She frowned. The cat dropped to the floor with a thump off-camera. "They’ve been taking bites out of us for years, and we’ve got to talk some sense into them. It looks bad for Rizome to cozy up to pirates, so keep it quiet, all right? I’m being stupid here, because I wanted to give you a break. If it comes out that I leaked this, the Committee will slap me down hard. So you’d better be a lot more discreet than I am. Okay, end of message. Send me a tape of the baby, all right? Say hi to David." The screen went blank.