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Saturday 3 May 2014

Prismatic Reflection

    in an elaborately decorated office a group of men are busy studying a number of photographic transparencies, slides to you and me. Cipher, coding, film labs, computer experts, and yet all that they are left with are thirty-six rather dreary and badly photographed shots. Yet Sir Charles Portland is convinced they contain the clue they want. They have tried superimposing them, but as Sir Charles will appreciate the permutations on 36 run into millions. Well coming to them fresh, one of them might get a sudden flash! That is Loch Ness, the Yorkshire moors, Dartford, the Eiffel Tower, Beachy Head, what’s number six? The slide changes to project a white haired man onto the screen. It’s hopelessly over exposed. Perhaps there’s a reason? Well nine on the roll of film are very exposed, and as many under. The rest are correctly exposed. It is possible that there is no clue to be found in those shots. Breaking a code or cipher is a finite problem, and we don’t know if there is a problem. And if there is, on what level it is set. Sir Charles Portland isn’t convinced. They just haven’t thought of it, and he doesn’t accept that it is impossible to do so. Do we know where Seltzman is?
    A French Alouette helicopter arrives at the Village. Number 2 sits in the chair of his office in The Green Dome, as Number 6 paces the floor of his cottage like a caged tiger, as he eats a sandwich, and drinks coffee, or tea.
    “Relax, relax old boy it won’t be long now” Number 2 tells the man pictured on his wall screen.
    A taxi speeds up the street towards the Town Hall and comes to a halt outside. Later the pair of steel doors of Number 2’s office slide open and the figure of the Colonel marches smartly down the ramp to be greeted by Number 2.
    “Ah Colonel, had a good trip?”
    “Yes thank you.”
    “Did they feed you before you left, or would you care for breakfast?”
    “No thank you. I’d appreciate knowing my duties as soon as possible.”
    “You’ve no idea why you’re here?”
    “All I know is that I was sent by the highest authority.”
    “You were indeed, you should be proud.”
    “I’m gratified certainly. And now if you’d be kind enough to explain what I am supposed to do.”
    Number 2 drains his cup of tea, places it casually upon the tea trolley and bids the butler to leave. As the butler pushes his tea trolley up the ramp the pair of steel doors upon, the butler leaves, the steel doors close behind him.
    “What sort of opinion would you form from that fellow?” Number 2 asks pointing to Number 6 on the wall screen.
   The Prisoner is still pacing up and down eating his ham sandwich and drinking tea or coffee.
    “Anyone who spends his time doing that, must be rather stupid” says the Colonel.
    “You couldn’t be more wrong. Because he is our most interesting citizen in every point of view, particularly yours” returns Number 2.
    “Why’s that?”
    “You’ll find out. Tell me have you heard of Professor Seltzman, Professor Jacob Seltzman?”
    “I don’t seem to recall the name, should I?”
    Not in your line of business I suppose not. Doctor Seltzman is a great Neurologist who became fascinated with the study of thought transference in India. As you know the Yogi is capable of living in a state of suspended animation for many months, his mind and body disassociated. And with the aid of scientific aid, he was able to transmit the psyche of one person into another.
    “The mind of one man into that of another, impossible!” says the Colonel.
    So where is Seltzman? Apparently the only person who may know, because he had the last contact with him, is our friend Number 6.
   The Colonel doesn’t believe that it’s possible for him to become Number 2, and for Number 2 to become the Colonel. Well it’s not quite like that, but near enough. The Colonel still doesn’t believe it, and yet if ten years ago had Number 2 told him that they could have flown a rocket around the Moon, would he have believed that? No perhaps not.
    It so happens that all major powers in the world have one or two of each others spies, and from time to time diplomatic exchanges take place. Imagine the power the Village would have if the spy they returned had the mind of their choosing. The Village Administration could break the security of any country.
   Number 2 takes the Colonel into an examination room, they call it the Amnesia room. The room is filled with electronic equipment and a computer bank. There is a man lying strapped to an examination table, he is connected to the machines via electrodes. The man has been extremely co-operative, and told them all they needed to know in just three days, and without any persuasion. So now all unhappy memories of the Village will be wiped from his memory, so that he can be put back in circulation in order to gather more information.
    Meanwhile in another part of the Village…….four security guards are entering the cottage of ‘6 Private.’ A few moments later they emerge manhandling a struggling Number 6. They take him across the cobbled square to a waiting Mini-Moke which tows a red cross trailer, into which Number 6 is put and heavily sedated.
