Metal Gear Solid Male Reader: The Full Story of Punished "Venom" Snake

Chapter 65: The body in the pod

Venom Snake's POV

I am back in the ACC with DD, I get another call from Kaz.

Kaz: Boss, about that AI pod you retrieved from Emmerich's research facility... Guess what we found inside.

Venom Snake: What?

Kaz: A corpse - human. The pod maintained a low internal temperature the whole time, and very little outside air got in. That would've slowed down decomposition. Still, the remains were mostly skeletal. Estimated time of death is between six months and a year ago. We put the screws to Huey about it. Listen to the tape. Turns out it was the body of someone we knew very well.

Venom Snake: Will do.

I find the tape and listen to it.

Huey: Fine. Yes. Strangelove was doing AI research in that lab.

Kaz: Why hide that until now?

Huey: OK, so what, I wasn't working alone. You've got to understand... you do understand, right? I didn't want to drag her into this. It's my load to bear. Alone.

Ocelot: So you didn't create the AI intended to drive Sahelanthropus. It was Strangelove.

Huey: Skull Face was never in favor of AI control. So naturally, they argued. Strangelove, she... she got him angry, and... He killed her.

Ocelot: How?

Huey stayed silent.

Ocelot: You didn't see it?

Huey is still silent.

Ocelot: So you found her inside that pod after the fact? And you just left her body to rot in there? Or perhaps you put her in there, afterward?

Huey: I... asked him not to take her away from me.

Ocelot: So she was killed by Skull Face. But you asked nicely, and he put her body in the AI Pod for you.

Huey: That's right.

Kaz: Pathetic.

Ocelot: You know, we have another idea. That you killed her.

Huey: Me?! I couldn't kill her!

Ocelot: You killed her and locked her body in the pod.

Huey: I wouldn't! Don't treat me like one of you! I can't just kill anyone whenever I feel like it! I'm a... a normal human being.

Ocelot: Oh? I see. So you just shut her inside. And waited for her to die.

Huey: I would never do that...

Ocelot: You mean she killed herself.

Huey: Yes. She climbed inside that pod and shut the door. It can't be opened from outside. It was suicide. Suicide, I said! She killed herself. She got in when I wasn't looking, and suffocated. She'd often tried to do things like that. By the time I realized and opened the door... she wasn't breathing. I got scared and shut the pod again. I couldn't bring myself to open it back up. That's right. Me kill her? What's wrong with you.

Ocelot: I see. Just tell me one more thing.

Huey: Haven't you gotten enough today?

Ocelot: OK, OK. I see it's a painful memory. You don't have to answer. Just listen to the question.

Huey signs.

Ocelot: You see, we examined her remains. She had a scar on her lower abdomen. A surgical scar. It has been stitched up, and had fully healed. Meaning it was long before her death. She had a child, didn't she? Your child. Where's the kid.

Huey: How should I know.

Kaz: So there is a child.

Huey: I've never seen his face.

Kaz: What do you take us for?

Huey: They took it all. Even my child. I didn't even know he'd been born. I - lost - everything.

Ocelot: How old would he be?

Huey: It's 4 years since then.

Ocelot: And you know it's a boy.

Huey: Strangelove said so...

Ocelot: And his name?

Huey: We called him Hal... Even though I never saw his face...

Huey starts crying. The tape ends.