The Traveller by Duncan James

Author:Duncan James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: spy action thriller, spy espionage, spy thriller action adventure

11.

THE TEACHER

Betty Ogden came from Yorkshire, grand-daughter of one of the last owners of a wool-combing mill in Bradford, where her father had worked. When Grandpa decided to sell up, her father moved to Ireland to work in synthetics. She had decided to stay at home. She liked Yorkshire, and wasn’t at all sure she would like County Kildare. A small flat on the outskirts of York, initially funded by her father was better, in her view, than a few acres in rain-filled Naas which is where her parents had settled.

There was no explaining it, but she had a natural aptitude for languages. Learning them, speaking them, reading them and writing them. It didn’t run in the family. Her father was an engineer by background and degree, a fighter pilot while on a short-term commission in the RAF, who now loved nothing better than fiddling with clocks.

Her first holiday abroad with her parents was great, but when asked afterwards, she said she hadn’t really enjoyed it. Sure, the beach and the weather were super, but she hadn’t enjoyed it. She had no idea what the people were talking about.

Next time a holiday abroad was mentioned, she got the books out of the library, and by the time they arrived in France, was all-but fluent. She enjoyed the holiday much more this time, because she felt more like being at home.

From then on, she studied languages.

Betty Ogden had always worked for the Foreign Office, since the time she had graduated. They were always looking for brilliant linguists, and that’s what she was. Not only that, she had qualified as a teacher as well.

She had many different jobs after she started at the F.O., as they tried to find the right permanent role for her. Not that she minded that. It gave her a feel for what she might eventually want to do with her career as well. So far, she had enjoyed it in all the departments she’d been put in.

They had tried her out as a translator at first. Attending conferences abroad was her favourite – she discovered that she enjoyed travelling, and meeting people. The subjects were often boring though, as well as some of the speakers who tended to drone on without ever really coming to the point. Meetings about technical issues were often the most difficult. They really tested your vocabulary, as well as your understanding of the subject being discussed.

Translating documents was often interesting, too. She had quite good keyboard skills, but it was something of an art reading in one language and typing in another. She was quite sure much of the information she handled was not supposed to be in our hands. Documents secretly copied at embassies or by spies out in the field. Highly classified, a lot of that, but she had a top level security clearance.

Which was why she had ended up at Bourleywood House.

It was one of those secret Government locations that nobody knew about. A grand house hidden away in the Cotswold countryside, it was owned by the National Trust.

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