    Back in the laboratory Number 2 treats the Colonel to a demonstration of the Seltzman machine, but without the use of any two subjects. There is a free standing metal frame work, inside of which are two operating tables and a consol which is wired up to two head rests. The Seltzman machine is then activated. Number 2 and the Colonel wear protective tinted eye goggles to protect their eyes against the bright arcs of electricity that arcs about the steel frame work. A device with which Seltzman finally succeeded in switching the minds of two people. The Colonel watches mesmerised, as the room itself seems to pulsate and a pinkish vapour cloud begins to form over and within the steel frame work.
    Having returned to his office Number 2 watches the wall screen, as the sedated Number 6, is now lying on one of the operating tables, dressed in a green surgical operating gown, and large opaque goggles. On the other table lies the figure of the Colonel.
   “Sleep well my friend and forget us. Tomorrow you will wake up a new man” says Number 2 to himself looking at the wall screen.
   
    “Mmm” mutters the figure lying on a recliner. Then the voice of the Prisoner pom-pomming to himself. He lifts his left arm and looks at his wrist watch, throws back a sheet and rises to his feet. He dons a blue satin dressing gown over his pale blue pyjamas. Walking over to the window he looks out through the Venetian blinds, upon the familiar London scene outside.
    Not a bad day. He turns to a small table and picks up the framed picture of Janet, “My darling Love Janet” reads the inscription. I hope she likes her birthday present. He replaces the framed picture on the table, then turns his attention to his bureau, and studies the pad there. ‘Things To Do Today.’ What’s on for today? Car service, dentists appointment, no, no, no, no have to cancel that, because Sir Charles lunches they go on forever. But who can blame him, he’s the boss. Opening the study door the Prisoner continues to pom pom to himself as he passes through the door into the hallway, then catches sight of himself in the mirror. This makes him stop dead in his tracks, as the face that stares back at him through the mirror, is a face unknown, that of the Colonel!
    Back in the Village No.2 is in his office with the butler serving tea. Number 2 is playing close attendance to the figure of the Prisoner on the wall screen as he lies on the operating table amid the Seltzman machine.
    “Sletzman machine, a device which Seltzman finally succeeded in switching the mind’s of two people” drones a voice in the patient’s head. That would be the Colonel’s.
   Number 2 bids the patient to relax.
   “I am not a number, I am a free man” the Prisoner suddenly announces on the screen, and what follows are a number of scenes which have taken place in the Village concerning Number 6, commencing with a loud clash of thunder as he tramples a black loudspeaker under foot. The Prisoner is very aggressive. Then he is running through the woods, passed two rows of stone pillars. He must not resist, he must take it easy, take it easy, it will all be won in the end.
   Number 6 gives his opening speech of the election “Unlike me many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages!” “I intend to discover who the prisoner and who the warders.” Then he’s onboard a jet boat fighting with two mechanics as he attempts to escape the Village, and with Number 2 giving chase piloting the helicopter.
   The thing now is to keep calm. Keep your head.
    Back in Number 2’s office the Prisoner tells him “I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered.” Number 6 storms up the ramp out of the office and through the opening steel door passing through into a cave. Four men wearing dove grey overalls and dark glasses, sit around a pulsating Village Guardian.
   Just bear in mind you ultimate objective, we want information, information, information. Again Number 6 is in the jet boat being pursued by Number 2 in the helicopter.
   Relax.
   The Prisoner on the day of his arrival is being chased by two men in a Mini-Moke.
    Good, now go boy, go. This is the time.
    On the wall screen the Prisoner is now behind the wheel of the Mini-Moke heading for the outer zone. Suddenly ahead appears the white membranic mass of the Village Guardian.
    Now, move or leave it, move, move, move.
    Again upon the wall screen the Prisoner is jolted out of the Mini-Moke onto the sand, as it hits a bump on the beach. But getting to his feet the Prisoner lays into the Village Guardian with no effect at the Guardian offers no resistance.
   “Seltzman” cries out Number 2’s voice.
    Somewhere a doorbell is ringing out, with a final look in the mirror, it seems as though the Prisoner’s memory of the Village has suddenly been recalled. The Colonel, now with the mind of the Prisoner goes to the front door and opens it. A woman around thirtyish of medium height stands on the doorstep.
    “His car, is he back?” the woman asks.
