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.
But Liquid wasn’t finished with him yet.
“Snake, we were created by the Patriots.” He sent another punch to the same place. “We’re not men. We’re shadows in the shape of men.”
Snake was utterly defenseless, with no strength left within him. Liquid pushed him back.
“We’re freaks who never should have existed!”
This time the punch came straight at Snake’s face.
“We’re a system to stifle the prosperity of future generations.”
Another punch. But this time, somehow, Snake was able to stop it, wrapping his hand around his brother’s fist.
“The Patriots saw fit to create us, and in doing so became our only raison d’être.”
Liquid drew back his other hand to strike.
“I won’t fight my fate any longer.”
Snake narrowly blocked the punch. Snake had each of his hands around Liquid’s, and they stood posed like wrestlers testing each other’s strength.
“I’ll kill Zero and Big Boss and become a Patriot myself.”
For a few tense moments, Liquid resisted Snake. Then suddenly he relaxed his arms and let Snake go. He turned his back to his brother and started walking to the patrol boat.
As he walked away, he said, “It all began with Zero and Big Boss. Our purpose in life is to fulfill our destinies. And once all is returned to nothing, the world can be reborn.”
When he reached the side of his ship, he turned to face his brother. Snake, exhausted from the struggle, was helpless to do anything but stare into the eyes hidden behind Liquid’s sunglasses.
“So long as we both live,” Liquid said, “there is no future. If we’re to pass the baton to the next generation, the only choice left to us is death.”
Between the fatigue of old age, the loss of breath, and the damage inflicted by Liquid’s beating, Snake was only half conscious, no longer able to tell which emotions showed in his brother’s eyes.
Vamp said something to Liquid, who nodded. Snake and I both got the feeling that something big was about to happen.
The nosferatu made a signal, and the soldiers surrounding Snake quickly backed into the boat, their weapons still trained on the wheezing old man.
The ship began to distance itself from the concrete walkway, and Liquid hopped aboard. “The players have all assembled, Snake. The time has come for you to witness our moment of triumph!”
Snake could only watch as the boat withdrew to the river. Liquid stood on the deck, his arms crossed, the wind across the water blowing his—that is to say, Ocelot’s—long gray hair.
Naomi stood beside him. Her eyes, brimming with sadness, settled on Snake.
Then a bright light flooded over everything.
Liquid’s ship was in the dead center of the river when the beams of light hit it from all directions. American helicopters hovered in the night sky, their floodlights aimed at the patrol boat. In an instant, the pitch dark of the city transformed into the glare of a concert arena.
“Hold it right there, Liquid!”
Meryl’s amplified voice, practically a howl, echoed off the bridges.