draughtsman

In the game of draughts, or checkers, there are two types of playing piece. It varies, depending which of the many variations of the game you play, what exactly they're called; but in languages whose country did not receive the game via British colonisation, they are frequently pawns or stones, and — in the more powerful and deadly form — share a name with the likewise most powerful and deadly piece in chess: the queen.

There is a Unit, and within it they take people, and they turn them into...other people. Parts of people. Partitions. Everything harmless and humane and genuine in one box; every sharp and sleek and remorseless thing in the other. And there is a switch, you see: some deep psychotechnical toggle that flips you from Stone to Queen — or vice versa.

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Operational parameters are to stay put and follow procedure.

Procedure isn't working as expected.

Your Stone is being watched.

Are you safe? Is your cover blown? Is the Unit compromised?

You cannot know.

...You cannot know while you stay put.