"Anyway, these are Evalee reds," says Shasali. "There might be part-blue ones in other countries."

"Are there Anitami ones -"

"I knew someone who had an - ambiguous shade of violet. People don't usually talk about that sort of thing though."

Nod.

"And would you advise someone in that position to report it," he asks Shasali. 

"No. I once guessed that almost a sixth of the wealth in red communities was from illicit partners or parents, in the form of discounts or direct gifts. My estimate undercounted online income but it's still significant. I'm glad they have a way to handle abuse cases that they consider no longer worth it."

Blues look appropriately disgusted. 

"This doesn't imply very many such relationships, just a high relative ability to spend," she clarifies.

"Well, there's an argument for not letting reds stay poor if I've ever heard one - not that people'll take it that way -"

"I wouldn't imagine they would," says Shasali. "Here, of course, some of the decontaminees are sending remittances, although I've been directing mine towards the decontamination fund in general rather than to specific people I know."

"I think in a year or so we could maybe find room in the budget to subsidize the transition, make sure it all goes gracefully. If there's not another situation like Evalee."

"That slows it down?"

"I think a solid majority of people were in favor of shooting them all once the kids were handed back. The situation represented a substantial diversion of political capital on the part of everyone who'd like a bloodless red transition, and it's not as if that was a cause with abundant support in the first place. I'm very worried about copycats."

"Is Miolee willing to take more reds from other places yet?" asks Isama.

"I think they'd make do but it'd be a strain on a project that's already fairly challenging - especially if there's a language barrier and everything -"

"And Evaleen isn't a very common language."

"It seems like any sensible country would wait a few years before trying something disruptive. We might have robots by then."

"Which might help in that reds can be cleanly extricated without horrible efforts to coerce them into teaching people how to do their jobs, or might hurt in that countries can line it all up in secret and then just kill them with no warning."

"Now that you have the option of sending them to Miolee I don't see why you kill them."

"Transportation costs are pretty substantial. Worse if you're landlocked."

"And Miolee can't take all of them unless they expand somewhere."

"Tapa decontaminated some reds to go be purple and yellow. Maybe our way'll catch on and then they'll all be fine."

"They're doing well as of their last update," Shasali says.

"I'm really glad."

"They're not openly ex-red, though, which is what it will really take to affect public opinion. Tapa won't allow reds to become blue but they haven't ruled out green, which might work."