Code 223-223
COMMUNIQUE TO MRS. BUTTERWORTH MI-6
(Division Director - ret.)
FROM EXCAVATIONS OFFICER ALLEN
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. PRIVATE CODE.
CLASSIFIED
Following this memo is a copy of my final report on THE VILLAGE IDIOT manuscript revisions.
True, I shouldn't be writing this, but I feel that you need to be alerted to what I believe to be a developing crisis. During the course of my previous assignment I made a number of discoveries which have some rather disastrous implications.
I owe you a great deal, and I would not be doing you a service if I failed to bring the matter to your attention.
Normally I would be loathe to trouble you with problems arising from as mundane an action as cleansing a VIPs memoirs, but, this case has become decidedly exceptional.
As we feared, the book hit the stands and has become a runaway bestseller. Our beloved author will emerge from his thirty year interment to what is sure to be a flurry of interviews, publicity, and questions. The media is going to want information. Every kind of it. Especially about The Village and who ran it.
We shouldn't be overly concerned, as I managed to obfuscate the most sensitive material in the book. He will, of course, scream cover-up. Even that can be dealt with by other departments.
The truly dangerous topics, such as Project: Operation Pennyfarthing, Prisoners of Power (POP), Protect Other People (POP), and Price Of Peace (POP) have been carefully excised---as, of course, have references to The Arch-Angels. But it is the subject of Directive 17 that worries me: The status of Prisoner Number 6.
It appears that Number 6 resigned from his position just over thirty years ago, and, despite the official records, not altogether amiable terms. Details are sketchy as most of the files were destroyed. It seems he had access to a great deal of VERY sensitive information. Certainly, you would know better than I, given your position in the service in 1967.
From what I gather, he was detained and installed in The Village immediately upon his resignation.
The administration there was determined to discover exactly why he resigned, the nature and extent of his information, and ultimately what he planned to do with it.
Number 6, however, proved to be highly uncooperative. He resented his treatment and a gargantuan struggle of wills ensued. He not only resisted his captors, but he openly defied them. The resort-like Village took on the atmosphere of a battlefield.
Number 6 made several attempts to escape. The administration, in turn, interrogated him---repeatedly. And, so far as I know, he did not break.
They became obsessed with Number 6. Chairman after chairman was appointed (and dismissed) specifically to break him. He was subjected to several exotic and experimental mind-control techniques.
Our dear author, the last of The Village chairmen, for Number 2, as they were each called), engineered the most elaborate attempt of all: a theatrical tour-de-force involving actors and hallucinogenic drugs. He staged his death and resurrection. It was surreal! You will find an account of it in the section of my report titled FALL OUT.
Of course, this was deleted from the book as well. (Not that anyone would have believed it.)
Still, most of this is ancient history to you.
However, when the U.N. Troops liberated The Village in 1968, the Colonel's directives specified that the power to The Village's support systems NOT be terminated. That the food and medical provisions NOT be removed.
Yet The Village was evacuated.
Furthermore, the manifest of deceased and/or released inmates does not account for Number 6. Do you see what I'm leading up to?
YOU signed those manifests.
There is only one explanation: Number 6 never left The Village and may still be there today.
Rather a good way to protect him and his information, I suppose. The location is still classified. No one has been anywhere near the place in the last three decades. And, after all, what would he come back to?
But our soon-to-be released Number 2 is going to be trouble. I know it. It can be read between every line of his manuscript. If he doesn't go to the press, he is going to go to the Village and handle the matter on his own. He will no doubt compromise the security of Number 6 (whose information, I must assume, remains extremely sensitive).
One way or another, heads will roll, yours among them. It will be a bloody inquisition.
I am petitioning for the means to stop Number 2. I need your influence, your endorsement. We are currently under severe budget restrictions but it is your personal welfare that worries me.
Please consider this carefully.
Hope you feel better soon.
Irwin.
B.C.N.U.
Officer Exc. 4777 Div.
In her Majesty's Service.
ns 172.70.131.5da2