60 Second Interview With An Ex-No.2

What follows is part of a conversation between No.2 and No.249 Head of the Psychriatric Department, in No.2's office of the Green Dome.

No.2 'You aren't preparing a report on my........... mental health?'

No.249 'Of course not.'

'And Number Six didn't see you later on?'

'Why should he?'

'Then why did he ring you?'

'I told you, I don't know.'

You're a psychiatrist aren't you? Would you say that No.6 was mad?'

'Not according to our records.'

'Then he had a reason for telephoning you, didn't he. What was it?'

'Why don't you ask him?'

'Would you like to sit in that chair?'

'I was merely suggesting......'

'Don't tell me what to do! You can go.'

'Thank you.'

Well I bet by the time No.249 got back to his office he had a file opened, and began a report on No.2's mental health, it would have been his right and duty to have done so. Seeing as how No.2 'lost it' on several occasions. And then came the final breakdown, as No.2 was forced to report himself as being a breakdown in control, and that No.2 needed to be replaced.                                                                         

This is a particularlly sad case. No.2 was a weak link in the chain of cammand waiting to be broken. It wasn't long after No.2 being forced to report himself, that the men in white coats came for him, taking away the ex-No.2 to the 'funny farm,' well the psychiatric wing of the hospital to be exact. And as far as I'm aware, that is where he has resided ever since. Yet there has been a sign of improvement in the state of No.2's mental health. although whenever the name of Number Six is mentioned, the patient does still fly into a sudden fit of rage.                                                                                                                                                           

Ex-No.2 'What are you doing here?'

Psychiatrist 'I've come to keep you company. I heard all your friends have deserted you. You couldn't trust anyone anymore....pity. Odd isn't it? That with all that power at your disposal, and yet you were alone. You did feel alone didn't you?'

'What do you want?'

'To talk. To Listen.'

'I've nothing to say.'

'That's not like the old Number Two. Where is the strong man, the Hammer? You have to be Hammer or Anvil, your words remember?'

'I know who you are!'

Psychiatrist 'Who am I?'

'Sent here by our masters to spy on us. To spy on me!'

'Sorry. I'm not quite with you.'

'Oh yes. You can stop acting now you know. I was onto him from the beginning. I knew what he was doing!'

'Tell me.'

'All those messages sent. And all those people recruited. I knew he was a plant. He didn't fool me!'

'Maybe you fooled yourself!'

'What does that mean?'

'Let us say for arguments sake, that what you say it true. That there was a plant here in the Village.'

'Sent by XO4.'

'Xo4? Oh very well. by this XO4. That he was sent here to check on the Village security, to check on you.'

'He was.'

'Who?'

'Six, Number Six!......I'll break this conspiracy. I'll break the lot of you! You're in it as well, oh yes. You don't know anything.... and I thought you were a friend. The one man I could trust. Oh get out, get out!'

      {It was at this point that two men in white coats took the ex-No.2 back to his padded cell, which was for his own protection of course.}

BCNU