Chapter 9
Snakes And Ladders!
No.17 was taking a quiet stroll through the Village, he acknowledged passers-by on his way, and passed the time of day with others. Halfway along a cobbled path he saw a man with an ear cocked at a loudspeaker of the public address system, he asked him “Can you hear anything?”
17 listened “No” he said.
“No, neither can I!” the man replied.
17 walked on passed the statue of
Hercules, taking the path to the left and down the hill towards the Old
People’s Home. Crossing the lawn he stood at the low white balustrade and
looked out over the estuary, wondering whether or not to take to the beach. He
descended the steps down to the quay and stood watching people clambering up
the rigging, and about the deck of, and in and out of the stone boat’s cabin.
He walked on and found himself standing at the swimming pool. It was the first
time he noticed how similar the Free Sea pool was to the swimming pool, with
its fountain at one end. No doubt the swimming pool was filled with water from
the estuary. He imagined the coldness of the water added to by the cold stone,
the only good thing that would be worth would be a cold dip to clear a headache
or hangover! There were three young women in bathing costumes messing about the
swimming pool. One was in the pool, but sitting in a small dingy, the other two
were at the poolside throwing a beach ball to the one in the dingy. Somehow
this reminded him of a scene in the Piazza, there was often a young man and his
friend messing about with a dingy in the Free Sea. He bid the young ladies a
good day.
“Have you three been swimming?” 17 asked.
“What in there, not likely!” one said.
“Have you been in there mister, the water’s
freezing!” said another.
“Then
why dress in swimsuits?”
“What’s it to you what we wear?”
“Nothing, nothing at all. You seem to
be enjoying yourselves, one could almost be on holiday here” he suggested.
“Come on girls, we’re due on duty”
No.220 said.
“You work here then?”
“Questions are a burden to others” one girl
said.
“And answers a prison for oneself”
added another.
“Who are you?” 220 asked.
“I’m new here” he told them.
“He might be a guardian” one of the girls
suggested.
“Are you a guardian, is that it?” 220 asked.
“Perhaps we should throw him in the
swimming pool!”
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“That’ll cool him off alright.”
“Why should you think me a guardian, I
don’t want to protect you.”
“And neither do the guardians” 220 told
him.
The two girls helped the third out of
the dingy and made their way from the swimming pool to the changing rooms,
chatting quietly as they walked.
“I tell you what, he didn’t look like a guardian,
he looked rather nice” No.162 said.
“That’s how they catch you out!” 220 told
them.
“Why
should a guardian want to catch any of us out, we’re Observers” 190 remarked
innocently.
“Oh come on, we’ll be late.”
No.17 made his way back up the hill into
the Village, he took his time walking, he had nowhere particular to be, or go.
A number
of large white squares had been set out on the Village green, interspaced with
the green squares of the lawn it made a perfect chequered board. A large number
of people had gathered, each holding a pole with the head of a chess piece at
the top. As the people, as chess pieces took their squares on the chessboard a
chap approached No.17.
“Do you play chess by any chance?”
“No, I’m sorry I don’t.”
“Well you’re no good to me!”
Four people then came along carrying long
handled mallets and a set of balls.
“Here, what’s the game?” one of them said.
“Chess!” the man said.
“You’ve got a nerve setting out that
chessboard on our croquet lawn!”
“Your
croquet lawn I like that, this is the Village green for the use of everyone the
chess player said.
The chess pieces turned to see what
the argument was about.
“Were
those hoops yours?”
“Yes.”
“Well we put them on that bit of lawn up
there on the terrace.”
“We can’t play crochet on that bit of
lawn!”
“Not my problem” the man said “Sir, do you
play chess sir?”
A passer-by shook his head.
“Do any of you four play chess?”
“Yes I do” said one.”
“You
do!” said the chess player “take this and come and be the white King’s
Bishop” and he shoved a tall chess pole in the man's hand and hurried him onto
the chessboard.
“Now we’re a player short!” said one of the
croquet players.
“Never mind that for now, why don’t we go and set out the hoops upon that square lawn over there in front of the fishpond?” the third croquet player suggested.
