‘Why, Monica Stewart!’ Rupert Cross said. ‘Fancy seeing you here in my wife’s shop.’ Her heart pounding, she forced a smile. ‘Just getting...some cookies,’ she said. ‘How are you doing?’ Rupert’s thin lips pressed together in something resembling a smirk and he rubbed his hands. ‘Oh, very well indeed,’ he said. ‘You’ve been a busy little bee, I hear. Nice work with Goldman. I guess the retreat turned out very well for all of us.’ She looked at him, keeping her expression bland. ‘Yes, it was very. I watched as he talked to her. She smiled and nodded in the affirmative. Now I smiled.He led her over to us.“Hi, I’m Sam,” I said, as Jeff led her to me. “I’m the honoree today, but I’m willing to share.” I was smiling.“Well, that’s nice,” she said. “Nice of you to invite me to the party.” She waved at the group surrounding us.“Our pleasure for sure, ma’am,” I said.“So what did you do to have so many friends attend your birthday party?” she said.“Nothing much, really, I won the bet is all, oh,. I’ve been here for a number of years now. So it has become somewhat like home away from home for me.’ ‘Are any of your relatives here?’ She asked him. ‘No madam. It is just me.’ He said. ‘Where do you stay?’ She asked. ‘I stay with three of my friends.’ He said. ‘Are they cab drivers too?’ ‘Yes, madam.’ He said. ‘Are they good?’ She asked him. It was a stupid question to ask, but she did ask. ‘Why are asking like that madam?’ he asked her back. ‘Are you cab drivers really good? I mean, I was. . family ... is preparing to unilaterally stop the Sa'arm by destroying entire planets?" Not the entire message," Joe answered. "We are preparing ourselves to do just that. We are willing, however, to eschew that action if the Navy, and by extension, the Confederacy, effects a change in policy that insures the survival of Earth and its natural inhabitants." So you are going to try blackmail..." Admittedly, it is an attempt to influence from a position of strength. Some might call it coercion.,.