“What is Special Task Force Unicorn?” asked one of the confused officials.

“They are a covert action group that recruits monsters to serve as soldiers in exchange for PUFF exemptions,” Jefferson answered immediately.

The conference room was suddenly very loud. Most of those cleared for this hearing were high-ranking MCB, and this was news to them.

“Whoa there, son,” the first congressman said, glancing around the room nervously. “This isn’t the time or place to get into that.”

Franks scowled. Because everybody knows there’s no such thing as unicorns.

Jefferson gave him a nervous glance. If Stricken had the majority of the Subcommittee cowed, then they were in worse shape than expected. He turned back to their questioners. “You can’t expect Franks to defend himself if he’s not allowed to explain why he did what he had to do.”

“Who does this Unicorn thing answer to?” demanded one of the MCB section commanders.

“You would have to ask Mr. Stricken that, sir. But whoever it is, they need to hold Stricken accountable for his careless actions in Las Vegas.”

The chairman ordered the room to be silent. Franks was glad to see that there was still some fire in some of the MCB’s leadership. Stark was red in the face and sweating. He’d not expected his string-pullers to be so blatantly exposed.

Then a senior administrator addressed them. “Officially, there’s no record of any other agency or entity involved with running the quarantine. Rest assured that we’ll listen to what Special Agent Myers has to say when he returns tomorrow. In the meantime this is an internal MCB matter, so let the record show that Director Stark was in command the entire time.”

Franks was not amused. “So the MCB is a sock puppet for Stricken’s murder squad now?”

Though most of the room were still in the dark, there were a lot of uncomfortable glances shared around the Subcommittee’s table. One of the congressmen hurried and grabbed his microphone. “Let’s have Agent Franks write up a statement for us pertaining to any sensitive information, then we’ll reconvene this hearing tomorrow.” He banged his gavel.

“He went nuts and tried to kill me!” Director Stark shouted. Double table pound. They’d worked together before, so Franks knew Stark had always been a fake, hiding his cowardice behind a wall of bluster and bravado. When the shit got real, Stark could be counted on to fold, but right now they were in his element, where talking about actions meant more than the actions themselves. “What are you waiting for? I demand that Franks be locked up!”

Franks rested his big hands on the table. “Try it.”

Stark shut his mouth.

“That will not be necessary,” said one of the congressmen.

The MCB security force breathed a collective sigh of relief.

* * *

“They named you in the Subcommittee hearing, right in front of everybody. They talked about the Task Force and said that Myers had evidence, the works.”