[It takes him half a second to consider it, before he shakes his head.]

No. Too risky. They may have had no clue as to the communicative properties before this, which would lead to a definite weaponization of the virus. So long as we go unseen, they may assume there was an undocumented lethality or the uncontrollable nature of the virus made it too much of a liability to use. Your existence would disprove that.

Furthermore, if something happened to you, my own credibility as someone capable of protecting those under me would be immediately ruined. The group would weaken, even fracture.

[...He might also object for personal reasons, but he's not going to say those.]