Solid Frodo: Hobbit Espionage Action

Chapter 15: A Elbereth Gilthoniel

Frodo slowly woke up, and groggily opened his eyes. There were seven very bright lights above him; he seemed to be laying on something rather uncomfortable. And it was cold. He tried to grab his cloak, but realized first, his hands (and his feet) were bound, and second, he didn’t have his cloak. He thought to himself that this was probably a very Bad Thing.

He listened, and heard people talking. There was that one Big Person with the accent saying, "So this is one of those little twirps that beat you, eh Revolver?"

Oh no, Frodo thought, I don’t want to be anywhere near him!

But he was; he heard Revolver Ocelot growl and say, "Yes, this is the one that wouldn’t go down. Little monster taunted me."

The other voice said, "Looks like he’s awake; let’s get a look at him." Then Frodo felt whatever it was he was lying on move so he was upright...which made it all that much more uncomfortable. He looked around, and saw the Big Person in the brown cloak, Liquid Snake; the Big Person woman, Sniper Wolf; and Revolver Ocelot, who looked as though he hadn’t calmed down one iota since Frodo last saw him.

Liquid Snake walked up to Frodo and gave him a careful once-over. He actually leaned down and fiddled with the fur on his feet. "I didn’t think any of our brothers had survived that little project, just Solid Snake and I. So you’re one of the rejects, one of my brothers that I thought were sacrificed...."

"Brothers? I don’t have any brothers," Frodo said, then added, "And if I did, he wouldn’t be a Man."

Liquid laughed, "What would he be then, a woman?"

"A Hobbit," Frodo muttered. "Not a Big Person."

There was a ringing noise, and Liquid Snake put a little black device to his ear. "It’s me," he said to the black box, turning away from Frodo. Then he said, "Really? Then what? Those idiots! All right Raven, I’ll be right there." He put the black thing in his pocket. "They aren’t responding to our demands. We’ll launch in ten hours as planned."

Sniper Wolf spat, "Damn Americans!"

Revolver Ocelot glowered. "Looks like you read them wrong. Something’s funny...normally the Americans are the first to the negotiations table. They must think they have something up their sleeve...." Ocelot gave Frodo a meaningful glance, then turned back to Liquid. "So it’s come down to it, has it? We’re gonna launch that nuke and ride it all the way into history."

Frodo frowned slightly. He filed that bit of information away; somehow it seemed important.

Liquid muttered, "I’ve got to take care of some launch preparations. You’re in charge here, Ocelot."

Ocelot grinned maliciously. He turned to Sniper Wolf and asked, "Wanna stay for the show?"

Wolf sneered. "I’m not interested. It’s time to take care of the family."

"So you prefer your wolves to my show, huh?"

Liquid interrupted. "Ocelot, don’t screw up like you did with the Chief."

With a sigh, Ocelot answered, "Yes, I know. That was an accident. I didn’t think a pencil pusher like him would be so tough...his mental defenses were reinforced by hypnotherapy."

Frodo suddenly remembered that strange vision he and his friends had had a while back. He looked around the room rather frantically, and realized with a sinking heart that he was in the same room that he had seen the DARPA Chief dead in, the same one where all of these minions of the Dark Lord had been upset about not getting the code. His eyes widened in realization. They can’t launch! But why are they talking as if they can?

While Frodo was thinking, the others talked about the Ninja. Then he heard something that caught his ear: "We have to figure out what killed Baker and Octopus." Octopus, Frodo thought, Decoy Octopus...the master of disguise...could it be we were talking to him and not the DARPA Chief? No wonder he was so suspicious!

Liquid muttered, "We’re shorthanded, so make this little torture show of yours as short as possible."

Ocelot sounded affronted. "Torture? This is an interrogation."

Frodo didn’t think that was quite true, and he suddenly felt a lot colder. He could see Ocelot was thinking more about pay back than anything else.

"As you wish," Liquid conceded, as if he knew as well as everyone else that Ocelot’s real intentions had nothing to do with questions. Then Liquid turned to Frodo and looked down at him. "See you later...what was it? Frodo?" Frodo nodded sullenly. "Well, see you later Frodo." Then Liquid left.

