So the deal is that it has to be either one of them. Number 2 was a good man, he is a good man, but if they get Number 6 he will be better, and there’s no other way, I repeat there’s no other way. They do it Number 2’s way, or Number 1 can find someone else! Degree Absolute Number 2 requires approval, if Number 1 thinks he’s that important there’s certainly no alternative, he must risk either one of them. So Degree Absolute, it’s going to begin tonight. Unfortunately Number 2 is given only a week, and that’s not long enough, he doesn’t want Number 6 damaged!
In the Control Room the shift has so far gone along without incident, that is until the pair of steel doors open and Number 2 walks in and announces “Degree Absolute you’re under orders.” The Supervisor asks what period, to which Number 2 replies a week. The Supervisor asks “An emergency?” “Well it has to be hasn’t it!” The Supervisor asks if Number 2 minds if he checks, to which Number 2 barks “You check nothing” and orders the release of all subsidiary personal, leaving only Number 2, the Supervisor, and two Observers on the metal see-saw in the Control Room.
Working together Number 2 and the Supervisor-Number 26 check the profundity, as in his cottage Number 6 sleeps the sleep of the innocent, unaware that his mind is about to undergo certain conditioning. Profundity is checked by the Supervisor counting from one to six, the first waveband is clear. The Supervisor is ordered to count again, but to increase the loudness of his voice “One, two, three, four, five, six, still clear.” For the third waveband the Supervisor is asked to count again, but to hold on five, five, five, five, five, five, five, then to diminish and stop altogether, and that‘s made it safe enough, but for whom? Now it’s all up to Number 2, the Supervisor sees it as a risk, he would hate to see him go. And yet the Supervisor is promoted to the position of Number 2 by Number 2 for one week “It’s all yours. Degree absolute operate!”
Number 2 goes to ‘6 Private’ and begins reciting nursery rhymes to the slumbering Number 6, who has the pulsator device in the overhead light suspended just above his face. “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pale of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after. Oh the Grand old Duke of York he had ten thousand men, he marched them up to the top of the hill, and he marched them down again. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
All-night Number 2 recited those nursery rhymes. And then it was morning, time for the Prisoner to go walkies…..wash and dress quickly Number 6, and Number 2 will show you some nice things. The pair of steel doors open and Number 2 enters his office, followed by the Prisoner being pushed by the butler in a wheelchair. The Prisoner has an ice cream. The butler stands on a disc set in the floor and descends through the floor at a push of a button. The Prisoner stands with Number 2 behind his desk, as the butler disappears through the floor, followed by Number 2 and the Prisoner standing on the dais behind the desk.
There is a long corridor, Number 2 and the Prisoner step off the dais and onto the floor which begins to move, taking both men along the corridor to a single steel door which opens automatically. Number 2 steps through the door and into the room and switches on the lights, the butler is already there standing in a baby’s play pen playing with a baby’s rattle, and wearing a pair of Inuit sunglasses!
This is it, for better or worse, who knows. One week, one teeny weenie week, neither 2 or 6 can leave till death do them part, and 2 brought it on himself. He sets the time lock for the door, and it closes.
“Come ahead son, let’s see what you’re made of, find out what’s in that noddle of yours.”
All the worlds a stage, the seven ages of man, William Shakespeare he summed it all up, so they say. Even as a child there was something in his brain that was a puzzlement, hence the fact that the Prisoner’s mind has been regressed to the age of a child, probably to the age of five, it is Number 2’s task to find the missing link. Once he’s found it he will refine it and tune it, and the Prisoner will play their game. Then No.2 has to put it together, and if he fails……BANG!
First the infant mewling and puking in the nurses arms, and so onto school, to see the Headmaster in his study during the morning break. Apparently the pupil was talking in class, but it wasn’t him. He knows who it was though, but he will not say. The Headmaster sees that as cowardice, the pupil sees it quite differently, as honour and suggests that it should be taught in school. The Headmaster sees the pupil as being a fool. The pupil might be a fool, but he’s not a rat! So to be taught a lesson the pupil is to receive six of the best {corporal punishment} but the pupil suggests that it be twelve, so that he can remember. The punishment to be dispensed by the butler with a smart swish of his cane. I have often wondered whether or not, as the pupil bends over the stool, the butler actually delivers the punishment.
The
So we arrive at the school prize giving, does the pupil have anything to say?
Nothing sir. Nothing, nothing at all? “Thank you for everything sir.” It is at this point No.2 jumps the gun somewhat, by asking the pupil why he resigned. “From what sir?” “Oh come boy, you know very well what I’m talking about, why did you resign?” There follows a struggle between the headmaster and the pupil, anger is exchanged on both sides. Headmaster and pupil end up struggling on the floor. The butler calmly walks over to the wardrobe to retrieve a truncheon. He walks over to the struggling men, and hits Number 6 over the head “State confidential secret!” and collapses unconscious on the floor. Together the butler and Number 2 carry the unconscious Number 6 over to a table. A device strangely looking like a hairdryer with a pulsating light, is placed over the head of Number 6. “I’m beginning to like him” says Number 2 to the butler.
