Observers of Life Should Never Get Involved!
"Our observers do see and hear everything you know."
{The heir presumptive, an interim No.2 - It's Your Funeral}
The above statement is a brave and bold one to make, but I am not at all convinced that it is an accurate one! Exactly how much observers really do see and hear is really anyone’s guess especially as how only the more fractious children have observers of their own, and I do include No.6 in that, well you have to don't you.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the observers do an excellent job, but they can't see and hear everything, even if only taking into account human frailty. I am of the opinion that observers are not watching and listening all the time, after all an observer cannot be sat watching a monitor for more than twenty minutes at a time before they begin to miss movement on the screen, breaks must be taken, a shift change over. The only question is when are the citizens under such close observation, if we knew the answer to that one........
To see and hear everything would take an inordinate number of observers, all citizens have to have one each but that would make as many observers as Prisoners in the village! No, as No.2 of Dance of the Dead once said "only our more fractious children," so no, not every citizen has his or her own observer. It is my opinion that the observers are not watching all the time. there is only a certain length of time any said observer can sit in front of a monitor until he or she eventually starts to miss movement on that screen. So it would be more probable that observers work intermittently, taking regular breaks, shift changes etc. If the citizens have no idea of when they are under surveillance you exert a certain control over them, to change their behavioural patterns through the power of uncertainty. Eventually citizens will act normally whether under surveillance or not. But then this is merely my own humble opinion, for whatever my opinion might be worth for I am merely One of Six, expressing my opinion within this free and democratic village of ours without the threat of being posted as unmutual or having to undergo the ordeal of "instant social conversion!"
If these so called observers are as good as No.2 the Heir Presumptive claims, how is it possible for No.6 to have got away with so much during his time here in the village?
For example;
A, During A B and C No.6 was able to follow the doctor N.o14 from her cottage behind the Bell Tower
B, In The Schizoid Man a fight takes place between No.6 and No. 12, this is unobserved, or at least it went unreported until No.6 himself telephoned No.2 to report the of the death of No.6. Had such a fight been observed, an observer would have seen No.6 take the false mole from No.12's left wrist and put it upon his own, or should that be the other way around? In any case such an observation made and acted upon would have made No.2's job simpler when it came to detecting No.6's true identity at the end.
C, In Dance of the Dead it was No.240, herself an observer, no more, one of the villages best observers, allows herself to be followed to the Town Hall by no lesser a citizen than No.6! And then later during the ball No. 6 is allowed to walk the halls of the Town hall unobserved, deliberate? To impersonate a doctor and to go about things until the time of his trial!
D, In Checkmate all things are going on under the surveillance of the observers. A telephone stolen from a phone booth, electronic components from the electrics truck, an aerial broken off a taxi. And not to mention the theft of a surveillance camera, while the Supervisor is actually using the camera to pan around the central village its filming displayed upon the wall screen at the time of the theft!
C, One final example comes from A Change of Mind, when No.6 pours away the drugged tea from his cup into the flower pot! Later No.6 demonstrates how to make a proper pot of tea, he can't stand girls who can't make a descent cup of tea! And thus doing, he counters No.86's attempts to drug his tea once more and turns the tables on her under the very watchful eye of both No.2 and the Supervisor-No.28!
"There is only one word for all this incompetence! And it looks a pretty damning report to place before No.1" the Supervisor remarked.
"Yes, indeed" retorted No.2 "we must make sure that 106 doesn't get to deliver it!"
"No.106.... a plant!" utters the supervisor.
"Bring him in for questioning!" No.2 barks as he sets to leave the control room, the pair of steel doors sliding shut behind him.
BCNU
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