“And then as I confronted Agent Franks about his illegal actions and theft he physically assaulted me!” Table pound. The two congressmen, their aides, and other government teat suckers and hangers-on nodded thoughtfully. The augmented guard force just stayed in their corners, nervous at this display that was way over their pay grade as their Director continued his rant. “Not only did he put my life in jeopardy, but he also endangered the MCB’s response to the Las Vegas incident. I was in command and without my leadership—”

Franks snorted.

“Don’t mock me, Franks!” Stark struck the table with both fists that time. “I’m sick of your crap. You should be in jail right now.”

He’d always thought that Stark looked like a bulldog. Animals didn’t like Franks and tended to shy away from him, but Franks had always found the bulldog a fascinating creature, all slobbery, and ugly, with ill-fitting skin and labored breathing, yet they were determined beasts. Their awkwardness made him like them as much as he was capable of liking anything. The bulldog was proof that the Creator found joy in the cumbersome.

Stark on the other hand was just an asshole.

“You weren’t in charge,” Franks stated.

Double table pound. “Yes, I was! I had the situation in hand until your reckless actions endangered our entire operation.”

“You weren’t in charge. Unicorn was.”

The briefing room was packed with people, and they all began to mutter at that. Only a handful of them were probably cleared to know about the existence of STFU, but Franks didn’t care.

Grant Jefferson cleared his throat and leaned forward to speak into his microphone. “I believe that Agent Franks is saying that although Director Stark was present at the quarantine, the de facto command of the operation was in the hands of a high-ranking covert official code-named Stricken. Former Acting Director Dwayne Myers has obtained evidence that this Stricken was in fact aware of the full capabilities of the Nachtmar, and kept those facts to himself, needlessly causing—”

“That’ll be enough of that,” one of the congressmen interjected. The other one just looked confused.

“Needlessly causing danger to MCB personnel, local responders, and civilians. Dwayne Myers is currently running the Las Vegas operation, but I’m sure he’ll be happy to testify before the Subcommittee about how Mr. Stricken subverted our mission for his own ends—as soon as he returns from cleaning up Mr. Stricken’s careless mess.” Jefferson had a good stage presence. Franks recalled from his file that he’d been a lawyer once. He sure talked like one. “Agent Franks was placed in a difficult circumstance, when forced to choose between following procedure or containing a Level Five outbreak, he choose to abide by the spirit of the First Reason. If Franks had not acted decisively, then thousands of other civilians would have been exposed to the supernatural. The record needs to indicate that Franks wouldn’t have faced this difficult choice, if Special Task Force Unicorn hadn’t overstepped their bounds.”