THE LISTENERS    (close window to return)

She had never had a job which meant playing a double role. She abhorred lying and deceit. Her job at GCHQ had been straight and although secret in regard to the public, it served the security of the United Kingdom. As she turned off of the Reading Road, she did wonder at her decision. She had been head-hunted to lead the project she was now going to. It meant searching for somewhere to live, moving out of Cheltenham, away from her ex-husband who was still her friend - and into this rural area; she had never lived anywhere but in an urban area, and wondered if life outside of work might be slow, uninteresting... boring.

She missed the turning, finding her Aston-Martin DB9 not comfortable running out of road in Ardington and ending up upon open ground, ploughed up by a farming tractor. It was the Ridgeway, somewhere she had read about and hoped to walk in her leisure time. She noticed the new wire fence the other side of the Ridgway path, and the shining dishes freshly installed there. They looked so incongruous and out-of-place. It was no wonder that the locals and National Heritage had resisted and protested the land's acquisition and the construction of the dishes. Money won the argument, plus the government's desire to get in first on anything that might lead to the UK remaining a country with a say in world affairs and it's continued security.

She managed to turn the car around. It summed up part of her nature. The car was fast, expensive, and exciting. Her outward persona suggested a tight-lipped, solid, dependable person, which in her work, she certainly was. But in her private life, adventure, fresh encounter, escape from routine and habit, were her driving motivation. Hence, her reservations about living in this area. The salary offered to her, and a five year secure contract had won her mind, if not her heart.

She sped back down the narrow road though Ardington village, noticing a few people in a cafe garden on her right, and the name: The Grocer Chef. Good. A walk away from the base, a local company's set of buildings, compulsory purchased for a price accepted by the company to move their radar construction unit to fresh premises. There was a man waving his arms.