Solid Frodo: Hobbit Espionage Action

Chapter 13: Lions and Tigers and Wargs, Oh My!

Grumbling and rubbing his nose, Frodo finally managed to steer himself in the right direction. He stumbled down the ramp that the hidden door revealed, while the other Hobbits and Meryl followed him, still rather amused about the whole ‘begging Sam to hit him’ incident. While they were in the dim hallway, Frodo found a ration and immediately sat down and started eating it, hoping it would make his head feel better and stave off that nasty Sam-fist shaped bruise he knew was going to show up sooner or later. Pippin picked up the other two items, a SOCOM clip and a FA-MAS clip, and handed Merry the FA-MAS bullets since Merry had that particular rifle.

They stood around for a few moments, waiting for Frodo to finish his ration. When he did, he got up, and seemed to be a good bit less dizzy, so apparently it worked. Sam was happy to see he hadn’t done any permanent damage to his master.

Then they went to the next door and opened it.

It led to a very dark underground cavern, and they all heard the howling of wolves. This was of no little concern to the Hobbits, as a wolf could make easy prey of them, even with their blades. They listened for a while, then Pippin ventured, "They don’t sound like regular wolves...."

Meryl was pulling at her lip. "Is something wrong, Miss Meryl?" Sam asked.

"No...well...yes. I can’t believe I let Psycho Mantis control my mind like that."

"But what could you have done about it? I don’t think it’s your fault," Sam assured her.

"Maybe not. I still feel bad, like I was too weak or something." She glanced over at Frodo and cleared her throat. "Sorry about what I said...it was Psycho Mantis, really."

Frodo looked slightly uncomfortable. "It wasn’t your fault."

Meryl scratched at her hair. "Still...it looks a little like I scared you pretty bad."

"Maybe," Frodo said, coughing slightly, "a little. It didn’t help that Colonel Campbell threatened to rip my arms off if I touched you...."

Meryl started laughing. "He said that?"

"Yes...he did. He doesn’t like me."

She covered her mouth with her hand, trying to stop snickering. "He’s just overly protective sometimes."

Another wolf howl interrupted them. "They really don’t sound like wolves...you don’t suppose they’re Wargs, do you Frodo?" Pippin asked.

"I hope not! That would mean there might be Orcs around!" Frodo pulled Sting from his sheath just a little, but there was no blue glow in it at all. "Well...there aren’t any Orcs at least. Odd that they would bring Wargs here but not Orcs."

"Wargs? Orcs?" Meryl asked, confused.

"Wargs are an especially fierce and large breed of wolf," Merry said. "Usually Orcs ride them the way Men ride horses. They usually go together, Orcs and Wargs...it does seem strange that Sauron would bring Wargs but not Orcs."

"Maybe he thought that Orcs would be too suspicious?" Sam suggested. "None of these Big People know anything about Orcs or Dwarves or any of the things we’re familiar with...you don’t suppose we somehow got stuck on the other side of the Bent World, do you?"

Merry looked upset. "I hope not! That would mean Sauron’s reach is a lot farther than we thought! He could go all the way around the Bent World and come at Middle-Earth from the West!!"

"Sauron? Bent World?" Meryl asked, even more confused.

"I don’t think so, Merry. If Sauron’s reach were that far, he would have done it by now. Elves were ever his chief foes, and I’m sure little would please him more than to prevent Elves from following the Straight Path," Frodo answered.

"Elves? Straight Path? Dwarves? Do you guys play AD&D too much in your spare time?" Meryl asked, her confusion ever mounting.

"Huh? Oh, sorry...," Pippin said. "We were talking about Middle-Earth, where we’re from. I...well...it feels really odd saying this, but I don’t think you have a Middle-Earth here anywhere. We still wonder how all these minions of the Dark Lord got here...well, we wonder how we got here too!" He stopped for a second and scratched his hair. "It’s a little too much for me to get my mind around. But I’m worried about the Wargs...and I still think there are Orcs in disguise around," he added darkly, and all the Hobbits knew he meant Dr. Hunter, Romenenko, and Campbell.

"Well, whatever," Meryl said, giving up. "We need to get over to the other side of this cavern, so I’ll go ahead and you can follow me." So she went off, and it didn’t sound as though she had any trouble with the Wargs.

The Hobbits were slow to follow, and Merry decided procrastination was the better part of valor and went over to a small, very dark cave area nearby. He picked up some more SOCOM bullets and another ration, adding to his hefty stash of food. The other Hobbits followed him, and Pippin looked through a crack in the wall.

