The Secret of Zihua

The Secret of Zihua

By J. Jones

Copyright 2016

English version published in 2020.

Cover Design

Fernando Padue

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical and some scientific facts, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Table of Contents

The Mysterious Message

The Paradise of Zihuatanejo

Doubts

The Real Dad

The Move

Back to Paradise

A Helping Hand

The Confirmation

Life Is The Fuel of Life

The Breakout

The Gift From Mrs. Cassia

The Secret Project

Our Lady of Aparecida

Tritium

Greed

Social Engineered

The Plan

The Dilemma

THE MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE

Sao Paulo Brazil. Even leaving home a little earlier than usual, on Mondays, arriving punctually at any appointment in São Paulo is a difficult task. It seems everyone has the same idea that day.

Traffic at Interlagos was still quiet at 6:30 in the morning. This is a predominantly residential neighbourhood of Sao Paulo. Differently from other hot spots in the city, there is not many shopping stores or other leisure attractions, which is why it became a very good alternative for those who want to move away from the hustle and bustle of other popular areas. Once a year though, Interlagos gets invaded by thousands of spectators, who come to watch the races at one of the country's major racetracks.

Theo Oliveira had grown up in the charming neighbourhood of Mooca. As a child, he used to play soccer on the street in front of the house where he lived with his mom. At that time, the neighbourhood preserved a rich European influence both in the local`s habits and in the layout of the houses, as a result of the influx of several immigrants, mainly Italians, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Over the years, several residential complexes and commercial buildings have been taking over the small spaces of the neighbourhood. Even today it is possible to see some traces of such European influence like the Immigrant Inn, built in 1887 and which hosts the Immigration Museum.

Theo missed old times when he was a child playing on the streets. He missed even more his mom, Marie, who had been murdered 10 years ago during an assault on a work trip in Rio de Janeiro. He has never met his dad. Theo’s mom told him that she met his dad while on vacation in Mexico. He was an American named Tom Ekhart. They had an intense and ephemeral affair that lasted three weeks while she was off in Mexico. When she returned to Brazil and discovered that she was pregnant, she called him to tell the news. Tom did not acknowledge his son and dumped Marie. He told her that he was married and would never leave his family in the United States. Since then, Marie has never sought out Tom and decided to raise her son by herself. Theo always hated him for abandoning his mom.

He was born in São Paulo in 1983 and lived in Mooca until he turned 18, when he moved with three other students to an apartment near the University of São Paulo. One of them was Arthur, a childhood friend who used to live on the same street where Theo raised. His mom was overly happy when she learned that his son would be studying Computer Science at the best university of Brazil. Her son was a technology fanatic. He could spend the whole day playing video games. Years ago, when she had no nanny, she took him to her work and the boy fumbled with the numerous useless IBM PCs that no longer functioned. One day, after fixing one of them, he was able to install some games to keep entertained while waiting for his mom. At the age of fifteen, he was making some money by fixing and configuring the computers of neighbourhood residents.

Shortly before graduating, he met Claire during a university gathering. They got married the following year. Theo and Claire moved to the house that had been inherited from Marie. She had died the year before and the property had been closed since then. At Claire's insistence, Theo agreed not to stay there much longer. Also, Theo could not bear to live in a house, where everything reminded him of his mom. He agreed that he would have to raise some money before buying the much-loved home.

At the time of his marriage, he was running a small computer store. He could not make much money with the business and was looking at getting a part-time job so he could provide a better life to his family. He then applied for the position of a data processing analyst at a large foreign bank. There were many candidates looking at the same position. During one of the interviews, he could meet some friends from college. Unfortunately, he did not get the job. A couple of days after that, he received a call from the Manager of the Data Centre. He was offered a full-time position as an Infrastructure Technician. Theo knew that if he accepted the offer, he would not be able to dedicate himself to his hobby as before, since the position demanded full-time dedication to the company. The young man then started the new position. At least, he would get paid at fixed rates and dates, as opposed to the unpredictable earnings from one`s own business. That was a wise decision. About two years later, Theo was earning a fourfold salary, plus a number of benefits the bank offered, including a differentiated package of interest rates, which had been very well used in financing his new house in Interlagos.

