The History Mystery

by Ana Maria Machado

  ‘So, we had been in the lab for about half an hour, the two of us on different computers, when he called me over, saying something weird was happening.

  ‘He had typed in the lyrics, all with short lines – you know, poetry-style – but when he was sending it to print, he must have hit the wrong key and something else appeared, a load of long lines that filled the screen right out to the edge.

  ‘I thought it was just a layout problem, so I sat down next to him to take a look. But it really was a completely different piece of writing. In fact, two different things appeared.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yes. First, there was a story about an old man who lived high up in the mountains and had a couple of assassins working for him, to help keep control of his “merchandise” …’

  ‘Oh, Pedro, that’s rough,’ said Sonia. She had jumped to the conclusion that the word ‘merchandise’ referred to the drug-dealing that everyone knew went on around the area where Robbie lived.

  ‘Yeah, well, that’s what I thought too when I read it. It was kind of scary, actually. I thought some of these gangsters had somehow broken into the school network.’

  Sonia shook her head.

  ‘I actually thought it was some kind of threat,’ Pedro was saying. ‘I thought it was a response to Robbie’s lyrics about living in peace, without violence: “Ya wanna live in peace and ya say ya don’t know how, Well bro, let me tell ya, I’m gonna tell ya now”. That’s how it starts. But maybe these guys didn’t like that idea, wanted to warn him off or something? I don’t know.’

  ‘But that wasn’t it?’

  ‘I really don’t know, Sonia. This thing that came up on the screen used some weird words. I mean, it talked about delivering the merchandise by caravan. Bits of it did seem to be about drug-dealing and gang stuff, but then other parts seemed to be from another planet.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘Hold on, I’m getting there. So when that page was finished, I scrolled down, and the next bit was a letter.’

  ‘Like, an email?’

  ‘No. A letter or a message, only it didn’t say who it was for, and it didn’t have a signature. But the person explained that, when he was a boy, about our age, he went travelling around the world with his dad and his uncle. He lived for many years in distant countries, he said, and he had crossed deserts and mountains, seas and forests, and reached a different ocean.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Sonia. ‘I see what you mean about being from a different planet. Doesn’t have anything to do with life around Robbie’s area, anyway.’

  ‘He “saw many wonders”, he said, and he had been an ambassador for a great oriental king. He was bragging about lots of stuff. I can’t even remember it all any more.’

  ‘Weird,’ said Sonia.

  ‘Yeah, and according to himself, he invented pasta, or something like that.’

  ‘Pasta?’

  ‘And another thing I remember, because he kept repeating it every five lines or so: he was very proud of knowing how to write and he kept boasting about it and trying to show off about it to us. He said he’d written this great book that was a big success, all about his travels.’

  ‘That’s a bit like my Brainy Joker,’ added Sonia.

  ‘Exactly. That struck me too, when you told me about those messages you got. That’s what made me remember.’

  Sonia was puzzled.

  ‘Anyway, listen,’ Pedro went on, ‘it’s coming back to me. This guy also said that many years later, when he was old and came back from his travels, he was arrested. He said that he wrote this book of his while he was in prison. He didn’t actually write it down himself though. He dictated it to a cell companion who was a professional scribe.’

  ‘Hey,’ said Sonia, ‘I wish I had read that message. You didn’t print it out, did you?’

  ‘It never even crossed my mind,’ said Pedro. ‘At that moment, I just wanted to get rid of the message and get back to the page with Robbie’s lyrics. I did read the pages, but then I closed them. I didn’t think to save the message, so it must have disappeared.’

  Sonia was disappointed. She had been getting excited about the idea of comparing her own two messages with this new one.

  ‘What about the IT support guys?’ she suggested.

  ‘Well, I didn’t go into too much detail with them. I was afraid of getting Robbie into trouble. If they thought he’d brought a virus in, they probably wouldn’t let him use the school computers any more or something. So I just kind of mentioned it to Joe – I was pretty vague about it, and he told me not to worry, he’d take a look.’

