The Voice, by Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould

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                           - 2 -

Unknown to all but a handful of people, a nuclear war was
narrowly averted in 1990 between India and Pakistan and the
situation in the region continues to disintegrate to this
day. What could possibly have motivated the instigators of
this war to bring us to the edge of Armageddon on the eve of
the millennium?

After years of struggling with that impossible story, the
Voice was to be our attempt to escape the madness of that
war. Inspired by Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth we would
plunge into a story of myth and legend, leaving the world of
geopolitics and hard-edged journalism behind. But instead of
an escape, our search began to reveal deeper, far reaching
motives for the events that modern journalism only touches
on. And in time, we began a thoroughly mystical journey that
led us-through dreams and coincidence-to find our personal
connection to these historical events as well. It began
suddenly in 1991, the tenth anniversary year of our first
trip to Afghanistan when our daughter Alissa awoke, having
dreamed of my deceased father.

Accompanied by a strange man and wearing a peculiar bell
bottomed plaid suit and a funny matching hat, the man
claimed to be a friend of my father and when my daughter
questioned his age he laughed and told her he was eight
hundred years old. Over the years I had heard many tales of
the Fitzgerald family and their eight-hundred year old
conquest of Ireland under the Earl of Pembroke, Strongbow. I
also knew that my branch of the family was somehow connected
to them. But the coming of Alissa's dream seemed an omen I
couldn't ignore and I immediately set out to find whether
this mysterious visitor might be a connection haas looking
for.