Who Am I?

    Well who’s anyone in The Village? Just as long as you obey the rules they will take good care of you, for as long as you live, for as long as that is! In The Village a man’s, or woman’s past doesn’t matter, not to the ordinary citizen. All are numbers in The Village. It doesn’t matter who Number 2 is, and if it comes to it, it doesn’t even matter who the Prisoners and who the warders, not when ones spirit’s broken.
   Oh when you first arrive you are disorientated, confused, but when it comes down to it, one arrival is much alike as any other. You wake up in what you think is your own home, until you look out of the window to find you are not at home at all! Outside, The Village is Italianate, truth of the matter is you could be anywhere, except where you want to be. Generally the new arrival takes a taxi ride, but the taxis are only a local service. They take you as far as they can, but you always end up where you began. You might go to the General Stores to buy a map of the area, to find out where you are. Other than that, a new arrival might be lucky enough to meet with an old hand in The Village, who tells you about the taxi service, hence saving you the trouble of finding out for yourself. What’s more new arrivals are eventually asked to breakfast with Number 2 at his residence the Green Dome., followed by a briefing or de-briefing session, depending on whose side you’re on.
    And then there are other arrivals, those people who are brought to The Village of their own free will. No matter how well briefed they are, it is expected that nothing can prepare them for the reality of The Village. Nadia for example, oh she was good and played her part. Brought to The Village as part of a plan to extract the reason behind Number 6’s resignation. The poor woman, having to face the terrible effects of The Village Guardian. No amount of briefing could have prepared her for that. Although she stood up to the interrogation technique, training I suppose standing for hours under the lights. The floor being electrified, five seconds on, five seconds off, it takes just four seconds to reach the door. So Nadia caught onto that. How, we don’t know, but she went for it. It really was a nice touch, acting suicidal, she really had placed her trust in Number 2, if that electricity had not been turned off in time……………
    The Colonel, seconded to the Village from British Intelligence. His London office replicated in The Village, right down to the last detail. He wasn’t very much different from Number 2, a little less intelligent, but he had the same question, “Why did you resign?” Did the Colonel know what The Village would be like? Had he previously been a prisoner in The Village? Then having talked, like Cobb, released out into the world again, but always within reach so that when the time came he would be made use of as during ‘Chimes?’ And Fotheringay, he was only there to egg the pudding, because without Fotheringay being there in the Colonel’s office Number 6 may very well have smelt a rat. And yet he was willing to serve, the Colonel, The Village, or both. Can a man serve two masters? Why not ask Potter.
    Potter had been assistant to the Colonel while he had been on the trail of ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ and yet there he was {fictionally speaking} working in The Village as the manager of the Labour exchange, later to be promoted to the position of assistant to Number 2. Was Potter seconded to The Village, or abducted like Cobb and his former colleague ZM73? Either way he seems to have taken to The Village, having decided not leave like Cobb, but to stay and serve the community.
    Another man was seconded to The Village, Curtis. His job was to take the place of Number 6 by impersonating him, an exact doppelganger. From where exactly was Curtis recruited? Which side, which department? Curtis was also willing to serve. He was good, but then all he had to do was study Number 6’s file, watch surveillance footage. Learn the way he spoke, the way he walked. His behaviour and mannerisms. But in the end his nerve broke when faced by the Guardian, and what can you do with an agent whose nerve had gone? It would seem that Nadia Rakovsy was the better agent that Curtis, after all she survived her experience with The Village Guardian!
    Finally, another Colonel was seconded to The Village, an ex-Army type who followed orders, now of British Intelligence. He had absolutely no idea why he was seconded to The Village by the highest level. But he was gratified by that. He would serve without question. The man was a fool, and perhaps not used to working in the field. If he knew what his assignment was……… If the Colonel was married, or had family, his death would create some embarrassing questions! And even if he wasn’t, what of the department which the Colonel worked for within British Intelligence? They should certainly want to know what had happened to the Colonel. And the Colonel himself, did he enter the experiment of mind transference willingly, without a struggle? Or did he go screaming, so that he had to be sedated?
    If The Village wasn’t run by some form of British government department within British Intelligence, that would mean there are more traitors within British Intelligence than is dreamt. Such a list would contain three of the four Colonels, Fotheringay, Potter, Nadia Rakovsky, and finally Thorpe, although he and his Colonel didn’t actually make it to The Village, not unless Thorpe {fictionally speaking} can be counted as Number 2 of ‘Hammer!’
    Who’s anyone in The Village, because really we do not know enough about anyone to say with any great certainty. Citizens are merely numbers, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and some can play more than one part. In a way The Village is similar to a stage play, where anyone can be anyone, and life seems staged or choreographed. It has been written that The Village, and everything that takes place there, is staged merely for the benefit of the Prisoner-Number 6. If that’s the case, it seems an enormous amount of trouble to go to for one man, and to what end?

Be seeing you