Sniper Wolf walked up to Frodo and leaned down so she could look him in the eye. "That lady I shot...she’s still in this world." Then Wolf moved very close, so close that Frodo could feel her breathing on his face. She ran one finger down his chest to the belt on his pants. "Catch you later...handsome." She stood and walked out.

Frodo shuddered and wrinkled his nose. He didn’t think any Big Person would ever find a Hobbit attractive, much the same way Hobbits generally didn’t go in for Big People...and the thought that he might be the first made him queasy.

"Once she picks a target, she doesn’t think of anything else," Ocelot informed Frodo. "Sometimes she even falls in love with them before she kills them."

Frodo slumped as much as was possible given the situation. "Oh dear."

Ocelot didn’t respond, instead, he said, "Finally, just the two of us. It’s too bad we couldn’t get the rest of you rats, but we’ll find you all soon enough." He paced across the room, and Frodo was very relieved to hear that Sam, Merry, and Pippin were still safe...assuming Ocelot was telling the truth.

Frodo ventured to ask a question. "Where are my things?"

Ocelot shrugged. "Oh, don’t worry, they’re all there." He pointed to a location behind Frodo that he couldn’t quite see.

"All of them?"

"Yes, all of them. Even that damnable dagger of yours."

Frodo dared not ask about the Ring; if they hadn’t found it, he wasn’t about to bring the matter to Ocelot’s attention.

With something that might pass as a laugh, Ocelot said, "Washington was taking quite a chance sending you here. Someone must have a lot of faith in the lot of you vermins’ skills, huh, carrier rat?"

"No, no, not really. I don’t believe I was their first choice, whomever ‘Washington’ is." Then, with a boldness born of feeling that there really wasn’t a lot to lose, Frodo added, "And I’m a Hobbit, not a rat." He wondered what Ocelot meant by ‘carrier’, though...it reminded him of something the Arms Tech president had said.

Ocelot just laughed. "I’ve got a couple questions to ask you," he said as he began adjusting some things on a machine.

"To tell the truth, I’m surprised," Frodo commented.

"Hmm? Why is that? Didn’t you hear this was an interrogation?"

"Well, yes, I did, but...I didn’t believe it."

Ocelot bared his teeth. "I won’t deny I’m going to enjoy this." He fiddled with a few more things on the machine. "Nevertheless, I do have a couple of questions to ask, and I suggest you answer them."

Frodo exhaled a little. "I’ll do my best." Just as long as he doesn’t ask about the Ring...

A bark of laughter escaped Ocelot. "You vermin are quite surprising. I don’t believe I’ve ever met such a cooperative hostage. No matter. Let me tell you something. Answer my questions, and Meryl lives. If you don’t, I’ll kill her."

Frodo nodded, then said, "But you’ll hurt me anyway."

"We begin to understand one another. Now, you got an optical disc from President Baker, didn’t you?"

"He gave me something. I don’t know what it was."

"Is that the only disc? There’s no other data?"

Frodo looked confused. "I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you mean."

Ocelot narrowed his eyes. "You vermin sure can be stupid. It doesn’t matter. I found you had a card key. There should be three. Where are they? What’s the trick behind that key?!"

Frodo thought for a moment. "That key...if it’s a Dwarvish key the way we think, it might have to do with the phase of the moon and the season...but I really don’t know. Dwarves can make doors that only open on certain days...they really are quite amazing, Dwarvish doors."

The Big Person gaped at Frodo. "Are you trying to insult my intelligence?!"

"No!" Frodo answered.

"Then tell me the trick to the key!"

"If it’s Dwarvish, only the Dwarf who made it would know, and anyone he tells! I haven’t seen any Dwarves here!"

Ocelot’s eyes were smoldering now. "That’s enough. You want to play games? Fine. We’ll play a game. See what you are really made of, you little rat. I’m going to run a high voltage electric current through your body. If it’s only for a little while, it won’t kill you. When the pain becomes to great to bear, just give up, and your suffering will end. But if you do, the girl’s life is mine."

