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Brothers in Arms	By : ktatters Category: +M through R > Metal Gear Views: 3912 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Metal Gear, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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So fucking special

Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation -- Elton Trueblood

"Took you both long enough," muttered Big Boss as Arthur and Monkey finally arrived fifteen minutes late to the meeting. They'd ignored his summons and wasted time for both him and Ocelot.

"Sorry," said Arthur unapologetically. He seemed pale, his breathing shallower than normal, though no more frequent.

"Are you all right?" asked Big Boss with quiet concern.

Arthur shook his head. "Later," he mumbled. "We'll talk about it after the briefing. Let's get on with it, we've all got things to do."

Big Boss smiled ruefully. He was right about that. No use in delaying things any longer than they were already delayed. "Alright. First things first. We're going to have another visitor, and this time, I don't think the UN is going to be satisfied by false documents."

Monkey nodded. "Have you chosen your operative, sir?"

"One has been chosen for us," said Big Boss slowly. "A rookie. Well, as far as you can have one in Fox Hound. He's good, worked with the Green Berets in the gulf. Distinguished himself, as did his brother. Code named Solid Snake."

Arthur whistled softly. "It is them," he breathed.

The Patriots. They knew it was Big Boss out here. That they had already chosen his son, Solid Snake... they had decided to clean up the operation, to get rid of them all. It was obvious. Big Boss glanced at Ocelot to see his reaction, but the man was giving nothing away.

"What are his orders?" asked Monkey.

"He's to bring us down," said Big Boss. "It isn't a fact-finding mission like it was with Fox. He's here to neutralize the base. So we don't have a choice with our response." The corner of his mouth went up. If the Patriots thought he'd go down just because the man-- really just a kid-- was his son, they weren't as smart as they thought they were.

But then Arthur shook his head. "You're going to order his death?" asked Arthur quietly, a hint of old bitterness creeping through his voice like some injured animal. "David's your son, acknowledged or not. You can't do it."

Big Boss looked at the table and sighed slightly. He should have known that this was going to be a problem for Arthur: the man thought the word 'family' was on par with the word 'research', and he would never advocate abandoning either of them. There wasn't a choice though, not even for his feelings. "I'll try to find another way," he heard himself say despite himself.

"You have a son? Sons?" asked Ocelot.

"They're just clones," said Big Boss.

"Just--? Oh, but you think you should have access to mine," said Arthur in annoyance.

Ocelot glanced between them in surprise, while Big Boss glared at Arthur. In front of Monkey no less!

The man in question looked down for a moment then smiled a little bit uncomfortably with a glance at Arthur. "Speaking of that..."

"Not right now, Edik," said Arthur, falling in on himself a little. "What else is on the agenda for this meeting?"

Big Boss looked at Arthur for a moment, trying to assess the problem. Something to do with Big Boss? Or something to do with Arthur's son? "Right then." Or both? There was no reason to sit around guessing. From Arthur's looks, he'd know at the end of the meeting and not a moment before. "Ocelot, what did you find out?"

Ocelot nodded, and after giving Arthur and Monkey a cursory, disapproving glance, started his report. "There are several points of interest, Boss.

"First, the bomb. It was placed very conspicuously, but as before the location was where the cameras couldn't see it. This leads us to someone who knows the area intimately, or someone who is extremely observant. Arthur, is there anyone on your staff who knows the locations of the cameras?"

"All of them?" Ocelot nodded and Arthur thought to himself briefly. "No. There are several in hidden locations. My staff knows that, and some of the more observant might have seen me glance towards one or two of them, but none of my staff knows them all. Yours do, Edik," said Arthur.

Ocelot nodded again slowly, his eyes blank and lazy. "Second, then, the papers. Highly detailed forgeries, Arthur, with all the right wordings. Commendations. It would have put the UN off for at least a year. A pity someone placed another highly detailed forgery that proved them all wrong even to a layman's eyes."

"My staff couldn't have done that," said Monkey. Somehow, the venom in his tone seemed less... poisonous today.

"So we are looking at a team," said Ocelot in seeming agreement.

Monkey nodded thoughtfully. Big Boss did the same. It seemed to fit. There were few people who'd be able to pull all this off: a team made the most sense. All it would take would be a little observation. Most of the scientists and soldiers didn't spend time with each other. Of the few who did, certainly they could be watched.

"However," said Ocelot with a small sigh, "I don't think it is a team."

Big Boss raised an eyebrow. "What do you think it is then?"

