The Schizoid Man
Profiles
Number 2
This number 2 appears keen to be the one to break Number 6.
He is self confident, perhaps too confident at times, calculating, precise and egotistical. Never is he put under any real pressure. Only when number 6 telephones him to give his password and to inform him that number 6 is dead, does this Number 2 panic. But even then he is quick to sense that something is not right. And therefore soon gains the upper hand once more, thwarting Number 6’s escape attempt.
Male
Height….. 6 feet {approx}
Weight…. 160 lbs {approx}
Age…….. late thirties {approx}
Hair…….. black
Nationality.. English speaking
Chief Administrator
Chairman of the village
Right handed.
He wears a signet ring on the little finger of his left hand.
Well spoken and charming man. However he would not make a good field agent, and so here he is stuck in admin! Yes but what administration, that simply of the village, or some other administration of some other department somewhere else?
Village attire, smartly dressed in plain dark double breasted blazer, grey polo neck jersey grey flannels and deck shoes. Occasionally wears the old school scarf and carries about with him the furled umbrella shooting stick, as have many of his kind before him.
A plan has been devised to make Number 6 crack, however this is not Number 2’s plan, but apparently that of the general’s.
So perhaps number 2’s confidence, stems from the fact that any such failure would not be down entirely to him. So perhaps not full disgrace, should he fail.
He is quick to see the unique relationship between number 6 and the girl Alison.
But this Number 2 is a wily fox, and when Curtis-Number 12 pays him a call, after the supposed death of Number 6, impersonated by Number 6. He does have a niggling doubt, even though Number 6 had given the correct password.
He is a personal friend and close colleague of Curtis, or, which makes the possibility of Curtis being a clone of Number 6.
Number 2 certainly knows a good deal about Curtis’s private life, he knew that he would make a top field man, while he is stuck in admin.
He tells Curtis-Number 6 how he took longer to grow a moustache that time in Bucharest
The need for two passwords ‘Gemini’ and ‘Schizoid Man’, was if things did become so confused, that even number 2 could not tell them apart. The passwords were to be his safety net so to speak. After all Number 2 is not infallible. If he wasn’t he would not have missed the bruised finger nail of Number 6’s left hand. However both the doctors and the observers missed this. And during the taxi ride to the waiting helicopter, Number 2 begins to have real doubts as to who the man sitting beside him is. He has never seen Curtis so ‘strung up’ before. He tells him that he ‘has changed’, that they have been in scraps together before, but they’ve never fallen out over them before.
He goes to talk to the helicopter pilot, laying a plan to find out if Curtis really was Curtis. Perhaps telling him, if Number 6 answers in a certain way to 2 his sending Susan his regards.2 Then he was to bring his passenger to the Village.
There is also a nasty side to this Number 2, not sadistic, but he does take pleasure from seeing Number 6 in such a confused state of mind.
“He’s cracking Number 12, it wont be long now” Number 2 tells Number 12.
How ever he also put Number 12 through it, when in the Green Dome, Number 2 interrogates him.
He spares Number 12 nothing, under the pretext that the interrogation must be as real as his impersonation of number 6. And when the pair of 6’s arrive at the Green Dome, one is manhandled into his office. While number 2 himself, greets Number 6! This is probably because number 2 does not want me {the butler} to see the two Number 6’s together.
Then a final turn of the screw. Number 2 could have stopped Number 6, when Number 2 asked him “Not to forget to give Susan his regards.” Number 6 replied ‘I won’t.”
Number 2 already knew that Susan died a year ago, so the man he thought to be Curtis was in fact Number 6. But instead, he allowed Number 6 to think he had got away with his subterfuge.
The plan was a good one, take away Number 6’s sense of identity and he’ll crack. But why make it so abundantly simple to define which of them was Number 6? It should have been that both Number 6’s wore the same dark piped blazer. Not one wearing a cream one! That went to simplify things too much.
If any part of the blame, for the failure of the plan is to be laid at the feet of number 2. Then he did manage to redeem himself, by thwarting Number 6’s escape attempt. Had he not been able to discern between Curtis and Number 6, well the final situation would have been quite different.
Curtis - Number 12
Male
Height …….6feet 1\2 inches {approx}
Weight…… 185 lbs {approx}
Hair………..light brown
Eyes……….light blue
Age……….. 38 {approx}
Nationality… English speaking.