His eyes hooded, Frodo said very softly, "You can’t make my suffering end. No one can."

Now Revolver Ocelot’s eyes blazed. "We’ll see about that! I’ll make you wish you’d never been born!"

The response he got shocked and angered him even more. Frodo began to quietly sing.

     "A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
     silivren penna míriel
     o menel aglar elenath!
     Na-chaered palan-díriel
     o galadhremmin ennorath,
     Fanuilos, le linnathon
     nef aear, sí nef aearon!"

Ocelot roared and slapped some switches on his machine. Frodo screamed incoherently for a moment, as the electricity arced through him, but then his screams became words..."A ELBERETH GILTHONIEL / O MENEL PALAN-DIRIEL, / LE NALLON SÍ DI’NGURUTHOS! / A TIRO NIN, FANUILOS!! A ERU ILÚVATAR!!" and many other things of Elvish that Ocelot couldn’t understand but made the gunslinger ever angrier.

By the time Frodo was reduced to merely whispering these words, Ocelot was screaming at him louder than Frodo had been when the Big Person first began torturing him.

It took Sam, Merry, and Pippin every ounce of willpower they possessed not to rush up and try to rescue Frodo from the Lossoth sniper and the guards. They waited in the shadows while one guard pistol-whipped the other Hobbit, picked him up, and swung him over his shoulder. The Big People didn’t notice the three hidden Hobbits as they passed, walking back toward the cavernous area with all the Wargs.

As soon as they passed out of earshot, Sam just about threw a fit. "What are we gonna do! We have to rescue him! Why did Frodo have to go first! I woulda done it, just like that!"

Pippin tried to calm Sam down. "We know you would, and I know he knew you would too. But he does foolish stuff like that all the time!"

"Don’t you go insulting my master, Peregrin Took!"

"I didn’t mean it that way, well...I did, but I didn’t. Sorry Sam, but he does, you know he does. He’s very selfish when it comes to danger, like he wants it all for himself."

This did not help Sam calm down in the slightest. Pippin might have done just as well saying extremely vulgar things about Sam’s mother. "YOU DON’T KNOW NOTHIN’ ‘BOUT MY MASTER SO YOU JUST SHUT YOUR TRAP RIGHT THIS INSTANT!!"

Pippin winced and drew back. Merry glared at him. "Nice going Pippin. Keep it up and Sam’ll run you through!"

And Sam looked like he might just do that. But it only lasted for a short time, and Sam looked like he was trying to calm himself down, taking nice deep breaths and repeating wise sayings his Gaffer had told him as he was growing up. After several minutes, Sam seemed to have gotten his head back. "I’m sorry for yellin’ at you like that Mr. Pippin, but that’s just not how Mr. Frodo works. He don’t like danger any more than the rest of us, he just thinks he can spare us and we won’t get hurt that way. He forgets it hurts us anyway."

"I know...I’m sorry, I just say things wrong," Pippin apologized. "But we do have to figure something out...obviously you’re right, Frodo wants rescuing."

Merry tapped his foot in thought. "You don’t suppose that Otacon would know where they might take Frodo?"

Sam bounced on his feet. "He might. But remember earlier, when we met the DARPA Chief? That was a bunch of cells...maybe they took him there."

Pippin nodded in agreement. "Seems a likely enough place...but isn’t it all the way back that way?" he said, pointing toward the Warg cavern. "That’s a long way to go."

It looked like Sam was about to shout something at Pippin again, but Merry interrupted. "Maybe Otacon would know how to get back there faster? I think we should call him anyway."

"Yeah, he could help," Sam agreed. So the Hobbits all turned on their Codecs and Merry asked for Otacon. Soon the spectacled man flickered onto the green Codec vision.

"Hey, hi. What do you guys need?" he asked helpfully.

Sam answered, "We need to find Frodo! That sniper lady Hobbit-napped him and we don’t know where they went!"

"Oohh...Wolf did that?" Otacon sounded surprised. "Well...I don’t know where they would take him. Where are you now?"

