Friday September 26, 2014
Book 15: Delegates and Delegation — Part II: Conflict
Note: There are a quite a few uplifted apes in U.N.S. military service, which means that “monkey” is one of those potentially denigrating terms that officers choose to use carefully. “Monk on your back” is one of the replacement phrases taught in sensitivity training. 
 
Saying that the monk smells like a monkey is the sort of thing that might get one sent right back to sensitivity training. 

Transcript

BALA-AMIN: Let me try to win back your trust with a secret of my own.

SORLIE: *on comm* Please don't.  I don't want another monk on my back.

BALA-AMIN: Admiral Manyara Emm of U.N.S. Intelligence wanted me to detain Murtaugh's crew and hand them over to her.

Emm implied that they were rogue agents in possession of dangerous secrets.

SORLIE: Go on...

BALA-AMIN: *on comm* Secrets that could start a civil war.

SORLIE: This monk is heavy and smells like a monkey.