Xchange

by Stan Mason

  The tall grey walls, leaping up to a height of fourteen feet, helped to maintain the prison as a fortress from which there was no obvious means of escape. On the roof, an observation post had been established manned for twenty-four hours by at least on Security Guard. In that way it was possible to determine whether any attempt was made by prisoners managing to hide in or under vehicles which came into the compound. The authority was also aware of a possible escape by means of a helicopter in an attempt to extricate one or more of the inmates from the jail. During the daytime, there was no problem in watching the criminals because the wall was too high for them to climb. The prisoners were also hampered by a rule made by the present Governor that their hands were always to be fettered by handcuffs, with a one foot chain securing them, and shackled by their ankles by a chain no more than fifteen inches long. In effect, there was no quarter for any prisoner at any time because the rules were never broken..

  The men were locked in their cells for a minimum of fourteen hours each day before being led into the compound where they were forced to run around the perimeter for no less than one hour despite suffering the short chains which fettered them. During that exercise, they were pressed to run faster by the watching Warders, whereby they often tripped and fell, being trodden on or pushed to the ground. This usually ended in them fighting each other for their clumsiness as anger management was the least of their talents. The guards never interfered in the fighting. They simply allowed the inmates to beat the hell out of each other, sometimes to the death, Surprisingly, very few of them ended up in the prison hospital unless they suffered broken bones or were bleeding very badly for mercy was not one of the rules on the prison agenda. Unless they were found to be unconscious or had severe physical difficulties, they avoided the prison hospital like the plague for fear of repercussions.

  Life was wholly unpleasant for every prisoner in the jail and, to most minds, it was justly so. When they were let loose in society, these men had chosen to kill, wound, or seriously injure innocent people at their pleasure and, having been arrested and detained for their crimes, they were now paying the price. For most of them, had capital punishment been in operation, they would have preferred to have been hanged for it would have been far quicker and less tedious than being incarcerated for the rest of their lives. There could be nothing more tedious, more boring, less exciting than being chained up and have to follow rules which were very much against the freedom and pleasure of the inmates.

  The Lancaster jail was comprised of a limited number of cells, only five hundred of them, each fortified by strong iron bars, to incarcerate the incumbents. Twenty-two warders, working on shifts, were employed at the penitentiary as well as six cooks and two additional staff who performed ancillary maintenance work. Unlike all the other jails in the country, leisure facilities were at an extremely low level... in truth they were practically non-existent. The inmates were not allowed to watch television and no television sets had been installed to let them do so. They were prevented from playing pool because there were no pool tables in the prison. No one was permitted to play cards for any reason whatsoever and there were no recreational facilities such as table-tennis, basket ball or football. In fact there was nothing to distract them from their abject misery of being incarcerated for their heinous crimes. The were subject to a life of boredom with the exception of small portable radios provided they played them quietly in their cells. However that was not the end of it. The rule laid down by the Governor insisted that no telephone calls were to be allowed and no family could come to visit the prisoners which meant that they were cut off from their families and friends for the rest of their lives, . Hard-liners, as the men were known, were forced to face a bleak future because all of them had been sentenced to life imprisonment without any chance of remission or parole. It was the final resting place for them all... The University of the Living Dead!

  ***

  The Governor of Lancaster jail, Bill Preston, ran the prison with an iron fist, independent of any rules which affected prisoners in other jails. He brooked no nonsense from any of the prisoners and if any of the Warders were discovered passing drugs to them, they would be dealt with severely. He treated them harshly for the slightest misdemeanour, although as a result of his strict control, such incidents were exceedingly few. On one occasion, a serial killer spent two months in solitary isolation, cramped in a small space indicative of the Black Hole of Calcutta in past history. His sin was to shape a piece of metal he had found into a sharp knife which was found under his mattress. He refused to tell anyone the reason why he needed the weapon although it was known that he intended to use it on one of his enemies in the prison. When the weapon was discovered, he was hauled away to face severe punishment in a small cramped face with his food rations reduced by half. When he was released eventually, he had lost two stone in weight and looked extremely withdrawn. It was an example shown to the other prisoners as to what they would suffer if they misbehaved. It was a signal to the rest of the inmates what would happen if they disregarded the rules. Consequently, with the exception of a few minor misdemeanours, the penitentiary ran like a Swiss watch with exceptionally few incidents that required correction.

  In many prisons, there was a general distribution of drugs purchased by the inmates. However, in this particular jail there was no possible means by which they could be brought in. This was by virtue of the fact that only food deliveries were make by local distributors who knew that their contract with the prison would be terminated if they were discovered dealing in drugs. In any case, all deliveries were examined carefully and checked by the warders to ascertain that no additional items were included with the food. Furthermore, if any warders were caught dealing with drugs, their days of freedom would come to a swift end for they were bound to exchange places with the good for the bad. They would certainly end up in jail for a period of time, although it would not be in Cumberland at the Lancaster jail..

