The Knight´s Legacy

Horstmann

Chiche was sitting in his office in front of his notebook.

“So you finally met true Indians ! And nothing less than your mother-in-law is one of them!” As she heard the words that prematurely linked her with Matías, Debbie was startled. Ignoring the reaction of his niece -although he clearly noticed it- Chiche continued. “ Now you will have another status among your “Indoamerican” friends and you can even displace your redhead president.”

“Cut it Chiche! I forgave the last time sultriness at the faculty because I respect your freedom of thought, but do not abuse of it.”

Chiche returned his attention to the notebook.

“I get a lot of spam mostly from the United States. The 90% is about products and methods to enlarge the p***s and the other 10% offering Viagra. Look at this!  "don't be ashamed! ”; “satisfy your partner! ”; “Add three inches in two weeks! ; amaze your girlfriends! ”. I wonder why they send all this mails to me. Tell me Lucia. Have you been complaining out there?”

“Not at all! The truth is that I am contented with little.”

Matías released laughter when he heard the woman´s answer, Chiche feigned anger and Debbie blushed too obviously.

“It seems that our revolutionary is a prude.” joked Lucia

“We men have the false impression that we control the couple status...” Continued reflexively Chiche. “…be it  for s****l reasons, sheer force or alleged intelligence, but the truth is that women take us by the nose or by the opposite side of our anatomy and lead us. This is the truth of life, they govern us.”

Lucía added laughing.

“Always with your dirty words! Now you are a philosopher, but you do measure their consequences. Disservice you do to your niece alerting  her boyfriend!”

Matías, always attentive to the dynamics of these seemingly crude family relations, compared with those of his discrete relatives, meditated on Chiche´s message and wondered what percentage of truth was there in it.

Just two days after returning to his home in Villa of the Park Matías opened the envelope containing the letter that José Llanquinao had given to him. Both the envelope and the letter were yellowish, and quite deteriorated by the time which possibly had remained hidden in hideaways secure but inappropriate for the conservation of a document. The dry and cold Patagonian environment had prevented the appearance of fungus in the paper. The letter was cultured and regular, as would be expected from a high rank military, but the Spanish was imperfect, at times unintelligible.

It was directed to an innominate "Dear relative"  and the style was not colloquial.  Matías ancestor narrated he was handing the letter to a trustworthy carrier who would in turn give it to José Llanquinao, whom he asked to keep the letter until he could put it in the hands of some descendant -male preferably but not exclusively- who according to José´s judgment could carry forward the task he was requesting. In the letter he spoke of his rank in the Wehrmacht, and the mission that had been entrusted to him in Antarctica. He had no doubts that the large scale preparations of the Nazis were intended to create a sanctuary on the frozen continent, away from the eyes of those who Horstmann already assumed would be the victorious powers of World War II. He did not know the purpose of such a haven but mentioned the rumors, some of which were admittedly crazy, running toward the end of  the war between the Germans themselves carrying out the work. Among these purposes Horstmann mentioned to serve as shelter for Hitler or other fleeing Nazi leaders, including Goebbels and  Doenitz ; get a mystical connection with beings that dwell within the hollow Earth, according to some Nazi mythology; serve as a reservoir of Tibet elements brought by the German expedition to the alleged original area of germination of the Aryan race, which would be key elements for the future revival of Indo-European race; hold treasures, be a source of valuable and scarce raw materials, and some other more or less implausible explanations. Horstmann then recounted that he had taken notes of all his adventures in several books throughout his stay in Antarctica, contrary to express orders received from his bosses and running serious risks. Those books contain many details including geographic coordinates, scientific data, names and anecdotes that would be useful for those who wished to investigate the great Nazi adventure in Antarctica in the future. These books had been hidden in a safe place during the flight to Chile by Horstmann and his wife. The letter did not provide- for obvious security reasons- information on the whereabouts of these books, but made the promise that when the time was right someone would be sent from Chile with such information.

The letter mentioned an old friend and colleague of Horstmann, Dieter Knopf, who had been sent to Tibet with the German expedition in his capacity as a scientist. Dieter however had never been a Nazi and he could be trusted. After the end of the war, Knopf had traveled to Korea, where he had converted to Buddhism, and at the outbreak of the war between North Korea and South Korea he had returned to Argentina with his Hindu wife and there they had a son named Hans or Juan. Most likely he would be linked to the then fledgling Korean Buddhist community in the country.

On the other hand Horstmann´s letter warned against several of those who had been his pursuers. In particular, he mentioned to a fanatical Nazi of Norwegian origin, called Knudsen, who had supported all actions to hide from the world the German expedition to the Antarctic continent after the end of the war. They were very dangerous people, who had tried to kill Horstmann on several occasions, and were responsible for other murders. The last thing he knew about Knudsen was that he had resided in Chile, where he received some protection for a while, but then he had to elope with unknown destination. No doubt he would be in South America if he was still alive. More dangerous than Knudsen was a former SS hierarch named Kurt Grobel whom Horstmann had hardly known  but who was at least partially responsible for the suffering caused to him and his wife in the persecution to which they had been subjected.

Horstmann asked his heir to put together all loose parts of this enigma, and use them by putting it in the hands of people who could abort the plans of this group of wicked men who had ruined his life. Once again he warned about the dangers of the mission  and recommended to refrain from carrying it out those who didn't have a well-tempered soul.

The letter ended up saying that although Horstmann was not a religious man he sent his blessings and prayers for the relative who received it. It was dated in April 1954.

A vivid emotion seized Matías as he closed the letter. A voice coming from his biological roots had entrusted him a task that was not clear and he did not know if he was prepared to carry it out. On the other hand, so far his life had progressed smoothly. Indeed he  had met Debbie and this fact had added him a share of happiness, which could be put at risk if he followed the path designed by his grandfather. Matías went to bed decided to ignore the request and even to destroy the letter due to the inherent risks in case of it was exposed to light. He later regretted many times by not having followed this impulse.