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“Good idea” said the first player “Follow
me!”
The
three players marched right across the chessboard in protest!
A player on a tall set of steps called out
the first moved.
“Pawn to King four.”
“Pawn to King four” was the reply.
“Knight to Queen’s Bishop three.”
Although No.17 couldn’t play the game for
him to be able to follow it, he thought to sit and watch the spectacle of the
human chess match, so he settled himself in a deckchair. When a chess piece was
taken two men in black and white striped yachting caps, blazers, and shorts
walked onto the chessboard and escorted the taken piece off the board. Then he
noticed two burly set men in red jerseys walking round the edge of the chessboard,
and walking in his direction. A shadow was cast over him as the two guardians
stood looking down at him.
“You were down by the swimming pool a few
minutes ago” No.256 said.
“What about it?” I asked
“What were you doing questioning the three
girls?” No.134 asked.
“I didn’t question them; I was simply passing
the time of day, and asked if they had been swimming.”
“And what’s that got to do with you?”
No.256 asked brusquely.
“Nothing, I was being polite that’s all. I
didn’t wish to appear disharmonious.”
“Number Two wants a word with you.”
“Does he, why?”
Strong hands helped 17 up out of the
deckchair.
“Do you mind, take your hands off me”
he said trying to resist their grip “I was nice and comfortable.”
No.17 struggled and kicked out as he was frogmarched
away, the faces of the spectators watching the chess match remained unmoved as
though nothing was happening, as though someone to be forcibly taken away was
an everyday occurrence! He was manhandled up the green slope of the lawn, up
steps, up more steps, and along the road, and no-one passing by took any notice
of his plight. He was forced up the steps to the Green Dome, in through the
front door, through the foyer, through opening steel doors into the purple walled
chamber that is No.2’s office. There was a black leather chair, and No.17 was
forcibly put in it as the two guardians who stood either side. No.2 sat
opposite him, but behind a desk, in a black global chair.
“You can go” No.2 said.
Number 2, a sliver haired man in his
late 50’s, thinning hair and overweight, this was his first term in office.
No.17 thanked him and rose up out of
the chair, but strong hands forced him back into it.
The pair of steel doors opened and
No.8 entered the chamber as the two
guardians were leaving.
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Looking at the man sat in the chair
No.8 approached the desk
“Who have we here?”
“Number Seventeen, he’s been asking
questions” No.2 said.
“Has he, how unwise.”
“He’s relatively new here, but he’ll
learn.”
“We’ll teach him” 8 said eagerly.
“And now he’s going to answer one or
two questions of my own” No.2 said.
“Is he?”
“Yes he is.
“Now Number Seventeen, you were seen
down by the swimming pool.”
“I was just passing by.”
“You were seen to be questioning the
three girls” No.2 said accusingly.
“As I told those two goons of yours I was
merely passing the time of day, and I asked them if they had been for a swim.”
“What’s that to you?”
“Nothing, nothing at all” 17 replied.
“I haven’t seen very much of you since your
arrival here, have I Number Seventeen?”
“I wouldn’t know. I know I haven’t seen
very much of you!”
“What you think I spend all my time
watching people, I have Observers for that!”
“Don’t you?” 17 said glancing at the large
wall screen and watching himself at the swimming pool.
“That isn’t you?” No.8 asked.
“You know very well it is.”
“Good, we’re making progress” No.2
said “Now you can go.”
There was a startled look on Number 8’s face.
“Thank you very much” No.17 said
rising out of the chair.
He was allowed to walk across the
floor, up the ramp towards the opening steel doors where his egress was stopped
as the two burly guardians blocked his way. No.17 turned back to face No.2, a
man with black hair and a goatee beard. The two guardians grabbed an arm each
and manhandled the prisoner back into the purpled walled chamber and forcibly
sat him in a black chair.
“Now Number Seventeen………” No.2 began.
“This
isn’t right….where did they go, how did you do that?” 17 asked.
“They?”
“The man I was talking it was only
two moments ago, Number 2 and his assistant.”
“I’m Number Two” the man with the
goatee beard told the prisoner “and I’ve never required an assistant.”
