It would've been easy enough to swat the cane away, even side-stepped it. Instead, John just lets it sit there on his chest, the hard shove the cane makes actually pushing him back a step. It's comforting to know that, despite the missing limbs, Kaz is just as strong as ever. Boss has seen men and women who have lost limbs and become a shadow of their former selves. And while Kaz isn't exactly the man John remembers from nine years ago, he's not dead.

"I've barely been out of my coma for six months. I haven't spoken to you or seen you since then." That fact had been...unsettling, to say the least. When he had woken up, Ocelot being the first person he saw had been completely unsurprising. While the two of them had only seen each other face-to-face a handful of times over the course of their friendship, Adam was his oldest, most loyal friend. The old soldier expected Adam to be the one to oversee his safety.

But Kaz never once coming to see him or even sending him correspondence, that had been the most confusing part. Had he even known? Ocelot had told him Miller was working on his end of the plan, so naturally John had assumed his second-in-command would be in on everything.

Why wouldn't he be?

Thinking about it now, John should've asked. It wouldn't have been the first time Ocelot withheld information or painted something differently for the sake of Big Boss. "Kaz, what's going on?"