If you didn't need many characters!

There's some mutterings about standard order sets and encodings.

Yeah, she's glad she didn't go with the telegraph. "Is there anything else I can help you folks with?"

That's enough for a strategic picture. Details are for the engineers. She's dismissed.

"All right, thanks so much for your time!" she says, and she packs up her things.

Her escort's here to take her home!

That's terribly kind of them.

It would be terrible if she were to get lost, after all.

There's dinner, again.

Yum, yum.

"So that went well. I guess tomorrow I turn right around and go all the way home, I hope they thought it was worth it!"

Actually, they'd like her to stay and consult on further research and development.

"Wow, I don't know that I'd be any good at it. Can I have a few weeks to think it over?"

They would be glad to host her, of course.

"My friends'll wonder where I've gone, though, and I didn't pack to stay forever."

Her things can be retrieved, and her friends notified.

"You'll make it sound all sinister and they'll worry that you're kidnapping me or something! And somebody'll overlook something in my place and it'll take weeks of turnaround to get it."

As loyal Fire Nation citizens, they will understand. Unless she has something hidden, it's unlikely that anything will be left behind.

"I don't see how this could be so urgent! Inventing takes a while, and organizing people makes it way slower, that's why I've always worked alone. If you want me to consult with a bunch of folks a few days aren't going to make any difference on the timetable."

She's already here. So.

It doesn't seem as though she's going to change any minds tonight.

She noticed. She laughs it off and goes to sleep.

Page wakes her up at half past three in the morning and she has a look at how guarded her house is.

Two by the front, no sign of others.

So if she went out the back window, what route would she be looking at to get down the mountain, assuming she's prepared to scale it?

She'll have to sneak through the streets. They're lit but not patrolled as far as she can tell, and there's no one out at this hour. The caldera wall by the path she took in is quite steep. Climbing that would be an endeavor. The opposite side has a gentler slope, but that puts her firmly on the island's interior, away from the harbor.

She reviews Page's memory of the slew of boats in the harbor: what's the range on size, sketchiness, and obvious Fire insignia?

A solid majority are obviously nationalized. Very few seemed illegitimate, and they were heavily weighted towards medium-to-large size ships.

Can she run there and back tonight if she wants to real bad and eats half the food in the house afterward?