"We’re right in front of this really tall tower, the communications tower," Merry supplied.

"I’ll come over there. In the mean time, why don’t you call Mei Ling? She should be able to figure out where Frodo is by tracing his nanomachines."

"Oo, that’s right," Pippin replied. "Let’s do that."

Sam said very sternly, "Now we don’t want to wait here long, Mr. Otacon...we don’t know what they mean to do to Mr. Frodo."

"Oh, I’ll be there real quick. I’m feeding the wolves right now. See ya in a minute." Then he signed off.

While they waited, they called up Mei Ling. She appeared on the green vision and said, "Hello, do you need something?"

Merry slapped a hand over Sam’s mouth so he wouldn’t yell at the ‘Chinese Elf’ in his distress, allowing Pippin the honors. "We need to know where Frodo is. One of those FOX-HOUND people grabbed him and we need to find him."

"Oh no...I had a bad feeling something was going to happen. Let me check." She looked down at something for a while, apparently searching the radar. "Ah, here he is. They have him in a room near where you found the DARPA Chief."

"All the way back there...," Pippin moaned. "Well, there’s nothing to it but we gotta go back."

After some struggle, Sam pulled Merry’s hand off of his mouth. "Is Mr. Frodo all right Miss Ling?" he asked.

"Um...right now it looks like he’s out cold. Nothing else is wrong with him."

"Ah...that’s a relief," Merry said. "I hope he stays that way...er...well, I don’t mean stays unconscious...."

Mei Ling nodded. "Me too. I’ll keep you updated, OK?" She signed off, and just as she did, the Hobbits saw Otacon walking up.

"Well, I got here as fast as I could. Did Mei Ling know where Frodo was?"

"Yeah," Merry said, "She told us he was in a room near the cells where we first found the DARPA Chief."

"Oh...oh...we better hurry then," Otacon urged.

Sam looked suspicious. "Something the matter Mr. Otacon?"

"No, well...it’s just those cells are awfully nasty."

Sam didn’t look entirely convinced, but as long as they were hurrying, he was content.

So the four ran down the pathway and into the Warg cavern. They were fortunate to have Otacon with them, because the Wargs seemed to like him and they all sat and smiled in a surprisingly friendly manner, almost like puppies waiting to be petted. Otacon actually scratched the heads of the Wargs as he passed, and they followed him around with little red hearts above their heads. Even the cub, who usually preferred to hassle Sam, was happily prancing around Otacon’s feet.

The Hobbits all stared at Otacon with wide eyes, in absolute awe that any Man could possibly convince Wargs to like him! The Wargs all ignored the Hobbits, and they were content, because as a general rule, Hobbits like Wargs about as well as they liked things like adventures, empty pantries, and Sackville-Bagginses.

It took them some time to retrace their steps back through all the buildings and snowfields. By now they were experts at sword-whipping guards in the room where they couldn’t use their weapons that they passed through easily.

Then, when they were about halfway through the snowfield, Otacon rushed to the side and hunkered down behind a snowdrift. The Hobbits followed suit, wondering what was going on.

"It’s Frodo...he’s calling me on my Codec...."

When Frodo came to, this time he found himself in a large cell with windows all around. He didn’t think he’d felt this sore and beat up in his life—although the incident with the Witch-King’s Morgul blade was very close. The difference was this was all over; he felt like he couldn’t move, so for a long time he lay in the bed in the far corner of the room. There was a guard outside sneezing and complaining loudly about his health and how some woman stole his clothes.

Frodo’s throat was completely raw, but he took some grim satisfaction from knowing that Revolver Ocelot was probably just as hoarse as he was. He smiled faintly, remembering dimly that Ocelot had been near apoplectic with fury. He found it almost amusing that Elvish songs would come that close to giving a Man a heart attack. Frodo supposed it was because it spoiled Ocelot’s ‘fun’, to have the target of his sadism not even deigning to cry out properly.

