“Some of you may be wondering if this is legitimate. Understandable. When this meeting is over I’d like everyone present to check their personal bank account. A good faith payment of ten thousand dollars has been placed into each to compensate you for your time. Think of it like a gift basket, only without the mixed nuts. But more importantly, you will be able to confirm that the money was wired there by the United States Treasury’s Perpetual Unearthly Forces Fund. That should confirm I am who I say I am.”

He hadn’t really said who he was at all, but if this Stricken could get the PUFF to move that quick, the dude had some pull. Getting them to process something as simple as a zombie kill required processing reams of paperwork.

“More importantly, my task force has oversight over the requests for proposals on several new, very lucrative US government contracts. You heard the new MCB director. I’m talking about several worldwide markets, too. Whichever company manages to complete this particular assignment will…let’s be honest, win many of these contracts.”

That caused a stir. Big government Monster contracts were always worth a fortune, with a company being paid merely to be on call in case something happened at a certain facility, which rarely did. For example, MHI had a contract with the Department of Energy for a few of their sites, including one contract at Los Alamos that dated back to the forties, interrupted only while we’d been shut down. To any Hunting company, contracts like that were like an endless cash dispenser, and when they did come up, the competition was fierce.

Being the accountant that I am, I turned to Earl excitedly. We were talking about astronomical sums of money, but the look in his eye told me that none of that sounded in the least bit appealing to him.

“What is the monster?” the German, Lindemann, asked. Stricken looked to his monitor. “I will save you the time, Mr. Stricken. Klaus Lindemann, Grimm Berlin. We get the point. You are well informed. I too, enjoy being informed. So please, do tell us what is the nature of this creature?”

Stricken smiled, and there was something inherently wrong about that expression, like the muscles of his gaunt face weren’t used to making friendly shapes. “Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Lindemann. The threat is of an unknown type and number. There are no witnesses. The only intelligence we have is where it last struck, the coordinates of which are on your sheet.”

The German spoke for all of us. “It would seem that if the type is unknown, then this bounty seems suspiciously excessive. Normally, such a payment is reserved for the most lethal of beings.”