Free The History Mystery by Ana María Machado Page B

conversation was running on, he decided to butt in. He greeted Sonia warmly and introduced himself to Pedro and Matt. Then he suggested they move to his office, in the next room, where they could talk privately.
    As he asked the secretary to bring some tea and coffee for everyone, he could hear Pedro asking again: ‘Then what?’
    â€˜Then I replied what you all already know …’ answered Faye, starting to laugh. And the chorus all chimed in with Faye, as she said, ‘I-wanna-be-a-model.’
    They all laughed. She really did take this teasing from her friends in good humour. Still laughing as they sat around a desk in the office, Faye added, ‘What got me curious and made me think was the next message, though. Actually, the two messages that came next. Two questions, which arrived one right after the other – I hadn’t even had time to reply to the first one when I got the second.
    â€˜If it’s a hacker, as you guys say, they must be a very curious hacker. First, he or she asked, “Why not an artist?” And when I was about to reply that I don’t really have the talent for the stage, that I’m not very good at singing and don’t feel like memorising all those lyrics and stuff – I’d prefer photography studios and the catwalk – I got another message, saying “Model what?”.
    â€˜I tried to reply, to explain that I want to be a fashion model, to do ads and catalogues, of course – what else could it be? But I couldn’t any more. I only answered the first question. After that, it was useless. The message couldn’t be sent. Something had gone wrong. I could see that I’d lost contact with the person: it had all disappeared from the phone’s memory.’
    There was a short, frustrated silence. They were all wondering whether there was a connection between these text messages and the virus or hacker they had come to talk to Colin about. He must think so, anyway, because otherwise he wouldn’t have asked Faye to join in the conversation.
    The silence didn’t last long. Faye soon had a different expression on her face.
    â€˜It hadn’t disappeared from my own memory, though. I keep thinking about it all the time and asking myself, What kind of model do I want to be? I thought it was a breeze, something completely certain, that I’ve known my whole life, without any doubt. But suddenly I’ve started to realise I’m not so sure what the answer is any more. A model could be so many different things, things I’d never even thought about before.’

9 – Camille’s Friend
    Colin began the meeting by explaining why he was interested in talking to the kids. He went back to the first message that had come to his attention, which came mixed up in a legal document, as they all knew. He read that message out loud.
    â€˜At the time, I didn’t attach much importance to this. I thought it was a piece of homework belonging to one of Andrea’s younger sisters.
    â€˜But a couple of things did catch my attention. One thing struck me as surprising: this girl must have done her homework really well, because a lot of thorough research had gone into it. She knew stuff that a lot of adults wouldn’t have a clue about. For instance, she knew all about how the people of Mesopotamia used reeds to write on clay tablets.’
    Here we go again , thought Sonia. Writing .
    â€˜She knew that women had an important role in that society and were involved in the economic life of the people. You see, the division of labour at the time – you know what I mean? The way the work was divided up between men and women? Anyway,it involved women not only in the production of textiles but also in how businesses were set up and managed.’
    Sounded good, Sonia thought, and it did seem to fit in with that message and the list of items for sale and so on.
    â€˜But these things changed gradually over the years,