But he had cried. Very slowly he raised a hand to wipe at dry tears that had run down his face. For a moment he wondered at all his bad fortune...even in a place far away from Nazgûl and their fierce terror, where the Ring felt as light as a feather, things seemed to zero in on him and make him miserable. Was it the Ring? He put his hand to his bare chest were the Ring should have been...he clenched his teeth in irrational anger when he found it gone.

He sat up...too fast; his head was spinning and he hurt from the movement. When he felt a little better, he realized there was a very unpleasant odor in the room. He looked around, then promptly lost at least one of his lunches.

The sight of a Man lying in a far corner, dead for days and crawling with maggots would be enough to try even the strongest stomach. Frodo looked away, at the wall right next to him. At least he now had part of the solution to the riddle of the DARPA Chief. The dead man was he; somehow Decoy Octopus must have gotten the Chief’s transceiver. He didn’t know how, but there it was; the dead man had to be the DARPA Chief, accidentally killed on that torture device of Ocelot’s, and left to rot.

For a long while Frodo just sat and stared at the wall. He really wished he could use the Codec to call the other Hobbits. Finally, he lifted his hand to his ear and decided to call the Colonel...not that it would make him feel any better, but he had to tell them about the DARPA Chief.

The Colonel came up on the green Codec vision. "What is it now?" he asked, not in the best of moods.

Frodo croaked, "DARPA Chief...wasn’t him."

Campbell suddenly looked concerned. "Wait, what happened?"

"Ocelot," Frodo whispered, "doesn’t like my singing."

The Colonel winced. It looked like he had figured out enough details. "Sorry. Now...you said something about the DARPA Chief?"

"Yes. Wasn’t him. He’s in here...dead for a while, no blood.... Someone else, we met someone else."

"Wait a minute," Campbell asked, "you mean to say that wasn’t the DARPA Chief you met up with earlier?"

Frodo nodded slowly. "Decoy Octopus...they wondered what killed him and the president. They don’t have the launch code."

Suddenly Master Miller broke in. "You must be mistaken. They must have gotten the code; they’re still threatening to launch!"

"No, no...they didn’t," Frodo insisted. "Ocelot killed him before they got it. He said so."

"He must have been lying," Miller retorted.

Campbell was thoughtful. "Hmmm. It wouldn’t be unlike terrorists to make empty threats."

Master Miller looked like he was turning colors, but it was difficult to tell which one it was with the vision being in green only. "I wouldn’t trust them Frodo. Sometimes the enemy says things to trick hostages into a false sense of security. Don’t tell them anything, Frodo."

Frodo almost smiled. "He didn’t believe me when I said the card key was probably Dwarvish."

Campbell gave Frodo a funny look. "Dwarvish?"

Miller echoed the sentiment. "You told Ocelot the card key was DWARVISH? Is your head stuck in a fairy tale or something? Dwarfism is a medical condition...and people with dwarfism can’t make special weird keys any more than a regular person."

"Tell that to the Khazad, see if they don’t hew the legs out from under you," Frodo replied.

"Ocelot must have really addled your wits, Frodo," Master Miller complained.

Campbell said to Miller, "No, he’s always like this."

Frodo sighed, then abruptly cut the line, basically hanging up on Campbell and Miller. He thought to himself for a while, wishing he didn’t have to deal with those Big People. Then he decided to call one of the Big People that didn’t think he was a walking joke, Otacon.

Otacon’s face came up, and Frodo said, "Do you know how to get me out of here?"

"Frodo! We’re coming to get you. We’ll find a way to get you out," Otacon said.

"We?" Frodo asked. "So Sam and the others are OK?"

"Yeah, they’re fine. Worried, but fine." Otacon looked away for a moment and seemed to be trying to shake something off his arm. "I think Sam is ready to bodily drag us all back to the cells."

Frodo smiled. "He would. Tell him I’m fine." Otacon could see and hear it was a bald-faced lie.

"OK, I will. Hang on, we’re almost there."

"All right. I have some interesting news to tell you...but I can’t just yet. The guard is coming."

"Ohhhh...oh...OK, I’m sorry...we’ll get you out of there."

Frodo cut the line just in time before the complaining guard opened the door and grabbed him. "Hey, it’s show time. Ocelot wants you."

