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 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
“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!
Be seeing you
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