Tom's night went reasonably well, as the dinner conversation with Alice's parents went rather well. Better still was that the night around he Stevens home was relatively quiet with no protests and no noise and that Alice did show Tom a rather good night after dinner. The morning after arrived to find Tom rested and relaxed with Alice practically wrapped around him. Even if the bed was only a twin bed, the two had managed to stay on it quite comfortably.
"Morning, my dashing fox," Alice said to him with a smile, "sleep well?"
"I did with you there," Tom managed a happy smile as he looked into Alice's eyes with the bond between them sitting firm and strong and making him feel quite content with the part of his life that included her, "and especially with things being reasonably safe last night."
"Yeah... no protests," Alice nodded, "though some of that may have been that the meeting last night was standard city business..."
"And there may be protests related to the reveal," Tom sighed as the two managed to sit up and climb out of bed, "especially if they're people that aren't to trust the things presented last night for some consideration... non-reveal meeting or not."
There was a slow nod at that as the pair then set about with the process of showering and getting dressed for the day as both Tom and Alice had the sense that there would be issues. The big thing was the threat posed by two Luna Brotherhood agents, Gustavus Amehr and Quintus Fives, who had approached Tom in Seattle after the initial debate and left something of a threat to get him to stop with his plan. It was enough to worry Tom that they might know where Alice and he lived in Seattle and could stage something against them there, as some elements of that sort of thing could easily fade into a crowd in Seattle or any other big city.
Thus he'd moved himself to Moon Lake until the big reveal was carried out because he didn't think that either Amehr and Fives would be so bold as to try something like that in a town of weres. There was bound to be resistance to the reveal in Moon Lake, too, but there was the hope that being a small town there would be some greater respect for things and would recognize the nature of the debate and wouldn't be so primal about it. There was also the hope that Moon Lake's government and other measures would also provide the security for Alice, at least, to let things move forward and evolve in a way that would be respectable. Some of that had already happened in that Moon Lake's Skulk and also responded in assigning Ichiro and Yoshiro Tachibana to pulling the security and they'd even helped with filing police reports regarding what Amehr and Fives had already pulled. That would at least protect Alice.
And both were waiting as Tom and Alice came out to start their respective drives to Seattle and their places of work, at least as security for while they were working and keeping an eye out for Amehr and Fives.
"It is good to see you've returned safely Mr. Herald," Ichiro spoke, "I trust your assignment in Spokane went well?"
"About as well as can be expected," Tom answered, "and certainly quieter than some of what I've heard going on here..."
"There has been much that has gone on," Yoshiro admitted, "supposedly some fights here and there... and a near riot at the college on Monday, but they have quieted down a bit since."
"With the exception of the protest here calling my mate something she isn't," Tom answered with a low growl creeping into his voice, "I can understand people not liking me for the idea... but they have no right to go after Alice."
"Yes... that was disturbing," Ichiro commented, "but even that was relatively tame... at least apart from the insults. No violence and no one tried sneaking around..."
"Thankfully," Tom commented as Alice moved over to her car, "and this will only be the start of things... I'm afraid, particularly as the first reveal meeting will be tonight."
"And if Mr. Amehr and Mr. Fives wish to cause trouble that poses a real threat," Yoshiro answered, "they will find that bullying tactics will not work in Moon Lake. With either the police or with the Skulk's security services."
With that the two Japanese-American men stepped back and nodded respectfully to both Tom and Alice as they moved to their respective cars to begin their drive to Seattle. They would follow Tom and Alice shortly after in their own vehicle.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Things were fairly calm as Tom arrived at the building for the Seattle Times with no sign of smoke or damage, which would mean it hadn't been bombed or anything like that while he was in Spokane. He didn't think that Amehr or Fives would actually bomb his place of work at the moment, but the initial confrontation had had enough of a James Bond type situation to it that he couldn't fully write it off either, that the two men would undertake kind of black ops spy action to try and get him for his position on the future of were society. Especially while it was likely that were society, at least the parts that knew of the reveal plan, was in a period of mixed resistance and support for it. That resistance could lead to people like Amehr or Fives taking things too far, and in many ways, Tom didn't want to see his coworkers hurt, either.
His first stop was to visit with the editor, since his present story assignment had him undertaking a great deal of research which had put the trip to Spokane in place in the first place. The answers on what law enforcement thought was coming hadn't presented that much of a truly credible threat, beyond what had happened with Lionel Ulysses and then Dymixious Drake and for a short time the actions of the Gamboni family suddenly being active in Washington state. In some ways that would present good news for his readers, but Tom also knew there were a good many aspects to the story he at least needed some answers to before he could begin writing the article, and most of the local police departments hadn't responded to requests for interviews, yet. The trip to Spokane was to see the Federal Marshall's operating in the eastern part of the state, as was their assigned area to operate in. All Tom had at the moment was to give further details to his editor.
"Come in," came his editor's voice from inside the office as Tom knocked on the door.
Tom entered to find his editor drinking from a grayish white coffee mug with the paper's title written in black on its side. His editor looked up after finishing his sip and set the mug down on the desk in front of him.
"Ah... Herald, have a good drive?" his editor asked calmly as Tom pulled back on one of the chairs opposite his editor.
"Not bad... quiet and long, perhaps, but not to bad," Tom spoke, "I did get the option for some nice views as I went... but that isn't exactly why I came..."
"Yes... that I'm sure is in relation to your assignment," his editor said with a nod, "so... what can they say about things in Spokane?"
"From what the representative I spoke with from the Marshall's office in the state's eastern district, they gave the indication that much of what they've been called in for has been offering assistance to the state's game wardens with poaching violations and related activity... Something they told me was fairly in line with most of their calls. Outside of that... they haven't seen enough to indicate anything major."
"Nothing major?" his editor asked.
"Nothing beyond what they would normally see, from what I've been lead to believe," Tom answered, "which would be good news, I'd think."
"Where you able to get anything from the local departments?" his editor asked, "even if its the same confident assurance?"
"So far I haven't had any contact from them," Tom spoke, "though it could be, that given what I've gotten from some of the bigger agencies that they may not want a real interview and are just putting together a report that would answer my contact requests. Outside of that... they simply haven't gotten back to me, yet."
"Well... for the moment, that is good news," his editor commented with a sigh, "and will relieve people that have been spooked by some of the stuff that's gone on of late. I mean... people will understand it to a degree in town, but a gang in a gun fight with the cops, organized mobsters from the east coast coming in, and then the murder of the gang member from the gun fight... all in less than a month's time? Even that is a bit much."
"Not as much as what may come after the reveal," Tom thought privately to himself, but he didn't voice that sentiment out loud. After a moment or two, he scratched at the side of one arm, "it could be possible that some of the other departments MIGHT answer and accept the request, but so far I haven't gotten any indication of that. Until then... it's something of a waiting game at the moment."
His editor gave a nod, "well... keep at it. I want this article to be at its best."