“I don’t know want you are doing, but
it won’t work.”
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“All we want is for you to settle down,
tell us what we want to know,
and
then life here can be very pleasant…….or not as the case may be.
Think
about it seventeen, good day.”
No.2 and his assistant returned to the
office as the interim No.2 was leaving.
“Was that alright sir?” 77 asked.
“Perfect, well done” No.2 said “now
return to the control room.”
“Yes sir” 77 saluted.
No.2 returned the salute.
“Who’s he?”
“Number Seventy-seven he’s been an
acting interim Number Two, but his term in office is over now, and he’s
returned to general duties.”
“You got us out of there pretty
smartish, what’s it all about?” 21 asked.
“We’re going to shake our friend Number Seventeen
up a little. I want you to find two more interim Number 2’s for me.”
“May I put myself forward?” 21 asked
standing smartly to attention.
No.2 looked his assistant up and down
“Standing there like that doesn’t impress me 21, besides he’s seen you
already.”
The pair of steel doors opened and
the butler wheeled his tea trolley down the ramp.
“Where am I to find these interim
Number Two’s?”
“Use your imagination 21, from within
administration.”
Having placed the afternoon tea
things on the desk, the butler poured out a hot cup of tea and handed the cup
and saucer to his master.
No.2 took the offered cup and saucer
“You’re going to see one or two new faces in this office in the coming days,
what do you think of that?”
The butler said nothing, made no
reaction, it was all the same to him, besides he had seen it all before!
“Of course” No.21 said about to help
himself to tea “you understand this technique has been tried before, and not so
long ago.”
The steel doors closed behind the
departing butler.
“What are you doing Twenty-one?”
“Afternoon tea sir.”
“You’ve no time for tea, be about
your business and report back to me when you’ve selected three interim Number Two’s,
each one must devise a plan by which to make our friend Number 17 very
uncomfortable, very uncomfortable indeed.”
“And in the meantime?”
“I intend to strike up a rapport with
Seventeen” No.2 began to explain “I want him to think that he can come to rely
upon me, that he can come to me at any time of day if he should feel anxious,
or concerned about anything, anything at all….except when he does I shall
not be here, well, not until he’s ready to talk, and he will be ready
to talk.”
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“So you build up his confidence, and each
time an interim Number 2 knocks him down again, to take him all the way back to
square one, and then you’re there to pick him up……you’re going to play a game
of snakes and ladders with him!” 21 exclaimed.
{Snakes
and ladders is an idiom. The meaning is any situation in which people or events
go forward and backward seemingly at random.}
“That’s a good idea Twenty-one, I think
I’ll mention it to Number One!”
One day No.17, having found himself a
secluded place, sat in the grotto below the round outlook set on top of the
cliffs. He liked to sit there as there was no surveillance, and he could enjoy
his own company. He began to study the different sea shells set into the wall,
there were all kinds, it reminded him of a place in…….
“When will it be ready?”
“In two days.”
“Then in two days we shall rock this
Village to its foundations.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“Let’s not fool ourselves; it is
dangerous, damned dangerous.”
“To everyone!”
“That cannot be helped.”
“Can’t we protest in some other way,
what will violence avail us?”
“Our freedom!”
“But innocent people could be hurt.”
“Most likely, in making an omelette,
eggs must be broken.”
“I’m not happy about it.”
“This is no time to get a
conscience.”
“Alright….in two days then.”
No.17 had been listening to the two
voices, and eventually, slowly, he emerged from the grotto and peered over the
low wall of the lookout, there was no-one there!
Taking the path back to the road he
wondered what the two voices had been talking about? Something was going to
happen in two days, something dangerous in which innocent people might get
hurt. But what was that to him? Who was innocent here? And yet he might be one
to get hurt, fatally perhaps, 17 didn’t fancy that much. Was it to be an attack
on No.2, well all to the good, what was it to him, nothing! He wasn’t prepared
to become involved!
The pair of steel doors opened and
No.17 entered the domed office with purpose. A middle aged woman with the old
college scarf wound about her neck and shoulders sat behind the desk.