"Hey! How’d she do that!" he exclaimed, and the other Hobbits looked through the crack as well. Meryl was on the other side, next to a door, and there was a little Warg cub sitting at her feet with a big red heart over its head. The Hobbits were certain now that these were not ordinary wolves; the cub didn’t look much like the Wargs they had seen, but neither did it look like a wolf. Perhaps they were a new breed of Warg.

"I guess Wargs like her or something," Sam ventured, a little confused. "At least Warg cubs do...."

Suddenly Frodo just up and shivered. "We better get over there too. I hope these Wargs aren’t familiar with the scent of Hobbit."

The other Hobbits looked downcast, rather disliking the idea of facing Wargs without some of Gandalf’s fire to deal with them. But they steeled themselves, and went back to the opening of the snow-filled cavern and crawled through.

It was fortunate Wargs showed up in the radar; it made it just slightly easier to get by them. But that was just their cone of vision—the Hobbits didn’t trust for an instant that the blue cone on their radar had anything to do with the Warg’s sense of smell.

The Hobbits walked as fast as they could past the first Warg, and were distressed to notice that it was sniffing the very faint prints they left in the snow. Then it howled, and there was a Hobbit free-for-all running toward where they thought Meryl was.

The Wargs were hot on their tails, and the Hobbits unsheathed their swords as they ran. Soon they reached what looked like a dead end, but there were two holes to crawl under, so Sam and Frodo picked the one to the south, while Merry and Pippin picked the one to the east. The Warg cub chased Frodo and Sam through the crack, and it yipped at them. But the other two Wargs couldn’t fit through the crack, and had to settle for angrily growling at them.

"Now what sir?!" Sam asked, panting, as he looked around the dim cavern and realized they had picked the wrong one. There were some boxes stored inside, and a few items; some diazepam and some magazines for a weapon they didn’t seem to have yet. Frodo picked them up and pocketed them, figuring they would probably end up using them soon.

Then he peeked under the crack. "Well...I don’t know Sam. Those Wargs don’t look happy." He looked back in at Sam, and smiled; the Warg cub had taken a liking to Sam and started nipping at his ear and pulling his hair, splaying out its little paws in front of it and wagging its tail in that well-known way dogs have of saying "Play with meeeee!"

Sam didn’t look at all pleased, but the cub was very insistent and had pounced on him. The two ended up wrestling around, and the Warg cub had a big red heart over its head, while Sam was trying to keep its little dagger sharp teeth from biting him, even if it was in play. But it ended up that Sam was actually having fun with the cub, if that could be judged by the fact that he was giggling amidst all the rolling around, wrestling and the numerous "ows" the little cub elicited.

Frodo actually laughed; it was nice to see some good old-fashioned fun for a change. He did wonder what that would make the Wargs think though. He peeked back out under the crack while Sam played with the cub, and he saw Merry waving his hand in a "get over here!" sort of way. Merry yanked his hand back every time a Warg got close though, since it seemed the Wargs had decided Hobbit might make a nice meal and it snapped at his hand every chance it got.

Frodo nodded at Merry, and pulled back. "Sam, we need to get over to the other crawl space. You don’t suppose...that the Wargs will...like you now, do you?"

Sam stopped his playing and held the cub over his head. The cub squirmed around gleefully, smiling and wagging its tail. "I hope not! Wait...I guess it would come in handy...I don’t know sir."

"Why don’t you try going out with the Warg cub?" Frodo suggested.

"Sir?!" Sam sounded incredulous. Meanwhile the Warg cub had squirmed out of his grip and had begun licking Sam’s face like there was no tomorrow.

"I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think you would be safe, Sam! Wargs are very protective of their cubs. If the cub likes you, maybe the Wargs would leave you alone."

"But what...," Sam was interrupted by more Warg kisses. He tried shoving the Warg cub out of his face, and it worked for a moment. "What about you sir?"

"I don’t know...," Frodo said thoughtfully. Against all natural instinct a Hobbit has against getting close to large predators (as Hobbits know they are small enough to be a few rungs down on the food chain), Frodo tried approaching the Warg cub, but it would have none of it. It began growling and yipping as soon as Frodo got near. Frodo backed off quickly, and after a moment, the cub went back to covering Sam with kisses.

"Well...sir...I suppose...I suppose I could go out with the cub and you could sneak behind me," Sam said uncertainly.

"That might work," Frodo said. "I’ll have Sting out just in case, I don’t want you in any danger."