Number 6 is riding a rocking horse counting “One, two, three, four five.” Number 2 is trying to encourage Number 6 to count to six, but he stops each time at five “You are Six” says Number 2 “Five that’s me” is the response.
There is a boxing match staged in the Childs play-pen, Number 6 is the champ, he’s got it all, he’s a one-man band.
Fencing, Number 6 hits and runs, mustn’t hit and run boy, kill, kill, kill urges Number 2. The protective tip breaks free of the foil…..Number 6 lunges forward injuring Number 2 in the shoulder, Number 6 still can’t do it! The Prisoner won’t step over the threshold. But he’s sorry, sorry, he’s sorry for everybody, is that why he resigned?
The butler having carried out first aid on No.2, his arm in a sling, the action moves on to a restaurant where an employee of the Bank does all his interviews. The Prisoner is after a job at the Bank because he’s good at mathematics. But it’s not just any Bank as the Prisoner found out when he went to see the Managing Director. The Bank is a cover for top secret work.
The Prisoner is sent on a mission, a matter of life and death, but he couldn‘t say whose life or death as the work is top secret and confidential. There’s an accident, the Prisoner was speeding in a restricted zone. The Prisoner tells the judge that such business as he was on is above the law! The judge does not take this well and urges the Prisoner to tell him what business it was. All the Prisoner will say is that it was state confidential secret. The judge sentences the Prisoner to six days in jail. The Prisoner tells the judge, shouts at the judge that he was rebelling, rebelling against the figures. He also protests against unfair treatment, and yet he’s getting the same treatment as everybody else. Yes the Prisoner knows that, that’s why he going to appeal against unfair treatment! The Prisoner is locked in the cage.
Number 2 is exhausted, the butler is massaging his forehead and temples. After a few minutes the questioning begins once again, but quietly asks the Prisoner “Why did you resign?” The Prisoner finally gives something away, he resigned for peace, for peace of mind, because too many people know too much! But things are changing in the Embryo Room, or rather that the Prisoner is beginning to change places with Number 2. Number 2 threatens to kill the Prisoner with a knife, and the Prisoner tells Number 2 to kill him, just as Number2 had earlier when the two men had been fencing.
Then in a bomber somewhere over
Suddenly the Prisoner begins to count down from eight, seven, six, five, four {Number 2 can hardly believe what is happening} three, two, one, zero, go, much to the astonishment of Number 2, who asks the Prisoner what he would like? “Supper” replies the Prisoner.
The tables have turned, the doctor has changed places with his patient, or rather the Prisoner has changed places with Number 2. They share a glass of drink together, as Number 2 explains both their circumstances, and their surroundings. He explains the clock, and time is running out for Number 2. The cage, is a detachable, self-contained unit, you could go anywhere in it, it has a food supply for six months, and a waste disposal unit.
Number 6 locks Number 2 in the cage, and threatens to come in, even to let Number2 out! Number 2 claims to be the boss, but No.1’s the boss. No.6 rejected, he didn’t accept, why did Number 2 accept? And all the time the clock is ticking, and Number 6 having let Number2 out of the cage begins to count down from one minute.
Sixty seconds.
Number 2 is desperate, he pleads with Number 6, he begs and crawls on his knees. Why resign?
Thirty-seven,
“Still time,”
Thirty-six
“Still time,”
Thirty-five,
“Still time, not too late.” “For me?” asks the Prisoner. “For me” pleads Number 2 who snivels and grovels on the floor. And then “please,” “Don’t say please” the Prisoner tells him, and the countdown continues, nine, eight, seven…..now in the cage, six, Number 2 takes a drink…..die six, die. The final seconds of the countdown, five, “die” four, “die” three, two, one, “Zero” croaks Number 2 and falls dead on the floor. The Prisoner stoops down, puts a hand to Number 2’s neck to feel for a pulse………drawing his hand away the victor rises to his feet, exits the cage and slides the door shut, the butler locking it with his key.
The steel door suddenly opens and the Supervisor-Number 26 enters the embryo room and congratulates The Prisoner-Number 6, telling him that they’ll need the body as evidence. In a pique of anger the Prisoner smashes his glass on the floor. As Number 6, the Supervisor, and the butler cross the room, the Supervisor depresses a switch on the clock control panel, and a huge steel shutter descends over the open barred side of the cage, effectively sealing it, with the body of Number 2 still inside. Number 6, the Supervisor, and the
Be seeing you
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