Cunning Stallion

Cunning Stallion was a male British former high-ranking official in and co-founder of the South African Private Force Contract Forces of Africa (CFA).

Pre-Phantom Pain
Largely because of the CFA's ties to South Africa, and by extension to the British, the man who would become Cunning Stallion was among the high-ranking officials who were of British origin. Eventually, one of his fellow British members and co-founders of the CFA, the Viscount, illicitly managed to find a deed to oil fields (which were actually MPLA-owned). He and the other British staff were not made aware of the source of the oilfield rights, only being told it was an anonymous source, and also was led to believe that the Viscount himself probably didn't know the source either.

Eventually, the CFA, or more accurately, the Afrikaner portion of the CFA, uncovered evidence to what the Viscount did. He then was proverbally thrown under the bus by the Viscount to save his own skin by making it seem as though she and the other British officials had plotted the entire thing, exploiting the known feud between the British and Afrikaner members stemming from the Boer War, although this backfired and resulted in Viscount's own capture. He was then imprisoned at Kiziba Camp, with him and the others undergoing brutal interrogation due to the extreme circumstances.

He was eventually placed near a shed at the outskirts of the camp, with the the camp's head interrogator, who also required an interpreter to act as a relay between him and the other prisoners, arriving to interrogate him after giving the order to move another prisoner to the cage area as he wanted to ensure he interrogated both him and the female prisoner. He denied any knowledge of the source, and even cited the others lack of knowledge either. However, the interrogator, who had severely distrusted the British due to the latter party's actions during the Boer War (despite the prisoner's denial of any involvement in the Boer War), did not believe his claims and even went as far as to accuse him and the others of "making up a story together." He then implicitly blamed the Viscount for their troubles, with the interrogator then deciding to leave, although not before hitting him with the barrel of his gun, and being given the execution order. Ultimately, Diamond Dogs, who were in the area to rescue the Viscount, proceeded to rescue him and the female prisoner despite being ordered not to by their client (who had secretly been the Viscount via a cutout).

Upon being rescued, he as well as the female POW interrogated alongside him informed the deputy commander of Diamond Dogs, Benedict Miller, that the prisoners are not imprisoned in the same area, and their cells are separate from the place they are interrogated at, and presumably revealed enough details about what had occurred to have Miller and the other Diamond Dogs members deduce what had actually happened.

Behind the scenes
Cunning Stallion is a character in Mission 14: Lingua Franca of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. He is found at a shack near the outskirts of the camp, at the area closest to the dropoff point. He is the subject of two mission tasks: One involves rescuing him and the other POWs in addition to the Viscount, and the other involves listening in to their interrogations, including that of the Viscount.

Although he is chronologically the first prisoner interrogated in the mission, he is technically the second in the interrogation mission task, as the first "interrogation" was simply the Afrikaner interrogator ordering for the other male prisoner to be relocated near the cage area so he could interrogate both her and the female prisoner together. Rescuing him and/or any other POWs will result in the debriefing being extended to mention the Viscount's role in the incident. This article assumes Venom Snake rescued all the POWs. Cunning Stallion is not named in the mission itself, but it is the name given to him when he is extracted and recruited into the Mother Base staff.

Even though the mission briefing explicitly mentioned him and the other POWs as being of British origin, Cunning Stallion is shown speaking in a more American accent. He also mispronounced "Viscount" during the interrogation.