In Seattle, Tom Herald was pondering over how to plan out and handle the changes that had come up in the morning. In the wake of recent events, he'd gotten an assignment from his editor to put together a comprehensive story on what the local police departments were ready for and what they seriously expected. It was an assignment that had come out of a series of events in the western part of Washington that shook things up fairly heavily. The most recent began with Lionel Ulysses, a wererat from Moon Lake, though Tom didn't know that when the story first broke. Ulysses had been part of a street gang that was often associated with distributing and doing drugs, along with other various petty crimes that from what Tom knew kept him more on the Seattle PD's radar and not much else.
Then, Ulysses crossed the country and murdered a Marine Corps officer in Virginia before traversing the country again to come back to Seattle. This ultimately drew the FBI who brought in additional resources that were able to track and pin Ulysses down to Seattle's docks. That ultimately led to a gun fight that could have exposed Lionel Ulysses as a wererat and hurt the were community by the association with the crime. But at the time, Tom had still been a normal human, saw it as weird and didn't buy the costume idea that the police and FBI put out as an excuse, as he felt it didn't do the men that Ulysses wronged through the drug trade and the man he murdered any good by trying to cover something up. Things didn't get much better when Lionel Ulysses was then murdered in his hospital room by another mystery party that only further raised crime issues and that was what then led to his present assignment.
And in some of his recent interviews, Tom had also found out that Ulysses probably wasn't the only one that had drawn attention to law enforcement and other issues in Washington. The biggest of these had been the Gamboni crime family chasing a family from all over the country to Moon Lake, where they were caught and arrested and with one of the Gambonis arrested for trespassing on an army base and caught hacking into bank systems. The thing that kept them in Washington state was that one of them also killed a Park Ranger at Mt. Saint Helens, but they weren't the only ones. As there had also been a power company owner, who was obsessively interested in controlling a young woman attending college in the area and sent assassins to kill the prospective groom and wounded the groom's brother. All that showed a lot of criminal activity and the Gambonis representing a major organized crime family traversing the country. All of that was bound to frighten people, particularly when they didn't have all the information that was needed.
And with this, Tom had accepted the assignment to get the information from around the state, though all came with some of its own adventures that didn't entirely relate to it. For while researching Lionel Ulysses' tail, Tom had met a wonderful woman, Alice Stevens, who had helped in many ways, and despite her being younger than him and secretly a werefox, had been quite helpful and kind to him. Though, it seemed that their first interaction had triggered a budding "bond" in her, even without the two of them having sex to trigger that bond. Ultimately, as Tom grew closer to Alice, she did reveal that she was a werefox to him, but despite some initial surprises... there were things that just seemed to fit right, and he ultimately let her turn him into a werefox and then felt himself bond to her. It was an amazing sensation that he couldn't fully describe, but it also brought things back his thoughts on what had happened with the hunt for Lionel Ulysses.
For with the fact that had he uncovered weres then, he might have drawn the association between Lionel Ulysses' crimes and his being a wererat, but after becoming a werefox, Tom knew that while weres could engage in crime, that was going to be something closer to why normal humans turned to crime. This helped create the drive to let weres come into the open, not just in a specialized sort of sanctuary, and which would then let his fiancée be as she truly was. It would mean revealing that weres were real and did exist, which might well mean it's own set of civil rights battles, but Tom was fairly sure that with the right information and the right presentation, that would all work, and he seemed to win over Moon Lake's City Council in working on that project. It was something that worked with his present assignment, largely because most of the law enforcement agencies in the state that he had contacted either didn't feel the need to talk to him or didn't have things going on that was on par with had gone on in the Seattle to Moon Lake area with regard to such activity.
The lack of any calls to schedule interviews had created some frustration in that he wasn't getting the information needed for a good article, and he'd voiced this to his editor that he either wasn't getting answers or no one wanted to give him answers. It was something that until recently had then set about a deadline before when Tom was to write out the article with what he had, and he was about to get started on that today, until he'd gotten a series of emails and calls that had some police units that either hadn't answered his calls or rejected them outright now calling to say they changed their minds and offered in person interviews. It was a surprise, and the honest reporter in Tom was thankful for that, if only to get the information to make his report something that wouldn't be guessing at things...
