First they drugged Number 6 on Feb 10th through his nightcap which was the norm. But then they deepened his sleep, after which two medics took Number 6 from his home, and put him in ’12 Private’ where Number 6 was conditioned to be someone else, his own doppelganger in fact.
Number 12 wakes up on Feb 10th, he feels strange, disorientated, and hardly recognises himself when he looks in the mirror, his appearance has changed. The telephone rings, Number 2 invites Number 12 to breakfast. Just after leaving his cottage Number 12 encounters a Sikh who bids him “Good morning Number Twelve.’ And soon after, a young woman pushing a man in a wheelchair. “Morning Number Twelve, nice to see you again.” “Yes, why do you call me Number Twelve?” “That’s what you were called the last time I saw you.”
Number 12 arrives at the Green Dome, and is welcomed by Number 2.
“Ah my dear chap, delighted to see you. You’re looking fine you really are.” Apparently they had to pull every string in order to get him seconded back to them. They screamed as though Number 2 was taking their pensions away. And they used to call No.12 Flapjack Charlie, because of his fondness for flapjacks.
Number 12 is sorry he hadn’t shaved, he couldn’t find a razor, saying he woke up in a strange apartment. He wants to know what it’s all about. Well it’s about their prize prisoner, the one they call Number 6. It’s the toughest case he’s ever handled, he could crack him of course {yes that will be the day} but Number 2 can’t use the normal techniques, too valuable, mustn’t damage him permanently say his masters.
Number 12’s job will be to impersonate Number 6, to take away his sense of reality {I think they’ve done that already}. Number 12 thinks the idea has fascinating possibilities, but Number 2 will have an awful job convincing him that he is not their Number 6! Blimey! Always the professional, Number 12 is living the part already! Number 2 throws him Number 6’s file for him to study, which Number 12 catches with his left hand. He wants to watch that, Number 6 is right-handed!”
So Number 2 escorts Number 12 round to Number 6’s cottage, where Number 12 immediately begins to sort through some of the personal effects in the cottage. The statuette should be silver, not gilt, and the pile of magazines are not his. It would seem that Number 6 has a strong sense of territory, he will not be caught out on his private possessions!
Number 6 will be arriving within the next few minutes, and Number 2 thinks it will be more effective if they meet together alone, and leaves Number 6 to it. So in comes Number 6 whistling to himself, whenever did Number 6 whistle? What’s more he’s wearing a cream blazer with white piping, and he’s wearing his badge! Number 6 hardly ever wore his badge. “What the devil! Oh very good, very good indeed, one of Number Two’s little ideas I suppose. Where did he get you, a people’s copying service, or are you one of those double agents we hear about so much these days?”
Number 6 offers Number 6 a drink, and suggests that he’s supposed to go all fuzzy round the edges and run off into the distance screaming who am I? Number 6 offers a cigar? Number 6 starts coughing on it. He’ll have to learn to smoke without choking himself to death on his favourite cigars! There are some black Russian cigarettes in a box on the table, but Number 6 doesn’t smoke them himself.
So two people who claim to be Number 6, there’s only one way of settling this, in the gymnasium and a shooting competition. Number 6’s shooting average is ninety percent. The only trouble is Number 6 is a right-handed shot, and Number 6 is left handed, which puts him at a disadvantage. Also when it comes to fencing, the best thing that can be said about it, that it’s good agricultural stuff, but would hardly have got him Number 6’s place on the Olympic team. So, we learn that Number 6 was a member of an Olympic fencing team. Well it has to be Number 6 and Not Number 6, because Number 6 is impersonating Number 6.
Outside the gymnasium, Number 6 gives his opponent a lesson in boxing, the only trouble is, Number 6 isn’t sure whether he’s orthodox or southpaw! Anyway Number 6 ends up rolling in the dirt, it would appear that Number 2’s agents just aren’t as good as they used to be, and Number 6 would know! That’s just as the Village Guardian arrives on the scene to herd both Number ’6’s to the Green Dome. Number 2 has heard that Number 6 is having a spot trouble.
So, we have two Number 6s, the real one, and the economy pack. They tried finger prints, because as you know finger prints are individual to the person. And yet science can be, and was perverted. This was so that Number 6 called Number 24-Alison, because he and she share a mental link, and by using that link with Alison, Number 6 could prove to Number 2 that he is Number 6. The one thing being, Number 6 had not counted on Number 2 recognising this real mental link shared between 24 and 6. That he put pressure on 24, so that she would betray him when it came to using a set of Zener cards.
Yes she called the first one correctly, but not so the following four. But with the other Number 6 she called out every card correctly. How could she manage that when this 6 wasn’t the real 6? By prearranged signals, that when a card was held up, 6 would emphasise a different word in a different way, the way mind readers do it on stage. And yet there was an easier way to tell the two Number 6’s apart. All that had to be done was see which one of them had a bruised fingernail! I bet as Number 6, didn’t have a mole on his left wrist, Number 6 didn’t have a bruised fingernail of his left hand! But in any case, when Number 6 produced that Polaroid picture from the breast pocket of his blazer, that should have been his own undoing. Well when you look at that photograph it’s plain to see which one of them is Number 6, he’s the one wearing the black piped blazer. Why would a bloke wearing a cream blazer claim to be the man in the photograph wearing a black blazer? The idea of the Polaroid photograph would have worked, had both Number 6’s been wearing identical piped blazers. Mind you if they had, there might have been another way to have been able to tell the two Number 6’s apart…..one could have worn a blazer with broken piping on the lapel, and the other continuous piping. But then that would have been far too subtle. Instead Number 6/Curtis is proclaimed by Number 24 to be the real Number 6.