    The Colonel/Prisoner looks at the woman “Yes” he replies.
    The woman brushes passed him and enters the house and begins the search for the man she seeks “Darling…….darling.”
    The Prisoner holds his head in his hands. What can he do? What can he say? How can he act? His mind in another man’s body! Returning to the hallway the woman demands to know where he is. The Prisoner was going to tell her, no matter how fantastic what he was about to tell her…….But Janet Portland is a wilful woman, and she demands to know who he is, and how he knows her name, what he’s doing there, and how he got hold of his car. And why did he tell her he was there?
    The Prisoner tells Janet that he’s a friend. But that’s not good enough for Janet, she wants to know where he is {the Prisoner} and why he left without saying a word.
    Leave?! But he saw you, he told me he saw you last night.
    Janet is now even more confused. Last night, she never saw him last night.
    But he had dinner with you, after your fitting!
    “What fitting?”
    “Your dress, for your birthday party, he even told me the colour, yellow silk.”
    “Yellow silk…….the only yellow silk………that was a year ago, I haven’t seen him since!”
    Now the Prisoner/Colonel is confused. A year! What has happened?” He couldn’t have seen him. Even if he had the Prisoner couldn’t have made that mistake. No but he could! He must have got it wrong. {Now I’m confused!}
    “Yes you must have.” Janet tells him.
    Janet then wants to know what he’s doing there in the Prisoner’s house? How did he get in? But she must be aware of the sort of work he did, that it won’t come as a surprise to her to learn that it may not be possible for him to get in touch with her for a year, perhaps even longer. This is no help to Janet whatsoever! And it is with a forlorn hope that Janet Portland is about to leave the house. Except that the Prisoner/Colonel may have a message for her. He’ll bring it to her birthday party.
    Left lone in the hallway the Prisoner/Colonel looks in the mirror and with anger puts his fist to it!
    Janet goes to see her father Sir Charles Portland. She explains to him about the man she encountered at her fiancés home. She accuses him of having known where he has been all this time, and he’s let her go through this hell of not knowing. She accuses her father of having sent her fiancé on a mission and he’s unable to get in touch with her. His house, his car he’s lent them to a friend.
   Sir Charles’ attention is drawn to this friend and asks his daughter to tell him about him.
   “Well he’s perfectly ordinary. Is he able to get in touch with me?”
    “I honestly don’t know.”
    “Do you mean you haven’t sent him on a mission?”
    “No, and you must realise I’m telling you more than I should. I shouldn’t even tell you that.”
   “Do you mean even you don’t know where he is?”
   “I have no idea.”
   “But you must know someone who does.”
   “There again I can’t help you.”
    “It’s awful, I don’t know if you’re telling the truth or not.”
    {And that’s the trouble, neither do we!}
    Meanwhile The Prisoner/Colonel, now dressed in charcoal grey suit, leaves his house and climbing into the Lotus Seven parked outside, starts the engine and drives away. He drives through the streets of London, making his way through the busy traffic to a familiar underground car park. Eventually the Prisoner arrives in an office he knows every well indeed.
    “Who are you?” asks the man sat behind the desk.
    The Prisoner/Colonel leans over the desk and grabs the man by the lapels of his jacket demanding that he get Sir Charles Portland at once! Jonathan Peregrine Danvers held in the strong grip of the Prisoner/Colonel desperately reaches out for a button, upsetting a cup in it’s saucer as he presses the panic button. This brings two men to Danvers aid. The Prisoner/Colonel uses a touch of blackmail in order to get to see Sir Charles Portland. Danvers is still as pompous as ever. Born in Bootle, he took elocution lessons. He joined the Civil service in 1948 as a junior clerk. Was moved to this department three years after, mainly at the request of the typing pool. Is the Prisoner/Colonel going to get to see Sir Charles, or must he go on? He’s sure that the two gentlemen standing at the double doors would be most intrigued to hear of Danvers little jaunt to Paris in March nineteen fifty eight. What was her name?
    Luckily for Danvers, and saving him from further embarrassment, the double doors suddenly open and another man enters.
    “What’s you name?”
    “Code or real?”
    “Code.”
    “In France it was Duval, in Germany Schmitt, you would know me as ZM Seventy-three, and your code number is PR Twelve. Do you want more?”