Dragged by the guard, Frodo stumbled out of the room, and whispered, "Eru save me...."

Sam was yanking on Otacon’s coat. "What’s he saying? Is he OK?"

Otacon tried to extricate his arm from Sam’s grasp. He lowered his hand, indicating he was no longer transmitting by Codec. "He says he’s fine."

"You don’t look like you believed him," Pippin observed.

Finally pulling his arm out of Sam’s hands, Otacon shouted, "That’s what he said. He said he was fine." But Pippin was right; Otacon didn’t look like he thought Frodo was fine in the slightest.

"You’re a very bad liar," Merry pointed out.

Sam started yanking on Otacon’s arm again. "Tell us what you know right this very instant! What’s wrong with Mr. Frodo?"

Otacon appeared very reticent to speak. After a moment, again trying to free his arm, he said, "He’s alive and he’s going to stay that way, I’m sure of it."

"Well that’s a might long way away from ‘fine’, Otacon!" Merry shouted.

"Speak up!" Sam added, his hand straying near the hilt of his sword.

Otacon squeaked and gulped, not relishing the idea of getting hurt at all, and he was certain that sword was very sharp. "OK, OK! There’s a room next to the cells. It’s a...it’s got a torture device in it."

"A WHAT?!" Pippin cried. "That’s even farther away from ‘fine’!!"

But Pippin and Merry’s attention was drawn away from Otacon when they saw Sam sprinting away through the snow, obviously wiping his eyes. "Ooooooo!!" Merry growled, then the two of them ran after Sam.

Being nearly a foot and a half taller than Sam, they caught up with him easily and tackled him. Sam squirmed around and they found him very hard to keep hold of. But finally they managed to pin him down. He didn’t say anything; he was too busy crying to speak.

"Sam," Merry said sternly, "It will do Frodo no good at all if you go and get yourself killed, you understand me?"

Sam said nothing, just renewed his efforts to get away. After a good deal more struggling, the two taller Hobbits felt they had a good hold on the shorter again.

"We’ll get him, Sam," Pippin reassured, "We will. We haven’t failed him yet, have we?"

Through sniffles, Sam said, "But what if we don’t get there in time? He’s been through enough."

Pippin half shrugged. "I hate to think about it like that, but we’ll still rescue him, right? I don’t think Otacon was lying when he said that he was gonna stay alive."

"But...," Sam answered, but Merry spoke over him.

"No buts! And no more running off without thinking, OK?"

"I was thinking, I was thinking about Mr. Frodo!"

"You know what I mean!"

Sam sighed. "Fine, Mr. Merry. Now let me up."

Pippin and Merry let Sam loose, and Sam stood and dusted the snow off himself. There was a fell gleam in his eyes, one the other Hobbits hadn’t seen in Sam before. They thought to themselves that perhaps crossing Sam at this point would be a very painful experience.

They noticed Otacon was standing behind them, probably for most of their impromptu wrestling match. "Are we going or not?" Sam demanded.

"Yeah, let’s go. Just be careful of the gun cameras," Otacon replied.

So they went, and although he went in front, the other three felt as though Samwise were behind them with his sword out, driving them forward. The passed through the rest of the snowfield and the Oliphaunt hangar swiftly. Shortly, they were at the elevator, and Pippin, who had become the designated triangle-presser, pushed the down triangle and the elevator carried them to the floor with the cells.

Once they entered, the Hobbits heard something horrible coming from the room they couldn’t enter the first time they had been here. There were two voices shrieking...one full of fury and obscenities, the other in agony but singing.

"What is that?" Otacon wondered aloud.

It took precisely one second for the Hobbits to recognize both voices. The first was Revolver Ocelot, the other was Frodo Baggins. Sam bolted for the door, but Pippin grabbed him before he could get to it. "Don’t stop me Mr. Pippin! Let me go!"

"We can’t even get in, Sam!"

"LET ME GO! I’ll cut the door down!" He had drawn his Númenorean blade.

Otacon cleared his throat. "We can’t go in now...Revolver will see us."

