“Hello………enjoy
your chess yesterday?”
“Don’t tell me you care?”
“Of course, we want you to be happy.”
“Fine, just err give me a one-way
ticket home.”
“Won’t you ever give up?”
“What do you think?”
“You know you’re wrong, we have ways
if you drive us to them.”
“I can imagine.”
“It’s done under the strictest
medical supervision.”
“I can guess that from the state
of the man you took yesterday.”
“What the Rook? Oh no, he’ll come to no harm, it’s just a
rehabilitation course.”
“What do you want me to do, envy
him?”
“I like your sense of humour. But we can’t have you
worrying. Get in.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to the hospital, I thought you’d like to see our
friend the Rook.”
“Yes.”
{Number 2 and Number 6 - Checkmate}
Going with Number
2 to see the Rook at the hospital wasn’t Number 6’s first time in observing
someone suffering at the hands of the doctors. There was Number 8, who was
being put through interrogation, in trying to determine whether or not she had
suicidal tendencies. But this time it was the Rook, Number 53, who was
undergoing treatment. Pavlov’s experiments with dogs had been adapted for human
experimentation. Number 53 had been dehydrated, and cried out for water, but he
was trained to get water only when he obeyed. But really such dehydration
couldn’t simply be quenched by a cup or two of water, it would take a great
deal more than that.
This then is the darker side to The Village, human
experimentation. The doctor-Number 22 thinks of her patients as being no better
than animals, and treats them accordingly. And that goes for Number 8, who she
has had hypnotised into believing she is in love with Number 6, and he with
her. What’s more Number 8 is part of an experiment once carried out on
Dolphins. Transmitters were implanted in their brains for submarine detection.
This doctor hadn’t got as far as that with humans, all she had was a reaction
transmitter in a locket which Number 8 wore about her neck, making her part of
The Village alarm system. The doctor enjoys her work, just as much as her
predecessor in fact. More than that, she could easily be the doctor-Number 40’s
female counterpart! Either doctor Number 22 and Number 40 are interchangeable
and well suited for either ‘Dance of The Dead’ or ‘Checkmate.’ And for what it’s
worth Number 6 will never give up!
Be seeing you
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