"Cool! Can't wait to meet her."

"Well, bye for now!" And he's out the door, shirt and backpack and all.

And she decides to call Clara.

"Clara Alta, Empire Imports, Aquisitions."

"Hello! It's Sadde. This is my new number."

"...Oh, that explains it. Okay, um. Good news and bad news. We found the leak. One of the cleaning staff had a pendant that he claimed was a gift. It was enchanted as a spying device and somehow got through security screening. He admitted when questioned that he was paid to wear it whenever cleaning upper offices. Also good news, upper management has approved moving forward with a contract to have you produce large amounts of rares. Bad news. We're practically tearing ourselves inside out to find anything else like this going around - there's an audit starting tomorrow, we'll probably be tied up for at least three, four more days before you have a contract to look at."

"That's fair. Some people called me yesterday to try to get an interview or whatever, about—well, you guys, and import taxes—" She relays the gist of the conversations. "So I thought you all should be aware of it."

"That's why they want you to be a probational citizen before we start. Long story short, both you and the company save a lot of money on taxes this way."

"Oh, I got that done, too. The probational citizen part, that is."

"Good, good."

"How exactly does that save us a lot of money, though?"

"Mostly because taxes on imports are about double taxes on domestic products- And income tax doesn't come into it directly, but you'll still have to pay that."

"Oh so this world doesn't understand gains from trade either, good to know," she sighs. "Alright, then. So you guys'll call me in a few days?"

"'We' in general do understand the economics of trade. The current king simply decided that high tarrifs on some categories of product are worth the other drawbacks. And yes."

"When I said 'this world' I meant the rulers, sorry."

"You're not going to find me liking his decisions but the King is not a blithering idiot. Protecting domestic production is a more stable course than just- knowing the overall world economy will benefit because we're getting outcompeted off-continent."

"Fair enough."

"At any rate, yes, we'll call you at this number in a few days. And try our best not to leak it this time."

"Best of luck."

"You too." Click.

Well then. That was something.

What if any of Terel's research can she contribute to, while he's absent?

A lot! She could prototype his AC generator, perhaps, or fill out his notes on electricity that have a lot of question marks. She could add to his vague musings about processor architecture. And a few other things.

...prototyping, yeah, that sounds like the most fun.

Will the golem lab let her back in, is the question.

Not without Terel, is the answer. She doesn't exactly need the lab's tools for this though, she could go buy some easy.

Nah, too much work. Notes?