Masters of Disguise

For the man who called himself Liquid Snake, it wasn't the first time that he'd seen a dead body, and if everything went according to plan, it wouldn't be the last. But looking at the body of Decoy Octopus laid out on the interrogation room's turntable, he found it quite...perturbing.

Not that he gave any outward indication of that. In the presence of two members of FOXHOUND, two genome soldiers, and being the master and commander of both, he couldn't afford to show weakness. But even then, he could sense the unease around him - certainly the two troopers, who were not only present before a dead FOXHOUND member, but also had to clear up a pile of bodies that his brother had left in the holding area. Wolf, leaning against a wall in the corner, was failing to hide her unease as well, keeping one eye on Octopus's body, while another on a terminal. And even Raven, towering above them all, carried a sense of unease about him. Even before he spoke.

"Is there something we don't know?"

And after. Liquid looked at him. "Any institution you want to offer, shaman? Did one of your crows fly in through the window and mark Octopus?"

"There aren't any windows in the holding area."

"Yes, I know. And I also know that we're in a worse place than when we started," he snapped. He began walking around the table, like a jackal might its prey. He looked at the Genome soldiers. "You two. Leave us."

The nodded, and promptly headed out of the interrogation room. Through fear or loyalty, he couldn't be sure. As long as Mantis remained alive, he could count on a functional army, but already down one member of FOXHOUND, then, well...

"So," Wolf murmured, still lurking in the corner. "How fares the revolution?"

Liquid glared at her. "Something you want to add?"

"No." She popped in one of her pills. "Nothing at all."

Liquid doubted that. In anything approaching normal circumstances, he'd have pressed the issue. But these weren't normal circumstances. They'd ceased to be normal the moment FOXHOUND had launched its uprising, and for him, life had never been normal. Normal was for people who came into the world through normal means, not as the refuse of a cloning method.

"So," Liquid said, continuing to walk around the table as he did so. "Decoy Octopus makes contact with Snake. He lives long enough to give him the information we want him to get, but not long enough to get any useful information out of him in turn. Thanks to, in no small part, Octopus deciding to have a heart attack and dying in front of his would-be rescuer." He stopped pacing around, his hand on the turntable forming into a fist. "Which means that we're no closer to finding a way to activate REX, and unless you have a means of reviving a corpse, no means of retrieving the DARPA chief's detonation code either. Am I missing anything?"

No-one answered. No-one had to.

"On the other hand," Liquid said, starting to pace around the turntable again. "Snake and Campbell don't know anything about it either. Or at least Snake doesn't. Campbell, though…" He trailed off, flexing his fist. He'd never met Roy Campbell, but having read his file, it seemed unlikely he could play a game of deception for any period of time. Having talked to the man while playing the role of McDonnell Miller, he hadn't seen any indication of deception there either. Still, the only reason Campbell was on this mission at all, according to the old man himself, was that the Pentagon knew that he was the best man to get Snake to do the bidding of Uncle Sam. Campbell knew it. He'd admitted as such. Snake was too much a fool to know any better, but if Campbell could play the deception game to a point, then who was to say he couldn't go a point further? And that wasn't even talking about the rest of FOXHOUND. Even if men like him were the ones who got their hands dirty, the support staff were hardly clean.

"So what now then?" Raven asked. "Should we kill him?"

Liquid blinked. "What?"

"The infiltrator. He doesn't know anything. What further business do we have of him?"

We. The word entered Liquid's ears like a blade. We. As if there was a "we," here. As if Raven could possibly understand what Snake's presence meant to him. To the Brother of Light. The reject son of the 20th Century's Great Soldier.

"Boss?"

He shook his head. "No. I have Ocelot trailing him. He'll have his fun, see what Snake's made of."

"There's close to a dozen bodies in the holding area that might suggest otherwise."

"And you might bite your tongue." He looked at Wolf. "You're awfully quiet."

Wolf didn't say anything. She at least gave him the respect of meeting his gaze, but otherwise, she remained quiet.

"Fine. Then I can send you to the glaciers by the comms. towers."

"Why?" she murmured.

"I've assigned a squad to get rid of all the wolf-dogs. Two men have already been mauled, and-"

"No."

Liquid smirked. There it was, he thought. The fire. The same spark in her eyes every time he'd given her a target.

"No?" he asked. "Are you questioning me?"

"They're not part of this," he said. "If you want to burn the world, they don't have to burn with it."

Liquid shrugged. "Fine. But hurry up then, because the hunt's beginning soon. And who knows, maybe when it's done, you can visit your other pet."

The fire in Wolf's eyes briefly resembled an inferno. But only briefly. Like a supernova, it burnt bright, but was unforgotten, even as it faded. Instead, she slung her rifle over her shoulder and headed out of the interrogation room, not sparing any of the men a second glance.

"You could have called the troopers off yourself," Raven murmured.

Liquid smirked. "I could of."

"Instead, you send a wolf into a fold to chase rabbits."

"True, granted."

"Indeed."

Liquid looked up at Raven. "Something you want to say, shaman?"

"Only that it appears that you do not trust her."

Liquid, much to his shame, was taken aback. Shame, because there was no silver on Raven's tongue, and he shouldn't have been surprised at such brutal honesty. But chasing the shame away, the shame paling in comparison to the shame of his birthright, he was able to laugh.

"Oh don't take it personally Raven, I don't particularly trust anyone."

"There are some who might say that is a poor mark for a commander."

"And I might say that I'm looking at a dead body with no way to activate REX!"

The shame briefly came back, all the more so as he slammed the table in frustration. Truth was, however, was that he trusted Raven more than most of them. Vulcan Raven had been at Outer Heaven. Raven had trusted his father's ideals, and ergo, his. Having planned this uprising for months, and having been forced to play the role of Master Miller for close to an hour, the giant's blunt honesty was surprisingly refreshing.

"So what then?" Raven asked.

Liquid looked back at Octopus's corpse. "We'll let Ocelot test Snake. See what he's made of."

"If he is your brother, is that not already known?"

Liquid scowled. "The man's been living in denial for over half a decade, playing with the same dogs that Wolf likes so much. No. I'll let Ocelot test him. In the meantime..." He looked back at Octopus. "Get him on ice. I want an autopsy done as soon as possible."

Raven nodded, and without any effort, picked up Octopus's corpse, slinging it over his shoulder. Even now, Liquid couldn't help but be impressed.

"And you, Boss?"

Liquid smirked, and took something out of his pocket. "Octopus isn't the only one who could disguise himself," he said. "I'll play the role that fate's assigned me for now." He put the item over his eyes and looked at Raven.

"So. How are my sunglasses?"

A/N

Y'know, it occurred to me that despite Decoy Octopus being a master of disguise, Liquid, disguised as Miller, does a far better job of manipulating Snake than Octopus does. Granted, FOXDIE can account for some of that, but...

Anyway, drabbled this up.