Richard Ames

Colonel Richard Ames (リチャード・エイムズ大佐) was an agent of the Patriots operating at the time of the Shadow Moses and Big Shell incidents. He was once married to Nastasha Romanenko, but the marriage didn't last long and ended in a sudden divorce, shortly after Ames disappeared.

During the Shadow Moses incident, Ames was working as a Patriots spy. He forced his way into Nastasha Romanenko's home and forced her to act as a Nuclear Weapons consultant for Solid Snake and used this as a way to keep an eye on the operation. He intentionally kept information a secret from Nastasha, to the point where she began to wonder if she would even be allowed to live after the operation. It was revealed that at some point he was also having an affair with Naomi Hunter. Towards the end of the operation Ames demanded Jim Houseman be taken into custody, after Houseman directly intervened in the operation making a complete cover-up unquestionable. Ames commented that "they are not happy with this."

After the operation, Ames handed a disc with all the information on FOXDIE over to Nastasha hoping it would keep her safe, and promptly disappeared. It would be four years before he would surface again.

Richard Ames was later supposedly taken hostage along with President James Johnson on the Big Shell, though he was likely planted by The Patriots in order to help Raiden with his mission. Raiden tracked down Ames during his mission to rescue the hostages, using a directional microphone to hear Ames' distinctive pacemaker. Ames almost accidentally revealed to Raiden that he was unknowingly working for The Patriots, but revealed to Raiden the location of the President. Shortly after, his undercover identity was compromised with the arrival of Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot stated that he knew Ames was a DIA agent, though Ames unexpectedly died in front of him from what appeared to be a heart attack. As Ames' succumbed to his heart attack, he advanced on Ocelot, realizing that he was a Patriot spy. It was later revealed that Ames' nanomachines were shut down, causing his pacemaker to stop functioning. His death was ultimately a part of the S3 Plan, to further the similarities between the Shadow Moses Incident and the Manhattan Incident. The Patriots probably decided to kill Ames because he betrayed them by giving Nastasha the disk containing data about FOXDIE and letting her escape.

Trivia

 * His death scene was originally supposed to belong to Johnny Sasaki. In fact, originally, Johnny was to have his role in the game as being a Patriot Spy.
 * Donald Anderson and Ames have the same Japanese voice actor (Masharu Sato).
 * Richard enjoyed smoking Chesterfield cigarettes.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty