Erica Duggan immediately recognized the voice of the caller as that of her son, Jeremiah (left). From his first sentence, it became immediately clear that he had encountered some kind of crisis or peril. We might guess that she was at wit’s end as to what to do about it, for at the time she was at their home in London, and her son across the Channel somewhere in Germany.

Jeremiah had been studying in France, taking classes at both the British Institute in Paris and the Sorbonne. While there he bought a newspaper from an older man named Benoit Chalifoux, a representative of a minor political party called Solidarite et Progrès (SP). Chalifoux impressed Jeremiah with what seemed like extensive knowledge of philosophy, art, music, and economics. Chalifoux also told him things he had never known about Jewish history. That struck close to home, for Duggan’s Jewish maternal grandfather had himself escaped Nazi Germany before the Holocaust.

Chalifoux took Jeremiah under his wing, and began to coach him privately on these subjects. But as a member of a political party, Chalifoux’s main goal consisted of recruiting Duggan into his organization. Jeremiah enthusiastically embraced SP’s outward ideology, consisting as it did of a classically rationalistic approach to leftist idealism.

It pleased Erica that her son had taken an interest in politics. She and Hugo, her ex-husband and Jeremiah’s dad, had liberal leanings. Thus, she agreed with his positions, and marveled at the passion with which her son spoke on a number of topics. She was particularly proud of his opposition to the looming war in Iraq. When combat began on March 20, 2003, she was even prouder to hear of his decision to travel to Germany to participate in an international anti-war conference.

Jeremiah Duggan had learned a lot in the previous year, not only from his classes but from Chalifoux. Yet, there seemed to be a certain wisdom about the young Englishman that made him somewhat cautious. Chalifoux had told him repeatedly about the man who created the SP, a man who was the only one with all the answers necessary to save mankind from its own looming destruction. That raised Duggan’s spider sense. After all, who among us is really that omniscient?

Before trekking out to Germany for this conference, he wanted to know if this man, Chalifoux, and the entire SP were legitimate. He would have checked himself to see if the great man really was all that, but because of his tight schedule and limited Internet access, he didn’t have time. So he called his mother, and asked her to do it.

Erica happily obliged. Unfortunately, when she Googled the name of the great man her son wanted her to check out, she misspelled it. Consequently, when the query didn’t raise any red flags, she called back to tell Jeremiah that she could find nothing wrong with him. So, the anti-war conference looked good to go.

She wouldn’t hear his voice again until 4:24am, March 27, 2003.