In the north-south corridor, the traffic was very slow. Theo looked at his car’s dashboard: it was 6:55am. He knew he was going to be late. His work schedule began at 9am. Although the subway was a faster alternative, he believed that the two hours he spent in his car was a moment he could use to think his ideas, make plans for the future. He did not feel like losing 2 hours of his time in traffic. If his mom were alive, she would definitely sell her car and ride her bicycle to work. But if he did the same, he could not be distracted for a minute on the road, for cyclists were never respected in the traffic of that city.

Marie was an active environmental rights activist. She founded the Green Power NGO, which advocated the use of alternative sources of energy that did not harm the environment.

Theo found the slogan of the NGO funny, Life`s energy is life. It sounded tacky. But he knew what that meant: life should always be put in first place and no resources should threaten it, not matter how convenient they are. It was a noble thing, but Theo never engaged in this kind of environmental activism like his mom did before she died. He had a more technology-oriented profile, and sometimes he came to think that technology and environment were enemies. But he never told this to his mom, for that would lead to hours of endless discussion.

The NGO was initially based in Marie`s neighbour`s place. The resident, also an environmental rights activist, had given up part of her place so that Marie could found the organization that would get by on voluntary donations. At first, the donations came from residents of the neighbourhood. Over the years, Marie had discovered an important niche of work and ironically, that was the big corporations. In the 90`s, Companies were awakening to so-called social responsibility. The NGO started to partner with these companies to create projects to reduce negative impacts on the environment, proposing renewable energy alternatives, selective garbage collection, among other things. In a short time, it became known worldwide, and with the increasing donations of companies and civil society, the company created by Marie built a space in the same neighbourhood, using only recyclable materials and others that had been discarded by the companies with which it had partnerships. The walls of the building were actually old containers, the doors were made of pressed cardboard, and the furniture made of wood waste. Marie planned living greenery for the ceiling, at the time an idea considered quite innovative. The plants hung from the ceiling and gave a lively and fresh appearance to the small building, which corresponded perfectly to the slogan of the NGO.

08h47. Theo decided to text his assistant and let him know he`d run late. Soon after, he received the reply: I`m stuck in the traffic too! They were all in the same situation. Monday was inevitably the day of delay. He was already approaching Paulista Avenue: the main financial Centre of the city. Several foreign banks have established their headquarters in this region. Driving along Paulista Avenue was like being in another country. Theo liked the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the area.

He finally arrived at the 20-storey building that housed the headquarters of Finc Bank. When promoted to Manager of the Department of Technology, he also got a parking spot on the underground. Few people had that privilege. Most employees would either take public transportation or compete for expensive parking spots along Paulista Avenue and its vicinities. Quite a few would go to work by bike.

His office was on the 19th floor, along with other directors` offices. Each had his own room. The head of technology`s office was the latest to be built in that floor. Only after the Brazilian subsidiary almost ran bankrupt due to a severe security breach, the board decided to create a formal Chief Technology Officer, CTO. As he crossed the hallway leading to his room in the back, Theo waved to the Marketing Global Head, the only one who arrived at work so far. It was already 9:25. Every time he walked down the hall, Theo remembered the laid-back atmosphere of the former Technology unit, which used to be on the 10th floor next to the Data Centre. And that was another important decision Theo supported. Years before, the Data Centre was where the underground garage is today. Concerned about the possibility of flooding, since it rains a lot in São Paulo at certain times of the year, besides other inappropriate conditions for electronic equipment, Theo proposed that the Data Processing Centre be removed to the centre of the building, literally, as a way to reduce the risk of damage and even to better control staff access to it. At the time, he persuaded the CEO to authorize the relocation, stating that the Data Centre was responsible for storing all crucial business information. After comparing the Data Centre to the heart of human body, the executive was convinced. The heart could not be in the feet nor in the head of the institution, but in the centre. Theo's initiative became famous when, months after the change, the garage was flooded, due to a severe storm, flooding the cars that were parked there.

When he reached his office, he looked out the window and he saw nothing but a great grey fog. During autumn, the city was commonly shrouded by a mix of fog and drizzle, a phenomenon characterized by the locals as garoa, very similar to what the londonians live with pretty much the whole year.

Before turning on the computer, he got some coffee. He remembered his six-year-old daughter, Maria, whose image was stamped on the mug. The previous year, she performed classic ballet show for the dad's day and gave him that mug. Maria was sweet and smart. Theo saw many qualities in his daughter, similar to his mom Marie`s. No wonder he had chosen the same name for her. Marie is the French name for Maria, in Portuguese.