But that was where he was running into scheduling issues that related to the reveal of the existence of weres. He had to work with the Moon Lake City Council on putting it together and even scheduling how the reveal would work. That required keeping his Wednesdays free and even making sure he wouldn't be traveling on the day before. Thankfully, so far, he'd managed to arrange things with the coming sets of interviews, and they would be in good order and kept things clear to be in Moon Lake. The order of those interviews would be South Bend and Montesano later in the day, then to Vancouver (Washington state) on the next day, and then the Asotin County Sheriff's office on Sunday. It would mean a lot of travelling in the next few days, but it wouldn't mess with the need to keep his Wednesday free. All that was left now was to inform his editor and make the travel arrangements, not to mention collecting his things from the Stevens household so that he could travel.
His editor's office was the closest and Tom made his way there carefully. He carefully focused his ears for any sign of activity coming from inside the office that would require him to wait, such as his editor talking to someone else in the office, on a phone call, or on an intercom with someone else in the building. It wasn't necessarily too hard, though it was still something he was still adapting to after becoming a werefox. Things that he normally didn't hear before were now something he could make out, and in his transformed state he could make out quite clearly... though, he obviously couldn't be transformed while at work. Thankfully as he approached the door to his editor's office, he could faintly hear the sound of something clicking, which Tom assumed was the keyboard, and so he knocked on the door to get a response.
"Come in," came his editor's voice.
Tom entered the office while clearing his throat, "sir, I have some interesting... information to report."
"Interesting, Herald?" his editor asked.
"Yes, sir," Tom answered, "some that might help with the story you wanted..."
"Would help?" his editor asked, "Haven't most of the officers rejected even talking with you?"
"Most have, sir... but this morning a few of them seemed to change their minds, or managed to get back to me," Tom explained, "and I just wanted to clear it with you. In case you wanted me to pick up with the new information. Or go on with what I have now."
This part was critical, as while he had scheduled the interviews, it was his editor that really controlled or allowed what Tom could work with regarding the article and his timing. Tom was always a stickler for getting as much information as possible before reporting and making the story truly investigative and factual, though it could at times create some of its own troubles when Tom caught something that excited him and got him interested in doing more research into something for a story, even if it wasn't there. Some of that related to his interest in uncovering the truth around Lionel Ulysses' tail. Though his editor ultimately urged him to back off that point because he didn't buy Tom's hunch that the tail was real, and now, Tom actually was grateful for his editor's blocking his earlier hunch as it would let him work out the big reveal for weres in a way that will give weres the best shot at gaining full civil rights and in the open. But for the moment, that would have to wait until things were cleared with his present assignment.
"Well... by deadlines... I could say that we're at a point where we really can't work with it," his editor said, "but this was a big and a research article to begin with... One that was bound to take time to put together. And with next year being a presidential election and how much politicians on both sides try to make arguments on "law and order," we need something detailed and accurate to present. Which is why I gave YOU the assignment in the first place. So, for as long as you get positive answers for interviews... you are to take those requests and we'll push the deadline for the writing of the article back. Get what you need and see to your travel arrangements. Also, send me an email that will hold your schedule, so I can know where you'll be and how long this will take."
"I will... and I'll probably get started on the travel arrangements and packing for some of the travel that will come with all this," Tom informed him, "thank you, sir."
"Just keep yourself focused, Herald," his editor spoke, "don't get distracted on something."
"Of course, sir," Tom nodded and then set about handling these other missions.
From there, he was quick to return to his cubicle and was quick to set about the travel arrangements and schedule the hotel stays that he needed for the course of these travel days. That wasn't too hard to do, given the good roads that lead down to South Bend, Montesano, and then Vancouver. A lot of the roads to Asotin County were not as good as the major highway running down the Pacific coast, they weren't necessarily bad, and he'd actually have more time to make the drive. The main thing was to then alert both Alice and a pair of guardians that served the Moon Lake Skulk.
