Fall Out

     The green yellowed nose Lotus Seven drove over Westminster Bridge, turning left passed the Houses of Parliament, then turning right, and right again down a ramp and into an underground car park. The car paused at the barrier as the driver collected a ticket from the dispenser, the barrier rises and the car moves forwards into the depths of the car park. The man steps out smartly from the parked car and heads towards the double doors marked “way out.’ He pushes the doors open and passes through, leaving the car park along a darkly lit corridor. 

    Somewhere in an office in a building along White Hall the man pulls open a pair of double doors, and storms into the office beyond. A bald-headed man wearing spectacles is sat behind the desk doing a crossword puzzle in a newspaper.
    The man looks up from his desk “Oh no.......it’s you again!” He moves the cup in its saucer on the tea plate to once side.
    “Haven’t you got any work to do?”
    “What do you want this time?”
    “I want some answers!”
    “Answers?”
    “Who put me in the village?
    “Village, what village?”
    “Oh don’t come the old acid with me, the village where people who cannot be left around are put to have the information inside their head protected or extracted.”
    “Then what are you doing here?”
    “Looking for answers, and by thunder this time I’m going to get them. I want to see the Colonel!”
    “That’s what you wanted the last time.”
    “This time it’s going to be different. Pick up the telephone and tell the Colonel that the village has been left vacant!”
    “What does that mean?”
    “I shall that explain to the Colonel when I see him.”
    “Look I can’t just........”
    “Yes you can.....get me the Colonel at once, otherwise he’s going to have an over rated receptionist with a broken neck!”

    All it took was a phone call, and before he knew where he was, he was in the Colonel’s office.

    “And that’s what happened?”
    “Yes.”
    “It almost started World War three when that rocket, missile whatever it was, was launched.”
    “You know about that?”
    “Of course my dear chap Jodrell Bank picked up the launch, two moments later the telephones began to ring in Number Ten, the White House, and the Kremlin. Both sides denying any launching of any such rocket......a British made rocket launched from a British installation, on foreign soil. Tricky one that.”
    “They tried to make out I was responsible.............”
    “What for launching the rocket.......you didn’t, tell me you had nothing to do with that.”
    “I may have...............”   
    “Oh you damned fool!”
    “Before that, they made me think I was responsible for the village.”
    “You?! Don’t be a bloody fool. Go away, you resigned, go away on that holiday you were taking.”
    “What about the village?”
    “What about it?”
    “What will you do?”
    “Nothing. Go away and forget about it.”
    “But you had me put in that place......it was you who wanted to know why I resigned.”
    “Always quick to blame others, aren’t we Number 1!”
    “What?”
    “The trouble with you is, you’re your own worst enemy. You couldn’t live with the truth then, and you can’t live with it now.”
    “What?”
    “Your town house has been made ready for you, I suggest you go and live in it. Your butler will have high tea ready for when you get home. Oh you won’t need the key, the doors been upgraded.”
    “The front door’s been upgraded?”
    “Haven’t you yet realized, you weren’t abducted to any village, you’ve been here in the village all the time!”

Be seeing you