Okay, this idea is a little half-baked, but it just sits right with me. Maybe someone else already said it, in which case I'm bringing it back.

Gustava Heffner. Minor character in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Former figure skater turned STB agent (a Soviet intelligence agency in Czechoslovakia, *Státní bezpečnost*; Gustava's affiliation dubiously retconned to "former Czech International Secret Police" due to the fall of the Soviet Union). Lover of Gray Fox. Killed by Gray Fox. Wait, what? Why would he do that?

That got me thinking. Isn't Gustava's involvement just a little too... convenient? Again, a *figure skater!* What are the odds of a figure skater not just being recruited into intelligence, but getting stuck in Zanzibarland... the very same Zanzibarland her lover defected to? Is Czechoslovakia really that important in Operation Intrude F014 to be sending their spies into Zanzibarland? *Why do we believe she's really from STB?*

And... OILIX. A miracle microbe engineered by a Czech scientist, who Snake never manages to exchange a word with. A man whose communication can only be understood through Gustava's translation. A solution to the problem of petroleum depletion around the world, yet that problem is never mentioned again, even decades later.

I'm sure you've heard the possibility that OILIX was a myth created by the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo to justify Snake's deployment and eliminate Big Boss. But there's a frighteningly simple way to expand that theory: **Gustava was in on it.** She's *always* been in on it.

* That's why a figure skater was selected for intelligence: she already had the all-around training and honed charisma from the same school EVA went to.
* That's why she took a fancy to Frank Hunter: she was ordered to monitor a super-soldier in case he ever defected.
* That's why she was in Zanzibarland: they needed pawns to aid Snake, as they always have.
* That's why her questions are about reaching Marv, not recovering OILIX: the MSX data cartridge is irrelevant because she knows it doesn't encode anything useful.
* That's why Fox strikes her down on the bridge: despite the love they shared, she was far too great a liability.

Gustava Heffner Is A Spy