"Oh...OK...," Sam said, and then he pulled the cub into a hug and crawled out into the larger cave. The adult Wargs howled and yipped, about to attack, but when they saw their cub snuggled up in Sam’s arms wagging its tail with a heart over head, question marks appeared over the adults’ heads. Frodo crawled out after Sam, and watched in some amazement as Sam stood stock-still, content Warg cub in arms while Wargs taller than he was sniffed at him in confusion. Sam appeared scared to death, and Frodo was amazed all over again at the lengths to which Sam would go for him.

As he passed slowly behind Sam and crawled under the correct crack, Frodo said to himself, "Dearest Sam, I don’t deserve a friend like you." As soon as he was through, Frodo said louder, "I’m on the other side Sam!"

Sam didn’t say anything, instead he set the Warg cub down very very slowly in front of him, and then he got down and crawled backwards through the small opening. The big Wargs started sniffing their cub, and the cub started licking Sam’s face again.

As soon as Sam was through, the cub followed and went and sat in front of Meryl. Sam wiped his face on his sleeve. "What took you guys so long," Meryl asked with a smirk.

"To be honest, if you hadn’t noticed, Hobbits make a perfect sized meal for Wargs," Pippin complained.

"And Wargs are not unaware of this," Merry added, "even if these Wargs were unfamiliar with our scent."

"Well, we made it anyway," Frodo said. "I do wonder why you had such an easy time."

Meryl shrugged. "The puppy liked me."

"That cub thought I was lunch," Pippin complained.

"It liked Sam well enough," Frodo said. "Didn’t like me at all."

Merry and Pippin stared at Sam. "The cub didn’t try to bite your fingers off?!"

Sam shrugged. "Actually it did...and my ears, and my hair, and my clothes...sharp little teeth!"

Merry and Pippin continued to be shocked, but gave Sam appreciative looks. "Well...I guess that’s good...at least one of us won’t be Warg dinner if we have to come back through here."

"I don’t know, the adult Wargs didn’t seem that impressed," Sam said.

"That’s better than nothing though."

Sam shrugged.

"The communications tower is right past here, we should go," Meryl said.

"All right," Frodo said, and as they passed the door, Merry scooped up a ration he saw on the ground.

When they opened the door, it opened up to a very long dirt covered hallway, with the communication tower quite a good distance away. Immediately in front of them, there was a small area that was wider than the rest of the walkway, with some tall metal cylinders and two corners on either side that could be used as hiding places.

The Hobbits were about to move forward, but Meryl stopped them. "This place is mined," she said.

"How can you tell?" Merry asked, while Frodo got out the Mine Detector and activated it.

"Well," Meryl replied, "When Mantis dove into my mind, I could somehow see where the mines were placed." Then she proceeded to carefully walk around in a peculiar pattern, leaving footprints in the dirt, and stopped at the end of the alcove, right in front of the hallway. "Are you impressed?"

"Yeah! That was pretty neat!" Pippin exclaimed enthusiastically.

"I think we’ll deal with the mines a little differently though," Frodo said, and he got down on his belly and crawled around to pick up the Claymores. Merry followed suit; there were four mines, so it didn’t call for all of them to get dusty picking them up.

Then the Hobbits walked up to Meryl, but before they got a chance to start down the hallway, Pippin noticed a red dot appear on Meryl. "Watch out!" he shouted, recognizing the dot as a laser site much like the SOCOM had. But it was too late; a shot rang out, and Meryl jerked forward, shot in the leg. She cried out, and the Hobbits hid in the corners.

"Meryl!" Pippin shouted, "Come out of the way!"

Meryl turned to hobble back into hiding, but she was shot a second time, and this time she fell. She screamed again, and then gasped, "Shoot me! They’re using me as bait!"

"No!" Sam shouted, "We can’t do that! Look, we’ll rescue you!" Sam started out from behind the corner, but jerked back when Merry saw another red dot and grabbed him, and he was just in time; a little puff of dust showed where the bullet aimed at Sam’s head connected with the wall behind them.

Meryl started reaching for her gun, but cried out a third time as the sniper shot her to prevent her from taking her own life. "It’s not me they want...," she half sobbed, "it’s you...or maybe it’s someone else...but it’s not me. They’re trying to lure you out! Run away! You have to!"

"We can’t just leave you Meryl!" Frodo said, "We just can’t!"

"You don’t have a choice! If you come out, that sniper will kill you!"

Suddenly, the Hobbits’ Codecs beeped, and they answered, still very upset by what they had seen. It was from Colonel Campbell. "Meryl! Damn!! It’s a trap! Sniper’s trick to lure you out...the sniper’s waiting for you to go and help Meryl so he can pick you off...and damn it, as much as I would like to be rid of you nuisances, I don’t want you guys killed. Don’t try to save her!"

