Meanwhile, the man who was the likely catalyst for the fight that had broken out on the front steps of the high school, Tom Herald, was attending to his own affairs and responsibilities. At present that required driving up to Fort Wolfe to handle a few questions that he needed to ask regarding his present assignment for the paper he worked for, essentially compiling data to see if some of the recent outbursts of extremely violent crime were either connected or a potential warning sign of some larger crime wave coming into Washington State. It was something different from the big reveal, which he felt would be good for weres in the long run, but because weres weren't presently in the open... it would also take official precedence over the big reveal.
Not that the latter issue strayed from his mind that much. On certain levels he could understand the fear, and a part of him was nervous that something bad might happen to Alice, but he also knew that secrecy wasn't a long term solution. The world was always changing and things that worked in 1715 weren't going to work in 20015 because of it. The arrest of Lionel Ulysses at least partially proved that, and Tom knew that if he'd continued to press on the issue the way he had, he might have revealed weres in a way that wouldn't show that Ulysses was an exception to the rule. In meeting Alice, becoming her werefox, and bonding to her, he'd found that the only thing that really made weres different from normal humans was their ability to shift forms. True, weres in general seemed to be better built than most normal humans, but he was also fairly certain that there were at least some normal humans that would have body types like a were did in human form. The one thing normal humans couldn't do was turn into an anthropomorphic animal and back.
In this, Tom figured that while there may have been rogue weres that gave weres a bad image to humanity in the past, which stories and folklore only enhanced, the cause for the behavior had little to do with being a were and more with the reasons that normal humans committed crimes. Which was why his plan for the big reveal had to be careful and show everything and primarily the good first in order to show humanity that difference and provide reasons for humanity to trust them. The idea would then be that weres would be accepted and would not have to hide. They could be who they truly were and show how good they were as people. Though as he drove north toward Forth Wolfe, he recognized that wouldn't be easy.
Some of that was his own rational way of thinking over things, but some of it was also with the interview he'd conducted the previous evening with Moon Lake's Chief of Police. The interview was mostly on the same topic that his present trek up to Fort Wolfe would be for, but things that related to big reveal also came up, which ultimately made sense. The weredog had been in Moon Lake for some time and Tom figured he was well older than he looked, and as such would have his concerns with Tom's plan...
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"We've done this a long time, Herald," Chief O'Hara spoke firmly, "and not many people are going to be entirely comfortable with it... You may well have a point that technology is growing and that we can't rely on the secret staying a secret anymore... but that doesn't mean that people are going to just accept that. As I'm sure you've already found out."
"Yes," Tom nodded, thinking on the two Luna Brotherhood members who had confronted him and made him nervous that they would pull something violent because they wanted to protect the were secret, "though that wouldn't necessarily change the fact that hiding won't work well anymore."
"Possibly, but again... to many in Moon Lake, it's ALL they have," Chief O'Hara countered, "it's why we loaned an officer to the FBI and Seattle PD to handle the arrest on Lionel Ulysses. If it came to a physical confrontation, Ulysses couldn't turn him as he was already a were, and nor could Ulysses overpower him. It's why we took the full action to arrest Dymixious Drake. The hunt for him would lead to Moon Lake eventually... and the man was deranged enough that he might have transformed on the feds and attacked them when confronted... just as he transformed and attacked my officers."
"That is the sort of thing I'd look to prevent," Tom spoke, "provide everything and everything that would show that we aren't necessarily so different from normal human beings and emphasize the good over the bad. Because with what you've described with Dymixious Drake or Lionel Ulysses... that's really no different from normal human criminals in that sort of situation. Being a were was irrelevant to the criminal activities the two engaged in."
"That won't change the fear of exposure and guilt by association," Chief O'Hara responded.
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That conversation stuck with Tom and his mind drifted to it as he headed north. Moon Lake's police chief wasn't really that worried about major outbreaks of crime in Moon Lake, which had so far been fairly in line with what he'd found out from the other law enforcement agencies that had answered and accepted his interview requests, and he had more of those scheduled coming up in the week, but he did have the worrying fear that either a were would go rogue over some other issue or over Tom's big reveal and it would spiral out of control and reveal weres in a bad way. All of it related to fear of discovery and association with the crime reported, something Tom knew he'd have to overcome and make the plan good.
