Ibrahim Chess derailed his own law-abiding life by making the mistake of phoning up for a weather forecast. He had no consciousness of precipitating a catastrophe for himself, but that was exactly what he did when he made the call.
        The fatal phone call was what brought Ibrahim to the attention of Beria Dag, the head of Ideation Control. It was the phone call which linked Ibrahim, at least in Beria's mind, with a terrorist conspiracy to overthrow the rule of law in the city state of Oolong Morblock.
        The fact that Ibrahim was innocent, the fact that there was no terrorist conspiracy (at least, not when the phone call was made) -- these facts meant nothing. Society rests not so much on facts as on perceptions, and Ibrahim cast himself in the worst possible light by making his phone call on a day of tragedy which included, to mention just one facet of the tragedy, the disaster which blighted baby Paffita's life forever.
        Ibrahim's error was to phone Egon Turow on the morning of the day on which Egon blew himself up.
        Egon, on the day on which he blew himself up,