“To put the projects in perspective, the atomic bomb, which, as you are well aware, was the final choice of which avenue to pursue, began at an estimated number four and ended up as a number five. Anything over that was considered unreasonably dangerous. Of the supernatural options that were explored at Los Alamos, the plan to bomb Germany with a zombie virus was a steady number eight. Zombifying Japan was only a seven, but that’s because it was an island and zombies can’t swim for shit. Anything dealing with the Old Ones was considered too dangerous to contemplate unleashing without significant backlash, and got an automatic ten.”

“Get to the point,” Earl said.

“As new projects were introduced or more was learned about their potential, the projects were moved up or down on the sliding scale. This particular project began as a lowly number two, but after one single field trial was moved to a thirteen. We’re talking about the judgment of men who thought enslaving demons was simply another way to expand the scientific frontier, yet something about this particular project scared them shitless. Luckily, this was not one of the projects that got loose during Decision Week. They destroyed the records and the evidence was buried, until now.”

“Why didn’t they just kill it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t have the technology. Who knows? If I find out, I’ll let you in on the secret. In the meantime, as for your request to let the innocent bystanders out, I have to deny that request. The phenomenon has some incorporeal nature, otherwise it wouldn’t have been able to follow Hugo Schneider back to Las Vegas. For all we know, it’s inside one of you.”

The Hunters all shared an uneasy glance. It was certainly possible, but who? “You know anything else?”

“I know you’re probably fucked, but you’ll go down fighting. That should buy my organization time to learn more. My superiors have granted me some leeway. If you can’t provide me a permanent solution by this time tomorrow morning, we’ll raze the casino to the ground and salt the earth. If we think it might escape, that timeline will speed up rather dramatically. My number-one mission parameter is to maintain secrecy at all costs. My secondary parameter is to protect the city and as much of the population as possible. They go hand in hand. The higher the body count, the harder it’ll be for Agent Stark and his remarkable PR department to make this all neatly go away. Let’s make the best of our brief time together. Anything else?”

“I’ve got manpower but we don’t have much in the way of equipment. How about you send your robot back over with a trailer of ammunition and medical supplies.”