3. Decision in Barcelona (3 pgs.) – Champions Renaissance

ACT I - CHAPTER 3

DECISION IN BARCELONA

Monday August 28, 2017

Barcelona Spain

“CRISIS GROWS DUE TO NORTH KOREA’S NEW NUCLEAR TESTS”, Alexandre read in newspaper headlines with a photo of an aircraft carrier on the front page.

“TEAM WITHOUT COURSE,” he read on the screen of his cell phone. “In football, the team that plays the most attractive game does not win, the team that makes the most passes, takes the most corner kicks or creates the most opportunities does not win, here the team that scores the most goals wins.” This was said by a famous columnist who criticized the team, since Ronald’s absence had been noted.

All that week he was impatient until the day finally came. He had the yellow envelope ready with a big YES.

He left early and parked again far from the place. Walked in his hoodie and sunglasses until he reached Casa Milà.

When he looked inside the trash can there was a green envelope that he took out and read: “If YES, come back tomorrow at the same time. If NO, leave and don’t come back. NOW BURN THIS”.

He put the yellow envelope in the trash can with the YES and burned the green envelope. He felt like he was being tested, but he had already made his decision.

After arriving at his apartment, he went for a walk to relax. He thought, It’s decided! He knew the consequences for his life would be absolute.

_______

At the same time that Alexandre returned to his apartment, in another part of Barcelona, two men were saying goodbye.

“See you later, Franco,” Lenel said.

“See you later,” Franco Gambino responded to Lenel Anston. They were in the lobby of the Marconi Hotel in Barcelona.

Lenel stayed waiting for the taxi that would take him to the airport. He was going to Paris. He was a forty-two-year-old man, of medium height, five foot seven, with black, well-combed hair and dark brown eyes that stood out against his white skin. He was wearing a black suit, white shirt and a very elegant tie. He had been invited to a karate championship, a sport in which he was a fifth-dan black belt. On the tatami he was rigorous, calculating, intelligent and unpredictable.

Franco watched him remembering how he had met him almost twenty years ago. He liked to meet him every fortnight in Paris. He considered him a brilliant industrial engineer.

From the age of five until he was a teenager, his mother made him pray his favorite Bible verse every night: Mark 9:43-47. The following words of Jesus were his creed.

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to go with both hands to hell, where the fire is never quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to be thrown with both feet into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two eyes.”

His mother had separated from his father when he was twelve years old when she caught him red-handed with another woman. Until then, Lenel admired his father, who was an exemplary Orthodox rabbi. Her mother had married him because she believed he would be the rabbi who would save the world from moral corruption.

Son, now you must do what your father was not worthy to do, he often remembered what his mother had always told him.

Lenel always wore a Star of David with a gold chain on his chest. His father had given it to him, but he was determined to be a better moral example. He considered himself a great mystic and idealist. He admired and agreed with Plato’s ideas. He and Franco, like Plato, believed that the world should be governed by a regime of wise men.

“My greatest desire is to do the divine will,” he told Franco when they met, “and that is why the end justifies the means,” he had completed the previous sentence. Both were his favorite phrases, but he never said them together. “Not everyone is born in a total eclipse,” he confessed to him once after a few drinks. He was convinced that it was a divine sign proving that he was the chosen one.

Lenel lived with his girlfriend in Paris in an apartment overlooking the Arc de Triomphe. When Franco saw him get into the taxi, he remembered that time he got drunk and told him that he had special powers. “You are the wrath of God and with your power you will cut off the sinful hand of the world,” his mother repeated to him.

Watching him win the karate championship, Franco sometimes thought that Lenel had supernatural powers, as he seemed to hypnotize his opponents with his movements.

In the taxi, Lenel already imagined himself in Paris, walking along the Champs-Élysées and contemplating the Arc de Triomphe. He smiled when he thought that Franco feared him.

Don’t everyone fear me? he thought with a cynical smile. I will use any means to create a legend about myself and do divine justice, was his next thought. He turned on his cell phone screen and read the news. “THE NUCLEAR CRISIS CONTINUES. “RUSSIA DOES NOT ACCEPT EXPLANATIONS FROM THE PENTAGON ON NORTH KOREA”. Then he read… “RONALD WILLIAMS ACCIDENT CONFIRMED”. A satisfied smile appeared on his lips.

Then he read another. “HACKER KILLED BY ROBBERY IN HIS APARTMENT IN BARCELONA”. Lenel stared at the latter for several seconds and his face showed some concern. He was already arriving at the airport.