Seltzman

    ZM73 was apparently the last person to see Seltzman, and from that point I think he was trying to protect Professor Seltzman. It was Sir Charles Portland who asked the question “Do we know where Seltzman is? “ Well obviously not, seeing as his bright boys missed the clue contained in those transparencies. And yet ZM73 didn’t know the whereabouts of Seltzman either, well not then. But he did know that Seltzman had been in Scotland, because he wrote a letter to him there. Seltzman’s later location was not discovered until ZM73 used eight of those slides, each corresponding to the name SELTZMAN and their number in the alphabet in order to discover the location of KANDERSFELD in Austria.

   Selzman certainly moved about a good deal, Loch Ness in Scotland, Paris, Beachy Head just to name three places out of 36, if each slide represents a separate place he visited. So who took the photographs of Seltzman? Not ZM73, he was only the recipient of the roll of film. So was there a third person involved who we do not know about? It would depend on there being someone else Seltzman could trust. No, most likely that the person who took those photographs was Seltzman himself! The one of Seltzman he could have been taken himself using a timer on the camera. 

   Did Sir Charles send the Colonel to The Village? If he did, when the Colonel came calling, saying he’s ZM73, perhaps Sir Charles was feigning that he didn’t recognise the face of the Colonel for the benefit of ZM73. If Sir Charles didn’t send the Colonel to The Village, perhaps he didn’t recognise the Colonel because he didn’t work for his department. I’m not at all sure about Sir Charles Portland. In fact to my mind, Sir Charles is only there because the Colonel is in The Village! But what about the Colonel, at the end, how did Number 6 know about the Colonel? No-one told him about the Colonel, unless he did know him and recognised his face in the mirror, perhaps the reason why he put his fist to the mirror!

   We have ZM73’s mind going off to Kandersfeld in the Colonel’s body, closely followed by Potter who is working for The Village, and following him the undertaker in the guise of a chauffeur. So if Sir Charles is acting for The Village and Potter is Sir Charles man, then why the need for the undertaker/chauffeur agent? Are there two agencies looking for Seltzman, British Intelligence and The Village, or just one?

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