I Think My Dad Is a Spy

by Sognia Vassallo

  “I can’t believe we thought ‘Tiffany & Co’ was a woman’s name and not the famous jewellery store. How could we have been so stupid? We were trying to break that code for a week and it turned out to be a freaking ring receipt!” she said handing me the receipt that was folded neatly in the bottom of my Tiffany bag.

  Janice had already worked out the code. “Tiffany & Co wasn’t a woman’s name it stood for Tiffany & Company and Law 37 backwards is 73 Wall as in 73 Wall Street, New York City and Princess is…”

  “The style or cut of Chelsea’s diamond ring,” Theo interrupted.

  “How do you know that?” I asked amazed.

  “Urn hello, I know my diamonds, Sophie,” Theo said beaming.

  “Yeah but what about the tickets to Russia and the phone calls and text messages, not to mention that my father speaks Russian,” I whispered loudly, these things had to be more than the secret engagement.

  Theo shrugged his shoulders but Janice stared off into space. I could tell she was coming up with a plan.

  “I’ve got it,” she said snapping her fingers together. “Sophie you need to ask your dad to put your locket safely away in his briefcase for ‘safe keeping’,” Janice announced using her hands as inverted commas in the air. “Then you can see if the tickets are still in there or not,” she said cunningly.

  That was a pretty good plan, I thought. I did as Janice suggested and as soon as Dad unlocked his briefcase Janice caught his attention for a second and I began shuffling some papers around and…BINGO!

  “Hey Dad, what are these tickets for?” I asked holding up two first-class airline tickets to Moscow. Before Dad could answer Chelsea, who was standing right next to me, squealed so loudly that my eardrum hummed.

  “OH JOSEPH YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE! YOU SIMPLY SHOULDN’T HAVE!” she exclaimed throwing her arms around him and kissing him all over his face.

  “Oh…I…oh,” Dad stuttered through gritted teeth and shooting an unpleasant glare at me.

  Oops! I thought to myself, I think I just ruined his surprise.

  To my shock it turned out that Chelsea’s dad was Russian, and Chelsea had been born there, but she hadn’t been back to see her father for a long time. Of course ‘McClain’ is just her surname from her previous marriage to Michael’s dad.

  “Ohhh, so is that why you were speaking Russian to that person on the phone this morning Dad?” I asked interrupting the discussion about the origin of Chelsea’s father.

  The room fell silent and everyone’s eyes turned to Dad.

  “Oh darling, are you are learning to speak Russian for me?” Chelsea gushed as she squeezed him tightly.

  I noticed Grandma exchange an uneasy glance at Dad. She then bustled about on the couch and demanded that Michael get another cushion for her.

  “Oh yes darling…SURPRISE!” sung Dad as he held out his arms.

  “But I must warn you I am not that good. I am still just learning,” he said shooting a stern look in my direction.

  Before I could think I accidentally blurted, “Oh no he’s really good, I just heard him on the phone bef-”

  “Hurry up boy, where’s that blinkin’ cushion!” scowled Grandma loudly interrupting me.

  Theo and Janice shot a curious look at me. I knew exactly what they were thinking—something else was going on.

  Journal entry:

  Two weeks later…

  Saturday, 11:30 pm

  Two weeks have passed since Dad proposed to Chelsea and nothing else exciting has happened. Dad is still receiving the odd midnight phone call here and there but mostly on his mobile phone.

  On the night of the wedding proposal Dad pulled me aside and gave me some pathetic excuse about the reason he was speaking fluent Russian on the phone. He said it was because he was doing language lessons over the phone and was repeating everything his teacher was saying. I didn’t believe him for a second.

  I asked him about the text messages and the phone call from Grandma’s assistant, but he gave me some silly excuse that it had something to do with Chelsea’s holiday visa! It all sounded strange to me; even Theo and Janice didn’t think his excuses were good ones.

  I have been way too busy with school and the parcel run to do any more proper snooping and with Grandma around I am supposed to be on my best behaviour. Grandma has graduated off her crutches and is using a walking stick. This is actually really bad for me because she caught me answering back to Dad the other day and she whacked me across the ankles with it…fudgeeee it hurt.

  I told Dad that if she does it again I will tell someone who cares, but Dad warned me that Grandma’s a tough old nut and she doesn’t scare easily.

  He got the ‘old nut’ thing right, sometimes I think she’s loopy, she says the strangest things in her sleep. And guess what? She keeps a small gun under her pillow. She says it’s not a real one but robbers don’t know that. She’s crazy if you ask me!!!

  Dad and Chelsea had their official engagement party tonight at the town hall; it was okay I guess. Practically the whole town was invited except for Tony the taxi driver!

  I am sooooo tired and I need to get some sleep because tomorrow morning we have to pick up Chelsea and take her and Dad to the airport. Goodnight!!!

  Journal entry:

  Sunday, 8:32 pm

  You are not going to believe what happened today! This morning we took Dad and Chelsea to the airport because they are flying to Moscow.

  Chelsea rang me super early this morning and asked me if I wouldn’t mind gathering a few photographs of myself so she could show her father. It was a hard task and it took me ages to narrow it down to only five of the best photos that I thought summed up my twelve and a half years superbly.

