Chief O'Hara sighed heavily at this. Many things were spiraling far faster than he expected they ever would or could, particularly in relation to the were secret. There had been plenty of events in which that secret could have been revealed or broken, and some in ways he couldn't completely work with. There had been the investigation into Lionel Ulysses, which had brought a lone FBI agent to Moon Lake, and unlike other agents from outside the area, the agent was a Normal but knew about weres and actually wanted to be one to be with his wife. That wasn't too bad, and from what he'd heard from City Hall, that agent did become a were later.
But the case with Lionel Ulysses had presented other problems. The "battle" with the wererat in Seattle had caught Lionel transforming after being shot. The fact that it was dismissed as a "costume" was really irrelevant to the larger threat that that battle represented. For if the papers didn't buy the "costume" story, they could have well pushed for more information or study into Lionel Ulysses' body. If it had been in Moon Lake, Chief O'Hara could have controlled the investigation and protected the were secret, as was part of his job with the Moon Lake PD as part of its role in cooperating with Moon Lake's city government to protect and police Moon Lake's weres. But that battle had been in Seattle, and Chief O'Hara felt rather lucky that things didn't go as badly as they could have.
And things only escalated from there. Lionel Ulysses was then murdered in a Seattle hospital by Dymixious Drake, who had seemed to take it on himself to "police" weres as something of a vigilante in order to protect the were secret. In the past, that might have worked, as things would vanish into either folk tales or long periods of time between reports and communication, things that the were secret had often relied on heavily to keep people from drawing conclusions on weres or bringing more government interest into areas where the were secret would be vulnerable. In this, technology and communications were getting good enough, that Chief O'Hara had the sense that much of the were secret's ability to stay secret now would depend on either getting weres into positions of power on a larger scale or laying low enough to avoid attention.
But so far, that didn't seem likely. The hunt for Lionel Ulysses drew some attention and the hunt for Dymixious Drake was even larger. It had gotten to the point where he and Moon Lake's government had agreed to take Drake into custody and claim jurisdiction on him given his location. In this, while Dymixious might serve time on Federal charges, the prison he'd be sent to was under Moon Lake's direct control. That, however, failed when Dymixious fought against the arrest and that then lead to his death. His death quieted some of the outside attention, and Chief O'Hara was grateful for that, but the battle only further represented many of the details that weren't going to easily work in world. In Moon Lake, that sort of thing would work, as Moon Lake could better hide the were secret in its borders. But there were weres that lived outside of Moon Lake and wouldn't have the same ability.
"Herald's idea is risky... and may only cause problems," Chief O'Hara thought to himself as he silently mulled over what Officer Ryan Conner had reported, "but then at the same time... he may still have a point."
And a lot of that thought related to what had then come after Tom Herald's presentation and debate with Moon Lake's City Council. Chief O'Hara didn't necessarily agree that the world was ready for weres to come out into the open, but at the same time he did recognize some of the issues that Herald had brought up that touched on the issues that trying to protect and preserve the were secret also presented. Weres might be able to preserve the secret well in Moon Lake, but that didn't mean Moon Lake was the only place where weres lived in the US, let alone the world. Moon Lake might not even be the only were "sanctuary." But in trying to hide, there was no communication with weres outside of Moon Lake, which could well mean that something like what happened with Lionel Ulysses or Dymixious Drake might happen somewhere else where weres might not be able to control the investigation or hide the full "truth" on what happened.
And trying to preserve things as they used to be might not work as well as many would think they would. Quintus Fives and Gustavus Amehr had struck Chief O'Hara as operating along the same sort of lines as Dymixious Drake had. They might be a bit more organized than Dymixious Drake had been and they may have had a broader network of support than Dymixious Drake had, but many of their methods weren't too different from Dymixious Drake's. The two of them had shown up during the hunt for Dymixious Drake and were the most eager for putting the werekomododragon down, regardless of whether or not Dymixious had cooperated with them. Which represented many of the same problems that Dymixious, himself, had caused. Vigilantism only worked if there was no law enforcement to deal with crime, and in the modern era, that sort of thing wasn't viable. Police and law enforcement agencies were readily available nearly everywhere and communications technology helped them respond quicker than before.
