Page 34 of My Super Sexy Spy
“You’re telling me some man I never met, called his whatever invention Legacy, and that automatically means I’m on the hook for it? Hello, do you know how many Beth Ryans there are in the world? How does anyone know he was talking about me?”
Ted sighed. “Because he told everyone it was you, Beth. He bragged about your resiliency, your courage, the travel blogs, your talent. Then, somehow, he fled U.S. surveillance. And me, and everyone else connected to this project, started watching you assuming he would eventually make contact.”
“You’ve been watching me?” I asked, my jaw dropping.
He nodded.
“Back in the States?”
“Yes. We’ve…I’ve been shadowing you now for several weeks. Monitoring your internet activity, your calls. When you booked this trip to Italy, there were many who thought you were coming to see you father.”
“I don’t know my father!” I shouted. “I told you, for real, already. My mom got knocked up when she was in her twenties by some Italian professor at the University of Penn who liked apple pie and coffee. That is my sum-total knowledge of my father.”
“Beth, your father is Angelico Gino Angelucci. Does that name ring a bell to you?”
That was strange because it did. Angelico Gino Angelucci wasn’t a name you forgot. So, when you heard it on the news or read about it in an article, you didn’t forget it.
“The nuclear guy?” I asked my voice dropping to a whisper.
“World renowned Nuclear Physicist to be exact.”
“He’s won multiple Nobel prizes and didn’t he recently announce some breakthrough in radioactivity containment?”
Ted nodded. “He did. That breakthrough was made through a two-year long project that those closest to him knew as…”
“Legacy,” I whispered. Holy shit. It was too surreal to even imagine. “I don’t get it. So, some old scientist claims to be my father. Why is everyone freaking out about it?”
“Because he’s gone. Like, in the wind gone. And he’s taken all his work with him.”
“It’s his work. Can’t he do with it what he wants?”
Ted shook his head. “It’s work that the planet needs, Beth. Nuclear mistakes are happening. Russia, in particular, but there are also concerns about the North Korean program. Not to mention natural disasters that have impacted nuclear plants. Finding a solution to reducing or eliminating radiation at blasts sites isn’t just crucial to U.S. nuclear advancement, it’s critical to the world.”
That was super heavy.
“And you all think because I came to Italy that I was actually coming to see him, where he would hand me the keys to the kingdom even though he’s never once laid eyes on me? Do you know what a crock of shit that is?”
Ted nodded.
“And why now? Why wait all this time to announce to the world I’m his daughter?”
Ted’s lips got tight, his expression grim. “Because he’s dying, Beth. Stage four, pancreatic cancer. It’s a terminal diagnosis and he knows it. If there was ever a time to leave you anything, it’s now.”
“I don’t want it!” I shouted. Now I was angry because I knew my father was dying, only I never had a chance to know him. “I don’t want shit from that guy. He knew he had a daughter and he did nothing to help me! No child support, no visits. He didn’t even care enough to make sure I was left with a decent mother. Whoever he is, he’s an asshole and he can take his Legacy, radioactive whatever the fuck it is, and go to hell!”
Ted winced, then he started to slow clap. “Great speech. Here’s your problem. No one really cares whatyouwant. They either believe you know where your father is and are on your way to meet him. Or they think you know where his work is hidden. The U.S. doesn’t know if you’re a traitor to your country or not. That’s what the FBI was investigating when they approached you. And right now, there are about thirty NSA agents going through every letter of every blog post to see if they can detect a traceable pattern of communication between you and your father.”
I covered my face with my hands. Oh. My. God! This couldn’t be happening. They were stupid little travel blogs, and now the U.S. government thought there was some kind of secret-code-communication thing happening.
“It’s really important technology, Beth. If Gino is out there somewhere in the world right now dying and we can’t find him, his work could be lost to us forever.”
“Don’t. Give. A. Shit.” I stood and started pacing in front of the bed. I knew I shouldn’t have left my condo. I knew this whole travel book thing was bullshit. I could be home, on my couch, in my yoga pants watching the Lifetime Channel. I did not need this chaos in my life! Not when I’d worked so hard to eliminate it.
For years I’d kept everything contained and normal. Then some old man I didn’t know went and blew up my world because he happened to be my sperm donor. Now, people were watching my home, monitoring my computer activity, kidnapping me from restaurants!
“I want to go home,” I finally said. “I want to go back to my condo in Philadelphia and I’m not going to leave it. Ever. Again.”
“Beth,” Ted said even as he pushed himself off the wall with his shoulder. “That’s not the answer and you know it. You’re too smart to think that shutting yourself up is going to protect you.”