    PR Twelve is convinced, and dismisses both Danvers and the two security men
    The Prisoner/Colonel asks PR Twelve if he knows about Seltzman, the inventor of a device that makes it possible to put the mind of one man into another man’s head. From his pocket the Prisoner/Colonel takes a photograph out of a jacket pocket and shows it to PR Twelve, who considers his position for a moment. Then takes the man to see Sir Charles Portland.
    The Prisoner/Colonel marches into the elaborately decorated office and greets the man sat behind the desk.
    “Sir Charles at last, I am ZM Seventy-three.”
    “You claim to be ZM Seventy-three.”
    “And I can prove it.”
    “Do so.”
    The Prisoner/Colonel could pitch this on a very personal level. Sir Charles grins and bids him do so, and not to spare his feelings, and may speak as freely as he wants. The Prisoner/Colonel confines himself to simple domestic details of no possible interest to anyone, except the family. Details which couldn’t possibly be known to anyone except themselves. Sir Charles is a keen Rosarian, and it was while he was pruning his Baccara, those ones down by the little goldfish pond, when he asked you for your permission to marry his daughter. He remembers that he dropped his secateurs, but could never understood why because it couldn’t have been all that much of a surprise to Sir Charles. The next day Sir Charles took the Prisoner/Colonel to his club, their favourite dish was on the menu, Jugged hare……..
    Sir Charles interrupts the Prisoner/Colonel in mid flow. It’s all very well, and he doesn’t dispute the accuracy of his statement. It is correct in every detail. The trouble is, there is nothing he cannot tell Sir Charles which may have been told to The Prisoner/Colonel by the person he claims to be, under sedation or hypnosis. We are all aware of the various truth drugs, and other ingenious means of extracting information. It could have been recorded, and he could have learned it parrot fashion. The Prisoner/Colonel could tell Sir Charles the minutest detail of anything he knows that they did together. But you see the same problem applies!
    “I could never convince you then.”
    “Only sufficiently to intrigue me to make sure you are watched every inch or wherever you go” Sir Charles tells him.
    “It’s a waste of somebody’s time.”
    “He’ll be paid for it.”
    On his way out of the building the Prisoner wonders about Professor Seltzman. Where is he? Did he perfect the reversion process? If he didn’t….pity! Back behind the wheel of his Lotus Seven the Prisoner/Colonel drives out of the underground car park and once more merges with the London traffic. He overtakes a black hearse which then follows the Lotus Seven through the streets of London, until the Lotus takes a different turning to that of the hearse. And yet when the Lotus drives along Buckingham Place the hearse is already parked waiting in the street. An undertaker stands watching as the Lotus is parked outside the house of number 1, and watches as the driver climbs out of the car and enters the house.
    Back inside his house the Prisoner/Colonel picks up a cheque book, but then thinks better of it. “Before you know it, I’ll be inside for forgery!” the Prisoner thinks to himself. But that’s an interesting point, is his handwriting still the same? Taking a fountain pen from his pocket the Prisoner checks his hand writing against that written on the ‘Things To Do Today’ pad, the handwriting is identical. That’s rather interesting, it’s something anyway. Let’s be grateful for small mercies. Now money, unless the rats have been at it! He swings back the television set to reveal a hidden wall safe. Out of the safe he takes a number of American dollar bills, then closing the safe, swings the television back in position. He counts the money “Good, still intact, fresh as ever” echo the words in the Prisoner’s mind “That should be adequate” and places the money in his wallet.
   That evening the Prisoner/Colonel is followed by Potter to Janet’s birthday party. The party is in full swing.
   Back in Sir Charles’ office he asks PR Twelve if he’s sure The Prisoner/Colonel is being followed. Apparently they have attached a homing device to the Lotus, their man will be with him now.
   Back at the party a tall gaunt waiter serves the Prisoner/Colonel with a glass of champagne from a tray, he is the Undertaker, who is undercover!
   The Prisoner/Colonel drains his glass and escorts Janet onto the dance floor.
    “I didn’t invite you!”
   “I haven’t taken it to heart. Our friend lent me his card.”
   “You’ve seen him?”
   “Not exactly” he grins.
   “Do you work for my father, did he send you here?”
   “No, but I’ve no doubt he knows I’m here.”
    The music changes to a slow waltz. Still dancing together the Prisoner/Colonel tells Janet that when he arrived they were playing a waltz, the first time he danced with his love, his dear love in Kitzbhuel. Janet is astonished to hear this, and pleads with this man to tell her where her fiancé is, please.
