that one of the boosters of his jetpack nudged Snake’s shoulder. “The guards you saw in the hall? My men. I found one of them in an asylum outside of Murmansk, huddled in the corner of his cell, wailing about extra-terrestrials reading his thoughts. The other comes to us from the Magadan GULAG. He had a nasty habit of butchering whores and leaving their pieces all over Moscow. My First Lieutenant devised a beautiful plot, albeit fatally flawed, to blow up the Kremlin.”

“You sure know how to pick ‘em.” The Pain mumbled, fumbling with the zipper on his vest.

“Fuck you. What do you know? You talk to bees.”

“Fuck you. They’re hornets. Your mother was a petrol pump.”

Ignoring the hornet keeper, the Fury lowered his head, to be sure Snake could see his eyes through the smoked glass of his helmet. “The flame soldiers are given the job of guarding one of the most vulnerable and remote routes into the base. Not only because they are qualified, but I am their commander, oversaw every bit of their training, and I am a member of the Cobra Unit. But you?” he laughed, “you have nothing to worry about! You are a disciple of Voyevoda!”

The Boss sighed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and brushing her hair back from her face. “In fewer words: the reputation of this unit, its members, and myself lends you great credibility. Let them ask questions, and then you will tell them how happy you are to have defected to the Soviet Union, how glorious this country is, and what an honor it is to have become a part of such a great state. You defected because Russia is by far superior to the United States.” She looked up at him and shook her head. “I’m telling you, no matter what you think or feel, put on your best smile and lie.”

“You might not have so much trouble if you were friendlier with the locals.” The Fear suggested, tilting his head and regarding Snake like a cat that just spotted an interesting insect. “Like the Pain. He’s an American, and no one gives a damn.”

“Was an American.” he interjected. “Renounced my citizenship in ’59.”

“Still.” The spider soldier shrugged. “I’m just throwing it out there. People won’t have a reason to ask questions if you fit in a little better. Camouflage, you know.”

[nagaya-zmeika.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. So there were more homicidal lunatics running around this place. Snake was about to ask how this was supposed to be reassuring when he realized there wasn't going to be a good answer.

There was something different about The Boss. She seemed...happy. Back with her old comrades. Not even bothering to dodge his questions. Just letting them fall.

"I can only lie," Snake said, delicately, "if I know what the truth is."

'Getting friendly with the locals' was a little awkward, in these circumstances, but Snake couldn't quite say he was averse to the idea.

[the-cobra-unit.livejournal.com]

The cosmonaut looked from Snake to the Boss, then back again. “Is he --”

“Don’t say it.” She warned, narrowing her eyes at the Fury.

“What--”

“Whatever crude comment you’re getting ready to make about my student. Keep it to yourself.”

He laughed to cover his frustration, turning to the Pain. “How does she do that?” He mumbled, gesturing to the Boss. “Telepathy?”

“No, you’re just predictable. We’re all thinking it, but you’re the only one willing to say it.”

Voyevoda watched the pair for a moment. The Pain was right, everyone was thinking the same thing, including herself. She deliberately lingered, hoping Snake would start to figure things out on his own. It soon became apparent that was not the case.

“The truth is,” she began, “the world that the Cobra Unit saved all those years ago is slowly dying, tangled in choking vines of greed, corruption, and hate. A third world war is looming on the horizon, but instead of picking sides, our mission is to prevent it before it happens.”

The Boss let him ponder that idea for a moment before she continued. “If it’s truth you’re after, consider this: the U.S. had plans to build weapons similar in design and function to the Shagohod. I say had, because they lack the most important element: Sokolov. You honestly didn’t think they would send you all this way and go to all this trouble just to let him to lead out a peaceful civilian life, did you Snake?”

Voyevoda shut her eyes, contempt obvious on her visage.

“We’re better off having him here, having such weapons on Soviet soil.” The Fury offered with a dismissive gesture, as though there were no questions about it. “Isn’t it strange that the country most worried about Russia’s nuclear program is the only country to ever use such weapons in combat? And moreover, use them against civilians?” His tone suggested that the very idea was an unforgivable sin.

