The Village!

    “I’m glad you came to see me Colonel.”
    “It was made perfectly plain to me, that I had no choice in the matter General.”
    “Really, well no matter, you’re here now. Do sit down.”
    “Why am I here.”
    “Why am I here......sir.”
    “Why am I here General.”
    “The war is over.”
    “Yes General.”
    “No, it’s not, the war rages on, but its turned cold. There’s a Russian winter on the way, and we’re not prepared for it!”
    “Best dress up warm then.”
    “There’s no point being flippant, that does no good, and does you no credit Colonel.”
    “So why am I here?”
    “There are a large number of undesirables in Britain, did you know that Colonel?”
    “Russians?”
    “I don’t believe I said Russians did I Colonel?”
    “No General.”
    The door opens and a middle aged woman wearing a pinafore enters carrying a tray.
    “Ah, good, tea.”
    The woman places the tray on the desk and makes to leave the office.
    “Just a minute!”
    The woman stops and turns “What is it now?”
    “Where are the biscuits?”
    “There are no biscuits.”
    “We had biscuits yesterday.”
    “Yes and the day before that, that’s why there are no biscuits today!”
    The woman leaves the office closing the door behind her.
    “Tea Colonel?”
    A few moments were spent pouring out the tea, before the current business was resumed.
    “So what are we to do with these undesirables?”
    “Deport them? Send them back where they came from.”
    “Oh no” said the General stirring his tea “We cannot possibly let that happen. You never know who we would be getting rid of, and possible secrets in the process. But I have the solution.”
    “Good” the Colonel said finishing his tea.
    “You are going to deal with them.”
    “I am?”
    “You will take up office in Whitehall where you will become head of your department within British Intelligence. But don’t worry no-one will bother you, I’ll see to that. Your task will be to gather information. It doesn’t matter who has what information, it will not matter which side they are on. You will extract all information.”
   “I will?”
   “Well not personally, you will have specialists in your department. But first all undesirables will be gathered up, and sent to The Village.”
    “The Village?”
    “The sole purpose will be to confine, contain, and gather information. Information which will either be extracted or protected, depending on who has it.”
    The General dropped a file on the desk, the Colonel glanced at the heading “The Village,” he picked up the file.
    “It’s Italianate.”
    “A mixture of architecture certainly.”
    “And its location?”
    “It’s in the file, but it’s not on British soil.”
    The Colonel closed the file and placed it in his briefcase.
    “This is the last time we shall meet Colonel. Sir Charles Portland will be your future point of contact.”
    “Sir Charles?”
    “You have a problem with that?”
    “No General.”
    “Oh by the way, we might well end up sending people of our own to The Village.”
    “In other words no-one is immune.”
    “The Village may well end up as a self-contained unit of society, self contained, self-sufficient, and independent of the homeland.”
    “We used to exile prisoners to penal colonies.”
    “In less civilized times yes, now they’ll exiled to The Village, which is basically the same thing!”
    The Village is a place where people have been turning up for a very long time.

Be seeing you