The interior of the command tent was in disarray. Most of the equipment had lost power. Half the screens were dead, and the other half were static. Most of the stations were unmanned, and there were a couple of people hiding under their desks, but there was a group of men in the center of the tent, and these were coherent enough to be arguing.

I recognized the new MCB Director Doug Stark from his address at ICMHP. He was on one end of the group, red-faced and shouting. There were half a dozen other MCB agents around him. Across from Stark, with his back to me, was the broad, imposing shape that could only be Agent Franks. It took quite a bit of guts, or perhaps insanity, to yell at Franks, but Stark was going for the gold.

“You will stand down, mister. You violated direct orders. Direct orders from the highest authority! You broke into a secure facility and stole top-secret government property. You’ve gone too far this time, Franks. They’re going to burn you for this!”

Franks shrugged. “Eh…”

One of the other agents stepped forward. It was Grant Jefferson. “Director, we’re being used by STFU. I saw their attempt. They tried their weapon and when it didn’t work, they bailed out to let us take the blame.”

“Nonsense,” Stark shouted. “You’re another one of Myers’ loyalists. You’re all out to get me. You and those fish men!” Stark shook his fist in the air. I looked around. Fish men? Holly shrugged. “The monster has been defeated, and now you want to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We need to concentrate on damage control and what we’re going to tell the press.”

I spoke up. “The monster will be back soon.”

Franks turned around. He didn’t seem surprised to see me. “Did you kill the host?”

“Permanently this time. The alp is coalescing in the tunnels before it goes hunting for a new host. I figure we’ve got a couple of minutes, tops.”

“Alp? That’s classified!” Stark sputtered. “Who told you that?”

Franks looked me over. “You understand the risk?” I nodded. I was host bait, and if we didn’t manage to kill this thing fast and it got me, I was going to end up in a coma. “We’ll meet it in the open.”

“The open! We’ve been ordered not to take any public action. The open is like…extra public!” Stark bellowed. “You will all stand down. Mr. Stricken said—”

“The situation has changed, sir. Stricken has left the area. He got on the last chopper out ahead of the fog,” Grant said gently. He turned to me. “If the host is gone, now’s our chance. STFU tried to attack the creature with one of the ancient weapons we had in the vault. The thing was, with the host still being alive it didn’t work. It might now.”