  Despite all the precautions taken, there were always ways by which the prisoners could communicate with the outside world. One of the men had built a small two-way radio which was able to receive messages by way of a satellite network connected to his wife’s mobile telephone. By this method, he could inform the others about the incidents happening in the outside world and also communicate information regarding their families and friends. His contact was the only one with the real world outside the prison and he was able to keep those incarcerated informed at all times. The Governor knew of this situation but he decided to let it go. There was no harm in prisoners knowing what was going on in the outside world. It would only increase the punishment knowing that they could not take any part in it.

  Bill Preston was quite satisfied with the way things were run at Lancaster jail. He was forty-eight years of age, his dark hair beginning to recede from his temples. He had a round face with a strong chin and he was always firm in his resolve. His career had been quite chequered over the past twenty years. He had started out as a teacher and, although he was very good at his work, he had fallen foul of the authorities for his forthrightness in teaching adverse religious concepts to his students. After a severe reprimand at one of the parent/teachers association meeting, and a severe warning afterwards by his Headmaster, he resigned his position at the school to join the police force. This proved to be equally contentious because he was often reproached for his strict attitude and violent nature towards criminals which, in the long run, had worked in his favour. After ten years in uniform on the beat, and then driving around in a Panda vehicle, he was promoted to become the Governor of Lancaster jail. This time they had found the right spot for him. His private life itself was extremely unexciting. He was distinctively a loner, having never married as his contact with the female sex always had disastrous consequences. He recalled the time when he fell in love with a beautiful blonde, almost unable to take his eyes off her figure, which continued for many months. He proposed to her and she accepted and all was well
until her husband turned up one day at the apartment where they were living. He shouted at his wife and then at Preston before pulling her off the bed, where they had been making love, and taking her away. The Governor never saw her again and he was devastated, There were other incidents but not one of them worked out satisfactorily. So he gave up hunting the female sex leaving the field for more successful lovers. Subsequently, he enjoyed the solace of the Lancaster jail where he lived, ate and slept. For Bill Preston, the prison was a place made in Heaven and he glorified in it. Nonetheless, he recognised that there was no true distinction between the prisoners and himself. They were incarcerated there for life and so was he!

  One morning, he left his sparse bedroom in the prison to go to his office where he received a letter from his deputy. It had been addressed to him with the message ‘For Your Eyes Only’ which caused him some element of concern. He opened the envelope to find an invitation which demanded his attendance at a conference of Governors at a large London hotel, adding that twenty other Governors of prisons would be there at the same time. It was the first time they were to meet and the topic, clearly, was of extreme importance. On the day in question, he took an early train to the capital and found his way to the appropriate hotel. Thereafter, he sat in the conference room with the rest of the Governors around a very large oval table.

  A tall young clean-shaven man dressed in a smart grey suit stood at a large screen with an overhead projector to face the invited audience.

  ‘My name’s Alan Jordan or the ASA... the Advanced Scientific Agency of the Government,’ he began, staring grimly at the faces of those in attendance. ‘I’d like to thank you all for coming here today. The ASA’s a quango which is well staffed and suitably funded that constantly seeks ways and means of scientific advancement and technical improvement for the future. I’m here today to talk about the latest scientific development which will have a major impact on some of the prisoners you details in your prisons.’ He paused to reflect for a moment before continuing. ‘What I’m about to tell you is in total secrecy and it must be kept that way for reasons which will become obvious to you. On no account is any mention of it to be made to the Press or the media and it must not be communicated to anyone else including members of your family, friends, or the staff in any of you penitentiaries ‘ He paused once again to look at the faces in front of him before going on. ‘It has to remain the secret of the century. Is that understood?’

  There were a few murmurs of assent around the table causing Jordan to be less than satisfied with the response. ‘I’m sorry,’ he went on with an element of reproach in his voice. ‘Before we can progress, I must have the confirmation from all of you to keep it an absolute secret. Therefore I ask you again. Is that understood?’

  This time there was a concerted response from everyone in the room. Silence reigned afterwards as Jordan hesitated to make a full impact on his captive audience. ‘Science has advanced in leaps and bounds over the past twenty-five years,’ he went on calmly, ‘and we’ve been offered something quite unusual by the men in white coats which is designed to enhance the role of many creditable people in out community. It presents an opportunity for those considered valued to society in a variety of ways., ‘

  His audience remained completely silent, listening attentively to every word, each man wondering what was going to be revealed.

