"...but we'd have to touch you."

<And then I fly home in morph and demorph in my shower, it's no big deal.>

They don't look sure about that.

<I've been doing this for years, the only reason I don't touch reds is because they'd get in trouble. If you really want I can figure out how to do a blood sample instead but it's not a concern for me.>

"We should probably do roaches," someone says. "Kids and everyone else we can spare out, roaches for everyone else."

<Okay. You can practice and make sure it's tolerable and no one gets claustrophobic or anything, and we can come up with a backup plan for anyone who does. Do you want to try to train replacements and escape before the government moves, or to just get out right away? The advantage to training replacements is that I can be in a position to help other people, but the disadvantage is of course that they might try to kill you sooner than we're ready.>

"Can you make them hire us Anitami security or something?"

<- I can definitely look into that. Anitami greys are, like, better than your greys but not fantastic. ...maybe if I tell them we're hiring Anitami greys to protect everyone during the training and transition, and then when the transition is done the greys'll leave for Anitam and you'll be escorted to the docks to wait for your boat, that'd be enough for them to become convinced the most convenient time to kill you is once you're done with training.>

Nod nod.

<All right. So you get morph now, and you practice so that if you need to leave sooner we can do it on short notice, but we try to make the training happen. I can leave the morph cube in the garbage for you, it's the most convenient way to smuggle things here, but it'd be a disaster if it got lost so the garbage people need to know where to look. Does that work?>

"It's easy to lose things in garbage."

<Want to do it some other way?>

"I don't know how else..."

"You can fly, could you drop it on a grave?"

<I don't know how I'd get a bird big enough to carry it but maybe there's a petting zoo or something. I'll look into it.>

"And you'd have to get it to all the neighborhoods - traveling is dangerous -"

<Yeah, we heard some of the stories. Do you have any way to just receive packages - ordered online or anything ->

"No."

Bird makes a bird face. <Then I think I'll put it in the garbage right outside my hotel in a big blue bag and personally stand there watching over it until the trucks come.>

"Okay."

<Anything else while I'm here?>

"Will the children have places to stay in Miolee, if we don't make it -"

<Of course they will. Places to stay and lots of people who are proud and safe and happy and red.>

Nervous sniffly reds.

Isel flies back to her hotel suite. Isel seeks bids from Anitami security companies to come hang out in Rivik and make sure everyone leaves the reds alone. Have to wear cameras, crazy bonuses as usual if they touch you and you don't hurt them.

Isel tells the Rivikni government that she's secured the agreement of their reds to train replacements, on the condition that Anitami security supervise and that the children all go to Miolee now. Anitami security will leave as soon as the replacements are trained - "but at that point all that's left is taking the reds to the docks to wait for their boat, and I'm sure we can manage that part without bloodshed."

"Sounds simple enough. Why are we sending the little reds separately?"