The strange death of Nuno Loureiro

His colleagues described him as a beacon of hope. Portuguese newspapers stumbled upon his story by chance. The scientific community was shaken to its core. The political establishment in Portugal set aside a minute for him — a single, paltry minute. Something doesn’t add up. Call me paranoid. Call me what you will. I’ve worked in security long enough to trust my instincts. They’re not always right, I admit, but I’ll take that chance.

Last night, over dinner, when I heard the news of the acclaimed scientist’s death — a fellow Portuguese — I voiced my suspicions to everyone at the table.

— But why? — they asked me.

I told them I didn’t know for sure; something just felt off.

— What are the odds that a Portuguese scientist, Jewish and specializing in nuclear engineering, would be shot dead in his own home? And in a residential neighborhood, no less. It doesn’t strike me as random, much less a botched robbery. I think it was planned.

An awkward silence filled the room. I took the opportunity to drive my point home:

— Imagine having unlimited energy. Cheap, clean energy. What would that do to entrenched interests and powerful monopolies? Think of the hole it would blow in the fossil fuel industry. And national security? If I were a Putin or a Khamenei, I wouldn’t be happy about a technological leap coming from his research. Even Israeli authorities haven’t ruled out Iranian involvement. A breakthrough like this would leave such regimes permanently behind. It would redraw the balance of global power.

No one had the patience to hear me out, so the conversation died. But the thought stayed with me. The echo of gunshots seemed to whisper just behind my ear.

— No… this can’t be a coincidence. It has all the markings of an execution — I kept telling myself.

This morning, I woke up determined to learn more. And it seems I wasn’t the only one. By chance — or not — I opened the International Business Times to the headline Here’s Why the Internet Is Convinced Something Sinister Lies Behind the MIT Nuclear Scientist’s Death.

Now, I am not “the internet.” And I’m certainly not one of those knee-jerk conspiracy theorists. Still, I’m convinced there was foul play. Until last Tuesday, Nuno Loureiro was unknown. Now? Now he’s an itch I can’t scratch. He was my countryman, goddamn it!. I’ll say it again: the powerful are quietly celebrating his death. They, and only they, stood to gain from his fate. By all accounts, the world lost a visionary. The elites, meanwhile, bought themselves another day.