Sam was about to answer, but then he suddenly stopped, listening. "...above all shadows rides the sun / and Stars forever dwell: / I will not say the Day is done..." He recognized the song. Sam slapped his hands over his ears, dropping his sword, trying to block out the sound of Frodo’s tortured, screamed song that seemed to be driving him mad. Merry, Pippin, and Otacon stood back fearfully as Sam ran around in a couple of wide circles, sobbing. Then he ran down the hallway to the far back of the room.

Pippin and Merry covered their ears too; they didn’t like to hear it anymore than Sam, but they didn’t recognize the song or its significance. Then they followed Sam. Otacon picked up the sword; in his hand it actually was more of a dagger, and he too followed the Hobbits into the back hallway

They gathered and sat near the ladder that led to the air duct over the cells. Sam was sitting in a corner, still covering his ears and shivering. Merry sat down on a box next to Sam, but didn’t quite know what to do. He didn’t imagine much would make Sam feel better.

After several minutes, Merry asked slowly, "Sam...what was that song? I’ve never heard it before."

Sam seemed to be able to hear Merry just fine through the hands that still covered his ears. He choked out, "It’s my song, I sung it, I made it up. I sung it when I thought I’d gone and lost him forever and I couldn’t find him. He musta remembered it."

Before anyone could comment, they heard the door open and the screaming of both people got louder. It seemed Revolver Ocelot was tossing off obscenities so foul they would curdle new milk, and now Frodo was singing an Elvish song even louder than Ocelot’s yelling, in defiance of it.

"THAT’S IT!! I’LL LET YOU DIE LIKE THAT YOU FREAK!!" Ocelot said finally and stomped out, onto the elevator.

Otacon sprang up. "We have to go now! Come on!" Otacon grabbed Pippin’s arm and started running toward the room Ocelot had just left. Sam and Merry followed, running faster, and they reached the door before Otacon did.

Sam grabbed his sword back from Otacon and was about ready to start making good his threat to cut the door open, but Otacon stopped him. "I have the PAN card!" he shouted, to be heard over Frodo, who still sang but now in despair; the pain he was in was much more evident in his voice now.

"WELL OPEN IT ALREADY!!" Sam cried out in his turn, tears streaming down his face.

Otacon didn’t need to be asked twice. He opened the door, and he and the Hobbits poured in. Otacon immediately made his way to the machine’s controls while the Hobbits came around looking for Frodo. Not that he was hard to find.

When the three Hobbits came into Frodo’s view, it took him a second to see them, but it surprised him enough that he stopped singing for a moment. Now all of them were crying, and three Westernesse blades were unsheathed, but Sam, Pippin, and Merry were helpless to do anything. They didn’t dare try to cut Frodo free while the machine was still on, not knowing what that would do.

"I think I’ve got it," Otacon announced, and received three Hobbit glares. Not glares for figuring it out, but glares for wasting time saying so. Otacon winced, then flipped a couple switches and the machine powered down and the restraints unlatched, causing Frodo to fall forward onto the nearest Hobbit, which happened to be Sam.

Frodo was lucky he didn’t land on Sam’s dagger, but it was a close thing. Staggering back, Sam almost fell himself, but Pippin and Merry were there to grab his arms and they managed to steady him. Frodo was absolutely limp, and it was all Sam could do to keep hold of him; Frodo was taller by a good bit and his feet were dragging on the floor.

Otacon tried to lift Frodo out of Sam’s grasp, but one look from Sam told him that would not be wise. So instead he helped get Frodo in a position so that Sam could carry him. Then Otacon said, "We should leave, we don’t know if Ocelot planned on coming back."

The Hobbits nodded, and Pippin gathered up their daggers, sheathing his and holding the other two. On their way out, Frodo whispered something so quiet even Sam couldn’t understand and motioned weakly at something behind him. Sam looked back, and said, "Look at that box! Must have something big inside."

"Yeah," Merry agreed, and he went and grabbed the large item box. It was quite heavy.

