For the first time in his life he felt desperate. A cool head and a habit of never being wrong had got him where he was--founder and top banana of Full-Projection, sole owner of three TV networks using the revolutionary 3-D devices perfected by Otto Kahler and patented by Archy. In the present emergency, he tried to keep his head still cool and continue to never be wrong. A stagehand was running a phone out onto the set. Waiting, Archy snapped instructions at Otto--put half the staff to trying to get the scramblers operating, set the other half to slapping together an emergency machine. Otto dashed off and the phone was slapped into Archy's hand. "Yes, Ben," he said assuringly to the President of the United States. "What can I do for you?" "You can get those projections out of my living room," snapped the president. "They're still doing their acts from the circus show--jugglers, acrobats, an animated cartoon. What happened?" "Don't worry, Pops. An experimental commercial goofed. Stay tuned; we'll have the scramblers on in ten minutes." "You'd better," crackled President Conklin. "I have guests--this could be an international incident. And don't call me Pops." "Sit tight. And now excuse me, Ben, I'm going on the air. Just keep the projections near the set, within scrambler range." He was on. They used the conventional flatscreen cameras, and June's script was as smooth as if she'd worked all day on it ... as smooth as her satiny shoulders and not-quite-uncovered bust. It explained that due to uncontrollable circumstances scrambler-power was temporarily off. "Our advice is, stay calm," Archy read smoothly. "The projections are not real people. They are harmless. They are merely images of people, just as in old-fashioned flat TV, except that they are projected into your home in full dimensions. Even with no scrambler to dissipate the electro-magnetic configuration of which they are composed, they will not last long. "They are held together, energized, by the energy beamed from our studios through your set. Without that power they will vanish, probably within a few minutes." Reassured by what he had just read, Archy took more phone calls. The general in Hawaii told him the barracks were full of Pixie Owens projections, Bikini-clad, and military discipline was shattered. The mayor of New York reported that Central Park was teeming with Wild West Theater projections, and armadillos in the streets had jammed all traffic. * * * * * President Conklin made a furious repeat call. The Russian consulate had sent a stiff note protesting the "degenerate practical joke" perpetrated on a Soviet diplomat attending Conklin's soiree. The skipper of a battleship said his men proposed tossing all projections overboard, and he wanted to know if this would constitute murder. Archy said it wouldn't, instructed his staff to take no more calls, and went to find Otto. June went with him.