Ignoring her younger brother's annoying comments, Susan concentrated on the final preparations before takeoff and the subsequent research on a space station.
According to Reed's calculations, the cosmic cloud will pass through the solar system in the second week of February, and they must place the samples beforehand on an asteroid floating in its trajectory so that they can later return to the asteroid and retrieve the samples.
They had already received the proper training for space travel, and Victor had even gone through a crash course, which prompted sarcastic comments from his brother about using money to speed up a process that took them months to complete.
And since they already had permission to take off, and after finishing checking that they had everything ready for the trip, they just need to wait for the scheduled date.
The only thing Susan could complain about to herself was that the launch was before an important date and they would spend almost 3 months in space.
But the blonde quickly shook her head.
What did you expect?
She had known Reed for many years and the man had never shown any particular interest in her.
She knew he wasn't gay because she had seen him appreciate the beauty of other women and had occasionally caught him looking at her, which gave her hope that he would ask her out.
But none of that happened, and she lost patience and asked him out herself.
And what happened?
Reed forgot about it while he was lost in research for his doctorate, one of the many he had now, and it was never mentioned again.
After all that, did she really expect Reed to prepare something for that important date and surprise her?
Susan had to accept that it was unlikely anything would happen between her and Reed, and impossible for it to work.
The first thing that caught her attention about the man was how intelligent he was and his dedication to science.
But that dedication to his research was what made it impossible for anything to work between the two of them.
After all, Reed could spend days or weeks focused on an investigation and would not make contact with another living being unless necessary.
The man ate and slept in his laboratory, and would even stop doing that if it weren't necessary for him to stay alive.
Susan sighed and tried to stop thinking about it.
For a moment she even considered accepting Victor's invitations to go out, but in the end she refused because she knew he would be acting out of spite.
At this time it was very difficult for her to make logical decisions in matters of love and she did not want to do something she would regret later.
Furthermore, she had already rejected Victor on many occasions in the past, and it would seem strange that she would do so now that the man was the monarch of a country.
For her own peace of mind, she decided to focus on her current job and start thinking about a project she could do after this one that would keep her away from Reed.
Of course, she couldn't be as calm as she wanted.
.
.
.
"What did you do?!" Susan shouted at her father as he lowered his head and rested his arms on his legs while sitting in an armchair in his office.
It was 2 days before takeoff, and Susan was now in her father's office after he called her about a change in the space trip.
To be more specific, an additional cargo on the ship that had to be kept secret, violating all security protocols.
Susan immediately refused, especially since neither she nor her father knew what he would be taking on the ship, but she soon exploded when she learned of the trouble her father had gotten himself into.
He owed money. A lot of money.
500 million dollars to be more specific.
Although the Baxter group is worth several billion dollars, the company would not have more than hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, and his father did not own the entire Baxter group to have access to all that money.
Her father only owned 35% of the company's shares and earned a lot of money each year, so after many years he had accumulated some capital and Susan thought her father could use his savings to pay off his debt.
Unfortunately, his father had already lost his savings due to his gambling addiction previously.
And the worst part of all?
His father didn't stop when he was in debt and dared to spend the company's money in secret.
If this became public, his father would go to prison.
Susan could try to think of a solution quickly, but someone already knew her father's secret and was present here.
Looking at the young man sitting in his father's chair while reviewing various documents, Susan didn't think they would meet in that way.
Although she was focused on her work, she didn't want to say that she was disconnected from reality like Reed, and she knew the face and name of this young man.
At just 18 years old, recently of legal age, Peter Parker had already managed to amass a fortune worth a little over 4 billion dollars.
Although more than a billion dollars was due to the value of Spider-Man's image because of all the money generated by the superhero's merchandise worldwide, one and a half billion dollars is mostly in cash thanks to the young man's miraculous moves in the stock market and the money produced by the games created by his company.
The money earned by his gaming company was much less compared to what he earned on the stock market, but it was still enough to value his gaming company at approximately 2.5 billion dollars.
That all that money belongs to a young man who has recently come of age was surreal, and Susan was stunned when she saw the report about the young man's wealth just this week.
4 billion dollars!
Although the Baxter group was worth more than double, it was incredible that an 18-year-old had this level of wealth, and even more incredible that almost a third of that wealth was in liquid form.
The media were crazy for an interview with this young man, and Susan could understand why.
Susan wanted to meet that young man and learn his secrets, but she knew it was unlikely and she wouldn't get anything out of it anyway, and she quickly forgot about it.
What I didn't expect was to meet this miraculous young man in these circumstances.
But compared to the admiration she had felt before, she was now angry because this young man dared to blackmail her father.
"What do you want me to take on the ship?" Susan asked after she stormed angrily up to the desk.
Previously, she had only ever seen her father sitting behind that desk and had always dreamed of being in his place after inheriting his position.
But now this guy dared to sit in that chair?
Susan was furious and hoped her anger would show on her face as she crossed her arms.
.
.
.
"What do you want me to take on the ship?"
Looking at the blonde woman in front of him, Peter quickly glanced sideways so she wouldn't notice and again marveled at the bodies of the superheroines of this world.
But banishing the thoughts from his lower head, Peter noticed her angry face and burst into laughter.
"What are you laughing at?!" shouted Susan, thinking he was making fun of her, and Peter shook his head.
"Nothing," Peter said as his laughter subsided.
"I just find it ironic that you're angry with me when I came to help," Peter said, still with a smile on his face.
"Help?!"
"You dare say you came to help!"
"This is blackmail!" Susan shouted in frustration.
"Susan, wait"
"You don't understand things," Franklin said as he got up from the couch and walked toward her in an attempt not to escalate things.
"No, Dad"
"This guy wants to take advantage of your situation and dares to say he came here to help when he's just a blackmailer."
Although Susan was angry with her father for getting involved in these problems, now the target of her anger was Peter Parker, who dared to try to take advantage of her father.
Hearing Susan's words, Peter didn't want to waste much time and shook his head.
"Franklin, show Susan the recordings," Peter said before continuing to review the documents in his hands.
With a sigh, Franklin showed Susan the recordings, and then the blonde looked at Peter, a little embarrassed.