"And regardless of the threat to the secret..." Chief O'Hara sighed to himself, "threatening the messenger won't work, either."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ryan Conner made his way back to the entry area where he found Tom and Alice seated with Ichiro and Yoshiro standing nearby. This was somewhat expected between the instructions given to Tom and Alice before Ryan made his report to Chief O'Hara and the fact that the Skulk often took matters related to threats to its members very seriously. And the present debate that related to the were secret would probably become one of those issues that they would pay close attention to, even if Tom Herald wasn't part of the Moon Lake Skulk. Like his Chief of Police, Ryan wasn't super keen on the were secret being exposed, but as an officer of the law, he also knew his job was enforce the law and protect and serve the people. Regardless of issues with the present debate with the were secret, threats between weres was not right and police couldn't let that go on.
As he came out, he noted that four werefoxes did turn to Ryan. He took a deep breath to relay the instructions that Chief O'Hara had in relation to the present threats made against Tom Herald.
"Well... I can't say for certain if Quintus Fives and Gustavus Amehr are from Moon Lake at this time," Ryan opened with, "but we will do some checking. If they have any family ties here, there will be records. Either police records from possible legal infractions. City Hall records if their families moved to Moon Lake and they became the family were, and so on."
"But what if they aren't from here?" Alice asked, "I grew up in Moon Lake... I don't recall there being a Fives or Amehr family when I went through high school..."
"Perhaps, but given were lifespans, it could be possible that they are older and moved out before you were born... potentially even centuries before you were born," Ichiro said slowly and then turned to Ryan Conner, "regardless, her point does stand... what if they are not from Moon Lake? We cannot have weres threatening fellow weres over differences of opinion. We would be no better than those that we fear may oppress us."
"If they aren't from Moon Lake, our ability to deal with them will be limited, for jurisdictional issues, obviously," Ryan spoke, "but within Moon Lake, we will take steps to ensure that they cannot easily storm the Stevens home to get at Alice or her parents... and obviously Mr. Herald while he's there... For we have had some... issues with Fives and Amehr with other issues." Ryan glanced to Tom and then added, "but THAT is OFF the record."
"I'm not here to report on their threats," Tom answered, "my present assignment... which will eventually include an interview with your Chief of Police... is more in line with general law enforcement readiness. How well things are working or not working, as the case may be. Is there a general threat of an increase in crime and so on. None of that, though, will relate to the were secret."
"And I suppose there is no way to convince you to stay in Moon Lake?" Ryan asked, given that he knew that the Seattle newspaper did at times cover events that went across all of Washington State, not just the city.
"Nothing that would work for me and my job," Tom answered, "and my primary point is to make sure that Alice is safe."
"We have already discussed this and met with similar results," Yoshiro commented to Ryan.
"Well... within Moon Lake, at least, we can make sure that neither Fives nor Amehr are a threat," Ryan commented, "we know what they look like in human form and can have posters made so that the population is alert to their potential threat to civility. We'll also try to patrol the areas around the Stevens home fairly regularly."
"And we can keep agents in the area to monitor things more closely," Ichiro nodded, "providing some protection outside of Moon Lake may be difficult, as reporters generally won't have bodyguards... but if Mr. Herald could provide us with a schedule of his interviews, we can at least see that an agent is at least on hand to follow him to each city and then follow him back."
"Though we will have to assume his paper's offices and the other police departments he may be scheduled to interview with won't have connections to Fives or Amehr," Yoshiro added.
Ryan and Tom both nodded to that. It might not be much of a plan, and one could probably poke plenty of holes in it, but with much of it relating to what Tom had brought up with regard to revealing the were secret to the world, there probably wasn't going to be much that was going to be done quickly or easily. That debate would have a lot to go over and it would take some time to finish, and if it went through, Ryan also figured that would then lead into bigger issues. None of which would be easily predicted or solved. And it was still too early to know how that would all play out. Ryan knew that big things were likely coming, and while the present plan may not be perfect, it was better than nothing.