  ‘And he didn’t find anything?’ Sonia asked, more hopeful now. Joe was an absolute expert on computers: that was his job. He would definitely find anything that was to be found.

  ‘Well,’ said Pedro, ‘the next day he just said that he hadn’t found anything wrong. He thought it was probably just some other student’s project, someone who’d used the computer before us and whose essay we ended up erasing. Whoever it was, they were probably going to be furious about it. So we waited for another student to complain.’

  Pedro talked so slowly. Sonia was impatient. She tried to speed him up.

  ‘And then?’

  ‘And then nothing. That was it. Until today, when you told me the secret about our wonderful team project about ancient Egypt. And this story about your sister and the letter from the woman who wrote shopping lists.’

  Sonia looked at him. She wasn’t convinced that that was all he had to say.

  ‘Come on, Pedro, I trusted you. I told you something that I have not told anyone else. But I know you – we’ve been friends for ever – and I could bet money that you’re holding something back.’

  Pedro stared at the ground for a little while. Then he looked into Sonia’s eyes, gave one of those smiles that could melt ice, and confessed.

  ‘Yeah, you’re right, I do have an idea, but I’m not sure about it. It’s not that I don’t trust you, Sonia, because I do. You’re my friend and you’re a really special girl. But the thing is, I may be wrong and I might end up being unfair to someone, and that’s why I didn’t want to say anything more.’

  Wrong? How? thought Sonia. You just said I’m a really special girl, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Things have never felt so right in all my life.

  ‘See, in my opinion, it’s not a virus, Sonia. I think we’re dealing with a hacker. You know what that is, right? Those guys who can break into other people’s computer networks.’

  ‘Of course I know that. I’ve heard of hacking.’

  ‘But the thing is, hacking is illegal. That’s why I didn’t want to say anything about it until I was pretty sure.’

  ‘I see, yeah. It’s not nice, is it? Though it’s probably just a joke, don’t you think?’

  ‘It’s a crime, Sonia. I mean, suppose this person is part of one of these criminal organisations that steal money from banks or sabotage companies and stuff like that?’

  ‘You mean, it could be dangerous?’

  ‘Well, in theory, yeah, it could be. But in this case, I don’t really think so. I think you’re right that this person is really just messing around, playing some stupid joke. Still, I can’t resist wanting to find out more, can you? And now that we have a few different messages to go on, I think we’re starting to piece a few things together about this Brainy Joker of yours.’

  Sonia was just about to say something when Pedro gave a start. ‘Oh! I’ve just remembered something else. In that message Robbie and I got, the guy said he was from Venice.’

  ‘Do you think it’s an Italian, then? Could that be why his use of language is strange? He could be lying about that, though, to cover up …’

  There were so many ideas tumbling around in Sonia’s head all at once, she could hardly get them all out.

  ‘Hey, listen, Sonia. I’ve just worked something out! Think about it. We know who this fellow from Venice is, because we happen to have learned about him and his voyages.’


  ‘Do we? Did we? Who?’

  ‘Remember?’ said Pedro. ‘In one of the books that we read in history last year …’

  Sonia thought about it but nothing came to mind, though it did ring a vague bell. Pedro kept trying to ring that bell a little louder.

  ‘Come on, Sonia. Who was the great traveller who left Venice as a kid, journeyed all through the East, was an ambassador for the emperor Kublai Khan and on his way home was arrested and, in prison, wrote the Book of the Marvels of the World?’

  ‘Marco Polo!’ she cried. ‘How come I didn’t think of that before?’

  ‘But listen, we know that, right, because we did it at school. But a lot of people wouldn’t know it.’

  ‘So that makes us smart, is that it?’

  ‘No, that’s not the point. The thing is, it wouldn’t make any sense to use this story to play a joke on people who don’t know anything about Marco Polo or who haven’t been thinking about him quite recently. It only works on people in our actual class – people who have the right information to understand what the message is about.’

  ‘OK, but I still don’t understand how this might be a clue.’

  Pedro hesitated before continuing.

