A moment later Director Stark walked out to the podium to sporadic applause. A bunch of unfamiliar bureaucrats came in behind him and sat on folding chairs at the back of the stage. I found it amusing that Stark already had a posse. Myers had got by with just Franks…And then I realized how odd it was that the MCB’s single most famous asset had been stuck out here in nowhere land and not in prestige seats. Was there a reason for that? I looked over at Franks, but his expression was as inscrutable as ever.

The first few minutes of the keynote were more prewritten nonsense. The only interesting bit was about how the United States government would be awarding several large new contracts for monster-related facility security. The accountant part of my brain filed that away, but the Hunter part really wanted to know about this strange underground invasion. Stark changed topics, but now it was more blather about synergy and mission statements. The audience was becoming tense. Now that they knew something was happening worldwide, the Hunters were eager for answers. They wanted meat, and they were being given fluff.

“Tell us what you know!” a man shouted from the center of the room. I couldn’t make out who it was, but I was impressed a bunch like this had been patient this long. Stark pretended that he hadn’t heard and kept reading. Then another Hunter to the side yelled something similar, then another Hunter in back raised a rude question, and the bureaucrats behind Stark began to shift nervously.

Stark reached up and adjusted his suddenly too-tight necktie. It must have been constricting his considerable bulldog jowls. “Easy, everyone. I don’t know what you’re carrying on about.”

“Lies.” That accusation caused some shifting and looking by the MCB in the audience to see who’d said it. Earl Harbinger saved them the trouble of searching, because he simply stood up so everyone could see him. “We know about the pattern. We know about the attacks. Don’t waste our time.”

Stark blanched when he saw who it was. I don’t know what their history was, but it was plain to see that Stark didn’t like, and was a little frightened of, Earl Harbinger. What was it with Earl and collecting personal grudges with MCB Directors? “You need to quiet down or I’ll have security remove you.”

Security? Franks sighed dejectedly. Sweet. I would pay good money to watch Frankenstein and the Wolfman fight. That would be some Clash of the Titans level awesomeness right there. Earl sat back down, but I could tell that he wasn’t done yet. Once Earl got to pushing he wasn’t going to quit until he got what he wanted.

“Now where was I?” The vibrating of Stark’s pocket was picked up over the microphone. He tried to ignore his phone and kept on reading from his increasingly pointless speech.