The Knight´s Legacy

The Korean Girl

After the meeting Chiche invited them to dinner at his house. Despite the Lucía´s protests the house owner had the bad habit of looking at the news television during dinner. While Lucia served dessert Chiche raised the appliance volume to hear last moment police news.

“…. in an alleged attempted a*******n in the Bajo Flores three thugs exchanged  fire with a  policeman who was just passing by. One of them was wounded by the officer and was charged by his accomplices in a car that left at full speed. The man whose kidnap was attempted disappeared from the scene and the Police ignore his name and whereabouts.” The camera showed  the place of the attempted crime at that moment full of policemen and onlookers. Suddenly Matías jumped in his chair choking with food.

“What´s the matter? Are you okay?” Asked startled Debbie.

“Watch there, in the TV! That´s Juan Knopf´s home.”  Said the young man.

“Are you sure?” Insisted Chiche. After Matías confirmed with his head he meditated a few seconds and then he said. “ I don't believe in coincidences, right after the episode in Rio. I wonder if the purpose of the k********g was Knopf himself. Matías did he give you his phone number?”

“Yes, I have it with my cell phone contacts... Here it is.”

“Well, try to call him, if there is any doubt, hang up immediately.”

Matías dialed the number, some rings were heard  and finally someone answered. Matías interrupted the call without thinking.

“It was Alicia, the Korean girl, I'm sure.” Reported to the others, who watched him carefully”

 “You did well hanging. Well, what can we do?” Said thoughtfully Chiche.

“It is sure that Juan´s house is under the surveillance of this people.” Said Matías, after reflecting a moment and still under a live excitement added. “ I'm going to stand in front of the Korean Buddhist Association to see if I can find any clues.”

“Why exposing yourself for  someone you met just once?”  Asked Debbie.

“If they are behind Juan they may be behind our track as well.” Answered emphatically Matías. “ If so we cannot rest on our laurels”.

It was an excuse and all perceived it. Just at that moment Matías realized that, despite all rational doubts and the instinct to keep away from danger, deep inside he had already taken the determination to continue his quest despite the possible difficulties.

Juan Knopf turned his head instinctively. Since the attempted k********g his soul and his mind had not found peace. The false sense of security in which he had lived until then had broken like a crystal and as a crystal it would never recompose. He was Dieter Knopf´s son and this fact exposed him to circumstances of which he was not responsible and which were beyond his control.

In the first moments after the bombing he had only ran without direction until he got out of breath, not daring to look back. Then he had climbed a bus that was about to leave, without even knowing where it would lead him. At first he traveled tight among the other passengers who gave him a certain psychological sense of comfort by anonymity, but ultimately the vehicle had been left empty and arrived at its final stop. The site of the transportation terminal was faintly illuminated by the dim light of a sad lamppost. Juan noticed that  the driver watched him with a certain suspicion, spying on their movements but then realized that his own appearance was not exactly reassuring. He descended rapidly from the bus and got into the shadows. He wandered again without precise direction, trying to at least put a certain order in his ideas. He finally found a small secluded and dark square with a wooden bench with backrest. Juan sat on it to calm his spirit and his heart rate. He inadvertently fell asleep. Indeed, the formidable discharge of adrenalin which had begun in the a*******n attempt had wreaked havoc on his psyche and his nervous system had taken certain autonomous measures of self-protection.

He awoke startled in the midst of agonizing dreams in which he was permanently on the verge of unfathomable depths. He blinked and saw that it was still dark and this paradoxically reassured him. Indeed his mind worked better after sleep. He knew he was in the neighborhood of La Boca, full of very humble squatted houses. Most were old houses in ruins crowded with immigrants from neighboring countries, and among its occupants there were offenders of all kinds. However, it was not them who he feared but his frustrated attackers. They had no names or specific faces but Juan knew where the attack came from, he sensed who had plotting it. Partially numb by the morning fog he rose from the bench where he had slept and stretched his limbs. His mind had conceived a plan. He had remembered that in La Boca lived a petty thief who was known as Pedro and whom he had met in a deed of his past he wasn't proud of. He thought that he could instinctively guide himself to the wretched abode of the crook, and that he would convince Pedro -using some small extortions- to give him shelter, until he found another hideout unknown to Pedro since Juan did not trust him either.

Matías had already been standing for about an hour on the sidewalk in front of the house of Avellaneda Street. When he already despaired of boredom he saw the shy Korean girl, whom he had originally asked by Knopf before talking to Alicia, opening the elaborate oak and bronze door. By chance the young woman crossed her eyes with Matías who had the security that she had recognized him. However she pretended not having seen him and continued walking until she reached the corner. From there she looked at him directly for a brief  moment, and Matías thought he saw a plea on her eyes. He immediately began walking behind the Asian whom he reached some twenty meters beyond. The girl, looking to the front, said in low voice and her laborious Spanish.

“Juan wants to talk to you.”

Matías wrote his cell phone  number of cell on a small piece of paper and slid it imperceptibly into the hand of the Korean girl. He then surpassed the woman with his long strides and walked away from her.