“It never should have happened.” Boss replied solemnly, casting her gaze downward. “If they only would have listened to me…”

“You can’t blame yourself. They wouldn’t listen to any of us. It wasn’t an act of war, it was about revenge.” The Pain laid a hand on her shoulder and numbly, the Boss nodded, grudgingly allowing herself to be comforted.

In the silence that followed, the Fury pulled off his helmet and set it on the table. He studied his reflection in the tinted glass, thoughtful, tilting his head and scowling behind his respirator. “Your mission is Sokolov. Our mission is to save the world from itself. A bullet in Nikolai’s forehead would solve all our problems. But he is the catalyst, not the problem. It would be wrong…” He folded his hands together, reminiscent of prayer, and narrowed his dark eyes at the empty space between the table and the wall. Then, the cosmonaut laughed for no reason at all. “Sokolov and I… you could say we were colleagues once.”

[nagaya-zmeika.livejournal.com]

So she meant what she said. Snake was used to rhetoric about being on the side of good as a prelude to the details of what was really going on, not the meat of the mission itself. It sat uneasily in his stomach like that poison dart frog the other day.

There had to be something they weren't telling him. Well, if that was what they'd decided, nothing he said was going to change their minds. He was used to being kept outside of what was really going on, and The Boss had never pretended this would be any different. To her, Jack was still the student, kept in the dark unless he could be made useful.

In the back of Snake's mind, it rankled, in a way it never had all those years ago.

"When I was sent after Sokolov, I didn't think about why," he said, in response to The Boss's question. "Not part of my job."

Funny, how little it had occurred to him to wonder about that before. It was just what good soldiers did. What they were told.

Right now, Snake was being told to do exactly what he had been doing; nothing. He could live with that.

He looked around at the assembled Cobra unit, and saw, without bitterness, a place where he was unnecessary.

Snake drew himself up to attention and looked at The Boss.

"Will that be all?"

[the-cobra-unit.livejournal.com]

Like a feather from a white dove, slowly drifting towards the earth from the clear blue summer sky in lazy spirals, an idea lit on the surface of her consciousness and her blue eyes went wide. “From this moment on, your mission is to concern yourself with the why, not the how. I have taught you everything there is to know about how to eliminate an enemy, now you must learn for yourself how to tell who the enemy is. It isn’t about countries or borders, Snake.”

It was never about countries or borders. The others understood it so well: it was about what was right and what was wrong, something that was impossible to draw a border around or label.

She stood, turning to the window and the darkened base beyond, watching a search light wander about the side yard.

“I will speak with Volgin as soon as his schedule allows for it. With the state of panic the whole base is in, I should have no trouble convincing him that the Shagohod and Sokolov would be better off under our supervision.”

“You.” She turned, pointed to Snake, “and you,” then to the Fury. Since you’re both concerned with Nikolai Sokolov’s well being, you’ll be working together from here on out to ensure nothing unfortunate happens to him.”

Perhaps the best way to open Jack’s eyes was to put him on assignment with someone who fought for a cause, not for a country.

The cosmonaut glared at Snake in contempt, but said nothing.

“The Pain: I want eyes and antennas in every corner of this base. Starting tomorrow, if anyone so much as sneezes, I want to know about it before they wipe their nose. Fear, you will pay a visit to Johann Krauss. Find out exactly what he knows.”

Voyevoda nodded. “For now, we gather information and wait. It is all we can do, until the panic dies down. If there are no other questions… you are dismissed.”

The old man stopped snoring and opened his eyes, wincing at the bright light. “What…about the seventh son?” The End rasped.

The Boss winced visibly, narrowing her eyes at the ancient sniper. “He is dead to me. My only sons are here in this room.”

“He deserves to know…”

“It would not change anything.” She turned away, biting her lip to keep from saying any more on the subject, crossing her arms to keep from trembling. “Does anyone have anything relevant to add?”

[nagaya-zmeika.livejournal.com]

Snake nodded.

"Understood."