“Get him!”
“Get who?”
“Number Two of course!”
“I am Number Two” the woman told him.
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“Where’s the other one, the one with the
goatee beard?”
“What is it you want?”
“I want to report……”
“Yeesss……”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I did.”
“Try me?”
So No.17 told her of the conversation
he had heard from below the outlook.
“Did you see these two people?”
“No, by the time I looked they had
both gone!” he said.
No.2 picked up the yellow ‘L’ shaped
telephone and called the control room.
“Supervisor, Number Two here. Has
there been any unusual activity today in the area of the outlook on top of the
cliffs?”
The supervisor consulted his
Observers…… “No Number Two, only Number Seventeen going into the grotto, later
to emerge in something of a furtive way.”
“Furtive?”
“Careful, like he didn’t wish to be
seen.”
“There was no-one else?”
“No Number Two.”
No.2 hung up and then called the
Department of Visual Records and asked to review the surveillance footage for
that morning around the outlook area. No.2 and No.17 watched as on the wall
screen. 17 appeared on the cliff path walking towards the outlook, and went
into the grotto which took him out of view. Several minutes later No.17
reappeared from the grotto and carefully peered over the low wall.
No.2 pressed a button on the control
panel of her desk and switched the screen off “Well?”
“I can’t explain it.”
“You saw for yourself there was
no-one else there.”
“But I heard two people talking……. plotting,
planning, whatever it is its going to happen in two days.”
No.2 was unimpressed “What do you
expect to gain from this, are you jamming?”
“Jamming, what’s that?”
“Causing mischief!” she told him.
“Why would I?”
“Perhaps you need help!”
“Help?”
“Therapy treatment, a session of the
talking cure, well a medical at least. I’ll book you an appointment at the
hospital if you like!”
No.17 didn’t like!
Two
days later nothing happened, well nothing which affected the village by any form of catastrophe. Although a Mini-Moke did
stop outside 17 Private, and two men in white coats did take No.17 away!
“Sit down” the doctor told the
patient.
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“I’m perfectly alright” No.17 said.
“I think I will be the best judge of that”
the doctor told him.
“I’m alright, I want to leave.”
The doctor studied the patient from
behind his desk “You might as well have a medical while you’re here, just to
make sure, what harm can that do?”
Quite a bit as it happened, and yet
nothing did happen. The next day No.17 was simply given a medical the doctor
diagnosed him to be A-one, fit for any contingency! Told him to go home, get
plenty of fresh air and exercise, and the voices would go away
Fresh air and exercise….. “Good afternoon
everyone, good afternoon. The weather will remain fine and dry. Your local
council had organized a great new activity for the running athletes amongst us,
a paper chase which will take place three weeks today.”
No.17 took up running, and working out in
the gymnasium in order to get himself fit, he even entered the paper chase in which
one person, the hare, starts off ahead of everyone else in the group {the
hounds} leaving a trail of torn paper which represents the scent of the hare.
After a designated time the hounds chase after the hare and attempt to catch it
before they reach the end of the chase.
The hare set off laying a paper trail
through the Village, along roads, through archways, along cobbled paths, across
lawns as a few spectators stood looking on.
“You realize don’t you One-two-eight”
said one gardener “you realize that someone is going to have to pick up all
that litter!”
“Yes” said No.189 “that will be us!”
The hare continued laying the paper
trail along the road passed the Town Hall and down the hill toward the Old
People’s Home, down onto the quay, down the steps and out along the beach
laying the trail away from the Village. About a dozen runners were ready to
take part in the chase and stood watching as the hare set off having been given
a five minute head start, then the hounds set off giving chase. No.17 kept up a
steady pace in the middle of the pack, but was biding his time it being too
soon to make his move. The hounds following the paper trail from the cobbled
square down the road, through and arch, through the Piazza, down steps, across
the village green, through another arch, then along a cobbled path, round the
statue of Hercules, round the fish pond, between two cottages, twisting this
way and that, through another arch opposite the café, then left and left the
pack of hounds running down the hill towards the Old People’s Home, down onto
the quay, down steps and onto the beach following the trail leading away from
the Village. The pack began to thin as they ran along the beach towards the
further end of the cliffs. The trail left the beach and continued over the
rocks and along the cliff path back towards the Village, but not before leading
the pack into the woods weaving in and out between trees before keeping to one
of the main paths.