Later in his cottage Number 6 is suffering from a nightmare, watched by Number 6 and Number 6. Apparently it will not be long now, as Number 6 seems an almost broken man!
Number 6 sits up on his bed, he sees the bruised thumbnail, she searches for a magnifying glass and compares the bruised fingernail to the one on the hand in the Polaroid photograph….it’s not the same. The bruise has moved up the nail, meaning some time has passed since that picture had been taken. He stands in front of a mirror, and looks deep into it, and sees all. The conditioning treatment to be left-handed instead of right, to eat nothing but flapjacks, and to smoke Black Russian cigarettes. You will recall when Number 6 tried to smoke one of his favourite brand of cigars he chocked on it. The reason being that a thin piece of plastic ran through the cigar, which would have made anyone choke. And so to his left-handedness, Number 6 seemed confused about this. There was a short circuiting table lamp, he earthed himself to the gas pipe with his right hand, and grasped the table lamp with his left and received a powerful electric shock, which seems to have been enough to reverse the conditioning.
Number 2, who was having a massage given by his butler, wanted to see how Number 6 was getting on. But Number 6 had flown his cottage, Number 2 reported this to the Supervisor-Number 106, and a yellow alert was issued.
Number 6 meets with two burly-boy guardians who ask for the password. Number 6 tells them Gemini, which apparently isn’t the right password. But it is the right password, because Number 2 had given it to Number 6 so that he’d be able to tell the pair of six’s apart. But a fight ensues, and Number 6 quickly despatches the two Guardians.
Outside the cottage of ’6 Private’ the Village Guardian is on sentry duty. But Rover isn’t that bright, and is easily diverted to go the other way when Number 6 sets a taxi moving with the Guardian in pursuit.
Number 6 enters the cottage to find his doppelganger Number 6 lying on the bed, he has a gas gun. “One squirt you’re paralysed, two squirts you’re dead.” Number 6 feigns being confused, saying he doesn’t know who he is. Number 6 thinks its time to call Number 2. But before that can happen Number 6 attacks 6, there’s a brutal fight. Number 6 corners 6 in the kitchen, he asks his name, it’s Curtis. He asks what the password is, its Schizoid man. Curtis breaks away from Number 6, and runs out of the cottage to face the waiting Village Guardian. He gives the password Schizoid man, although he doesn’t sound convincing. Number 6 appears and he gives the password Schizoid man with confidence, and Rover attacks and suffocates the wrong 6!
This is Number 6’s chance, perhaps the best one he’ll ever have to escape the Village. So he swaps blazers, and intends to escape the Village by impersonating Curtis. First he reports to Number 2 that Number 6 is dead, that Rover got him. I never did figure out why Number 6 call the Village Guardian Rover, unless of course it’s a euphemism for a guard dog, which would be fine, save for the fact that Number 2 also used that name. Perhaps he had picked up on Number 6’s phraseology. In any case Number 6 is “winging it,” and goes to see Number 2 in his office. There is a brief de-briefing. They are still trying to work out why Rover killed Number 6, looks like there’s going to be hell to pay. Number 2 wanted Number 6 broken, Number 12 wasn’t to know he’d go berserk, but then neither was Number 2! Number 12 blames Number 2, seeing as it was his idea, but then again it wasn’t, and if Number 6 expects to get away with this impersonation of Curtis, he’d be better saying as little as possible!
After the de-briefing Number 6 is sent off to see Number 24, as she might have had some insight into Number 6’s motivations. She doesn’t!
Number 6 returns to his cottage where he changes into Curtis’ clothes in readiness to leave the Village. In one of the pockets of the jacket he finds a wallet. In the wallet there is a photograph of a woman, there is an inscription “From your loving wife Susan.” Susan as it turns out, will be Number 6’s nemesis!
It’s just a quick flip to the landing stage by helicopter, but the helicopter is a taxi ride away, and Number 2 has things to discuss with his colleague. About a proposition he put to Curtis when he arrived. But Number 6 says he’s had no time, he doesn’t even have any views on the subject! And then he goes and says about reporting to the General, well not report to him personally……for Pete’s sake you know what he means!
The helicopter is outside the Recreation Hall, where a number of Village citizens are milling about, one of them is Number 24-Alison. She tells Number 6 that what she did was a betrayal, and that if she had a second chance she wouldn’t do it again, and so does not betray Number 6 a second time as he walks towards the helicopter.
Meanwhile Number 2 has had a word with the helicopter pilot. What’s more Number 6 has forgotten security precautions, must be obeyed, and Number 2 hands Number 6 a black blindfold which Number 6 ties himself, as Number 2 asks him not to forget to give his regards to Susan. “I won’t” Number 6 assures him.
The helicopter lifts off and flies around in a circle above the Village before landing. The cabin door of the helicopter is opened, Number 6 removes his blind fold to be confronted by Number 2. “Susan died a year ago Number 6.”
You see there’s a flaw in most every plan. Never mind, there was no way Number 6 could have known.
Be seeing you next time, unless there’s a change of mind!
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