Right handed.
He has a mole on his left wrist.
A widower, his wife Susan died a year ago.
His password…. Schizoid man.
He is an identical double for Number 6, however is this a natural phenomenon, where someone just bears a very close resemblance to Number 6, certainly there are no tell tale signs that plastic surgery was used to attain the desired facsimile.
He was a field agent that much is clear, other wise he would not be able to do what he was about to carry out.
He is a personal friend and close colleague of Number 2’s, certainly Number 2 knew a good deal about him.
He has the unique ability of looking exactly like Number 6.
Once recruited he would have to learn all of Number 6’s mannerisms, speech, the way he walked and his peculiar running style all his own.
Hi wife’s name was Susan.
Curtis is a widow, his wife having died a year ago.
He once shaved off his moustache, and had to grow it back again that time in
Bucharest
His speech and quick witted tongue, is that of Number 6, as are his mannerisms, and liking for his favourite brand of cigars. He has Number 6 off to a tee!
Curtis would have begun his masquerade as Number 6 from the night of Wednesday 10th of February, so that he would awaken in ‘6 private’ of the morning Thursday 11th of February.
Another possibility for the reason of Curtis, is that he was Number 6‘s doppelganger. We have seen identical twins in the village before. However this theory does not entirely hold water, as both Number 6 and Cutis would surely have known and recognised each other, unless they had been kept apart for some reason. However that is extremely unlikely.
There is one other possible explanation for Curtis that he was a clone of Number 6, however this explanation is impossible, if not only because of the close relationship between himself and Number 2. Also It would take approximately 38 years for the clone to mature to the age of the prisoner. To make a clone of number 6 cells would have had to have been taken from the prisoner at birth 4:31 am 19th March 1928 , this for the clone to be of the same age as the prisoner himself at their time together in the village.
If cells were taken from Number 6 any later, then Number 6 would have been around 76 years old at the time when Curtis was in the village, having taken a number of years to reach the age of Number 6.
Village attire, cream blazer with black piping, blue turtle neck sweater, fawn slacks and deck shoes.
He wears a penny farthing badge upon the left lapel of his blazer, denoting the red numeral 6. If he was to impersonate number 6 successfully, then he should not have worn it. Number 6 would never wear his village badge! Should not he have worn the black blazer of number 6, and not the cream? This in itself made it inordinately easy to keep the identity of number’s 6 and 12 apart.
But the voice, the mannerisms and general character of Number 6, that Curtis would have to learn. And this could only have been done by watching Number 6, either in person or via film of the subject. And there would be plenty of the from village surveillance!
In any case Curtis looks and acts the role of Number 6 brilliantly, however long it took him to master the role. He would also have had to study Number 6’s file in order to know everything about him. That could only have been over a period of weeks, certainly not months.
The rapport which he seems to share with Alison, that could not have been natural, but obviously staged and the deck rigged. After all there was only five cards to remember and in what sequence.
But then begs the question ‘how did they know how many cards in the run, would Number 6 choose?’
At the beginning of the project, Curtis was a strong character, somewhat bold and confident. Almost cocky!
In the verbal jousting which takes place between himself and Number 6 when they first meet, proves that Curtis is certainly on a par with his double. Giving just as good as he gets, with his quick witted tongue.
Curtis too, has a keen sense of territory!
In the gymnasium, he is better than Number 6. However he does need Number 6’s left handedness to give him the edge, in the shooting and fencing contests.
So much is he the character and strength of identity of Number 6, that Curtis even under going the most arduous interrogation, that he does not sway from the belief that ‘he’ is Number 6! Proving that he is indeed a top field man.
However there is one thing which Curtis does not have, a bruised finger nail!
Nor is he as cleaver or ingenious as Number 6. Only too easily fooled by Number 6, into believing that he is now the broken man he appears to be.
When it comes down to the finger print test, that one is easy. Curtis had an exact thumb print of Number 6’s covering his own right thumb, via micro thin latex.
However in the end, he was no match for the original Number 6, he being the ‘economy pack!’
However he is no match for Number 6 when he is once again his old self! Curtis does his best to give good account of himself in the fight between themselves in his cottage. However good a field agent Curtis might be, he soon spills the beans to number 6.