Every Monday, the board of directors would meet at 9:30 am for a brief presentation of the results of the previous week and outline of the upcoming week. The meeting usually lasted no more than thirty minutes and rarely exceeded that time. The board was composed by the CEO and three other directors, including Theo. After the meeting, the CEO would relay all the results to the global headquarters in Europe. That day, however, he knew that the meeting would be delayed, since two other directors had not yet arrived.

He then decided to open his email inbox. 67 unread messages. Most of them were invitations to events, ads and other craps. We need to improve our spam filter, he thought. He scrolled down, went through some emails requesting services for Sao Paulo unit and also for the newly opened branch in Campinas. An email caught his attention. It had been sent the previous Saturday and Theo missed it. On the subject it was written, About your dad. The sender was hidden. Reading the message quickly, Theo phoned the coordinator who took care of the web mail servers. Fortunately, he had not been swallowed up by Sao Paulo’s traffic. He asked him to locate and track down the strange e-mail. Within 2 minutes, he received the call.

Sir. The email came from a Proxy IP from China. Replied the employee.

Theo knew the message did not come from China. The Proxy server acts as an intermediary between endpoints over the Internet. It can be used for various functions such as internet content filtering, control data traffic, among others. In that case, however, he knew the sender of the message had used it to hide his Internet Protocol (IP) address, to prevent tracking of the message. IPs may tell much about one like geolocation. However, malicious users can easily spoof them.

Theo was intrigued by the message. Someone was playing some bad joke about his dad. Why would anyone do that? Why did the sender of the message reveal himself? But the main question that was asked at that moment was: Was your dad really dead? Theo, opened the e-mail again and reread the message: Theo, your dad left you something shortly before he died in Zihuatanejo.

THE PARADISE OF ZIHUATANEJO

Claire and Maria were waiting for Theo in the dining room. It was 8:30 p.m. It had been a busy day for him. He had not had time to think about the email he read earlier in the morning. During his way back from work, he could think that through and came to a decision. After dinner, he helped Maria with her homework and put her to sleep. He was not much good at singing children's songs, so at that moment he would talk to his daughter about school friends, ballet classes and other subjects that Maria wanted to talk about. As soon as the young lady fell sleep, he went to his bedroom where Claire was almost asleep too.

Claire, my darling, next Thursday I need to travel to Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

What?! Last minute decision? What city is this? Why is the Bank sending you to Mexico? Claire was upset.

Calm down, my darling. I'm going to explain everything to you. I received a mysterious e-mail saying that my dad left me something in that city.

Your dad? Do you even know him? Why would someone send you that email? Theo starred at her for a moment. She becomes a question machine when she gets upset with something.

That's the question I'm asking myself ... this is a part of a bigger thing.

Claire frowned. She was not convinced that trip would work out.

Why do you always make your decisions without first talking to me? Have you forgotten that we are a couple?

Claire, please try to understand. This story is about my past. clarified Theo.

It's not about your past, it's about our present. Or do you think discoveries about your dad will not affect our family? I want to be included in your decisions!

Okay. So what do you think I should do about it?

Have you ever thought this could be a joke, a bad joke?

I`ve thought that could be a dummy prank, but it does not hurt to investigate this story.

It has a cost! A trip to that city that I do not even know how to pronounce the name of, will cost quite a few bucks. What I mean is that I'm afraid somebody is setting something up against you! A coup or something. You never know...

I cannot see any reason for anyone to do that. Theo replied naively. Worst case scenario would be I spend my time and money to go there and find out nothing!

Claire took a long breath and finally raised white flag.

Well, I`m ok if you want travel to that Zihuatan-thing to get to find out anything about whatever whoever has left for you. But before anything else, you should do a thorough search on your dad. Go to the Court. Try finding your mom`s relatives that may have more information. Start using all resources you have in Brazil before onboarding in such journey to an unknown city.

Court? I don`t know if Court will do much for me, but I promise that as soon as I come back I will go after my relatives in Brazil. I know that my parents met in Mexico. Who knows, maybe it was not in the city of Zihuatanejo?! I feel that I can find some answers there about the identity of my dad, or rather saying, my genitor.

"Why did this e-mail mess with you so much, Theo? Do you think it's some heritage of some millions?

You know me well, my love. Theo said disappointedly. "I would not take a penny from the man who abandoned me and my mom. But I still want to know who this guy was. Something tells me that I can