“I don’t know how, but my gut tells me this has been screwed with. It’s too much. If this was tweaked, it was by somebody who had full access to our system and who could change the time stamps on the fly.” That was an ominous thought. The MCB’s system was supposedly as secure as anything out there. “Video shows Franks leaves here, goes down, kills the guys at the entrance, grabs his guns from the locker, then kills his way back up to get Stark, then comes back here to where he’s got a perfectly good machine gun hidden?”

Grant was chewing on his lip. “They ran the serial numbers on those guns. Those were MCB property, but one was listed as lost in 1969 and the other one in 1980.” Other agents were running a metal detector down the wall looking to see what else Franks had stashed. They’d not seen what had been found, but there had been a few excited shouts of eureka and loaded evidence bags going out.

“Why risk tipping off his target by killing the guys downstairs? If I was Franks—”

“You’re going to need a lot of protein powder and steroids.”

“If I was Franks, I would have taken that old Commando out of the wall, walked right up to Stark and put a few in his head. Hell, this is Franks we’re talking about. He could have killed Stark with an unsharpened pencil first, and then gone after everyone else. All this other stuff is too weird, Grant.”

“In addition to the video, which you’ve got to admit there’s no way even our best guys could doctor it that quick, we’ve got a bunch of people who saw Franks in action.” The way Grant was speaking, Archer wasn’t sure if he was actually that stupid or if it was some devil’s-advocate lawyer trick to help him think it through. “What about that?”

“Doppelgangers, magic cultists, Fey, hell if I know, but I make my living hiding the truth, Grant, and I’m really good at it. This feels too much like something I would do if I had to make a bunch of evidence fit a narrative. This is good, really good, and it’s only working because we’re not used to being the ones getting lied to, but it isn’t good enough.”

Grant’s eyes narrowed. “Just say it.”

“I think Franks has been set up.”

“Hell . . .” Grant sighed. “Yeah, I’ve got to admit I do too . . . This doesn’t feel like Franks. There are too many survivors. Look at this place. There was too much effort. You know what this means?”

Archer nodded slowly. “It means we need to prove Franks is innocent.”

“No. It means we’re royally fucked. It means all of Myers’ worst case scenario conspiracy theory stuff is happening now.” He leaned in close and whispered. “It means unicorn!”