Then dashing outside ‘6 private’ he gives ‘Rover’ the password ‘Schizoid Man’. However he has lost his confidence, or is simply afraid of the membranic mass of the Village guardian. Which ever it is, it causes him to lose his life. The guardian, not believe him when he gives the password, his lack of confidence and uncertainty in himself bringing about his death.
“Number 2’s agents just aren’t what they were!”
Number 6
Male
Height …….6feet 1\2 inches {approx}
Weight…… 185 lbs {approx}
Hair………..light brown
Eyes……….light blue
Age……….. 38 {approx}
Nationality… Unknown, possibly British
Number 6 has, for reasons of his own, decided to help Number 24 by allowing her to practice her mind reading act on him. “They have no imagination” he tells her.
How he became friendly with Alison is unknown. However one cannot keep one’s guard up 24hours a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year, and it would only be a question of time before number 6 or anybody else for that matter, became so used to their circumstances. Even to accept them! After all Number 6, does appear to be very much at home, and comfortable with Alison. And human instinct being what it is, it would only be a question of time before friendships are struck up, especially in such a small community as the village. No man is an Island and all that…
How is it Number 6 gets away with using the girl Alison’s name? When no names are used in the village! Such must have been the close relationship between them.
Also observed is on of Number 6’s mannerisms, of clicking his fingers with his hands clasped behind his back.
So that night Number 6 retires to bed, his sleep is deepened for him. Taken away from his usual surroundings of ‘6 private’ and placed in the strange apartment of ’12 private.’ Only his wrist watch and wooden day – date calendar is taken with the unconscious number 6, the date being Wednesday 10 February.
Number 6 was then to go through a series of conditioning, changing his likes, dislikes, his appearance and his being right handed to being left handed. This conditioning would probably have taken about a month or more, based upon the time it would have taken number 6 to grow his beard and for his bruised finger nail to grow. The bruise latter seen halfway up the nail.
It is not only the change through conditioning and drugs which has been, but also the prisoner’s watch. Usually a black leather strapped watch, now he wears a chrome banded watch.
Then a man bearing a remarkable resemblance to Number 6 begins to wake up in bed.
He has black hair and moustache. When he feels the moustache this seems to confuse him. The date of the wooden day – date calendar reads Wednesday 10 February.
Not only does his moustache and different hair colouring confuse him but also his somewhat alien surroundings. In the wardrobe hangs a black blazer with white piping, upon the left lapel a white penny farthing badge denoting the red numeral 12.
When receiving an early morning telephone call from number 2 inviting him for breakfast, he is greeted as Number 12.
When he leaves his apartment two villagers greet him, “Good morning Number 12.” And “Morning number 12, nice to see you again.” This was surely staged, as Number 6 or was it 12, wore no penny farthing badge to denote his number.
And when he enters the office of Number 2 in the Green Dome, and is greeted by number 2 as being an old friend. Telling him that they used to call him ‘flap-jack Charlie’ after Number 12 found his favourite dish for breakfast ‘flap-jacks’.
The date of the issue of The Tally-Ho on number 2’s desk reads Feb 10th. They have gone to much trouble to make him think that it is only Feb 10th, when in fact over a month had passed since his abduction from ‘6 private’ to the time he awoke in a strange apartment, ample time for him to grow a moustache.
How long does it take someone to grow a moustache? Well that is up to the individual.
Number 6 is confused, waking up in a strange apartment, having been able to grow a moustache over night and then to find out that he is left handed just about put the seal on it for number 2 and himself.
Number 6 having a keen sense of identity, tells Number 2 defiantly ‘I wont need this to remind me that I am you’re number 6’. Referring to and discarding the penny farthing badge pinned to the lapel of his blazer by Number 2.
He accepts that he is “their” Number 6, but some indignation.
In his cottage he flicks though a pile of magazines, telling number 2 that ‘this rubbish is not mine’. The statuette “Should be guilt, not silver!” And finally agreeing with Number 2 that Number 6 has a strong sense of territory, he won’t shake him on his possessions!
However as the project continues, slowly begins to doubt his identity. Certainly he’s no shot or swordsman, the fact that he has to do it all right handed serves to give his opponent the edge over him! He cannot even smoke his own brand of cigars.