As the hounds scrambled up over the rocks No.17 slowed his pace and dropped
behind but continued to follow along the cliff path, allowing two or three
others of the pack to pass him by and then when he was the last of the hounds,
having allowed space between himself and the pack ahead he dashed off and instead
followed a path into the woods. Now he was a lone runner, and had to put enough
distance between himself and the Village as he could before he was missed……
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“You tried to escape” No.2 said, sounding
as though it were a personal insult to him.
“I did, I admit it, can I go now?”
No.17 asked.
“Curious, you thought you could
escape simply by running away!”
“Well it was worth a try.”
“What’s the matter, don’t you like it
here?”
“I’m sure life here suits you well enough. Where is she by the
way?”
“Who?”
“Number Two, no don’t tell me you are
the new interim Number Two.”
“Interim, what mean you by that?”
“If things go the way they have, you won’t be here all that long!”
“Long enough to see you dealt with.
You need treatment Number Seventeen, a spell in the Therapy Zone will soon
bring you to heel!”
No.17 was taken away and given the full
treatment! It had begun innocently enough with a medical, then psychiatric
analysis, an hour of the talking cure with No.70 and his shadow who came to the
conclusion that No.17 was the way he was because his mother dressed him up as a
girl! This was followed by three different kinds of therapy treatment, as well
as aversion therapy, and they were liberal in their use of mind bending drugs.
He was left feeling physically drained, his brain scrambled but his mind still
intact. How long it had been was difficult to say, days certainly, but he was
eventually allowed to leave the hospital, and given a free ride home. No.17
didn’t go home; instead he stood there looking up towards the Green Dome. The
butler, in answering the bell, opened the front door and gestured with a gloved
hand for the visitor to enter. He led No.17 through the foyer, through a pair
of open French doors and up a short ramp to a pair of steel doors which slid
open at their approach. The butler stood in the open doorway as No.17, who was
a little unsteady on his feet, walked down the ramp and approached the desk;
behind which sat a portly, middle aged man.
“Number Seventeen is it?”
A hand reached up to the lapel of his
blazer and removing the badge let it drop to the floor.
“I want to see Number 2.”
“I am Number 2” the young blonde
haired man said, with more
than a
slight German accent.
“Not you, the other one!” 17 demanded.
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“Which one is that?”
“I’ve had enough, I want to see
Number One!” 17 demanded, his loud voice echoing in the domed chamber.
“I want to see Number One…….. I want to see Number One…….. I want to see Number One…….. I want to see Number One……..” echoed and
re-echoed.
The pair of steel doors opened, No.17 spun
round…..framed in the open doorway stood the tall figure of No.2 with his
equally tall assistant No.21.
“Not who you were expecting I
imagine” No.2 said walking down the ramp.
The man sitting in the black globe
chair stood up, removed the scarf from his shoulders and walked smartly passed
No.2, up the ramp and out through the open door, which closed as No.21 entered
the chamber.
No.2 took his rightful place behind
his desk, pressing a button on the control panel of his desk. A round disc in
the floor slid away and a black leather chair rose up through the hole in the
floor.
“I think you had better sit down”
No.2 suggested “you look as though you’ve been put through the wringer!”
“What you had done to me, I’ll tell
you anything you want to know.”
And he did.
The door to the office opened and the
Colonel stood in the open doorway.
“Jenkins, you’re back.”
“Colonel.”
“I take it there are no adverse
effects?”
“You of all people should know.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You had me sent there….”
The cream telephone began to ring.
“I would keep quiet about that if I
were you Jenkins, you are one of us now.”
“You’ve been there?”
“I had to go on some minor detail.”
The phone continued to ring.
“You had better answer that” the Colonel
said, then turning and closing the door behind him.
Jenkins picked up the receiver “Jenkins
here……”
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