A lot of this came from the actions from a pair of werewolves, Quintus Fives and Gustavus Amehr, had not responded well to the report on Tom's reveal plan and idea. The two of them had acted like secret agents and pretty much threatened him over it and that was something that Tom had to deal with. It was frightening enough that Tom was willing to leave his apartment and Alice hers to commute between her parents' home in Moon Lake and their work in Seattle, with Ichiro and Yoshi Tachibana effectively serving as bodyguards while the process of conducting the "big reveal" was going on. Tom expected some negative response, as people who had done things a certain way for centuries likely weren't going to take rapid change well, but to do something that would seem to threaten another's life, particularly when outside accepted law enforcement at any level was beyond what would be acceptable. His first contact was with Ichiro and Yoshi, who happened to be walking by the paper's offices when he came out.
"Is something going on?" Ichiro asked as he approached.
"I've actually gotten some calls that will have me having to head out for some interviews that will go through Sunday," Tom answered.
"New interviews?" Yoshi asked and looked to Ichiro, "was this someone new who hadn't responded?"
"No... strangely, most were actually ones that rejected earlier interview attempts," Tom answered, "I can't say why they changed their minds but they did."
"Did they say anything that would sound suspicious to you?" Yoshi asked.
"Not completely," Tom answered, "as these sorts of things do happen from time to time. The one thing that I would be concerned with, would be that by being away from Seattle and Moon Lake... that could give Fives and Amehr time to either get whatever sort of resistance better organized... or arrange something that might hurt Alice."
"They could also arrange for you to have an accident away from Moon Lake and Seattle... areas we know," Ichiro warned.
"And would be accepted in," Yoshi added.
"It can't be avoided," Tom sighed, "it's all part of my work... I can't just quit until the reveal is finished. Besides, I've broken no crime, and I'm interviewing law enforcement agencies. I highly doubt that either Fives or Amehr would actually do something that would risk the law coming onto them as suspects. It'd essentially do precisely what they fear I'm trying to do... expose things in a bad light."
Yoshi and Ichiro nodded calmly and began to move off. They gestured as though they were accepting directions as they moved away, though, this was an act on the part of the two Japanese American werefoxes that was designed to make sure that others would think that this run in was a coincidence.
"We'll stay in the area and keep an eye on things around yours and Alice's apartment and her store until the end of the day," Yoshi spoke as he and Ichiro moved off, "just to make sure there isn't any unexpected actions."
"Thank you... and I'll call Alice as I get going, just to update her," Tom spoke, and then climbed into his car.
Once in the seat, he cellphone in the hands-free port that he'd had put in and clicked to the dashboard. He then was quick to dial a familiar number, and hoped that the update that he would be out until at least Monday evening would not upset her.
"Hello? Tom, is that you?" came Alice's voice, "I'm at work and it's not quite my lunch break yet..."
"I know, dear, but something has come up and I felt it best to let you know what it is," Tom spoke with some worry in his voice, as his bond also drove him to fear the negative response that was bound to come.
"What is it" Alice asked as Tom buckled his seat belt and then moved to start his car with the key going into the ignition.
"I've gotten some call backs for interviews with my present assignment for the paper," Tom spoke openly and honestly, inwardly bracing himself for however Alice might react, "it'll mean some travel... with the last of them being on Sunday."
"On Sunday?" Alice asked.
"Yes, it's a string of interviews, two today, one tomorrow, and then the last on Sunday in Asotin County," Tom explained, "I'm already in the process of heading to get things packed and then head out to get to the first interview."
"And this is all part of your work for..." Alice began.
"The report my paper wants on the readiness of Washington state's law enforcement regarding the fallout from some of the other stuff that's gone on of late," Tom explained.
"Oh..." was all Alice spoke.
"I wish I could take you with me," Tom said, "we could eat out... talk... and have some fun at night... but, I wouldn't want to pull you away from your job."
"I know," Alice responded, "you'll be safe, right?"
"Of course," Tom answered, and let is voice grow a bit stronger as he finished, "of course."