Grantly - 7. Grant Chapter 7

Once we were on board the yacht, where I was allocated the Double Forward Guest cabin, I quickly settled in and prepared for bed, before heading upstairs to say good night to Dad, who was seated in the forward lounge working on his laptop, which I noticed he made sure that I didn’t see the screen.

I woke up a few hours later and headed upstairs, through a door and down the forward stairs to the galley, to get a glass of juice from the fridge. “I could have got that for you Master Sebastian,” a voice said from further forward, which scared the crap out of me, and I spilt some of the juice as I looked up frowning to see Louis standing there, dressed in shorts and t-shirt.

“Never mind the mess, I will clean that up for you,” Louis added, as I finished drinking and placed the cup in the sink, before heading back upstairs and into the main living area, where it was very peaceful. As I headed downstairs towards the guest cabins, I heard a faint voice that sounded like Dad, and I crept up towards his master cabin.

“I understand that Sir. I will make the arrangements. Is it at Scarborough, Cornwall, Lincolnshire or North Yorkshire, where you need me? or at JTLS in Gloucestershire?” I heard my Dad ask, and there was silence for a moment, “Very good sir, see you soon at GCHQ, goodnight,” my Dad said and I quietly returned to my cabin and settled back into bed.

Grabbing my iPad, I did a Google search of JTLS to find out what the abbreviations meant, and when I saw the Wikipedia item for that search which showed a summary of Joint Technical Language Service, a British Translation Service, I clicked on it…

What I saw when I read the first seven lines gave a good description, of a national translation service, with the letters GCHQ near the end of it, so I typed those letters into the search box. When I read the first paragraph, I whistled in amazement, before I said, “Holy Cow, Secret Intelligence… Wow,” a bit too loudly. Moments later there was a knock on my cabin door before it opened.

“What did you just say, son?” Dad asked me, “Err, I accidentally overheard some of your phone call, just now, and I just did a Google search on the abbreviations,” I replied, and I saw a change of looks on my Dad’s face, the looks of anger, annoyance, and relief, as he stepped inside and closed the door, before sitting down on my bed. “OK, so what have you learnt from that search?” Dad asked me in a loud whisper.

“Dad, are you a Government Spy” I asked in response, and Dad chuckled at this while smiling. “Not quite son, I do work for the Government, as a computer specialist and a linguistics expert for the JTLS, which works with MI5 and MI6, so I do have a very high security clearance. Regarding your Mum and I, it was decided very early in our marriage, that if we ever have children, it would be best for the safety of your mother and you, that you grow up in your Mum’s home state of Tasmania, and it is why you have a different first and last name in Tasmania, and why I am not listed on your birth certificate.

I have enjoyed your visits home, and I missed you both very much when you left here to move to Tasmania permanently. We… your mother and I agreed to allow you to travel here during the southern mid-year holidays, so you can get to know where you come from on my side of the family. We must be extra careful with whom we speak to, and what you say about me. For now, just saying I am a businessman from Europe is fine, but you can not say anything more about what you learnt tonight to anyone, Understood?” Dad said to me, as I nodded my head in understanding.

“Uncle James, Aunt Suzanne, your cousins and the yacht crew do not know what I do for a career, but Aunt Sophia, your mother, and my two-house staff, Catherine and Henry are fully aware of what I do, and I must insist that no one else amongst family or friends, are not to know either,” Dad added. “Ok, I fully understand, it’s just going to take some time for this to sink in… Wow,” I replied, which had Dad chuckling.

The next morning, after breakfast had been served and the crew had retreated to their mess below to eat their breakfast, “So, how many languages do you know fluently?” I asked my dad in a whisper, “ All of the ones you know, except Indonesian, and the two that you will be learning at college, plus four Asian and four other European languages,” Dad responded quietly, and quickly I added that all up, to be twelve languages not including English, and the shocked look on my face had Dad chuckling.

“I hope that you will teach me some of those other languages too?” I said to Dad, “Yes, that could be possible, but for now, I must return to work, as I had a call from HQ where I am needed. Stay with the yacht, I have arranged for it to remain here for now, and we will sail back home in time for you to start school,” Dad informed me as he placed a small package in front of me.

“This is so you can keep in touch with me, it is an encrypted Satellite phone, and when I can’t answer the phone, it will be diverted to another number. When it is answered, all you need to say is “Platypus”, which is your code name, and they will let me know that you called. You will be told by the person who answers that the message will be passed on to me before they end the call. Don’t worry if it takes some time to respond, I may be out of the country, so it could be a few hours or a few days before I get back to you. Catherine and Henry have the same type of phone, to contact me if it is an emergency,” Dad informed me.

“What are their code names?” I asked out of curiosity, “Poo & Eeyore,” Dad replied smiling, and I laughed when I heard this. “They were not amused when I first told them, but they have got used to them now,” Dad said smiling, “I bet they weren't,” I replied. “Aunt Sophie was in the same business as me and she has a code name to… which is Kanga,” Dad added, and I smiled, as it had a double meaning, with it being an Australian animal and also a character of the Christopher Robin stories, which Dad used to read to me when I was little.

While Dad was off the yacht and on his way to work, I headed to my cabin to have a shower as I thought about what to do for the day. I had one week until Christmas and one week after that before I commenced studies at my new school on the Isle of Man, so I was wondering what on earth I should do in all that time until a ring tone made me jump and I realised that it was my new phone, and I wondered if I should answer it or not as it was a silent number.

“Hello… this is Platypus speaking,” I said deciding to use my allocated code name, and I heard a chuckle on the other end of the line, which made me frown, “Hello young man, this is Captain Hook speaking, I will be your contact liaison, I just wanted to introduce myself, now that you know a bit about what Peter Pan does as a career. Just call me if you have any concerns, I will always be available,” the voice on the other end of the line said to me.

