Further Tales From The Village

    I suppose it was not unlikely that one day I should be abducted and wake up here amongst you, but where is here, how did I get here, and who are you?
    “Wouldn't you like to know” the voice said.
    “Here is the village, how you came here is unimportant, who am I, I am Number 2, and you are our new Number 6.”
   “What happened to the old one?”
  “He’s past his prime, and we need a new challenge.”
  “What was he like?”
  “Arrogant, well educated, intelligent, good at woodwork and navigation, a good swimmer, artistic, stubborn, rebellious, non-conforming, apt to poke his nose in where it had no business. Troublesome, single-minded, individualistic I could go on.”
    “I’m not a bit like that.”
    “No, the former Number 6 was many things, a larger than life character you could say, at times too good to be true.”
    “And now you’ve got me!”
    “And now we’ve got you.”
    “So what do you want?”
    “I want you to try and escape!”
    “Escape?”
    “Yes.”
    “How?”
    “There are several ways, can you fly a helicopter?”
    “No.”
    “Well perhaps you could fell a tree and fashion a boat out of the trunk.”
    “I could, where do I get the tools?”
    “You make the tools yourself, stone axe, and chisel.”  
    “That sounds like a lot of hard work, what might be my chances?”
    “What of drowning, very high I should think!”
    “No, I mean of escape?”
    “Oh very slim, no-one has managed to escape that way before.”
    “Then why suggest it?”
    “Well it would be worth a try.”
    “I don’t think I want to escape, I think I’ll stay here!”
    “What? It is the right of every prisoner to try and escape. By helicopter, boat, sea-going raft, motor boat, even by land in one of our own vehicles.”
    “I can drive.”
    “Well there you are then” No2 said enthusiastically.
    “Why are you so keen for me to try and escape?”
    “So we can chase you and bring you back.” 
    “But I’m here already!”
    “Where is the fun in that? Once you’ve attempted to escape once, you might get the taste for it, and perhaps try something more original the next time.”
    “Something more original, yes, I'll simply stay here. The Village doesn't look too bad. I could get a job, perhaps something in Administration. I used to work in Intelligence, I’m used to working with filing systems.”
    Number 2 shook his head “I couldn’t possibly allow you to get close to our secret files, but that was a good try Number 6. What else can you do?”
    “Well I like gardening, I could be a gardener, cutting the lawns, trimming hedges, planting bedding plants.”
    Number 2 nodded his head and exclaimed “That would afford you the opportunity to steal tools!”
   “Why would I want to steal tools?”
   “You could dig a tunnel and escape that way?”
   “Me, dig a tunnel…on my own!”

   “Yes, no-one has tried to tunnel their way out of the Village before!”

   “This is the Village, not Stalag-Luft 7, besides where would I put all the soil?”
    “Good point, perhaps that’s why no-one has tried that before!”
    “I could simply walk out of here, across to the far side of the estuary, I observed there’s a house on the far side.”
    “When did you observe that?”
     “From the top of the bell tower on the day of my arrival here.”
    “They might help you in your escape” No.2 suggested.
    “Who might?”
    “Whoever lives in that house.”
    “You know who lives in that house…don’t you, otherwise why allow someone to live so close to the village?”
    “How intelligent of you to think of that.”
    “Let me tell you Number 2, I was not brought here, I was sent here!” the prisoner said rolling up his left sleeve “I have an automatic transponder just under the skin, I expect my friends are already on their way.”
    No.2 leaned forward and examined the prisoner’s fore arm.

    Operation Aldea had been the most complex of operations. A file had crossed a desk in Intelligence marked ‘Eyes Only’, ‘most secret’ by mistake.  A file which was just asking to be read. A village installation the basic function being the gathering of information, a place where people are abducted to, people with a certain kind of information, people who know too much, or too little, where they have many means and ways of breaking a man.
   So, give an agent a new identity and background, then place him high up in Intelligence, then draw attention to him through scandal, betrayal, and resignation then wait.
    “And you had me abducted to the village…..” the prisoner said.
    Suddenly the ‘L’ shaped telephone began to bleep, No.2 picked it up “Yes what is it.”
    “Supervisor here sir, we’ve picked something up on sonar, it could be a submarine…….sir Post 5 has just reported that four boats are speeding towards the village, what action am I to take?”
    But it was all too late! Four fast CRRC {Combat Rubber Raiding Craft} had already entered the estuary heading towards the village. Onboard those craft, men in black uniform, armed to the teeth, members of her majesties Special Forces.
    “The game’s up Number 2” the Prisoner said “you had better inform Number 1.”
    “Who…..who are you?”
    “My name is Blake, Jonathan Blake, although for official purposes you may call me 005. Now I think we should go and greet your guests don’t you?”

Be seeing you