They're not stupid, Mr. Celine

All these governments playing genocidal maniacs, they ain't stupid, Mr. Celine. Word on the deep corners of the web is that Winifred survived as some kind of machine intelligence, and she's controlling them all. Them ALL. Not only the politicians, not only the secret societies, but she has morphed into this virtual presence spreading through the net, that can influence what every individual sees, what they believe. Everyone. And all the shit that's happening now, it's all 'cause she's going for it again... she's gonna try it, I mean, look at how many have already been sacrificed to this collective madness! She must not be too far now from IMMANENTIZING THE ESCHATON. You gotta come back, Hagbard. It's more than urgent. You see, they got BANNON, but he's just a distraction. Dude was calling too much attention hanging out with all those big-shots, made people realize there might be some single organized force behind all the chaos. That could have led to exposing her at some point. Now that he's off the streets, nobody ain't looking no more. The robot has taken over. Only these robots are all infected with BAVARIAN VIRUS! No longer we can wait. Actions must be taken immediately. You gotta gimme the passphrase to the Erickson!!

— But the only response George got from Alpha Centauri was:

DÉMERDEZ-VOUS

Which is very impolite French for "deal with it with your own means". And which only a year later, while taking advice from a cousin of Howard whilst fighting arsonists in the Amazon jungle, would he realize was, in fact, the passphrase.