Once their tail was spotted, the members of the Luna Brotherhood following reporter Tom Herald had no choice but to hand the assignment off to their colleagues and report back to headquarters.
The Brotherhood had the whole floor of a high rise in downtown Seattle, Washington to themselves. The front offices were a legitimate business/cover that helped them fiance their more private work happening in the rear offices, away from public scrutiny.
Although everyone in these secure rooms were still in their human forms at present, it was abundantly clear to even a new whelp that all were werewolves.
The surveillance unit waited until the secretary said they could go into the private chamber and report to their superior: the alpha of the Washington State chapter of the Brotherhood himself.
"So, how did this human realize you were following him?" asked the Alpha, staring at his operatives with a look of displeasure on his face.
"Plain dumb luck? I honestly don't know, but as Mission Beta, I take full responsibility for the mistake," said the car's driver.
"This Herald. How close is he to discovering who killed Lionel Ulysses?" wondered their Alpha.
"Unfortunately, nowhere," revealed the Beta. "He has a lot of questions, but no answers. He does suspect Ulysses might have been killed either by his employer fearing betrayal since Ulysses' arrest after that raid or a rival of that person, but Herald is distracted by his curiosity as to whether or not the wererat's tail was real or fake. Also, his editor is demanding Herald cover the Seahawks football game this Sunday and he just got asked to a local dance Halloween night by a clerk at a costume shop."
"What was the reporter doing at the costume shop?"
"Background research on costume tails, after that homeless man found what he claims to be the wererat's tail," answered the Mission Beta.
"That was actually a plant on our part," revealed the Brotherhood's Alpha. "One of our agents posed as another homeless person and helped the unsuspecting man 'find' the missing tail. Now he has his proverbial 15 minutes of fame, and hopefully does himself some good trying to get out of the gutter in the process, while we add credence to the belief that the tail was a fake to begin with. Only the most stubborn and skeptical like Herald still possess any doubt as to the tail being a fake."
"And the reporter's date Saturday night?" wondered the Beta's assistant, forgetting his place that he was not to speak until spoken to.
"Serendipity," answered the Alpha. "Not another agent, if that's what you're wondering. She is what she is. Whether or not things work out between them is between them alone. But the fact we're no closer today to identifying the rogue wererat's killer than we were yesterday bothers me," he admitted.
"Considering how bare our knowledge is in the human's criminal community, does that not lead credence to this Dymixious being part of their pack?" asked the Beta.
"I hope so, because if he's a were, then there is only one possibility as to why we have no information on him."
"You don't mean because he's a..."
"A dragon," said the Alpha, finishing his Beta's statement.
Both agents looked at their leader in shock as the Alpha spoke.
"Since long before the dawn of time, wolves have done our best to look out for our fellow weres ever since we first walked on two legs instead of four and realized we were different. Yet there is at least one species older than us, who have also undertaken the sacred mission of protecting all of were society against threats both external and internal, but they are not as sly and crafty as us. While we would work secretly in the shadows, striking with the precise precision of one deft claw, they would pounce with the full strength of an entire paw in broad daylight, heedless of what else might be damaged in the process."
"Is there nothing we can do, my Alpha?" asked the Beta. "IF the dragons ARE involved..."
"First we must proceed with caution if they are. We must be quite secure in our facts, but to do so requires more information than we have to proceed. Another unit investigated the officer who suggested this Dimixious to the police chief as a potential suspect, and he is as dark as the night is long," revealed the Alpha, while handing his Beta a folder.
The Beta started looking over the data while his assistant peered at the papers in the file as best he could.
When he finished, the Beta said, "According to this, the officer is secretly on the payroll for an outfit rival to the one Ulysses' Rat Pack worked for."
"Yes, so why they killed Ulysses, provided they either did so or at least ordered it done, remains to be seen. They might have thought killing him would start a gang war or something they might eventually profit from, not knowing Ulysses was a were, or it could be something simpler like the wererat crossed them somehow and they sought revenge. But why they would want to implicate anyone, let alone this Dimixious remains a mystery."
"Our new orders?" asked the Beta, tucking the folder under one arm while both men stood at attention.
"You are now investigating the crooked officer. Find information against him that we can release publicly to expose him without risking our own secrets and keep an eye open for any clues that might lead us to either this Dymixious person or whoever actually killed Lionel Ulysses."
"And the reporter?" wondered the Mission Beta.
"As long as he doesn't discover weres exist or attempts to travel to Moon Lake under any circumstances, especially not this coming weekend with the impending danger the Harper-Jenkins wedding poses to the town*, he is allowed to continue along his present course. Hopefully he will help us find out who did kill Lionel Ulysses before we could safely execute him. But if he does become a potential threat, the reporter will be dealt with accordingly," growled the Alpha, before dismissing the agents from his office.
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*This story is still running a day ahead of the main Moon Lake story, where Jenny Harpers' parents coming to town on Halloween to stop their daughter from marrying the man she loves instead of the man they promised her to might expose were society in the process, since they don't know she is now a were-vixen marrying her bonded life/mate werefox.—tmw.