Cambell also lived in Washington that was one of the reasons why they fled to the Capital. After dark Snake and Meryl set out to Cambell’s house in a taxi. Snake was very careful to make sure they where not being followed. When they got to Cambell’s neighborhood they paid the cab and sent it on its way. Roy’s house may be under surveillance so they snuck through backyards until they arrived at Cambell’s house. It was a modest two-story house with a well-cut lawn and a small garden. Snake silently walked to the back door picked the lock and motioned for Meryl to follow him. Once inside with the door closed Snake called to the colonel quietly but there was no answer. Worried Snake drew his trusty silenced Socom. They walked into the living room there was a TV on the history channel. Snake noticed it was muted.

"Colonel where are you?" whispered Snake. They searched the remaining rooms down stairs no one was here. They started their search upstairs. Snake walked into what looked like a bedroom and found a pistol aimed at his head, it was promptly lowered.

"Snake! I’m so glad you made it out of Alaska alive, what are you doing here?" said Roy Cambell in his husk voice.

"Glad to see you too old friend, I’m afraid me need your help." Said Snake. Meryl walked into the room and saw Snake talking to her uncle. Meryl almost literally jumped in Roy’s lap and gave him a giant hug.

"Meryl! It’s so great to see you!" said Roy leaning at the weight of his niece, Meryl noticed and let go of her beloved uncle.

"Sorry I hid up here and sorry about the gun, ever since the operation I’m been a little jumpy ever since the operation when I heard you I thought you were them... What can I do for you?" asked Cambell.

"Good news before we escaped from the island I got this from Ocelot!" Said Snake pulling out the optical disk.

"The test data excellent now maybe we can get some answers!" said Roy.

"Unfortunately the disk is encrypted with a password and we can’t break it. We where wondering if you could get us into contact with Mei Ling." Said Snake.

"Great idea I’ll call her right now". Said the Colonel. Meryl and Snake waited in the living room while Cambell called Mei Ling, she lived a few hours away and would be there as soon as possible. While they waited they caught up with each and other while Snake and Roy reminisced old battle stories after Snake told him about Meryl’s theory about the president. Mei Ling arrived two hours later with a smile (as she does most of the time) and a lap top computer in her hand.

"What can I do for Colon- Uh my… Snake what are you doing here?" asked Ling as he walked in the front door.

"Great to see you too Mei Ling. Sorry to see you again in such circumstances." Said Snake.

"Think nothing of it now what was so important that you could not tell me over the phone gentleman?" Said Mei Ling as she set her laptop up on Cambell’s dining room table, finally she plugged it in and hit the one switch. Snake pulled out the optical disk and explained. "Here’s the Rex test data, it has what the secretary of defense and Liquid wanted answers about who is behind Metal Gear…and my past."

"Ah I see, anything for you Snake." Said Mei Ling a bit too nice; Meryl shot a cold glance at her thinking she was being too friendly. Mei Ling took the disk from Snake’s hand and popped it into the disk drive of her computer.

"Ah let me see…this shouldn’t be too hard to break," said Mei as she hammered the keys mercilessly. "Got it!"

"Great what’s there!" said Snake enthusiastically. Mei Ling hit some more keys. Numbers started to scroll down the screen; everyone crowded to see them.

"This looks like telemetry data for Metal Gear’s stealth missile nothing too important…Oh my god what’s this?"

Meanwhile at Snake’s apartment, an unmarked van discreetly dropped off several men in white overalls. They hurried into the lobby of the building and bypassed the lock system with a small computer. They hurried up three floors and arrived at Snake’s apartment. They stripped out of the overalls revealing black body armor and pulled out silenced pistols while one of the opened a briefcase. Inside was a small collapsible mini battering ram, a figure pulled it out and extended it and broke down the door in a big clank. They rushed into the apartment shining small flashlights attached to their pistols but no one was inside. One of the intruders pulled out a radio…

Once again under the pentagon the special phone rang. The general picked it up.

"General Ivan here." Said the general.

"Sir no one’s here, there is a personnel computer but the man, the girl and the disk aren’t here." Radioed the task force.

"Find me that disk Captain or I’ll be using your hand for my transplant, Ocelot out." Ocelot hanged up the phone. Promptly another beeping began indicating the optical disk was being used. Ocelot phoned the Captain.

"Captain it appears Snake has given you one more chance…"

At Cambell’s house Mei Ling carefully examined the disk’s contents. "My god Snake look at this it appears that the Metal Gear test data was more important then everyone let on. It appears Armstek was having a lot of problems with their robot designs, every Metal Gear made except Rex suffered massive failure and exploded, they needed this disk to fix the fatal flaws in the Metal Gear program." Said Mei Ling.

"Other Robots! Give me locations." Yelled Snake.

"Here," said Mei as she printed out a sheet. "There are a lot of places…One of them is even under the pentagon. Oh what’s this? It appears to be a list of names and I think one of them you might be interested in Snake." The screen displayed a photo of Ocelot.

"Our friend Ocelot isn’t what he seems. He was sent to the Fox Hound unit because someone knew Liquid Snake was planning something and they wanted to make sure the test data would be safe for their plans." Reported Mei Ling.

"Who?" said everyone in the room.

"Oh my…The man behind the Metal Gear projects, and Ocelot is THE PRESIDENT!" said Mei Ling surprised.

"I knew it! That scum he is really going to do it, that bastard." Yelled Meryl. Suddenly the lights and computer died. Someone had cut the power to the house. The Colonel and Snake pulled out their guns and standed ready. They heard a scampered of feet all around them. The last thing that Snake heard was "Freeze" before he felt the butt of a gun make contact with the back of his head as he lost conscious and everything went black

To Be Continued…
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