But for the moment he still couldn't do that, as he had his responsibilities to his paper at the moment and the assignment he had was large and required a lot of travel now that interview requests were being answered and accepted. And as he came up to the gates to Fort Wolfe, he would have to focus his mind on the assignment, not his plans for the future. Fort Wolfe wasn't big, and was really more of a logistical stop on the way to facilities in Alaska that seemed to be aimed at monitoring any action in Russia's far east, but it still had many of the protocols that any other military instillation. As such, he went the process of reporting to the gate as a reporter, being directed to a small office outside the fort to acquire the press pass for entrance to the fort for the day, and then returning to the gate. He then made his way up to the MP station that was on the fort.
It wasn't a big building and there were a few Humvees with the black letters "MP" on their sides parked there. Tom assumed that since it was approaching 9:30 that was likely that the MP's leader was likely present to discuss the concerns on the assignment he'd been given. Tom made his way into the building and was greeted by an MP that was presently assigned desk duty and was eventually lead to a small office where a fairly well built man with red hair was checking something on his computer. Tom could tell his scent was that of a normal human, but the man was still relatively well built.
"Colonel Harrison, sir, Tom Herald from the Seattle Times is here, sir," the desk officer spoke.
The seated officer, Colonel Rick Harrison, looked up and nodded and then gave a slow waive of his hand for Tom to come in and sit down in a small seat that was before his desk. The desk officer then left as Tom entered and shut the door behind him. He sat down and readied the notepad he had with him to cover the information that would be related to his present assignment.
"Yer here to ask about all the mess the Gambonis caused here?" Colonel Harrison asked as he looked to Tom.
"Not necessarily just them," Tom spoke, "a different writer for the Times got that assignment when all that went on. My assignment has more to do with whether or not there might be other connections and worries that could potentially be out there or headed this way. Given the string of violent actions that have been shocking. The Gambonis were part of it... but their arrest might not be the end of it."
"Ahh... your editor's a mite jumpy," Colonel Harrison gave a laugh.
"Maybe," Tom commented with his own private thoughts being that some of his present assignment being more of a punishment for the times Tom had played to hunches that pushed things beyond what his editor would have liked. The investigation into Lionel Ulysses arrest being one of them. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that there actually aren't things to be worried over..."
"Maybe..." Colonel Harrison admitted, "but my responsibility and jurisdiction is to this base. I suppose someone could smuggle drugs into Vancouver, Canada and then try to drive them south, but they'd have to turn off the interstate to come onto the post here and much of the work in dealing with that sort of thing will be up to the state troopers. Not me. Maybe the DEA might have interest in that sort of thing, but I can only really work with what goes on within this base."
"And would there be anything that suggests to you that there might be issues that you've noticed?" Tom asked, "possible gang affiliation... or associations with groups like the Gambonis. Things that could bring trouble to you?"
"I try ta run a pretty tight post," Colonel Harrison answered, "make sure my MPs are alert and ready to respond. And while we may occasionally get a call on someone drunk while off duty and the like... and I think we did get one case where someone tagged their mail box with a gang symbol, all of these have been rather small. And I never let it escalate. We caught those that did, the guys that were drunk spent time in our drunk tank and then had additional duties to perform to retain discipline, and the guy that did the tagging was discharged for defacing a mail box."
"So you're on top of things," Tom surmised.
"Yes, and thus keepin' problems to a minimum," Colonel Harrison nodded, "the fact that Albert Gamboni decided to come onto Fort Wolfe, like to get on the base and then proceed to ask around for people that we know weren't here was really more of a fluke than anything else. He was the biggest fish that ever came here... and his biggest crime on the base was lying. He mighta managed ta steal something if we hadn't been payin' attention, but ultimately he didn't. Thus why we had to ultimately turn him over to the FBI for trial. Though I can say that I did manage to get a good deal with the FBI's agent... assuring that prime charges we had against Albert, the fraud committed to get onto the base would be placed among the total charges that they had for him."
Tom nodded and kept his notes clear. Some of that sounded like the typical jurisdictional issues that some agencies might tend to have, often because one or the other wanted credit for the arrest. Though from what Tom understood, generally speaking all the related charges would ultimately be settled regardless of who claimed the arrest or the credit. And with the bigger picture, it would seem that at least as far as the MPs were concerned, there wasn't any indication of a major crime wave coming to or from Fort Wolfe. He'd still have his interview with the post's commander later in the day and that might allow for a greater point of concern over potential issues that might spread beyond the base that his editor had the most concern over, but for now, most things seemed to be in order.