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Sunday 29 December 2019

tHe pRISonEr

    How long he had been there was difficult to work out, a couple of weeks, perhaps a couple of months he hadn’t been allowed a calendar. They gave him a copy of the local newspaper to read. The first thing he looked for was a date, there wasn’t one. Then he looked for news, of something he could relate to, but it was simply a local newspaper covering local news, trivial stuff mostly.
    They kept asking him questions. They wanted to know all about him, he thinks he told them, he wasn’t sure, all he wanted to do was sleep. But as soon as he fell asleep they woke him up. He tried to turn off the light once, but the switch wouldn’t work. Then they gave him the hot and cold treatment, freezing one minute then it was as though they were roasting him alive. How had he come here? Then they were nice to him. They allowed him water to wash, and shave. Food was provided, and hot coffee they even had someone taste the food and drink the coffee just to prove it wasn’t drugged.   
    How had he come there?
    Then they moved him into what they were pleased to call a home from home, but it was nothing like his home. There were no stairs for one thing, one bedroom, when there should have been three bedrooms, and the bathroom, were on the same ground floor as the lounge and kitchen. They wanted him to settle down, he just wanted out. But No.2 told him there was no out, there was only in. One woman asked him if he could pilot a helicopter, pilot a helicopter? Of course he couldn’t pilot a damned helicopter, besides which the girl hadn’t got one of those electro pass things! But he did try to escape. He tried simply walking away across the estuary, but two guardians in a Mink-Moke brought him back. He tried having himself thrown out with the rubbish, only he was caught hiding in a dustbin! He attempted to escape through the woods, only Post 9 who was disguised as a tree managed to stop him.
    Why was he here, he had committed any crime.
    Then one night they came for him, when he was asleep and off his guard. He woke up in the hospital as someone else, they fed him information on professional and personal matters, they wiped his mind of all unpleasant memories of the village. They conditioned him to be someone else, and then one day he was back in London. Lieutenant Commander Jack Bridgenorth back working in Naval Intelligence………eight long and difficult months during which time he gathered all kinds of secret information. And then one day a hearse parked outside his house, two undertakers alighted. One undid the back of the hearse while the other let himself into the house using a key. After a few minutes a coffin was carried into the house, but when it was carried out it was a good deal heavier than when they carried it in.

    Lieutenant Commander Bridgeworth woke up with a headache, there was a bleeping sound……the telephone. Unsteadily he got to his feet and picked up the receiver of the telephone.
    “Good morning to you. I trust you slept well. Join me for breakfast, Number 2 the Green Dome.
    The Commander was confused, disorientated. He went outside, he saw a man riding a tricycle.
    “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”
    “In the village” the man shouted as he peddled passed.
    He saw the Green Dome, he climbed the steps, he approached the front door, pulled on the wrought iron bell pull, somewhere a bell tolled and the front door opened. A diminutive Butler showed him into a huge domed chamber, a man sat in a black spherical chair.
    “Ah there you are my dear fellow welcome back, can I offer you tea, or would you like coffee?”
    “Neither, perhaps you could tell me where I am?”
    “Why Number 24 you’re home in the village, and now you’re going to tell me everything you have learned since taking up your position in Naval Intelligence.”
    “Tell you? I’ll tell you nothing…..the village, where is this place, why am I here……….what did you call me?”
    No.2 sat back in his chair, this was going to be much harder than he imagined!


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