While Tom finished his work for the day in Seattle and set about preparing for moving himself and Alice to Moon Lake for the time being, Moon Lake was dealing with its own issues in relation to decision reached at the special City Council meeting the previous evening. It was something that had surprised a great many of Moon Lake's residents who were calling City Hall to try and figure out what was going on and why such a decision had been made. There had been instructions for those that manned the phones and ran the front desk, but for many of them, the report was news to them as well, which in turn created a sense that everyone was running some sense of damage control at the time.
And for Samantha Twist, that was almost her entire reason for coming into City Hall. Her job as Town Chancellor revolved heavily around the need to protect the were secret and see to it that Moon Lake's mandatory were law was followed. And yet the council had voted that the were secret would be revealed and that they'd come into the open. There were some times when she figured that such a day or event might come, but she didn't think it would be happening right now, and thus she'd come in in the hopes of meeting with Katherine Chambers, the Deputy Mayor, and discussing the meeting and why the decision that was made was made. It took a little while, but eventually the woman did come in, and Samantha was waiting as she came down the hallway on the upper level of the building.
"I take it you're "excited" about the council meeting," Katherine said with a heavy sigh.
"Excited isn't the word I would choose," Samantha answered, "a guy asking for a special meeting is one thing... That sort of thing has happened plenty of times before, usually with new businesses wanting to set up offices in Moon Lake or lawyers from outside the city wanting to update on what Washington State or the Federal government want with regard to certain regulations and so on. Generally pretty normal things..."
Samantha took one step back to let Katherine unlock the door to her office and enter it. As Katherine entered, Samantha then followed and continued with her comment.
"But this is quite another," Samantha continued, "I mean... revealing the were secret? And you didn't shut it down? I'd thought that if such a decision were to be made... it would be under circumstances that would be conducive to weres coming into the open and with the knowledge that we will be openly welcomed... and that it would come from the Mayor's office and then debated by the City Council, not just demanded by some random Normal that knows about weres..."
"According to the others at the meeting, the man is a werefox," Katherine cut in, "So it is a were wanting to do this."
"And that makes it better?" Samantha asked as the made it into Katherine's main office.
She watched as Katherine walked around her desk sat her purse down on the right side of that desk. Katherine then gestured with one hand to the chairs that were in front of the desk. Samantha could hear the woman give a heavy sigh as well, which was some sense that however Katherine had come to her decision on the tie breaking vote, it hadn't been easy. And to a great extent, she felt she knew Katherine Chambers reasonably well. The woman was a Moon Lake Normal, and had worked just as hard at her job as Samantha did as Town Chancellor.
"The only way I'd really see a were pulling something like this," Samantha began, "is that he wants something from the city and is willing to blackmail us to get it, knowing full well that we can't risk the secret coming out."
"I'm pretty sure his reasoning was more to try and create a world that would be like Moon Lake," Katherine commented, "One where he and his fiancée can be happy together and be open together. Not exactly a bad thing."
"Perhaps not..." Samantha sighed and looked across the desk, "but don't you think there'd be some risk in this? I mean... the whole reason Moon Lake has its mandatory were law is to make sure weres aren't exposed, as no one would want to do something that would potentially mean condemning family or themselves."
"There is risk," Katherine gave a nod of her head, "but he also had some good points during the debate. And that's primarily in relation to what we've had in the past few weeks or so. We've had one rogue were, wanted across the country on various drug charges and ultimately wanted for murder of a US Marine, caught by the FBI and Seattle PD, shot and their body cams caught the resulting involuntary transformation. In a sense we got very luck that that whole issue soon died away with the tail being reported to be a "costume piece," knowing full well that it wasn't. We even met to discuss what to do should the were secret come out as a result of that."
Samantha nodded at that. It was part of an emergency plan that Moon Lake had arranged for a just in case scenario with the intention of getting positive information out quickly, but the plan was only supposed to be initiated after the were secret had already been revealed. In that, the secret would already be out and trying to hide more wouldn't help. However, at the present time, she didn't see there being any emergency that would be worth it. That was part of why she was so concerned about the report on revealing the were secret was so shocking.
"We did get lucky," Samantha admitted.
"But suppose we didn't," Katherine then spoke, "suppose Lionel Ulysses wasn't able to keep running... or the police were able to get a better focus on him, and thus the idea that it was a costume piece fell flat. Weres would be exposed anyway, and after the FBI's manhunt for him, it probably wouldn't take too long before someone to start connecting the dots and connects Ulysses' crimes to his being a wererat. It wouldn't be true... but it'd have the potential to still be done, and it'd then be up in the air as to whether or not our emergency plan works."
"And this random were said that?" Samantha wondered.
"His point was more general... that if we continue to wait, we run the risk of weres being exposed and the bad news being told first in association with the crime," Katherine corrected, "and that with the advances in technology... it could happen regardless. Maybe not here... but you and I both know that Moon Lake is not home to 100% of the world's were population."
"But... so far its all worked out," Samantha commented, "Despite some scares."
"And Moon Lake has been fortunate that way," Katherine answered, "but the man DID have an excellent point. That things are advancing and changing, and while the world may not be ready to learn that weres are real and do exist... we may not have much of a choice in the matter. In that, it may be better to get things out before a major crime happens. It will let Moon Lake determine how it will work and make sure that the reveal gets the good out first... In a sense, we control the story."
"And what about the guy wanting to do this?" Samantha asked, "what's to stop him from double crossing us?"
Katherine gave a sigh and looked down for a moment. Tom had promised not to reveal anything without Moon Lake's consent, and Mrs. Tachibana seemed fairly confident that wouldn't betray them. There was also the promise on Tom's part that if things went bad that he was to take his own life, but outside of Tom's word, there was nothing to hold him to it.
"Other than Mrs. Tachibana's confidence that as a member of the Skulk that he wouldn't... just his word," Katherine admitted, "though... from the way he talked and the way that he admitted that he was nervous about it himself... I don't see any reason that he'd want to go back on his word."
The response that Katherine got wasn't the one she expected.
"Well... I suppose that is some comfort," Samantha responded, "given how often the Skulk has offered its own security services to help with these sorts of matters on various occasions, particularly when werefoxes are involved in any sort of way."
"So... it's a good thing?" Katherine asked.
"In a James Bond sort of way," Samantha responded as she thought over the help that had been provided with regard to the recent Jenkins wedding and the fact that the issues that gone on in relation to that. The memory created some impression the Skulk's security services paid relatively close attention to many of the issues that related to Moon Lake in general and the Skulk in particular. At times it created an image of the story book intelligence services hero that would dress smart and outsmart the villain, and often leading to the villain's untimely demise in the process.