   He informs Janet that he does have a message to give her. Before he went away he left something with her, for safe keeping in case of trouble, a slip of paper. Janet tells him she still has it. He tells her that if she wants to see her fiancé again, to get the slip of paper and he’ll be waiting in the arbour.
   Janet finds this difficult to comprehend. The waltz comes to an end, and the Prisoner/Colonel makes his retreat through the French doors, as Janet is approached by a young man wanting to dance with her.
    Meanwhile he waits nervously in the arbour, the Prisoner’s voice echoing in the Colonel’s head, “Was she just trying to get rid of him? Will she come? Will she have the receipt?” But Janet does come, and what’s more she has brought the receipt with her.
   “I’m sorry I was so long. Here it is”
   “Thank you” he says taking the receipt.
   “What was the message?” she asks eagerly.
    Simply this. A hand caresses both cheeks, then her nose, and as they embrace they share a long and passionate kiss. Who else could have given Janet such a message?
    Janet is confused “Nobody but…..”
    “Couldn’t you say nobody but you? I need your faith.”
    “Nobody but……you.”
    Janet now knows, though she finds it difficult to comprehend, standing in front of her is her beloved fiancé.
    Bright and early the next day, the Prisoner/Colonel now dressed in a double breasted blazer, white shirt and tie, makes his way along a street to the World Camera shop, as a matter of fact he’s early, or is the proprietor a little late. But in any case in a bit of a hurry, let’s put it that way. The Prisoner/Colonel explains to the shopkeeper that he left a roll of film with him a year ago to be made up into transparent slides. Although it was just over a year ago, presumably the shopkeeper still has them. Yes, but it may take a moment or two longer to find them. Always the same when we’re in a hurry, isn’t it?
    The shopkeeper goes into the back of the shop to look for the transparencies. While he’s gone the Prisoner/Colonel notices a tall gaunt man in the doorway outside, and recognises him as the waiter at Janet’s party the evening before. Once the man sees that he’s been seen, he turns and walks away. A few moments later the shopkeeper returns with the box of transparencies and a large ledger, both of which he places on the counter. Opening the ledger the Prisoner/Colonel is asked to sign for them, he notices that they have already been signed for by a Mister Carmichael. Apparently this was due to a clerical error, one of his juniors handing over the transparencies in mistake for the indicated number, confusing o one for one o. The junior wasn’t with them for very long. Mister Carmichael then having discovered the mistake returned the transparencies. How very good of Mister Carmichael. Now can the Prisoner/Colonel get a passport photograph taken?
    “I’m afraid our photographer is away on holiday at the moment.”
    “He would be!”
   “As you say sir. I can’t promise a flattering study of you sir, but I think it will be satisfactory to the passport authorities.”
    Good!
    “Pleasure sir, this way” the shopkeeper tells his customer, leading the way into the back room.
    PR Twelve enters Sir Charles Portland’s office “He has collected the transparencies sir.”
    “Ah, confirming my suspicions. Somewhere they contain a clue and our bright boys missed it!”
    As the Prisoner/Colonel returns to his home, he is followed by Potter, code name XB Four. Potter is in contact with Sir Charles by radio. As the Prisoner/Colonel parks his car outside his house, Potter watches him go inside the house from his parked car. He is ordered by Sir Charles to remain where he is until the man leaves his house, then is to follow him.
   Inside No.1 Buckingham Place the Prisoner/Colonel has erected a projection screen, the projector at the ready with the transparencies, and the blinds of the window closed. There is a notepad on the table. Taking a pen he writes the letters of Seltzman’s name, and gives each letter it’s corresponding number. 19 5 12 20 26 13 1 14. This done he then begins sorting through the transparencies selecting the ones with corresponding numbers. He begins to place each slide in turn into the slide holder of the projector, until all eight are slotted in and projected onto the screen. Then he takes his spectacles from their case and fits two different coloured lenses from a holder, and clips them onto his spectacles and puts them on. Looking at the screen he sees two words overlaid on the image of a white haired man. KANDERSFELD AUSTRIA.
    Taking off the glasses the Prisoner/Colonel takes a world atlas from a desk drawer and looks in the index, then turns to the page for Austria and looks for Kandersfeld on the map. Switching off the projector he mixes up all the slides together and destroys the notation he made.