I presumed that Peter Pan was the code word for my dad, which made me smile. “Thank you for that, but I think I will speak to Kanga if I need anything urgently,” I replied, “Understood. I will let Kanga know when Peter Pan is on his way to Neverland. Have a good day,” the caller said before the line went dead, and I stared at the phone for a few moments, thinking that this was definitely going to take a bit to get used too.

A few minutes later, my normal mobile phone rang, and I saw the caller ID was Aunt Sophia, “Hello Aunty, how are you, and where are you at the moment?” I asked as I answered the call. “Hello dear, I am approaching the marina at Chatham as we speak. We are going out for the day, so hop to it,” my Aunty replied, before ending the call, surprising me with this news, I headed upstairs.

"Hi, just letting you know I will be going out for the day, so no need to prepare meals for me, and I am not sure when my aunty and I will be returning later,” I said to Natasha, the yacht; 's chef. “Very well, Master Sebastian, thank you for letting me know,” she replied, as I headed to the aft of the yacht, and stepped off as I saw a limo approaching.

Once seated inside, with the glass window between the front and back of the limo closed, smiled as I turned to my aunt, “Hello Kanga, this is a nice surprise,” I said to her quietly. “Hello Platypus, it is always nice to see you,” she replied smiling back, “So, this is all real? You and Dad are Government secret chatterboxes?” I asked and my Aunty laughed at this.

“Interesting way of putting it, but yes, although I am retired now. I did have the same level of clearance as your father has now,” Aunty Sophia replied. “Dad did say that he is fluent in 4 Asian and 4 other European languages, but he didn’t say which ones,” I said to my aunt. “The Asian ones are Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Malay, the European ones are German, Spanish, Russian and Greek,” my aunt replied.

“I have to learn Latin and Italian at my new school, and I am already OK with French, but I wouldn’t mind learning other languages too if you or Dad could teach me, please,” I said to my Aunt. “I will discuss it with your father when he gets back,” my aunt answered. “Can you answer one question for me please?” I asked, “Yes, just ask me anything dear,” Aunty Sophia responded.

“We live in this huge house, plus the townhouse in London, and Dad has a sailing yacht and a motor yacht, and we travel business class all the time, where does he get the money to afford all of this stuff?” I asked, and Aunty Sophia smiled, “Actually it is me that owns most of that, it is what is called old money, I inherited it from my grandparents, and the house in London and the sailing yacht are your Dad’s part of the inheritance,” Aunty Sophia replied to me.

An hour later, I was beginning to wonder where we were heading when the vehicle slowed down and turned off the main road, and I saw a big sign saying – Skywalk Adventures, and I glanced over to my aunt who was smiling. We spent nearly the whole morning at this place, where I learnt to experience the thrills of two high-ropes courses, which was challenging and amazing, especially with Aunty Sophia doing the course as well, which was a real shock, and she was good at it too.

As we had some lunch at a nearby café, Aunty Sophia announced that we had one more adventure park to explore, which is located 45 minutes to the southwest of our current location. For the rest of the afternoon, we experienced another two high ropes adventures, that included zip lines, plus the Challenge Plus course, which was very physical and very challenging, yet Aunty Sophia cruised through the course, easily, and with a lot of encouragement from her, I managed to complete the tough course too.

After a bit of a rest, Aunty Sophia announced that there was one last thing to do before we left and much to my surprise, it was driving Mini Land rovers, where Aunty taught me how to drive a vehicle for the first time, even if it was a miniature version. Back in the limo, we continued a southerly route, until we arrived at the Northney Marina, on Hayling Island, just east of Portsmouth, just as the sun was setting, where I could clearly see our yacht.

“Welcome back Ms Grantly and Master Sebastian, we hope you had an enjoyable day,” Louis said as we boarded the yacht. “A very enjoyable day indeed thank you,” my aunt replied, who was now carrying a small bag, which she must have had stashed away in the boot of the Limo during the day.

“Aunty, how long does it take to sail from Queensborough to Portsmouth?” I asked my aunt when I realised that the yacht must have left port soon after we had left this morning. “Approximately ten hours with good winds,” came the answer from Captain James as he entered the room, “we had very good winds, so we were able to do that comfortably,” Louis added.

Aunty and I settled into our cabins, which were both midships, before heading back to the main deck to relax a little before dinner was served. “Captain, how long will it take us to get back home from here?” I asked when he entered the dining room during dinner.

“Well from here to Plymouth, which will be our first overnight stop, it will be about ten hours, and from there it will stop at Newquay after another 8 hours of sailing, and our final stop will be at Fishguard, Wales before we finally arrive at home base on the fourth day after 8 hours of sailing,” Captain James replied.

When did you leave home to get to Queensborough?” I asked, “It was the day after the school excursion once we had stocked up on fuel and supplies for the trip, but we took five days instead of four to get there,” Captain James replied. The trip home was a mix of ocean sailing adventure, and smooth sailing, which was great, as I had the time of my life, including spending time being taught everything to do with sailing on open waters.

Aunt Sophia was a different story, as she chose to disembark at Newquay after a very rough sailing around Land’s End at the south-west corner of the UK, where she rested for a day before flying to Cardiff and back to Douglas, and she was settled back at home by the time we arrived there.

For the next few days, apart from getting ready for my new school, I spent some time with my two friends, William and Jordan, and they could see that I was getting quite nervous about attending a new school, so they made sure that they kept me busy with heaps of outdoor activities.

On the first day of school, Aunt Sophia dropped me off at school, as Dad was away on business, and now that I knew what it was that he did for work, it made me worry a bit. When I entered the school grounds, there were lots of kids around, and I was getting quite nervous, as I tried to remember where I needed to go to check in at the Admin building.