Chapter 8

Chapter 8

As Romain approached the store he kept looking in every direction, as he did every time he returned in daylight hours, when he could be seen by many passers-by. He took a bunch of keys from his trouser pocket and quickly opened the door.

Something stuck him from the start. Knowing the order manias of his friend's seeing a series of objects displaced from their usual place caught his attention and glimpsing an overturned chair plugging the entrance of the room he used as a bedroom ended up turning on the alarms of his mind. He took out a small Indian-made revolver he had acquired in one of Yashodar's friends of dubious mercantile activities. With a quick glance the man determined that the place was empty, struck his back to one of the walls of the store and approached the fateful door. After moving away the chair that obstructed it and opening it completely, he entered quickly the bedroom, pointing the gun in all directions. The room was scrambled and disordered, and as he approached the bed he found that his few belongings had been scrutinized in haste and some garments had been torn, perhaps searching inside the linings for some hidden object. In fact Romain knew exactly what they had been trying to find, and in his swift mind circulated several possible perpetrators of the raid.

Suddenly his sight settled on a long, narrow paper that lay on the pillow of his bed, with the obvious purpose to be found. A quick glance showed him that a phrase was in a calligraphy that seemed gothic to him. Romain kept the roll in a pocket to analyze it later in a context of greater tranquility.

At that moment he heard a noise behind him and then hurried out of the bedroom into the store, pointing to the front with his revolver, his heart beating hurriedly by the permanent adrenaline rush. Yashi had just entered the shop and at a glance had taken over the situation. Relieved, Romain lowered his weapon and sighed as his friend stared at him.

"Was it them?" The Hindu simply asked.

"It all seems to point in their direction. That would indicate that I have been discovered, although they could be common thieves.”

"You must assume they were them, no simply thieves." Yashi insisted. "I'm known in the neighborhood and nobody ever plunged into my place. In addition, here there are valuable pieces of cloth that have not been touched.”

"As usual you're right. I must leave here immediately.”

"Yes, but not through the front door. Put your things together. Are you missing something?”

"I do not think so. I'll just have to fix a pair of jackets they've opened."

"Leave them here, I'll fix them and give them back to you later. Do you have your documents and money?”

"I always carry them with me."

"Get your things together and follow me." Yashodar insisted.

Romain followed his friend who approached a shelf full of cashmere and other tissues.

"Help me move it," He said to the surprised Canadian.

The wall behind the heavy piece of furniture did not show anything in particular, but after a careful look thin cracks forming a rectangle could be guessed. Yashi pushed it and to the astonishment of his friend the section of wall gave way revealing a narrow door that gave access to a dark corridor.

"You're full of surprises." In spite of his worry, Romain's face was now smiling.

"Shut up and get out. But first give me the cell phone I gave you. It may be compromised." Then he went to one of the shelves and returned with another cell phone.

“Here, use this one. Throw the other to some sewer several blocks from here." As he said this he took out a shoe with which he punched the cell now under suspicion.

"It's already out of order. Now go away. I'm going to see how I put the shelf back in its place. Do not call me, I will call you when I have prepared a way out for you.”

The corridor was made up of the back parts of several houses and was full of junk, stinking trash, broken toys and other unusable objects that neighbors had surely thrown over the border walls. When he reached its end, Mercier realized that he was in a narrow alley where cars could not travel, but through which isolated passers-by still walked. He got into a corner of the corridor waiting for the shadows to fall and the alley get completely empty. As he waited for the darkness, his mind was quick to assess the situation by searching for courses of action. With the passage of time his head quieted down and he was able to put his ideas in order.

Looking for the cell in his pockets his fingers felt something strange and took it out in the dim light. He immediately recognized the strange roll of paper he had found on his bed and then completely forgotten. He unrolled it and in the light of the mobile read its brief content. A shiver ran through his body.

Tots els heretges han de morir

Although he did not know precisely in what language the sentence was written its meaning was clear. It was a threat, and since it had been left in his room it had to be concluded that it was intended for him. Besides fear, the text left him perplex, heretic? In what context could this message make sense? Romain was prepared to receive threats by reason of his professional activity and by economic subjects, but ... heretic? And all this expressed in an unknown language although of obvious romance origin? Again he decided to postpone the reflection on the matter for a moment when his head was clearer, without so much pressure from events.

He extracted the cell phone Yashi had given him and dialed Alisha's number. It rang for a while until he got communicated with her message box.

“It's me. I have been discovered and I am running away. I'm fine. I'll contact you as soon as I can.”

He hung up immediately. His stomach tightened, but he was grateful that the girl had not attended directly; He really regretted not being able to reassure Alisha by speaking to her, but in truth at the time he had nothing very comforting to say.

He looked again at the alley and decided to go into the shadows, into nothingness, into danger.

Alisha heard the message. Her eyes filled with tears and a knot tightened in her stomach. The woman had already convinced herself that the love she had found would make her suffer. She deleted the message for security reasons and threw herself on the bed to calm her nerves.

Two hours later, Vijai opened the door of her daughter's room and found her fast asleep. He had gone to call her for dinner but decided not to interrupt her sleep. The man deeply loved his daughter and sometimes his love became evident. Vijai had already realized the reason for Alisha's suffering and knew he could do nothing to change the options of a fickle female heart. The girl had inherited the proud, independent and indomitable character of her mother instead of Vijai´s, who saw himself as pragmatic and malleable, though in fact others saw him as fickle and genuflex.