  ‘Well … it’s a only a little clue. It may be nothing, really. But this joker or hacker or whatever already mentioned Egypt and Nefertiti just as we were working on ancient Egypt. Then he went for the Hammurabi code with your sister, who’s training to be a lawyer and knows all about laws and things, and then he starts talking about Marco Polo to me and Robbie. Do you remember how Marco Polo tells this story about an old man in the mountains who has all these killers at his service?’

  Sonia nodded. It was coming back to her.

  ‘Right, so when Robbie was writing his rap song that mentions assassins and merchandise, this person starts going on about assassins and merchandise too.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘Well, whenever he strikes, this joker, he’s talking about something that is related to us, somehow.’ Pedro paused, took a breath and went on. ‘That’s why I’m thinking this must be someone who knows us, Sonia. But also someone who has read quite a few books and knows their history.’

  ‘Hmm. A historian?’

  ‘I’m starting to suspect Mr Costa, actually.’

  ‘Pedro! Anyway, he doesn’t know my sister. How could he send her a message?’

  ‘But if she was using your computer? He could have hacked into it and he could have read the document she was writing. And he could have seen that your sister was doing research about Hammurabi, so then he writes about that.’

  ‘But then it could be anyone who can hack into a computer,’ Sonia argued. ‘It doesn’t have to be someone who knows us, as long as they can pick up on what we are working on.’

  ‘No,’ said Pedro. ‘It’s not that simple. Nobody mentioned Marco Polo, but the Brainy Joker – Brainy Hacker, whatever you want to call him or her – used that story, knowing we’d know what he was on about. That’s why I suspect Mr Costa.’

  ‘I really don’t know, Pedro.’ Sonia was not convinced. ‘Why would Mr Costa do a thing like that? What’s in it for him? What’s his interest in helping us out and giving us such a good grade? Our team above all – the one that probably did the worst project of the lot.’

  It was Pedro’s turn to think. ‘Yeah … you’ve got a point. It makes no sense. I hadn’t thought about that. And anyway, it’s not like Mr Costa. He loves the moral high ground. But this hacker is someone who knows his history very well. As well as Mr Costa does.’

  They were silent for a while. Then Sonia made a suggestion.

  ‘Let’s go to my place so you can read the messages and take a good look at the computer. After that, I promise, I’m done exploiting you. We’ll listen to this new album I just downloaded and we’ll have something special to eat.’

  Pedro seemed to get what she meant, because he smiled and said, ‘Special? Like the two of us. Let’s go!’

  5 – Double Trouble

  They read and reread the messages that had been left on the computer in Sonia’s house. But try as they might, they couldn’t reach a conclusion. So they decided to skip ahead to the special snack and the new music, along with very special talks as old friends with so much in common, who slowly start noticing new charms in each other.

  Very slowly – way too slowly for Sonia’s taste. By now she had no doubt that she was in fact starting to like Pedro very much and she really hoped he felt the same way about her. They ended up not talking any more about the mysterious Brainy Hacker. At least, not that afternoon.

  For a few days, nothing new or strange happened with the computer and they gradually began to forget about the joker or hacker or whatever it was. It wasn’t until Saturday of the following week that the subject came up again – twice.

  When the phone rang that morning in Sonia’s house, she could barely believe what Pedro was saying.

  ‘Do you have anything planned for today? Can I come over in a little while? We could even go out somewhere afterwards. I have news for you. But I have to tell you in person.’

  Sonia told him she had no plans for that Saturday and promised to wait for him. But in fact she did have plans. Actually, she had two plans: Faye was coming over for lunch at her place, because she wanted to talk to Andrea. A serious talk, she had said. And after lunch Andrea was going to take all the girls to the shopping centre for some shopping and a movie. But meeting Pedro took priority over all that. There was no contest.

  Sonia hung up the phone, ran to the shower and called out to her two sisters, who were in the living room: ‘I can’t go out with you today after all. Let’s leave the shopping for another time. Or you two can go without me.’