"I think that we're dealing with two independent operatives. One of whom is Dr. Madnar."

"I thought you'd finished questioning him," said Arthur darkly.

"Yes, Arthur. I have finished questioning him," Ocelot said with a superior smirk. "But the false papers were planted in your documents yesterday. To get his buyer's interest, Dr. Madnar would have had to advertise. What better way to do so than to make sure that the UN had information about your activities here? In fact, it would have been a zero-risk activity for him: you would still be protecting him here."

Arthur muttered something under his breath that Big Boss chose to ignore.

"And you think they're working independently because the other one actually does want to destroy the prototype?" asked Monkey.

Ocelot closed his eyes. "Among other things," he said quietly.

Big Boss nodded. "Good enough," he said. "Now, about Fox. How did he notice you, Monkey?"

"Sir, he was trained by you, and you've said he's good. I'm afraid I'm just not good enough to defeat him. Or even evade his notice," he said, an annoyed look on his face. "The man seems to have an almost psychic ability to know where people are."

"Psychic? Hmph. That's just what men who don't train always say," said Ocelot, Arthur nodding along with him. Big Boss had seen enough in his lifetime to know that there were some people who did have those abilities. Of course, he'd also trained Grey Fox. Paranormal skills had nothing to do with his detection of Monkey.

Which just meant that, out of all his people, he couldn't send Monkey to fight with Solid Snake, when he came. His ranks were already thin when it came to people he could send against a clone of himself. He wasn't egotistical, but with Solid Snake's background, it was going to be difficult to defeat him without killing the man... Shoot Gunner, perhaps? If they took him down without killing him but left him on the UN's doorstep, they might think twice about sending another man...

"So is there anything else?" asked Arthur, interrupting Big Boss' internal musing.

Ocelot shook his head. "Not for now. Unless you have more information about last night's unpleasantness...?"

Arthur looked away. "Nothing substantial, no," said Arthur. "Problems in the code, but if someone really understood the system, they'd never have done the changes I saw." He shook his head slowly and then looked at Big Boss and Monkey. "The two of you have anything further?"

Monkey shook his head. Big Boss grinned. "Looks like you can get on with finding out about who on your team was near the labs to plant a bomb," said Big Boss.

He saluted. "Yes sir," he said snappily and stood, then paused. "Arthur... Should I stay?"

"No, thank you. Big Boss and I are going to discuss it alone," said Arthur quietly, his voice very serious sounding.

Ocelot stood up. "I'll get back to my investigation then," he said.

"Wait," said Arthur. "I've got something to say to you, too."

Big Boss sat back. Arthur wanted to talk to Ocelot with Big Boss as his witness? What could it be about except for-- but how would Arthur know? No, better question, how could Monkey know, since it was undoubtedly him that told Arthur. They hadn't been so close as to be obvious in the hallway, had they? Surely--

The door closed with a thump and Big Boss waited for Arthur to begin his tirade.

Instead, his lover pulled a tape player out of one of his ubiquitous lab coat pockets and pushed it towards Big Boss. "Security recorded this during the incident with Frank. Grey fox," he said with a nod towards Ocelot.

As Big Boss was staring at it dumbly, thinking about how lucky he was, Ocelot took it and pressed the play button. Most of it was static, and the voices were entirely unrecognizable, but you could pick up the odd word. "...Emmerich ... stabilize ... do..."

Another voice responded. "Best way ... son, Hal ..."

"...know ... investment ... boy ... sufficient?" asked the first voice, hoarse with the static.

"...paranoid ... nvolved thanks ... debacle ... enough..."

"Do ... need ..."

Silence descended upon the three of them for a moment. "I know one of these voices is from one of the Patriots. And the other is someone on this base," said Arthur heavily, his eyes glued to the door so that neither Ocelot nor Big Boss could see his face. Big Boss could see his hand though, slowly tightening into a fist and then flattening back out into a palm. "Are either of those voices you Ocelot? Or anyone you know?"

"I can't recognize them any more than you can," responded Ocelot automatically as he put the tape player down on the table in front of Big Boss. "There's distortion all over it. As you'd expect from it. That you can hear the words at all is--" Ocelot paused, then sat down and took his hat off. "They wanted you to hear it. The question is why."

"They want to bring us down," said Big Boss carefully, "so they're trying to separate us. We'll have them flown here."

Arthur turned around. "No. Hal isn't getting within 100 miles of a military base. I have to go there."

