Crossed signals from another line, she figured. Maybe a short in the dialing mechanism. She glanced down at her notebook and took up her pencil when the picture flashed onto the screen again. This time it was clear and there was no static. The familiarity, she did not realize, was the familiarity of her own face on a man. "Hello," he said. "Hello, Hello, Clea?" "Who is this?" she asked. "Clea, this is Jon." She sat very still, trying to pull two halves of something back together (as in a forest, a prince had felt the same things disengage). Clea succeeded. "You're supposed to be ... dead. I mean I thought you were. Where are you, Jon?" "Clea," he said. "Clea--I have to talk to you." There was a five-second silence. "Jon, Jon, how are you?" "Fine," he said. "I really am. I'm not in prison any more. I've been out a long time, and I've done a lot of things. But Clea, I need your help." "Of course," she said. "Tell me how? What do you want me to do?" "Do you want to know where I am?" he said. "What I've been doing? I'm in Telphar, and I'm trying to stop the war." "In Telphar?" "There's something behind that famed radiation barrier, and it's a more or less civilized race. I'm about to break through the rest of the barrier and see what can be done. But I need some help at home. I've been monitoring phone calls in Toron. There's an awful lot of equipment here that's more or less mine if I can figure out how to use it. And I've got a friend here who knows more in that line than I gave him credit for. I've overheard some closed circuit conference calls, and I'm talking to you by the same method. I know you've got the ear of Major Tomar and I know he's one of the few trustworthy people in that whole military hodge-podge. Clea, there is something hostile to Toromon behind that radiation barrier, but a war is not the answer. The thing that's making the war is the unrest in Toromon. And the war isn't going to remedy that. The emigration situation, the food situation, the excess man power, the deflation: that's what's causing your war. If that can be stopped, then the thing behind the barrier can be dealt with quickly and peacefully. There in Toron you don't even know what the enemy is. They wouldn't let you know even if they knew themselves." "Do you know?" Clea asked. Jon paused. Then he said, "No, but whatever it is, it's people with something wrong among them. And warring on them won't exorcise it." "Can you exorcise it?" Clea asked. Jon paused again. "Yes. I can't tell you how; but let's say what's troubling them is a lot simpler than what's troubling us in Toromon." "Jon," Clea asked suddenly, "what's it like in Telphar? You know I'll help you if I can, but tell me."