  Carol looked grumpy. Going alone with her eldest sister was no fun at all, better just call it off.

  But Andrea seemed pleased. ‘Great!’ she said. ‘This way, I don’t have to be stuck with you girls. Since dad has lent me the car anyway, I can take care of some stuff I want to do.’

  She started getting ready as well.

  As she stepped out of the shower, Sonia remembered Faye. She tried to convince Andrea to stay home for lunch and talk to Faye, but the idea wasn’t met with much enthusiasm. She’d have to call Faye and cancel.

  ‘It’s OK, Sonia,’ Faye said. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll do it some other day. I’m not in a hurry anyway – this stuff happened a while ago and I’ve only just got the courage now to talk about it.’

  There was obvious disappointment in Faye’s voice, though. Sonia felt a bit guilty. Up until then, she hadn’t given a second thought to whatever it was that Faye wanted to see Andrea about. It wasn’t any of her business. But now she suddenly felt worried. After all, Faye and Andrea barely knew each other, they weren’t the same age and they didn’t hang around with the same crowd. What on earth could her friend want with her older sister?

  ‘Are you sure it’s cool?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Faye. ‘It was just some work-related stuff. Actually, I think I might call Andrea’s office soon and try to meet her there. That way we can talk better.’

  Hmm. That sounded bad. It was probably serious. Andrea worked in a lawyer’s office, and if Faye needed to talk to her, there must be some problem.

  Sonia hesitated. She didn’t want to butt in. She had to respect the fact that Faye hadn’t told her what it was all about. At the same time, she didn’t want to leave her friend in the lurch.

  ‘Listen, Faye, I said something came up and that’s true. But if you want I can cancel it and you can meet my sister right away. Or if you have a problem that I can help you with, just ask me. I’m your friend, and you can count on me for whatever you need. Don’t forget that.’

  ‘No, no, don’t worry,’ said Faye, but her tone of voice wasn’t all that firm. She seemed to hesitate, but then she went on. ‘I just needed to talk to her about some stuff to do with the law that I have to research. And she’s the only lawyer I know. But we can do it s
ome other time. Bye!’

  And she hung up before Sonia had time to correct her and say that actually Andrea was just a law student, not a proper lawyer.

  What research could Faye be talking about? She and Sonia were doing all the same subjects at school and none of the teachers had given them an essay that involved anything like that. And Faye had no intention of going to university or studying law one day. If there was anyone in Garibaldi High who had set ideas about their professional future, it was Faye-I-wanna-be-a-model. Researching stuff about the law? It didn’t add up.

  Sonia was just about to comment on this to her sisters when the bell rang, and Andrea looked out the window to see who was at the gate.

  ‘It’s that friend of yours, Pedro,’ she said. ‘He’s just coming in.’

  Carol started to tease Sonia. ‘Ah, so that’s why you changed your mind and decided not to hang out with us this morning, huh? Because of Pedro. Lately it’s been all Pedro this, Pedro that.’

  ‘Stop talking nonsense,’ Sonia interrupted her. ‘He’s just come over to help me with that computer-virus thing.’

  Hearing this, Andrea was suddenly interested.

  ‘Ah, talking of viruses, you’ll never guess what happened …’ and she plunged into some story about a virus at work.

  Carol was giggling away ironically, to show she didn’t buy her sister’s excuse for this morning’s visit. Sonia meanwhile had gone to open the door to Pedro. And all the time, their oldest sister was sitting in a corner of the sofa, leafing through a magazine and at the same time babbling away, describing in detail this other virus her boyfriend had told her about, even though no one was listening.

  It was only when Pedro joined them in the living room that they started to take any notice of what Andrea was saying.

  ‘It sounds very like that virus you have on your computer. Colin thinks it’s a hacker, actually, and in a notary’s office, you can imagine how serious that could be. Just think if someone was prying into all sorts of confidential documents. Colin kept saying we should talk to the notary public and call the police, but the office clerk was afraid of being blamed, afraid they might think he had broken something.’