The Prisoner • The Chimes of Big Ben

He has another conversation with the bearded man, doesn’t remember the last one. That man is now the new Number Two. He’d been sitting alone at a seaside table, watching Villagers splash about, soak up the sun. Enjoying his solitude. That ended when the bearded man appeared.

“Mind if I join you?”

In his mind, he minds. But he makes a generous gesture. Please sit down. The bearded man sits.

“You're a good neighbor, I hope?”

“What would a good neighbor do?”

“Talk, of course. What could be more neighborly?”

“Minding your own business? I recall a certain poem about a wall …”

“Oh rubbish. There are people who talk and people who don't. Which means some people leave this place and some people don’t. You are obviously staying."

“Has it ever occurred to you that you’re just as much a prisoner as I am?”

“Ha! Of course, my dear chap. I know too much! We’re both lifers. But I am definitely an optimist. That’s why it doesn't matter who Number One is. It doesn't matter which side runs The Village.”

“It's run by one side or the other?”

The bearded man hesitates for a microsecond.

“Of course. But both sides are becoming identical. What has in fact been created is an international community — a perfect blueprint for world order. When both sides face each other and realize they’re looking into a mirror, they will see that this the pattern for the future.

“The whole Earth as The Village?”

“That is my hope. What’s yours?”

“To be the first man on the Moon.”

Number Two lets out a belly laugh.

“Well, must go. Delightful chat. Thank you, Number Six.”

The bearded man gets up. And leaves

Down on the beach, a woman is swimming out to sea. He knows her. "Number Eight," in this place. But “Nadia” was her true name. Supposedly. She’d grabbed him the other day in a place where the cameras can’t see. Claimed to be a spy from the other side. Who’d been abducted from the Eastern Block and brought here. Wanted to join forces with him, get out of this place. He didn’t buy what she was selling. Suggested art therapy. The Village exhibition was coming up in a few weeks. She could work out her fears on canvas. She slapped him in his face and that was that.

Now she’s too damn far from shore. Fifty meters, perhaps. It’s a suicide attempt ...

He almost jumps in to save her. 

But Rover pops up and absorbs her.

Two days later, Number Two take him to the Village Hospital to get a good look at Nadia's fate. They’ve put her in an electrified cell. She was an Olympic swimmer, evidently. They keep shocking her to determine if she’s either suicidal or a genuine escape threat. Finally conclude she was swimming away from life, not The Village. But They still keep shocking her, just to be sure. She keeps screaming and he can’t stand it. He offers to make a deal.

 “Let her go and I'll collaborate.”

The bearded Number Two is astonished. 

“You'll what?”

“Isn't that what you wanted?”

“So obvious a weakness in you?”

“Why not?”

“For which you'll collaborate?”

“Don't get too excited, I'll tell you nothing. I'll join in, try to settle down, even carve something for the exhibition ...”

“Ha! If I turn her over to you, you'll do some woodwork for me? That’s your deal?”

“The best you’ll get.”

Number Two laughs again.

“Well, it’s a deal then.”

They shake hands. Nadia becomes his ward, but really his collaborator. They work on a bit of abstract sculpture for the exhibition. A trapezoid carved out of wood and draped with a bit of canvas, somehow suggesting freedom. The piece won a prize in the show. But assembled properly, it’s really a sailboat. They're not merely artists. They're escape artists. And good at it.

Nadia claimed The Village was in the Baltics somewhere. She said she had connections, had found a way to communicate with them. They’d agreed on a rendezvous point. They’d be waiting for her. Worth a try.

Based on that hope, they sail off to meet Nadia’s boyfriend on the opposite shore. Make a narrow escape from Rover, but pass an invisible perimeter that stops its chase. Smooth sailing after that. They finally reach the other shore. Her boyfriend is waiting, along with a few friends. They hammer them into shipping crates, and ship them off across several time zones. After hours of bouncing around, their crates wind up in London. In his former section at M-I6. His old mates pop the crates open and they have a little chat. The Colonel seems especially curious. He's about to explain why he’d resigned …

Then Big Ben chimes out. Eight times. Eight o’clock. His wristwatch agrees. But he’d set that watch in Poland. Wrong time for the London time zone. The chimes are a recording. Another farce. And he’d almost fallen for it. 

He walks outside the office. 

And steps back into The Village. 

Nadia doesn't show her face after that. Or "Number Eight," to the people who knew her. They tell the Villagers that he'd betrayed this woman. Led her on. Set her up. Got her killed. There's hate in the Villagers' eyes now. They don't say It out loud. But he can see it.

He wakes up one morning. Someone's painted "JUDAS" in blood-red letters across the front of his cottage. A Village workman in a jaunty cap is scrubbing it off, angrily. 

"It's an obscenity," he says. "What's wrong with people?"

Scrubs with hate. Mutters.

"No names here. No names! Is that so bloody hard?"

The man keeps scrubbing.

He goes back inside, and doesn't come out for the rest of the day.