Meanwhile, Tom Herald went through a rather slow day. For the most part things had been quiet for him since finishing his weak of punishment covering the Seahawks, though a lot of this related to the fact that in order to get all the possible information that was needed for his present assignment he had to go through a lot of additional hoops to get contacts or answers. And most of the answers that he had gotten so far, be they from actual interviews or from answers that were provided by emails to his interview requests gave an indication that some of the things that his editor had jumped in fear over were either coincidences or so loosely related that it was unlikely that there was any major crime wave headed for Washington state. But he hadn't gotten all the answers, yet, and thus Tom was essentially waiting to get the information for his assigned story, even if it was a slow one.
"Of course... things may speed up again when the reveal goes through," Tom thought to himself as he knew what it would mean.
Weres had long lived by an odd code of silence and trying to hide in plain sight as it were. It may have worked quite well in the time before television, cellphones, and satellite imaging technology, but Tom also knew those days were long gone. The technology was there and was getting better and it wouldn't be long before some were... somewhere... did something stupid and got himself caught committing a crime or doing something at least suspicious that humanity wouldn't respond well to. In fact after becoming a werefox to be with Alice Stevens, Tom came to recognize that he'd been pushing dangerously close to revealing weres in a way that wouldn't do well after the police body camera footage of Lionel Ulysses growing a tail after being shot was revealed to the public. The Seattle PD and the FBI covered it up as a costume piece and an odd quirk of Lionel Ulysses and his "Rat Pack," but it had really only been dumb luck that people bought that explanation, and had Tom managed to get information that would reveal that Lionel Ulysses was a wererat, his crimes would have been associated with weres.
That was truly what pushed his thinking in regard to the reveal. There might be places like Moon Lake where weres could live freely, but for the moment they lived under circumstances that were very much related to the larger problem. They were solely dependent on luck protecting their secrecy and that luck could, and likely would run out. Thus from Tom's perspective, the best thing to do was to be honest and open things up. Reveal the existence of weres to the world, but in a way that would show the truth and show how weres were quite good, and that their potential flaws were not enough to offset their strengths. It might mean some struggle to gain and hold civil rights, but within America, at least, it was a fight that could easily be won, so long as the message was truthful and explained everything, and that was what Tom's intention was. It'd accelerate the news cycle, but with the right news coming out, Tom was sure that his Alice would be able to live her life freely wherever she lived and wouldn't have to be tied to her home in Seattle or her parents home in Moon Lake.
Tom also had the sense that this would take some time to put together the full details on. Moon Lake had agreed on the base idea and their emergency plan had a lot to work with and build the big reveal around, and Tom was more than willing to bear the worst of the difficulties from humanity if it meant that Alice could live freely everywhere. But it wouldn't be something that would come over night, even if that would have been Tom's preference. But he also knew that once the reveal happened, the news cycle would accelerate, particularly when it came to weres, thus a part of him was quite thankful for some of the quiet thoughts that related the present situation with his assigned story. He could get some time to think over how to work things over with the Moon Lake City Council, particularly given that he was fairly certain that not all of them were fully onboard with the plan or at least seriously questioned it. It also included two secret agents that were possible threats to Tom that he couldn't fully identify beyond the fact that they were weres and didn't like the reveal idea. These were the thoughts that floated in the back of Tom's mind through the day.
"Herald..." a voice spoke from behind him and making him snap to attention in his chair.
He turned from his computer and the desk it was on to face the entrance to his cubicle to find his editor standing there. His editor looked calm, though a bit tired from his own work for much of the day. As one of the chief editors for the paper, his job was more with regard to delegating stories and keeping writers on schedule and seeing as to which editors underneath him proofread what the paper's journalists wrote, mostly for the sake of time. By now as the clock began to approach three thirty PM, his job for the day was largely done and the editors for each department head would begin to go about their work of making sure the stories were ready to go to the presses. The editor-in-chief would only be needed if there was a high load of stories that came in or if there was some crisis with a writer or between a writer and one of the editors underneath him, but so far as Tom knew, the paper didn't have too many issues like that. And usually when they did come up, they'd often been because he'd jumped to conclusions on certain things without all the facts in the eagerness to get the big story that would make his career. The big reveal would be that story, but that wasn't ready yet and wouldn't be ready for a week or two, depending on how the meetings with the Moon Lake City Council went. But at the moment his editor didn't know that.
"Is there something wrong, sir?" Tom asked carefully as he looked to the man.
"Not really... just checking in to see on if anything came in so far this afternoon?" his editor answered.
"No," Tom gave a sigh, "or at least nothing of note. It's been a pretty slow day and the two email answers I did get were more to say they didn't wish to answer questions from a Seattle paper that's taken little interest in their local issues before..."
"And that can be frustrating..." his editor nodded.
"Though based on the answers I have gotten that go into greater detail... I'd think I have enough to give a pretty thorough rundown with regard to the issues of law and order in the state in relation to any possible large scale crime wave," Tom answered, "and that we've now been over a week since starting this assignment... I'd think that by now if there was something more than the coincidences that related to Lionel Ulysses, the Gambonis, and that power company executive from Alabama... it would have been revealed by now. I'd think we could at least get the article started... that for the most part, things that have happened, particularly in this part of the state, are not a sign of anything more to come... at least nothing for the people of Washington state to be worried over."
His editor slowly nodded, as if agreeing with what Tom told him. His lower lip protruded forward a bit as he nodded, which gave Tom the idea that the editor might actually agree with him. It was something that wasn't the most common of things, but it wasn't as though they always butted heads with each other when it came to stories.
"Give it an extra day," his editor urged, "I want this to be thorough. We'll be having a presidential election next year, and those things can always be contentious and the police and their union often put out a lot of requests for additional funding to cope with the activity that comes along with the election. Not to mention all the other potential surprises that may come out that we don't see coming..."
"Only because we haven't found the Oracle of Delphi, yet," Tom offered a small joke, which earned him a roll of his editor's eyes.
"You know what I mean," his editor spoke, "things can happen by surprise... and those surprises hurt more when people realize that there were things they could have been warned of that they weren't warned of. Thus the need to make sure that someone like the Gambonis or that guy from Alabama WEREN'T trying to start anything big in the state."
"I understand, sir, really," Tom assured him, "I'm just trying to say that I think what we've gotten would indicate that there is nothing big coming into to the state that would really be truly outside the statistical norm."
"And all I'm saying is give it an extra day," his editor urged, "as I said when I gave you this assignment... this isn't one that I was expecting the story by the paper's print deadline. Some of this I'd expected would happen because of distance, relevance issues, and other related factors. Some groups may expect to hear from us from time to time, some of the smaller towns, though, won't. Thus they could well see their issues as being beneath our notice, particularly if things there are likely within their statistical norm. And in some ways... that made this one a tough case to get and would require some measure of tenacity to at least get some responses. And you've been one of the better reporters when it comes to dedication to a story you believe in. And from your reports to me... you have gotten a lot. Give it one more day. If you don't get notice to schedule an in person interview by this time tomorrow... then put the story together with what you have. Until then... let's try to be thorough."
With that the editor began to make his way out, though before he fully left he gave Tom one last comment.
"That way when we do get surprises we can better report on them and provide the knowledge people will need to stay calm," his editor finished as he left.
Tom nodded, though he also thought to himself, "and the reveal may be something of a surprise... and will likely draw more interest in the paper... Hopefully it'll lead to a good surprise and a good future for ALL involved."