The interview with Colonel Harrison actually fit in quite well with things that Tom had generally expected from the assignment as a whole, particularly while his plans regarding the big reveal were still "secret." He'd guessed that some of the major events that had attracted so much attention to the region had some hidden connection to Moon Lake and were society, which for the moment was still trying to keep itself hidden. From a standard point of journalistic integrity, he could push on that connection by highlighting the supposed connections that were likely there. That Lionel Ulysses was from Moon Lake, Marcus and Vito Gamboni were arrested in Moon Lake, and Dymixious Drake was killed in a fight with Moon Lake's police. But for the moment, the were secret was still a secret and his plans for the big reveal were only in the initial stages, which meant by his word to the Moon Lake City Council, he couldn't mention it until they were ready.
And those concerns made sense, as he wanted the big reveal to provide the easiest possible transition for weres. It might not be easy, but rushing it would only make it harder. Thus, Tom stuck by his word and wouldn't push his questions based on the things that actually tied the various incidents together. It might not tell the whole story, but then it might also tell the story his editor wanted and provide the assurance that there wasn't some great crime wave that seemed to be on the horizon, which to some extent, Tom halfway believed. The connections to Moon Lake were more likely to be considered coincidence than the real signs of doom that his editor had initially feared when he gave the assignment. The last part of the interviews he had at Fort Wolfe was with the post's commander.
That had to wait until the early afternoon and Tom did his best to stay out of the way of the troops that were on station. Fort Wolfe wasn't a large post by any means and much of its work was as a logistics stop, but that didn't mean the work the troops stationed there wasn't important. In this, he spent much of his time after the interview with Colonel Harrison at their PX cafeteria area while reviewing his notes. Most paid him no mind and let him go about his work and he did his best not to get in their way. Though he did have to eat his lunch a little bit early so to stay out of the way of their own lunch rush and then be ready for the interview with the fort's commander, which he didn't think would be all that different from his talk with Colonel Harrison.
The fort's main command center as slightly bigger than the building that the MPs operated out of, but not by too much. There was a slight bit of activity as Tom arrived, but not to much. As he entered he was met by younger looking corporal, who's downcast face screamed boredom to Tom. This made him wonder if his visit was accepted simply to shake things up for the troops at Fort Wolfe, but he shrugged that off and slowly approached.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Tom said slowly as he came to the desk that was there in the front entry area, "I'm Tom Herald with the Seattle Times. I believe I have an appointment with the fort's commander... a Colonel Bight at 1:30."
The corporal looked up as he presented his press pass, the permission forms to be on the post, and then the printed copy of the emails that he'd made to make sure that there was no way they could get around it. She then nodded and held up one hand with her pointer finger raised to get him to wait a minute. He quietly waited as the corporal picked up a phone and hit one intercom button and reported his arrival. He heard a male voice answer politely to send him up. When she hung up, she then looked up to Tom.
"Head to the end of the hallway here on my left," the corporal instructed with one flick of her arm to let Tom know where to go, "take the elevator to the top floor and then walk to the end of the hall and you'll come to the Colonel's office."
"Thank you, ma'am," Tom thanked her and then made his way down the hallways as instructed.
The route was quiet and fairly Spartan, but Tom did note a few framed photographs that were hanging from the walls. Most of them showed historic photographs from the base's construction that went along with the highway that essentially linked California with Alaska during World War II. There was even one where it looked like there were US and Canadian Troops standing together in front of one of the buildings on the post. The rest was pretty pedestrian with white painted plaster with the lower half being simple brown wood paneling. The same pattern repeated on the building's second floor. He then walked forward until he came up to the doorway which had a simple black plaque with white lettering that read: Fort Wolfe CinC: Colonel Peter Bight. Tom approached and carefully knocked at it, figuring it was the polite thing to do.
"Enter," came the answer from within.
Tom entered to find a bespectacled balding man seated quietly at his desk with a lone mirror behind him. He ushered Tom to hard wooden chair with a small waive of his arm.
"You're Tom Herald?" the man, Peter Bight, asked.
"Yes, and I thank you for taking the time to talk with me," Tom answered, "and I will tell you that you can be proud in your MP commander's confidence in handling the various other issues that might be a potential threat to law and order on the base."
Colonel Bight nodded and gave a small chuckle, "he will be pleased to hear that. But based on your interview requests... that isn't everything that you wish to discover here."
"Yes..." Tom said slowly, "As my editor has some worries about a possible escalation in crime in Washington State. It might end up being something that ends up in opinion pages for next year's presidential election. I've found enough that would indicate that some of the initial fears that sparked my paper's interests might not be as big as suspected... but that doesn't necessarily mean there couldn't be little fears that may add up. People get interested in trying to look into Fort Wolfe because the Gambonis tried to get onto the base and succeeded."
"And so you're asking me for anything that Colonel Harrison might have missed?" Colonel Bight asked.
"Not so much missed as anything you might suspect that might be beyond his jurisdiction, as I would imagine that you would still have some responsibility in maintaining the general security status for Fort Wolfe," Tom explained, "Not something that you could do if you've been alerted to activity beyond the base..."
"So... you're asking if I've seen anything when I go home at night?" Colonel Bight asked.
"Or anything that you might feel to alert your MPs to," Tom asked, "any sort of hunch as to either an outside threat or someone trying to capitalize on the Gambonis, but hasn't made an attempt yet."
"Well... if it was a terrorist threat, Fort Wolfe wouldn't be a major target," Colonel Bight commented, "we are a regular army base... but much of our work is to maintain the logistics lines and bases to Alaska... and that traffic has gone done over the years. In this, most of our work is often providing instructors for the logistics and engineer units for Washington State's National Guard Units. To be honest with you... I'm surprised Fort Wolfe hasn't been closed. We don't have the traffic to warrant major attention and most of what we do get is overflow from the naval bases. Things come in, we call the Canadians and they escort it to Alaska."
"So outside of some small things... like gang membership or drugs, which your MPs say they're on top of, you've had nothing going on?" Tom asked.
"Aside from the Gambonis, yes," Colonel Bight answered, "nothing seems to be going on... One family reported some growling coming from the woods to the east of the base... and Game Fish and Parks guys tracked it and found what looked like bear tracks about twenty miles away... It looked like they were having a good time from what they said, but no sign of the bears and no sign of them moving toward the base... all was safe. Sorry to trouble you with coming out here to find out all is calm."
"It's okay," Tom answered. While he didn't necessarily get anything exciting for his assignment, he could at least relay something to Alice and his future father in law that it seemed like any of the excitement that might have been aimed at weres after Lionel Ulysses' arrest and Dymixious Drake's battle was dying down. It would be something that would secure things with regard to the ultimate plan for the big reveal. Though he'd still have a long drive coming up for the rest of the day to get to Spokane for the Marshall's Office in eastern Washington. Hopefully things remain calm...