He keeps track of things like that. Every prominent family has a few unfortunate grandchildren and it's very convenient. This one haplessly walked into a pyramid scheme, that one cheated on her husband after two childless springs and has a secret purple baby, this one choked his yellow girlfriend nearly to death and it caused a fuss and he's dated farther down since but he hasn't stopped doing it...

He hears about this one. He suggests to the police that they delay publishing the blotter. He drops by the office of senior councilwoman Mitasel Neli and does not say anything.

Mitasel Neli has a mysterious hole in her schedule. 

"Neither she nor I nor the police nor her escort nor even I imagine the reds would like for anything to have occurred. It shouldn't be too difficult for someone with your connections."

"I'll try, but, uh, I don't have a clear picture of exactly how much misadventuring needs to never have occurred."

"As I understand if, my granddaughter went on an ill-advised trip to the red district, then failed to properly decontaminate on her way out. Apparently she was somehow mistaken for a red attempting to sneak out and was injured resisting arrest. She was not in fact a red, but now the police are obliged to prosecute the pollution violation. Everyone would prefer that her case be quietly dismissed for lack of evidence."

Mitasel stamps a piece of paperwork rather harder than strictly necessary.

"What a regrettable misunderstanding." How did the police end up mistaking blue and red. How did she survive resisting arrest, if they thought she was red. What did she touch. 

He does not ask Mitasel these questions. He does have someone stop by the police station to ask them.

Shae is not available, as she is currently in the prison infirmary. 

A grey in an immaculately-tailored suit is on hand to answer questions, however. 

Her report consists of the following facts:

1: Her charge, Shae Alamet, escaped her watchful guidance in the late hours of last night when she was asleep.

2: Shae then proceeded to dye her hair and have unknown misadventures in the red district. 

3: Despite her investigative and combat training, Atha only barely managed to find her charge in time to prevent a death by misadventure. 

4: Nobody has any idea how much of the city Shae has tracked through in contaminated clothing, and she's in no condition to answer at the moment. 

5: Mitasel Neli should be informed that Atha will expect hazard pay for tracking her charge through the red district. 

Entin Saladae doesn't work for Mitasel Neli - "or, uh, I don't think so? Definitely I don't work for her in the sense where I could be informing her of things. I'm not sure I'd do that for any amount of money, fuck. How far was she from the district when they found her - why'd they think she was red - did she dye her hair red -"

Atha holds up a palm-sized bottle of very visibly red dye. 

"I have no idea where she managed to find this, and I'm sure I'm going to have a very interesting discussion with her about where it came from once she finishes sleeping things off. We don't think she got far — she was trying to get the dye out of her hair..." 

Atha grimaces. "We don't think anyone has been directly exposed save the arresting officers and myself, but it was very nearly an unmitigated disaster."

"Uh huh. How many people know about the whole mess -"

"Myself, the two arresting officers, their immediate superior, their superior's superior, the liaison in charge of delicate blue affairs, and some unknown number of witnesses, at minimum the one who called in the 'escaping red.'"

"Do you have names?"

"I can give you a list for your pocket everything of the relevant people at the station and the one known witness." 

"Thank you." Sigh. "Does she have the money to pay everyone off herself, or -"

"If she had that kind of sense, would she be in this situation?"

"The Oahk Empire killed more than half of Voa's blues and I don't think Voa's suffered in the slightest for having half as many," he says while copying the list to his pocket everything. "I bet it'd be the same with half again as many."

Atha shrugs. "Eh. Her family pays me well, and she prevents my life from ever becoming anywhere in the vicinity of boring." 

"She tracked filth all over the city and smeared it all over the police and if no one had caught her - what if she's done it before -"

Atha raises an eyebrow. 

"I'm not that blind: she got a fifteen minute head start. As for the filth..." 

She shrugs. "I'm a professional bodyguard. If a red swings a fist at my charge, the last thing I can afford to do is flinch to put myself between the red and them. Anti-aversion training came with the job." 

" - people shouldn't be in, uh, fist-length. And you get the sticks, if you're going to need to be. Maybe they can find some real red, execute them for fleeing the district, reassure all the witnesses."

Atha grimaces. "Did I say I enjoyed it? I went and showered for about two hours straight just as soon as the crisis was over. My training's what let me deal with it, even though I had no chance at a stick and had to go be with reds. Ugh." 

She shakes her head. "Better to look on the bright side: big fat bonus for me, I'm alive, my charge's still alive despite her suicide attempt, and the city's still clean enough."

"I guess it could've gone worse," he agrees. "Thanks for the names."

"Thanks for safeguarding my paycheck." 

He makes a face. "Number if you need me is 2895-0044-3172."

She nods. "I'll keep you updated."

Aitim sends Mitasel an invoice for nearly two hundred thousand ni in investment advice. Witness can get a courtesy phone call followup informing them that the culprit has been found, did not survive to stand trial, the following areas are closed for cleaning, thank you for your service to the city. Police officers can get absurdly generous bonuses. The bodyguard is not his problem.

And once the unfortunate granddaughter is clean and lucid he'll stop by.