"Wait a moment," Pippin said, a steely sound to his voice. He opened the box Merry was carrying, and he discovered it contained Frodo’s cloak, mail, the Ring, sword, the top of his Sneaking Suit, and various items he had been carrying. Pippin narrowed his eyes and fished out Sting, placing the two black blades inside.

"What are you doing?" Merry asked as Sam, Frodo, and Otacon left the room.

"Not much, just a little...repair work on this Mordor machine."

Merry looked at him in confusion, but he didn’t have to wait long for an explanation. Pippin began hacking at the machine, swinging Sting around. He cut huge gouges out of the metal, and he cut all the tubes and things, spraying oil all over himself. Then he went to the controls and slashed them to bits.

Merry nodded slightly, a very grim smile on his face. "Don’t break Sting now," he said, "I don’t know if it was made for cutting metal like that Angrist was."

Just then, a guard came in. He brought up his rifle, but before Pippin or Merry could even react, the man groaned and they heard a strange gurgling noise. "Oh...damn it...not again!" the guard muttered, then dropped his rifle and ran out of the room, holding his backside.

Merry and Pippin just shrugged, and Pippin when back to hacking.

After one last slash, Pippin lowered Sting and panted. "Maybe...seemed to work well enough," he said, then rejoined Merry. He placed Sting back in the box.

"Well, let’s get out of here," Merry said, and walked to the door that Otacon had kept open.

Once outside the room, the Hobbits’ Codecs beeped. Since Pippin was the only one who could answer, he pressed under his ear and said, "Yes?"

The vision was full of static, so he knew it was ‘Deepthroat’. "There’s a bomb in your items. Get rid of it quick." Then he signed off.

Pippin ran in front of Merry and opened up the box again. "Now what?" Merry asked, annoyed.

"That ‘Deepthroat’ guy called, he said there’s a bomb in here."

"Oh! Oh, find it!"

Pippin didn’t answer, just riffled through the contents again, and after a few seconds he found a little box that was beeping. "Guess this is it," he said. He ran into one of the cells and dropped the bomb in one of the chamber pots, hoping that would stop it.

Then he and Merry followed Otacon and Sam back to the far corner of the room with the ladder. They found Sam sitting in the corner again, this time with Frodo on his lap, holding him very close and stroking his hair. Frodo clung to Sam as if he were a lifeline, whispering things that only Sam would have been able to hear.

Otacon looked distinctly uncomfortable, shifting from one foot to the other and constantly pushing up his glasses.

Merry went to the back wall near Frodo and Sam and set the item box down on top of a pile of smaller boxes. Pippin looked at the scene for a moment, then commented, "That’s an eye-opener."

Merry swung around and pinned Pippin with a strange look. "What’s that supposed to mean, Peregrin Took?"

Suddenly Pippin became very uncomfortable. "Well...ah...er...I mean...you don’t see something like that every day in the Shire...." He motioned to the completely oblivious Sam and Frodo.

Merry gave Pippin a rather incredulous look. "Wait...you mean...? PIPPIN! Didn’t you know Sam is about a hair’s breadth away from being engaged to Rose Cotton?"

Pippin shuffled his feet. "Well...er...that is to say...."

"You are such an idiot sometimes...really, if you looked at your reflection, would you even recognize it? Did you forget they were in MORDOR?! That’s not exactly the Shire!" The Hobbits didn’t notice, but Otacon had suddenly started scratching his hair and looking rather embarrassed.

"I’m not that unobservant!" Pippin huffed.

"You wouldn’t—" Merry began, but rather suddenly their discussion on Pippin’s perceptive abilities was rudely interrupted by a loud explosion and the sound of rushing water.

A voice squealed, "AAAAHHHH NOOOOO!!" It was the guard with the stomach trouble.

Frodo looked up, Sam looked over, Merry and Pippin looked toward the sound, and Otacon asked, "What did you do with the bomb?"

Pippin answered truthfully, "I dropped it in one of the chamber pots."

Otacon burst into peals of laughter, snorting and giggling so hard he was doubled over and then he actually fell on the ground, holding his sides.

Go on to Chapter 16