The History Mystery by Ana María Machado

and in later societies women’s contribution became confined to the domestic arena,’ Colin was saying now.
    That’d be the home , Sonia thought. Why did he have to call it ‘the domestic arena’? Must be a lawyer thing.
    â€˜You could say that the Mesopotamian civilisations – the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians – should have been an example to us, but in fact, they have been largely forgotten.’
    The young people around the desk looked at each other in dismay. They hadn’t bargained on a lecture on … what? Assyrians or something. But there was no stopping Colin now that he’d got into his stride.
    â€˜The ancient area of Mesopotamia actually corresponds pretty well exactly to what we call Iraq today,’ Colin said, sounding depressingly like a schoolteacher.
    They were in for the long haul, they could tell.
    â€˜The people of modern Iraq – whom we hear about all the time on the news, people who are victims of the terrible sufferings inflicted by war – aredescended from some of the finest civilisations in the history of humankind. Their societies should be role models for us.’
    Faye shifted uneasily on her chair. A thought was buzzing in her head like an annoying fly. She was remembering the question that had been asked in the text message on her phone: ‘Model what?’ her mystery texter had asked.
    Now that Colin was using that same word ‘model’ in a different context, she began to feel uneasy. None of the others noticed.
    Colin went on speaking.
    â€˜Something else that caught my attention in the message was the way in which the author referred to Hammurabi’s legal code.’
    Why did all these ancient people have to have such long names? Sonia was thinking.
    â€˜This was a pioneering piece of work and a remarkable feat for such an ancient society. We can conclude from the way our mystery messager takes such pride in this achievement that he or she is a person who values justice. More than that: they value a notion of justice that was very innovative at the time and remains fundamental today.’
    Colin sounded remarkably like Mr Costa, banging on about all this ancient world stuff and how innovative people had been back then. But there was no way to interrupt him.
    â€˜Hammurabi’s code says that we can’t have double standards in law. In other words, the law cannot be applied on the whim of the king or the leader of the country. The law has to be the same for everyone, and there have to be standard punishments that people know about and that you can expect to have to undergo if you commit certain crimes.’
    Yes, well, that made sense. If you could concentrate long enough to understand it.
    â€˜Hammurabi adopted the motto “Justice and equity”. He was famous for being a wise king and an excellent and even-handed administrator. He was a model sovereign.’
    There it was again, that word ‘model’ which kept buzzing around in Faye’s head.
    But by this stage, they were all shifting in their chairs, changing their positions, taking sips of water or tea. It was hard to concentrate on what Colin was saying. Do all lawyers have to talk like that and for so long ?
    But Colin didn’t seem to notice their discomfort and he carried on.
    â€˜Anyway, I didn’t pay much heed to the first message. It was only later, when the next message turned up, that I noticed that this message also showed the same interest in justice.
    â€˜And I remembered then that Andrea had said something about messages that you had beenreceiving, some virus maybe. So I examined the messages carefully, and I have to say I didn’t think we had a case of a virus here.’
    The friends nodded their agreement.
    â€˜It just didn’t look like a virus to me, and I can imagine you people don’t really think it’s a virus either.’ He paused briefly. ‘I cannot shake