Richard Ames

Colonel Richard Ames was an agent of the Patriots operating at the time of the Shadow Moses and Big Shell Incidents.

Early life and career
Richard Ames was a DIA operative. During that time, he was married to Nastasha Romanenko, but the marriage didn't last long and ended in a sudden divorce, shortly after Ames disappeared. At some point in his life, he suffered a heart attack, which required him to use a pacemaker afterwards. He was also the man who led the development of the FOXDIE program. He also worked with McDonell Benedict Miller at an unspecified point.

During the Shadow Moses Incident in 2005, then-Major Ames was working as a Patriot spy. Under the Patriot's orders, he forced his way into Nastasha's home in Los Angeles 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 also forced Roy Campbell into participating in the mission, as well as arranged for Meryl to be sent to Shadow Moses as part of their threat against Campbell if he disobeys them. Richard 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. In addition, he later sent an agent to investigate Master Miller after he and Nastasha Romanenko started becoming suspicious of Master Miller due to, despite being in a three story building in Alaska, he knew some stuff about Naomi Hunter that not even the DIA knew about, although he reacted with anger when he learned that Nastasha Romanenko knew about their working together when asking him if he would check on even one of his own men. He later learned that Master Miller was actually murdered when his agent returned.

After Snake destroyed Metal Gear REX, Liquid Snake used Snake's implanted Codec to contact the Patriots directly, which included Ames. After hearing Liquid threaten him and the Patriots right when Solid Snake was on the other line, Ames merely replied that he will "look forward to it." Towards the end of the operation, Jim Houseman ordered a nuclear strike over the disposal facility to cover up the incident, which would've destroyed the entire island and everyone in it, but making a complete cover-up impossible. After Ames commented that "they are not happy with this", as well as Houseman refusing Ames' offer of Houseman "taking the fall" to ensure the perfect cover story, he demanded Jim Houseman be taken into custody, forcefully relieving him of his duties.

After the operation, Nastasha then wondered if she should report the conversation and confrontation, but Ames told her that the masses would still take it with a grain of salt. Ames then handed her a disc containing all the information on FOXDIE, since it was undeniable evidence of the government's actions, and hoped that it would buy her safety, before promptly disappearing again from her life. When Nastasha later tried to contact him, she found no record of him ever working at the DIA, and feared that he had been punished for leaking the data to her. In actuality, Ames had been promoted to Colonel by the DIA, though it would be years before he would surface again.

In April 2009, Colonel Ames was taken hostage by terrorists, along with U.S. President James Johnson, while taking part in an inspection tour aboard the Big Shell offshore decontamination facility. Posing as a Secret Service agent, he had actually been planted by the Patriots in order to monitor Johnson's anti-Patriot actions. The Patriots also led Ames to believe that his cover story was watertight, and that an assassin would take care of the President when the time came.

Special forces operative Raiden tracked down Ames during his mission to rescue the hostages, using a directional microphone to identify him by his distinctive pacemaker. Prior to this, his radio contact Rosemary attempted to find more information on Ames, though almost all his paperwork was classified, allegedly only contained his name, and even then only on a roster for the Secret Service. After having his gag and blindfold removed, Ames told Raiden that he was working for the "La Li Lu Le Lo" just like him, much to Raiden's confusion. He then revealed to him the location of the President. When Raiden mentioned the terrorists' $30 billion ransom to Ames, his reaction implied that the ransom had never been made to begin with.

Shortly afterwards, Ames's undercover identity was compromised with the arrival of terrorist member Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot stated that he knew Ames was a DIA agent, and prepared to execute him. Before he could do so, Ames began to suffer from a heart attack, after his nanomachines were shut down by the Patriots, and his pacemaker ceased functioning. As he succumbed to cardiac arrest, Ames advanced on Ocelot, realizing that he too was working for the Patriots. His death was ultimately scripted as part of the S3 Plan, in order to further the similarities between the Shadow Moses Incident and the Big Shell Incident.

Personality and traits
Ames enjoyed smoking Chesterfield brand cigarettes.

Behind the scenes
Colonel Richard Ames (リチャード・エイ ズ大佐) and the DARPA Chief share the same Japanese voice actor, Masharu Sato. Given the fact that the plotline of Metal Gear Solid 2 was intended to be very similar to that of the previous game, this was presumably done intentionally. It is implied that the Patriots may have had ulterior motives besides the S3 Plan for killing Ames during the game, due to his leaking of information to Nastasha Romanenko and letting her escape, as detailed in In the Darkness of Shadow Moses. It is also implied in the book that Ames had started falling for Nastasha again, which served as one of the reasons why he let her live. Richard Ames is possibly a reference to Aldrich Ames, a real-life spy who infiltrated the CIA.

In the original game plan, Ames's death scene was intended for Gurlukovich mercenary Johnny Sasaki, who was also to have been a Patriot spy in the game. Additionally, Ames was to have been executed by Revolver Ocelot and Solidus Snake, after speaking face to face with the terrorist leader and making hints towards his plan. In that version, Ames explicitly referred to "the Patriots," whereas in the final version his words were substituted with the phrase "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo" by his nanomachines.

Ames later appeared in the non-canonical Snake Tales chapter, "A Wrongdoing," included with Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. In the story, Ames orchestrates the Big Shell Incident in order to exact revenge on Dead Cell member Fatman, due to his sister’s death in a church bombing he had committed years prior. Depending on the player's actions, Ames will either succeed completely and leave the United States to go into hiding, or he will end up arrested with Fatman.

Ames's death, along with his meeting with Raiden, was omitted from the Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty comic. Similarly, his ex-wife Nastasha was omitted from the Metal Gear Solid comic.

In the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, it was erroneously stated that Ames was the one who previously had the black case, and that his arm was cut off by Vamp to retrieve it. Similarly, in his own article, the shutdown of his pacemaker nanomachines was stated to have been done by Ocelot under Patriot orders, even though both the script included in The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 and Ocelot himself stated that it was a calculated act by the Patriots.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty