Presumably her dads will pick her up eventually.

They do. They look tired but smile at her. 

"Hi."

"Hi, honey. How are you?"

"I'm okay. What happened?"

"Biyan made a silly decision. If they'd asked anyone ahead of time they'd have been told it was silly. They were trying to be nice, even."

"They were trying to be nice?"

"Yep." Scoop. "Intentions don't count for much in international politics."

"How was that trying to be nice?"

"Well, if there were less reds every year then maybe there would be public appetite for pensioning off reds once we don't need them anymore, and even if not they'd rather not kill children."

"...that's not a very nice niceness."

"I think it's nicer than 'give them children to keep them happy and then shoot the children in a few years'."

Nod.

Sigh. Squeeze. "Of course, now there's going to be a catastrophe."

"Are you making it be less?"

"We talked about options to do that. We can't send Biyan reds who will work because the situation is too chaotic and it might provoke ours."

Nod.

"I am trying to get everyone agreed on not doing things secretly without warning anyone but people want to be secretive because they worry about reds finding out."

"Won't they always find out eventually anyway?"

"Ah huh. But the Olvalan ones didn't find out until Olvala was ready for them to, and as a result no clean people died in Olvala."

"Let's go home."

She nods and holds up her arms.

And her parents take her home.

Lintalai is pensive.