"I regret to inform you that they will not be permitted to enter the district at all, in that case."

"Ma'am, they're police, not solicitors. You can't just decide not to let them in."

"I was invited here by the Rivikni government to ensure a stable red transition. It is my obligation to the Rivikni government to give you a stable transition and your described procedures are absolutely incompatible with that. Please escalate this to someone with the authority to order the police to adapt their procedures or drop the noise complaint."

"I'll put you through to the commissioner. Please hold."

(The cops have drawn guns. The security have drawn shredders.)

Isel turns away from them and her face changes into someone else's and <if you need to leave the district at this time, will that be possible?>

<We've all got roach morphs now.>

<Can you go up a wall to the roof of that big grey purple building, looks like a warehouse of some kind?>

"Hello commissioner. There's been a noise complaint in one of my districts. My very forceful recommendation as your consultant is that you permit my security to escort the police while they investigate. I cannot emphasize enough that if you disregard this recommendation and the police beat some reds to death, I expect the collapse of a successful and peaceful transition effort. The reds are not done training people yet. Please delay your officers in killing the reds until the training is over."

<It's hard to find things like this and we all really want to hide. We can try.>

"You're not my consultant," says the police commissioner.

<I'm going to try to buy you some time. It's safe right now for a few people to demorph and direct everybody, I will let you know if it stops being safe.>

"I am Rivik's consultant. If you beat people to death over a noise complaint I cannot give you a stable transition. All that you need is to let my people video the police. This call is being recorded for later evidentiary purposes. If you beat people to death over a noise complaint I cannot give you a stable transition. I am not accountable for the consequences of sudden destabilizing police brutality incidents mid-transition."

"You can't disrupt police procedure willy-nilly over some blue project. There's standards and practices."

"By all means please tell me how I can comply with those standards and practices without anybody being beaten to death over a noise complaint tonight."

"They're just going to find out who was bothering their betters and make sure they know to cut it out, is all."

"I don't think I understand why we cannot escort them for that and video this process."

"It's disrespectful. Do people record you at work?"

(A shot is fired. Shredders go off. A few of her security people are winged; most of the cops are stunned except the ones behind cover.)

She hangs up. <How are we doing on evacuation?>

<I got a box of all the roaches to the base of the building and we're all going up it now but it's really hard to be out in the open.>

<I understand.> 

One last phone call. "This is Isel. I need police action in the red districts over trivial complaints operating on special procedures for three days. They can obviously still investigate complaints of pollution violations and serious crimes as normal, but noise complaints and rudeness need to happen according to deescalating procedures for the next three days. Please tell the police commissioner that I can organize that."

"Why?"

"Because standard police procedures are likely to cause unrest."

"They don't usually."

"Transitions are an unusual fraught time and situation, riots occur more easily than usual."

"Look, our cops do a hard, complicated job and we don't like to change things around on them."

"I respect that but I cannot serve you further in the transition if the police are going to be beating the reds to death with impunity over noise complaints. Tell the commissioner that these are exceptional circumstances or accept my resignation."

<Everyone up?>

<We think so. It's hard to see.>

"Who says they'd be beaten to death?"

<If you're all out I'm going to have my security light the place on fire so it's less obvious that you vanished into thin air, but if anyone's still stuck then that doesn't work. There aren't cops here now, someone can safely demorph and check if you're on the roof of the right building.>

"That was the conclusion I drew from background reading on handling of similar cases and the police have been unwilling to agree to measures that would be more moderate."