   Outside, Potter still watching outside from his car, observes the blinds being opened and reports this to Sir Charles. Then the front door opens and the Prisoner/Colonel emerges, the door closing behind him he runs down the steps and climbs into his Lotus Seven, starts the engine and drives off. Potter is ordered to follow.
    The Prisoner/Colonel drives through the streets of London followed by Potter in his Lotus Cortina, who is able to follow at a discreet distance using the homing tracker on the Lotus Seven. The route taken takes them out of London and along the A 20 to Dover. This, Potter also reports to Sir Charles Portland. The Lotus Seven and Lotus Cortina arrive in Dover and join the queue to board the ferry.
    Having arrived in Calais the Prisoner/Colonel, still followed by Potter makes his way through France, Switzerland and into Austria, finally arriving in Kandersfeld. The Prisoner/ Colonel stops at the café, and is welcomed by a waiter.
    “Welcome to the village sir. What would you like to order?”
    His customer shows him a slide “Where is he?”
   The waiter looks at the slide “Herr Hallen. In the barber’s shop.”
   Potter is getting closer to Kandersfeld as the Prisoner/Colonel is entering the barbers shop, and is greeted by a white haired man wearing a white coat.
    “Gutten tag mein Herr.”
    “Good afternoon Herr Hallen. The waiter at the café told me that I could get a shave here.”
    “That is correct sir. Please sit down mien Herr.”
    “Your English is very good.”
    “We barbers get around, in several big London stores, but they are usually downstairs. And so I come back to the village where I was born.”
   “Herr Hallen I may as well come to the point. I don’t want a shave, I want your help desperately.”
    He tells the barber that they have met before, but that he couldn’t possibly remember him, because the first time they met he looked like this, and the Prisoner/Colonel takes a picture from the pocket of his jacket and shows it to the barber. It is of himself, the way the Prisoner was before the mind transference. Herr Hallen studies the photograph saying it is not possible. You see Professor your invention works only too well. Professor Seltzman pleads that he is a simple barber, and not to play tricks on an old man he begs.
    “Believe me Professor you’re the last person in the world I would choose, but somebody’s played a wretched trick on me. Do you recognise that face?”
    Of course, he is a friend. But anyone who had that photograph could claim to be him.”
    “For what reason?”
    “Perhaps you could tell me.”
    The Prisoner/Colonel is incognito until he can prove that he is that man. But everything he tells the Professor can be countered by him saying that he has extracted the information by fair means or foul. But perhaps there is a way, on the basis that no two people’s fingerprints are the same, the same that no two people’s handwriting can be the same. {Except through forgery!} It all depends upon whether or not Professor Seltzman kept that letter the Prisoner sent him a year ago from London. But if the Professor had kept that letter he would have been rather stupid, silly. However sentimental people are sometimes stupid, very stupid. The Professor disappears into a back room, to remerge carrying an envelope.
    Mean while Potter’s car is approaching Kandersfeld.
    The Colonel takes a small diary and fountain pen from his jacket pocket and writes the following address.
Mr. Seltzman
2 Portmeirion Road
Filey Clyde
Scotland
    The handwriting is compared to that on the envelope, the handwriting is identical.
    “My poor young friend, but who?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “The motive is clear, you will lead them to me, that is their hope. Do you think your own people have done this to you?”
    “No, I’m sure.”
    “Then it must be your enemies.”
    “My enemies, presumably in my other self.”
    “Precisely. If you are taken by the sides that haven’t, you must learn to accept yourself as you are.”
    Potter drives into Kandersfeld along the main street.
    As both sides want the Professor’s reversal process, it will be a close race. So the reversal process does exist, in theory. But in practise it can be dangerous, very dangerous. {I should have thought no more dangerous than that of the original mind transference both the Prisoner and the Colonel were put through}.
   Potter parks his car in the street opposite the barbers shop. The Professor and the Prisoner/Colonel look out of the window, Potter is crossing the street. They must not be taken by him. The Prisoner/Colonel goes and hides in the back room, while the Professor sits in his barbers chair.
   The shop door opens and Potter walks in.
   “Come in, come in” bids the barber.
   “Don’t move Professor” Potter tells him, otherwise he ignores the old man as he glances around the shop.
    Potter sees the door to the back of the barbers shop. He draws a gun from its holster, then puts his shoulder to the door. The Prisoner/Colonel is standing behind that door and he grabs the hand holding the gun, which falls from Potter’s grasp to the floor. Then a desperate struggle takes place between the two men as they tumble down the cellar steps, and a vicious fight ensues as they fall about the wiring, and bang into the electrical equipment of a Seltzman machine.
