Much of the morning for Quintus Fives and Gustavus Amehr were spent working through the list of contacts that they'd made to arrange for the open protest over Tom Herald's plan to reveal weres to the world. Both considered the protest from the previous night a victory in garnering attention and making those who were against the reveal but not open about voicing it feel more open about it. After all, there had been no arrests and it was pretty clear that Harold Stevens now know the opinions of those in his area. The hope was that the man could be intimidated into backing out of support for the reveal, if he did support it, or stiffen his opposition to it if he opposed it. Regardless, the base hope of raising negative attention had worked and might be able to grow.
However, both Quintus and Gustavus recognized the potential problems that this protest effort had. They could stage similar protests near the houses of the other City Council members when they met to have their first real meeting on the issue on Wednesday, according to the radio reports, and essentially push on that front, but some of that would be limited. Most of the people they'd contacted and got to come to the previous protest had been part of Harold Stevens' ward in Moon Lake, and while moving the protest around might generate noise, the different ward representatives might not respond in the same way. Not to mention that because the area around the representatives' homes were all private land, while there wasn't necessarily any law against assembly and sending the message, without official permission, the home owners could ask that the protest be dispersed, which from what the two Luna Brotherhood members had been told was exactly what happened.
"The good thing is that no one was physically hurt, none of the signs were confiscated, or anything like that," Quintus spoke calmly as he sat in a modest chair that was at a table under their hotel room's window.
"Yes..." Gustavus said slowly, "but the need for permits for the public places harder... and we can't keep running around with small scale protests that could be easily broken up. Particularly if Herald has already asked for police protection."
"Which given the Skulk's presence last night is likely," Quintus nodded.
"That will make arranging the protests more difficult," Gustavus commented as he sat down on the side of the bed that was closest to Quintus, "If the police are protecting Herald in some way... they may not give us that much leeway to be seen as the leaders of the protests."
"Are you saying we set someone else up as a "fake" leader?" Quintus asked, his voice sounding nervous, "don't you think that might complicate things. You might see them try to put more of their personal touch and limit the reaction... Wouldn't that get in the way of trying to enrage people to the point where they might potentially riot if they don't get their way?"
Gustavus pulled his lips in for a moment as he mentally digested the response from his partner. The overall plan was to make sure that Tom Herald was killed, preferably before Moon Lake actually got a plan together and went through with it, which was largely the action the Luna Brotherhood had always taken with weres like Tom Herald over the years. Even if they weren't rogue in the sense of committing crimes, which could then reveal their being weres, weres that wanted to come into the open were always a risk. Most were often easily made to see reason that humanity wouldn't see reason with regard to weres and thus it was better to stay hidden at all costs, but Tom Herald was different and more determined and if convincing couldn't be done, execution often followed.
However, most of these other issues came in places where that were was alone and much of his or her motivation was the hope of finding someone and to bring into were society willingly and have companionship. Because they were alone, the Luna Brotherhood could move in kill the "whistleblower" and leave before anyone was known, and with some of the connections they had, even if a trail pointed back to the agents in question, issues of jurisdiction and power ultimately benefitted them. But Tom Herald wasn't alone. He'd found Moon Lake and seemed more than capable of debating their City Council and working within Moon Lake's legal system, which complicated things. Both Gustavus and Quintus were known to the Moon Lake PD and they also knew that the city wouldn't likely turn a blind eye to Luna Brotherhood activities within their jurisdiction in the way others had. This had meant storming the Stevens home and killing any and all witnesses were out of the question.
This left the general plan that they had, to stir up such anti-reveal sentiment that Moon Lake would risk outright civil war if the city government went ahead with any plan. The open demonstrations would create disharmony and would hopefully create a situation where the protection that the Moon Lake Police and the Moon Lake Skulk were providing Tom Herald would be overwhelmed to the point where he could be discreetly killed while everyone else was distracted and with the attention being against the reveal, the move would die with him. However, because Gustavus and Quintus were known entities to the Moon Lake PD, even before the present business with Tom Herald came about, they would have some difficult in getting the permits needed, as even if the police couldn't charge them with a crime, they might have enough grounds to warn the city not to allow permits to them.
"That's a possible risk," Gustavus sighed, "and I won't deny it'll be a problem. But the only other action would be to keep working with small and non-permitted protests... which will lower what impact we can have. We need to be able to do this in a way where the maximum impact of the protest is felt. And right now with all the stuff that's gone on between us and Dymixious Drake... and then the likelihood that Herald has gone to the police about our confronting him... it'll be likely that they won't let the city grant a permit to a protest with OUR names on it. In this, we NEED someone who can apply for a permit and not get flagged for his or her name."
"And so we just lead people along?" Quintus asked slowly, "use them as pawns... even if it is for the right reason?"
"If need be," Gustavus spoke, "that is the key part of this much larger picture. The world's were population is much larger than Moon Lake, and many often die fairly violent deaths... battles with animals they hunt or might want to prey on them... military service leading to death in war... being struck by lightning. In some places they die from starvation or execution by tyrants who don't follow the rules that America does... and certainly not what a were sanctuary like Moon Lake does. In pure theory... his idea MIGHT work in the US... and maybe Western Europe, but that's a BEST CASE scenario. And even in those cases, those outside of those regions would face trouble. Keeping the secret prevents humanity from actively going looking for them. And in that big picture... sometimes sacrifices MUST be made."
Quintus frowned heavily as he was a bit nervous on that, as while the Luna Brotherhood's mission was to protect humanity from rogue weres and protect the were secret at the same time, he'd grown up with the assumption that the organization aspired to do more than just black ops sort of missions. For sometimes that was necessary, but not every time.
"And what if something like what Herald has said happens and something else exposes weres... would that change anything?" Quintus asked.
"No, but so long as the secret remains in place, we can be secure that no one is looking," Gustavus spoke, "and Herald is pushing that button to assure that people will be looking. As such if Moon Lake doesn't agree to hand him over to us we must manipulate them to see that the greater good is achieved. It isn't pretty and it isn't ideal... but it is realistic."
Quintus sighed and nodded, "I'd think it may be best then to let whoever is picked as the "face" of the movement is smart enough to handle a fair number of things on his own and that our involvement is then limited. It might give them some means of credibility and the ability to shape things on their own terms... rather than just having us dictate terms to them. For if this backfires... that could come back to bite us HARD."
"Very well," Gustavus spoke slowly, "and who would you pick for this role?"
"I would think Charles... the guy we told we were going to the bathroom last night," Quintus spoke, "he actually called us and let us know about the police breaking up the protest and so on. Not sure on his education... but he'd seem to be dedicated to this and smart enough to understand things. In this, I think we can trust him to take a stand and push in the way we want and be independent enough that he comes off as a puppet. In this we'd be partners and supporters, which would be what we should be..."
Gustavus soon nodded in agreement.