So we learn something new about Number 6, the fact that he is a smoker! But yet there is a question mark over this new found information. Because we never actually see number 6 smoke a cigar or so much as a cigarette. Not at this time or any time previous. And if Number 6 was a heavy smoker, then it is highly unlikely that he would be able to go without a cigarette for long periods. Unless of course he has extremely strong will power, as Number 6 shows no signs of the classic nicotine withdrawal symptoms.
Number 6 has his own favourite brand of cigar.
He has a mole on his left wrist.
Number 6 has never been seen to wear a cream blazer with black piping in the Village before.
“‘Tell me now, who am I?” he mutters to his double.
The password given to him by Number 2 is “Gemini”.
He was on the Olympic fencing team. A boxer, and haas a shooting percentage of ninety percent.
He plays the part of Number 2’s assistant very well indeed during the interrogation of his double. However, being a believer in human instinct. He would, were he in his shoes {Number 12} prefer to be convinced as to who was who, by a human being rather than a piece of machinery, believing in of course, the mental link with Alison.
His confidence is shattered, when that mental link is not there. Scoring as he did 1 out of 5.
Of course there being no mole on his left wrist as that of his double, did no good to his confidence. In fact as he lay upon his bed, tossing and turning, his hands twitching nervously, he seemed a broken man. And that it would not be much longer before he cracked completely.
However Number 6 is made of much sterner stuff, and ingenious with it. When sitting on the edge of his bed he notices the bruised finger nail of his left hand. This he compares with a photograph he snatched from the hand of his double. The finger nail has grown and with it the bruise has itself moved up the inside of the nail. Indicating that a good deal of time has passed since the photograph had been taken. An estimated 3-4 weeks at the very least, for the finger nail to grow sufficiently for the bruise to move up the inside of the finger nail.
Then there is the question of the beard and moustache, which would have no doubt have taken some 4 weeks to grow, certainly there was more than two weeks of growth.
It was a month to the village festival at the time Alison was in Number 6’s cottage. By the time Number 12 emerges for his cottage, the festival must be over, as there is no further mention of it. So from the time Number 6 it taken from ‘6 private’, at least one month has elapsed. Depending upon the duration of Number 6’s conditioning treatment.
Which of course meant that the wooden day – date calendar was wrong.
Then as he gazes into the dressing table mirror, all becomes clear and Number 6 understands what has been done to him.
He even manages to recover his right handedness, via an electrical shorting table lamp having first earthed himself to a gas pipe! This act of retrieving his right handedness appears to be an inordinately easy thing to do, after undergoing such long and intensive conditioning. However receiving such an electrical shock might be of such power to cancel out the conditioning he received. It might depend upon how long Number 6 was able to hold onto the lamp of course.
Now Number 6 is back to his strong, confident self.
Of course a lucky break for him, was keeping that photograph of himself, taken by Alison in his cottage.
The after diverting ‘Rover’ from the scene, he fools his double by acting the part of a broken number 6. Of course he gets the better of Cutis in a free for all fight.
There after he plays a very dangerous game, by taking the place of, and impersonating Curtis – Number 12.
The easy part to this new gambit, is that he can to a certain degree, play himself as Curtis had been impersonating him. There was also the advantage of his looking like Curtis, even wearing his false mole!
However ingenious Number 6 was, he could not know anything at all about his subject Curtis who knew all about him! The only thing that Number 6 knew about Curtis was that he had a wife called Susan. This he gained from a photograph of a woman wearing a fur coat, with the inscription ‘from your loving wife Susan’.
In the taxi number 6 has to wing it, he hasn’t a clue as to the Number2’s proposition. And then a real gaff, by talking about reporting to the General!
“Report to the General? That’s a new one!” returns Number 2.
Of course Number 6 has no way of knowing who or what the General is.
Number 6 would have been much better if he had said as little as possible, then he just might have got away with it. So much for ingenuity!
But then of course how was Number 6 to know, that Susan died a year ago!!!!!!!
This time escape the prisoner’s motivation is not escape, only the desire to regain his identity, the identity of Number 6, which has been taken away from him. However when number 6 is given a second chance and the possibility of escape is presented to him, number 6 is not slow in grasping any possible opportunity with both hands.
Free For All continued next time
Be seeing you
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