Ocelot shook his head. "He's right," he said. "For whatever reason, they want you out of here. Whatever branch it is, they want you gone. You can't allow yourself to be manipulated so easily. The intent is most likely to use you as a hostage against Big Boss."

"Or to use Hal as a hostage against us both," Arthur retorted.

"Arthur, I don't want you leaving this base," said Big Boss simply.

Arthur shook his head. "Boss, I've thought about it. Maybe not as much as you'd like, or in the directions you'd prefer, but enough to know that my only option is to go home," he said almost pleadingly.

"It's a bad idea. Bring the boy here," said Big Boss, his forehead crinkling as he thought briefly on the possibilities that could become realities were Arthur to leave the base. Most likely, they would use the opportunity to kill the man, seeing as his skills in self-defense (and offense) hadn't advanced any in the past twelve years. Tactics didn't count when a man was fighting for his life-- and that of his child, because even if they didn't attack Arthur directly, Hal would be more than simple for them to pick up. "I'll send a plane. Three pilots, five guards: they won't be able to get at him even if our luck is bad and we send our traitor. It's perfectly safe for him here, Arthur."

"Safe." Arthur shook his head. "With your son coming by to try to destroy the place, you're going to call Outer Heaven safe?"

Big Boss shook his head slightly, trying to figure out what to say to that. Ocelot took up the slack. "Just because this 'Solid Snake' has the Boss' genes doesn't mean he's going to win. Big Boss has experience. This boy's no more than a recruit to him."

"Ocelot, I'm only telling you out of professional courtesy," Arthur said, his tone hardening. "Because I'm certain it's you who'll have to deal with being his second in command while I'm gone."

"He won't be, because you're not going," said Big Boss, shaking his head. "We'll bring him here."

Arthur grit his teeth for a moment, then sighed. "Them?" he asked. "Emma and Julie will have to come too."

"If they absolutely must," said Big Boss sourly.

"Fine," said Arthur. "I'll call them and arrange things." Big Boss nodded curtly. "But I'm going to pick them up."

"Arthur--" Big Boss started and then stopped. Compromise, that's what it was about. As long as Arthur wasn't going to stay away, it couldn't be dangerous for him to be gone for a day or two. Solid Snake wouldn't be attempting his infiltration tomorrow-- the Patriots had been well prepared, but no one could start a mission that quickly. There wasn't anything that Arthur alone could do on the base. And then-- he glanced at Ocelot-- there were some fringe benefits, too. "You'll take a tracker with you?"

Arthur nodded slowly. "If I don't, you'll insist."

"Boss," said Ocelot tightly, "this isn't a good idea. Why don't you let me go?"

"I'm not just his commander, Ocelot. I can't order everything to happen. And if his family doesn't understand what he does, I don't think they'd go anywhere with you. You're a bit much for civilians."

"But--"

"Drop it," said Big Boss. And that was an order.

All right then, this was going to be a target that the Patriots wouldn't ignore. They'd proved they could get access to the base, that they could destroy whatever they wanted with relative impunity... "Take two F16s and the jet. Two pilots for the jet, and you can act as a co-pilot if anything happens."

"Co-pilot?" asked Arthur, dismayed.

"Co-pilot," said Big Boss firmly. "And I want a link."

"A what?" Ocelot asked.

"New technology one of my teams developed," said Arthur. "In conjunction with the tracer and detailed satellite maps, you can monitor life signs and the location of an operative. We're going to use it in--" He paused and looked at Big Boss. "You don't mind me telling him?" he asked incredulously.

Big Boss shrugged. "He's about to know everything about our operation." Probably already did, really. Big Boss didn't buy the questions. He had to be more deeply involved with the Patriots than that.

And what if he was? The trace could be a two-way street: sure, he could find Arthur if something happened, but... they could find him, too. Had Ocelot just manipulated them into this? Had Ocelot said nothing, could he have kept Arthur on the base? Who knew manipulation better than a spy? And who knew Arthur better than an ex-lover?

Ocelot seemed genuine in his wish to help them by finding the traitor, and he'd certainly latched onto a suspect quickly. This was generally a good thing: Ocelot had been proved correct. But something about the way he was acting touched off a spark of suspicion inside of Big Boss. He couldn't even narrow the feeling down to a specific event or action.

It just felt as though there was something wrong.

Arthur had finished nattering about the missions they were sending people on for the cause and was looking at Big Boss expectantly. "Be quick about this, Arthur," he said uneasily. "Get your boy--" he shook his head, "your family, and then come back."

I have a bad feeling about this.5
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Brothers in Arms