Happy Birthday: Part Twenty-Nine

~ beetleypete

This is the 29th part of a fiction serial, in 824 words.

On the long train journey back to London, Hettie made a decision. She would agree to move to the suburbs, allowing Edward to sell up his interests and buy the double-fronted shop he dreamed of. Given his patience with her work, his care for her mum, and guilty over her betrayal with George, she thought it was the least she could do. It would be easy enough to commute by train to her new job, the idea of which was already exciting her.

Delighted to see her home, and to hear her change of heart that they should move when appropriate, Edward gave her the warmest of welcomes. Her mum was worse than she had expected, barely able to remember who Hettie was, and referring to Edward as ‘that bald man’. She had also lost a great deal of weight, and looked much older than her years.

For the time being, Hettie pretended she would be returning to her previous job based at The Admiralty. She needed time to come up with a cover story about the job that she could tell him nothing about, and her preferred choice was not to mention it at all, letting Edward believe that nothing had changed. The carved H that George had made for her was secreted in her underwear drawer, a place she was certain her husband would never have cause to open.

After ten days of leave, Hettie reported to the address given to her by Miss Taylor. It was a normal-looking large house in Victoria, a short walk from the mainline station. When the door was opened, she showed her identity card as she had been told to, and the young man smiled and let her in. Most of the morning was spent familiarising herself with the layout, and her own responsibilities.

In the basement there was a large kitchen for staff to use, a table to eat at, and a bathroom. The ground floor had the Conference Room, a Lecture Room, and two smaller rooms at the back that she was not shown into. The young man who had let her in was called Richard, and he said they were radio rooms and were being used.

On the first floor he showed her a staff toilet, the large Records Room, and across the hallway there was what he called “One of the Listening Rooms”. He smiled as he added, “They’re soundproofed”. She wasn’t shown up to the top floor, but Richard pointed up the staicase and mumbled, “Photo stuff up there, camera store, developing room, print room, don’t worry about that for now”.

When the tour was completed, he showed her back down to the Conference Room and asked her to take a seat. “I will be your section chief, Henrietta. Just call me Richard, it’s not my real name anyway. In fact, you might be the only person here that will be using her actual name. Your first job will be to spend most of the week in the Records Room, getting to know all the code names of the agents we have in the field, and the target groups they are assigned to. Over the course of the week you will see various people around here, but as a rule we don’t ask any personal questions or get to know too much about our colleagues. If you need to know anything seek me out and ask me, okay? Any questions?”

Hettie had plenty of questions, but chose them carefully.

“So am I to work alone? You say you are section chief, so are there others in my section I will be working alongside?” Before she could ask more, he raised a hand. “All will become clear, once you are used to the setup. Everything here is on a need to know basis, and you rarely need to know what the others in your section are working on. When you are settled in, I will give you dedicated tasks, mostly managing surveilance on certain individuals. To help you with that you will have access to radio and photography technicians, and they will only be told as much as they need to assist the operation”.

She decided the best thing she could do was to keep her head down and see what the system was, learn on the job.

Richard concluded by smiling and offering his hand for a handshake. “So, welcome to MI6 Section Two. Feel free to bring in food for lunch tomorrow, and help yourself to tea in the kitchen. There are no set hours, but most of us are in by nine and go home when we have done all we can. Weekend working will be required as and when notified, but that won’t affect you for some time yet. You can go early today, see you tomorrow”.

On the bus home, Hettie was sure of one thing. It was nothing at all like she had expected it to be.

40 thoughts on “Happy Birthday: Part Twenty-Nine”

  4. Yes she is going to be lonely. The whole point of going to work is to have a good natter and complain about your other half or your kids! She can’t talk at work and can’t talk about work at home. They both better take a serious interest in gardening or get a dog!

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  6. So much secrecy … while I do my best work working solo, I think the high level of secrecy would be offputting. But, I do understand the need for it, as well. Poor Hettie. I like the decision she made regarding her marriage to Edward, though. I hope they can fall in love again and actually be happy.

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  10. (1) Hettie had a change of heart. She’d been to The Family Heart Center, a medical facility that sells and implants designer mechanical hearts, including the complete Jarvik line, the Series Seven Sports Heart by Jensen, and Yamaha.
    (2) “The carved H that George had made for her was secreted in her underwear drawer, a place she was certain her husband would never have cause to open.” Little did she know that Edward often pillages her underwear drawer. He secretly dreams of becoming a Victoria’s Secret model! (You’d have to be in his shoes to understand.)
    (3) And speaking of Victoria’s Secret: “It was a normal-looking large house in Victoria, a short walk from the mainline station.”
    (4) Bad citation: “In the basement there was a large kitchen for staff to use, a table to eat at, and a bathroom. There was also a deep pit left over from the Viking invasion. Double agents were ceremoniously thrown to the wolves.”
    (5) Hettie said that she preferred a pit toilet to a staff toilet. “I don’t want to be impaled as I seat myself on the porcelain throne. Please, Richard, spare the rod. Spoil me a little, okay?”
    (6) Richard told Hettie that she would be assigned to the REDЯUM. “I’m sure the folks in there will take a shine to you.”
    (7) Bad citation: “Feel free to bring in food for lunch tomorrow, and help yourself to the truth serum in the kitchen. I’d be lying if I said it was actually tea.”

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