  It was nearly time to leave, I had eaten breakfast, was nicely dressed and had my photographs all ready to go—but I couldn’t seem to find Dad or Grandma anywhere.

  I called out to them but they didn’t answer me. I looked in every room, but they weren’t there. I even checked the garage to make sure they hadn’t left without me.

  Hmm that’s strange, I thought. Where could they be? Suddenly I realised Dad could be at the post office showing Grandma a few last minute things because Grandma and Michael were going to share the office duties until Dad and Chelsea got back from their holiday.

  I dashed out of the back door and across the lawn towards the huge building that backed onto our yard. I noticed the side door of the warehouse was slightly open and I could hear Grandma talking to someone.

  I was just about to burst in when I heard Grandma say clearly, “I don’t like the idea that you are mixing business with pleasure Joseph. It’s very dangerous taking Chelsea along with you on this mission.”

  Instantly my ears prickled with excitement. What mission? I thought as I tiptoed closer to the door. I peeked through the slim opening and could see Grandma standing at the far side of the depot, but I couldn’t see Dad anywhere.

  “Please keep Chelsea as safe as possible Joseph. I don’t want her getting caught up in all this.”

  Grandma sounded worried as she spoke towards the floor. That’s when I caught a glimpse of Dad, who was kneeling down in front of Grandma. It looked like he was pulling something shiny out from the floor but I couldn’t see what it was. Grandma’s bandaged leg was blocking my view.

  “Mother, how long have I been going out on missions?” Dad asked her jokingly.

  “Not as long as I have,” she snapped. “This isn’t a joke Joseph. Zoe Zinnercov is a slippery double agent, she’s extremely dangerous and she can’t be trusted! She has already slipped through our fingers once in New York and who knows what she’s capable of in Moscow?” Grandma scowled.

  “Look Joseph, I just feel so responsible that you have had to go in my place because of this,” Grandma said pointing to her bandaged leg.

  As she stepped backwards I could see Dad in full view but couldn’t believe my eyes. He was bending over a floor safe hidden beneath the concrete and passing up to Grandma a long bl
ack gun.

  I jumped back in fright. HOLY GRAPES, was that a real gun? My heart started pounding and my legs felt like jelly. I looked around wishing that Theo or Janice were with me. It’s times like this when I really needed a mobile phone!

  “Don’t be silly mother, we’re a team and I promise I will look after Chelsea and do my best to bring Zoe back so you can even the score and shoot her in the leg this time,” Dad said chuckling to himself.

  HOLY MOLY! ZOE SHOT MY GRANDMA?! I mouthed frantically.

  “Oh you’re terribly funny darling,” Grandma said sarcastically taking a smaller gun from Dad’s hand.

  Another gun; how many does he need? Who does my dad think he is? GI JOE?

  “Mother, I have a favour to ask you. While I’m away, please get Sophie and her friends off this ridiculous investigation they are on. I’m not ready for anyone to know who I really am just yet or who you are for that matter,” Dad begged.

  “I’ll try Joseph, but I can’t promise anything. But you need to be more careful too. You nearly blew your cover the other day speaking Russian in front of Sophie. What were you thinking?” said Grandma.

  “Don’t you think I know that but I had no choice? Chiricov was tracking Zoe for me, and I needed to find out where she was. To be honest I was so caught up with you getting shot, Zoe escaping and the engagement that I didn’t care if Sophie discovered I can speak several languages,” he announced.

  WHOAH! My dad can speak several different languages? I mouthed silently. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was learning all this stuff about my dad and it was kinda’ cool but scary at the same time.

  Dad shut the heavy lid of the safe, which echoed around the warehouse. He stood up and was dusting himself off. After he brushed down his dark trousers he put a small pistol into his left sock, and a cold chill shuddered through my body.

  “I know Sophie’s growing up and I will tell her the truth one day, but I don’t want her knowing just yet,” he said stuffing three other guns and a pair of nun-chucks into a large black bag.

  “Come on it’s about time we headed back to the house, I don’t want Sophie to come looking for us,” Dad said slinging the heavy bag over his shoulder.

  I ran as fast as my legs would carry me across our back yard, into the house, down the hallway and I dove onto my bed. My heart was pounding so fast and I was breathing so hard I was seeing stars. I just couldn’t believe what I had just seen and heard. I felt dizzy and sick. Slowly everything started to make sense now. The weird phone calls, the text messages, Russia, Zoe, Grandma’s wounded leg, not to mention her career as an author. No wonder she was a bestselling murder mystery writer, she was writing from experience!

  This was so unbelievable that I even pinched my arm to make absolutely sure I wasn’t dreaming. Nope I was awake all right and had just witnessed the whole thing. This was better than any movie script I had imagined I would write someday.

  Staring up at the ceiling my head swirled about with confusion.

  Janice’s freckly face suddenly popped into my head. I can’t believe that she was right all along—my dad really is a spy and so is my grandmother!

  The End

  Want to read more about Sophie?

  Then stay tuned for the next book

  in the Sophie Series!

  Is Oliver Crookshanks

  Really a Vampire?