   Just as Potter is about to finish off the Prisoner/Colonel, a figure appears on the steps in the cellar, that of the gaunt Undertaker, but now in the guise of a chauffeur. He holds a nerve gas gun in his hand and pulls the trigger. A vapour cloud of nerve gas descends over the two struggling men, who are thus rendered unconscious.
    The Alouette helicopter circles the Village, then descends, landing on the triangle of lawn by the sea wall. The figure of the Prisoner is still lying on the operating table.
    Steel doors open, the butler shows both the Prisoner/Colonel and Professor Seltzman into Number 2’s office. The Prisoner is shocked to see himself on the wall screen lying on the operating table.
    “Ah Professor, welcome to our humble Village” greets Number 2.
    The pair of steel doors close.
    “Had a good trip? The least I can do is offer you some breakfast.”
    “You have kidnapped me for one reason” says the Professor “My answer is no.”
    “You are liverish this morning Professor.”
    “Surely neither of us wants to prolong this interview.”
    “Life has not taught you sweet resignation.”
    “Nor has it for other scientists. Rutherford for example, how he must have regretted having split the atom.”
    “Yes, almost as bad as splitting the identity of two human beings” mocks Number 2 “and like all the Kings men, only you can put them together again.”
    “Don’t rely on it” the Professor warns.
    Why does the Professor make this stand now? He must have known what he was doing when he invented the wretched process. But then only people have made it wretched. Is it possible for the Professor to leave this poor young man with his mind wrongly housed? {What about the Colonel, doesn‘t he count?} Surely the Professor owes him some slight responsibility.
   The Professor considers his position for a moment. Then he agrees, but for once he is dictating.
    “Heil” Number 2 salutes.
    The Professor will do it, but alone. To which Number 2 agrees. So in twelve hours the latest experiment is ready to take place, with the Colonel’s body now sedated on the second operating table. Watching on his wall screen in his office is Number 2. Also observing are a number of white coated scientists. Number 2 orders the cameras to turn, and the scientists to make a note of everything the Professor does during the experiment.
   The Professor sits between the two subjects within the steel framework of the Seltzman machine. All three figures have electrodes fitted, the leads of which are all linked into a single control box in the hands of the Professor. At the flick of a switch the Seltzman machine is activated, and a milky white vapour cloud appears over the head of the Prisoner, while a blue haze covers that of the Colonel.
   The power is increased to such a degree that a flickering of electricity arcs around the steel frame and the heads of the three subjects. As the power intensifies it is with trembling hand that the Professor suddenly disconnects the three leads of the control box. Then under tremendous tension the Professor slumps forward in his seat unconscious!
    Two male orderlies rush into the laboratory, Number 2 issues an emergency, emergency, emergency, examination room immediate treatment.
    “Emergency, emergency” booms out Number 2’s voice, all over the Village via the public address system “Emergency, emergency.”
    A taxi races away through the streets of the Village, as the helicopter, engine running, rotas turning, prepares to leave the Village.
    The Colonel stands watching the medical team working on the frail body of the Professor. Number 2 enters the examination room and instantly orders that the Professor is not to die. He needs him. He thanks the Colonel for his invaluable help. The Colonel trusts that he’s been of service. He has, and will be suitably rewarded, the helicopter is waiting for the Colonel, who dons his blazer and leaves the examination room.
    The Professor regains consciousness and slowly sits up “You must contact Number One, and tell him I did my duty.”
   Then with a final gasp the body of Professor Seltzman falls back upon the operating table. There is nothing more the medical team can do.
    “The Colonel!” Number 2 suddenly exclaims, the awful truth just dawning in his mind “The man flying out of here……”
    The helicopter takes to the air, and is heard flying overhead and away from the Village.
    “Is not who you thought it was” states Number 6 suddenly sitting up and removing his goggles.
    “I don’t believe it, I watched, I saw everything” says a shocked Number 2.
    “The good doctor’s mind now inhabits a body perhaps not to his liking, the Colonel’s. Doctor Seltzman had progressed more than any of us had anticipated. He can, and did, change three minds at the same time. Number 2 stares at Number 6 in complete astonishment. He is now free to continue his experiments in peace.
 
Be seeing you, but what about next time? Well it’s not quite High Noon, but still, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.

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