"But what can we do?!" Sam asked loudly. "We can’t leave her like that!"

Naomi Hunter came on the line. "It must be Sniper Wolf...FOX-HOUND’s best shooter. She can wait for hours, days, or weeks, it doesn’t matter to her. She’s just watching and waiting for you to expose yourselves."

"That’s not good," Pippin said. "We just can’t leave her, not for days!"

Naomi asked, "Can any of you see Wolf from there?"

Sam got out the Scope and had a look around. "I see some cold breath out on that tower way over there. Is that her?"

"It must be. She’s probably on the second floor of the communications tower; it’s the classic sniper’s position. At that distance you won’t be able to hit her with a standard weapon."

Campbell broke in. "You’ll need a sniper rifle!" He sounded distraught.

"We’ll save her, we will!" Merry assured him. "She don’t deserve to die like this. I know we’ve had our differences, but we won’t let her down."

Despite how frustrating he found the Hobbits, Campbell was relieved to hear their assurances. "Okay...thanks," he said, relaxing slightly.

Naomi on the other hand looked strangely annoyed. "What’s wrong, Dr. Hunter?" Frodo asked.

"Oh...I’m just surprised you’re willing to sacrifice yourselves...I didn’t expect you bickering, annoying little runts to do that," Naomi answered.

"You really are an Orc, aren’t you," Pippin growled.

"You would not at all be the first to underestimate a Hobbit, Dr. Hunter," Frodo replied slowly but heatedly. "Not the first, and certainly not the last." Then he said to Campbell, "We’ll save her, Colonel. We can’t do otherwise."

"Thank you," Campbell said, and it seemed that he had realized how badly he himself had missed the mark when it came to Hobbits. "I think you’re right, we did underestimate you."

The Hobbits smiled, but grimly. It felt nice to be appreciated for once, but they had an inkling it wouldn’t last...and they were far more concerned with Meryl. "We’ll save her," Frodo said one last time, then cut the line.

"OK," Sam said, "we know what we need...but how do we get it?"

Pippin answered, "Dr. Emmerich said he knew the fortress pretty well. We should call him and ask."

The rest agreed, and soon Otacon filled the green Codec vision. Merry asked, "Otacon, do you know where there might be a sniper rifle?"

Otacon shoved his glasses up his nose. "A sniper rifle?"

"Yes, Meryl’s been shot by Sniper Wolf...we need a sniper rifle to fight back, so we can save her."

"I...uh...Wolf?" Otacon sounded distinctly uncomfortable.

"Yes, that’s what Dr. Hunter said. Do you know where there might be one?"

"Uh...I...I think I saw one in the Armory below the Tank Hanger."

Merry slumped back. "All the way back there? That’s a long way!"

"And through the Wargs again!" Pippin moaned.

Sam asked, "Is there any way to get there any faster? Miss Meryl doesn’t have a lot of time."

Otacon began to look even more troubled. "Well...you...you can get on a truck...if you hide in a cardboard box headed for the Heliport, they’ll drive you back outside."

Frodo frowned. "Do we have a box for the Heliport?" He pulled out the second box he had found, but the words on it were written in a language he couldn’t understand.

"The box you found in the Tank Hanger should be marked for the Heliport. You’ll have to get to the Nuclear Storage Building though, before you can find a truck. There’s a truck on the first floor."

Frodo put the box back in his pocket and asked, "What does a truck look like?"

Otacon huffed and his voice sounded annoyed. "They have four wheels, and a covered bed. I’m sure you’ve seen one."

Sam whispered, "It must be them wagons." Frodo nodded.

Then he asked, "Otacon, are you OK? You sound upset."

"No, no...I’m fine. It’s nothing," the scientist answered, but the Hobbits could tell he was lying. But they didn’t feel like pressing for details, as Meryl was their priority at the moment.

"Thank you for your help, Otacon," Frodo said. "It’s for a good cause."

Otacon just sighed heavily and turned off his Codec.

"I wonder what’s the matter with him?" Pippin asked.

Frodo shrugged. "Something was bothering him, that’s for certain. But we have more pressing matters." He stood, and as he walked to the doorway, he was careful to stay as far away from the hallway line as he could. Then, when he and the other Hobbits had reached the door to the Warg cavern, he called to Meryl, "Hang on Meryl! We’ll be back to save you!" Then they walked through the door, followed by the sound of gunfire.

Go on to Chapter 14