  ‘The operation goes under the code name of ‘Material Transference’,’ explained Jordan vociferously. ‘It relates to an exchange of one body with another,’

  ‘Are we talking about human bodies?’ cut in one Governor as the ASA agent paused in his flow. ‘The kind we’ve seen in films like Star Trek where they break down the atoms of the human body to leave the spaceship and reform them on some distant planet.’

  Everyone burst out laughing at the comment but they soon became serious when Jordan outlined the scientific method that had been developed.

  ‘Indeed,’ he retorted. ‘That’s pretty close to the mark. The Americans actually tried to do it in 1943 naming it The Philadelphia Experiment. They disassociated a large ship at a dock on the east coast of America which was suddenly seen hundreds of miles inland before it reverted back to the place where it was docked. Eleven sailors died in the incident and the U.S. Government stopped the experiment in its track because they had no idea how to control it. ’They’ve now advanced the issue by narrowing it down to individuals enabling us to exchange the body of one person with another.’

  ’Surely this matter belongs in the world of scientific experimentation,’ interrupted another Governor savagely. ’What’s it got to do with us?’

  ’Yes,’ commented the man next to him. ’Why involve us with this guff? We control prisoners in the jails. We’re not men of science!’

  Jordan waited patiently until everyone’s eyes were focused on him before going on. ’All of you have major criminals in your jails, most of them incarcerated for extremely long periods... some of them for life. Many of them are comparatively young and their bodies will deteriorate as time passes by. The Government considers this to be wasteful especially when certain renowned members of the public grow old and die. Now that we’ve discovered a method of exchange whereby bodies of younger offenders in prison can be swapped with those of older important people, we have a plan to utilise the bodies of long-term prisoners to enable people who can contribute may useful things to our society to live longer.’

  The room erupted as the Governors recognised the import of Jordan’s suggestion.

  ‘Are you serious?’ countered one of them indignantly. ‘I’m sure you realise that together with the body goes the brain! If an exchange of this kind takes place, all the evil and intent in the mind of the criminal will be transferred to the innocent person who receives the body!’

  ‘That’s just it,’ retorted the government agent solemnly. ‘We’ve streamlined the situation. Only the body will be exchanged, not the brain. The criminal will still retain his evil mind. It will not be transferred.’

  ‘You indicate that this is an experiment,’ exclaimed another Governor seriously. ‘What if it goes wrong? What happens then? We’ll have Frankenstein’s monster chasing innocent people through the streets.’

  ‘Yes,’ cut in another Governor. ‘Tell us which subjects the Government has experiments on so far and what was the recorded result.’

  Jordan switched on the overhead projector and stood to one side as the title ‘Material Exchange’ appeared on the screen.

  ‘These slides will take you through the experiment so far,’ he told them flatly, raising a baton from the base of the screen and pointing it at the first slide being show. ‘Here you see two men One is a vagrant... a tramp... about the age of thirty-five; the other is a man aged eighty-eight. The doctor examined both of them. Other than the problem of being an alcoholic, the tramp has a reasonably sound liver, a good heart, and his organs appear to be relatively in good shape despite his run-down way of life. The older man has stage two diabetes, a heart murmur and a variety of other minor physical problems, as well as constant breathlessness.’

  He moved on to the next slide. ‘Here you see two separate cabinets into which the men are introduced The apparatus which contains hundreds of electronic parts, has a number of electrodes which war placed on the bodies of both men from their shoulders to their feet. As you can see, their heads are left entirely free.’ He moved to the next slide. ‘An electric current is passed through the apparatus which operates the transference of bodily matter from one to the other. All I can tell you is that fierce magnets are sent into action to exchange the atoms of one body to the other and vice versa.’ He changed the slides to the next one. ‘The experiment takes about fifteen minutes to complete and this slide relates to the two men afterwards. The doctor has examined the tramp to discover that he has stage two diabetes, a heart murmur and he is extremely breathless. In other words, all the symptoms that previously r
elated to the eighty-eight year old man. The older man is now much younger physically. Admittedly he is an alcoholic but this can be cured in due course. The result is that he has the body of a thirty-five year old man but his brain has all the knowledge and experience of a senior citizen.’ He paused at that point to examine the faces of the men sitting around the table.

  There was a general murmur of suspicion and disbelief amongst his audience as they digested the information.

  ‘You do realise that we’ll be taken to the European Court of Human Rights,’ commented one of the Governments bitterly.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ stated Jordan firmly. ‘You see, no one will know what we are doing. It’ll be done under the Official Secrets Act... totally secret! On the good side is that many influential people in society will be able to contribute for many more years than they had left... perhaps indefinitely according to this process.’