Unpolished DIamond

          Unpolished diamond

“A very important piece of Italian culture, a gold cardinal's ring, with a large, red ruby, valued at over $ 2 million, was stolen from the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. Responsibility for the robbery was taken by the Cociaretto Mafia, the oldest and one of the most dangerous mafia gangs in Italy, founded all the way back in 1787. It is one of the biggest robberies in the history of Italy.  This event found our city totally unprepared. The city’s mayor and the police head were gone on a trip to Milano. The Police didn’t get into the museum until 8 hours after it was stolen. Carabinieri and Special Forces make every effort to recover the stolen ring.”

It was the tenth time Alberto Romano heard this news that day. He was nineteen and he was very smart. But unfortunately for him, he was an orphan, raised on the streets of Naples. With not a single penny in his pocket, college was out of the table and he earned his little money as a worker in a construction crew. After work he spent most of his afternoons and evenings in bars, drinking and talking. But he was not an isolated case, this was the life of many youths and adults in the Naples Suburbia.

It was a beautiful, warm summer evening in Naples. There are very high temperatures in South Italy in the summers. Alberto was having a cold beer with his best friend Arturo after a very hard day at work. They were talking about the day, about the weather, but suddenly Alberto makes a very serious face and says:

"Man, I want to hunt down the gang that stole the Cardinal ring and get it back."

"Have you lost your damn mind? Do you realize that this is one of the most dangerous mafia gangs in the world? And besides that, Special Forces are looking for it. How do you think you, a guy who carries blocks of stone, can pull this off?"

"I can do it."

"How?" Arturo asked.

"I'm going to tell you something you didn't know. The only legacy my parents left me was a map of the Cociaretto Mafia and a guidebook of them. On top of that, as you said, I'm expendable. My absence will not be noticed by anyone. But if I get that ring back, I will be a hero."

"Don't you take me with some Rambo quotes and understand that this is a suicidal mission, damn it!" Arturo shouted.

"Carabinieri and Special Forces are searching for it, but I know where it is," Alberto said.

"Great, so go tell them where and they will get it out."

"Do you think they don't know? But they're not going to sacrifice human lives to get it back, so it's better to tell on TV that they don't know. But I will take my chances and go for it." Alberto continued.

"You are stubborn and the only way I am going to see you again if you leave is in a coffin. Don't try to be a hero and stay here. You have no chance of stealing the most important object of the Cociaretto Mafia. Please listen to me!" Arturo said desperately.

" I can do it and I will do it." Alberto ended the conversation.

He left the table and went to prepare for the next day.

He was scattering across the city to buy things for his mission. He procured a knife, a backpack, and some tools that might help him. At about 10 o'clock, he picked up the map and headed to a place that was shown on his map as the "Central Meeting Place". After ten minutes of walking, he found what looked like an abandoned building. He knocked on the door and a very big man with a gun in his hand opened the door.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the man asked.

"I am Alberto Romano from Cociaretto," he replied.

The man looked at him strangely and said, "I don't know what are you talking about."

"Please, let's not pretend we don't know what is behind these walls."

"OK, I'm going to ask you a question, if you can answer it correctly, you can pass through these doors. Who waits at the top of the tower?"

"The one who will save us all," Alberto replied. He memorized the guide. He could memorize anything because he had an incredible memory.

"Good, brother. I had to make sure you were not just some cop."

Alberto entered the building and began walking down a huge hall. There were some doors, but he couldn't try them all to search the ring. He also realized it was a suicidal mission, but he felt he had to do it. As he walked, a door suddenly opened and a strong hand pulled him into what looked like a computer room. Inside were a man and a woman. The man asked:

"What is your name?"

"Alberto Romano."

The man said, "I knew it," and both he and the other woman began to cry.

"My boy, my boy," said the woman.

"What?" Alberto asked, surprised.

"When you were born, we had to abandon you because of their stupid rules. We thought about you all the time. After they forced us to abandon you, we tried to expose them, but they caught us. They were supposed to kill us, but they let us live to work for them. Since then, we spend our time in this room working as computer technicians. I am Elisabeta. Your father's name is Roberto."

Alberto was at a loss for words. He had a lot of information to digest. He could have said a million things, he could have asked a billion questions, but all he said was:

"We will talk about all this later. I'm here for the ring. Do you know where it is?”

"We know everything that moves around here," Roberto said.

"Great, so let's go get it and then we leave this hell together," Alberto said with optimism.

"There are two problems: one, we can't leave this hall, and two, the ring they stole is the most protected thing here.”

"Then how are we going to make it?"

"Well, son, if I've learned anything in the Mafia, it's that everything and everyone has a price. And the man you saw at the front door is mine. So I can get us out of here, but you're going to have to figure out how to get that ring back."

“Why didn’t you escape earlier if you had the opportunity?”

“We didn’t think we have anything to come back at.”

With that being said, they left the building after Alberto gave the man at the front door some gold and the money he had left, and they went to the place called "The Safe Box", and there was the cardinal ring.

The “Safe Box” was an abandoned underground train station. But as he was thinking he couldn’t understand how could the Cociaretto Mafia just hide the ring there. It wasn’t logical because if the police found out, 200 armed men will just get in there, kill everyone, and just take the ring. It was logical to hide the ring in a place full of civilians as the Mafia couldn’t leave the town with the ring. But then, he had a stunning idea. As Mafia couldn’t protect the ring, they should have given it to another man who apparently didn’t have any connection to the Mafia, and a man who could protect the ring. And he thought that the man was the police head. He was the only one that made sense. If he was wrong he didn’t commit any crime so he wouldn’t go to prison.

“Mum, dad I need you to go to my place.”

“Why? We will do this together,” Elisabeta said.

“The ring is in another place. Goodbye!”

And he ran to the Police Station. Roberto and Elisabeta looked at him stunned and did as Alberto said. After he got into the Police Station he ran to the Head’s office and to get in there, he told the secretary that he had information about the ring. Without any formalities, Alberto said:

“I know you have the ring.”

“Son, are you crazy?”

“If I am that crazy I guess you don’t have any problems if you open that safe box over your shoulder.”

“No, there are personal things in there.”

“It’s your choice but if you don’t tomorrow I will go to all the newspapers in the country and tell them what I know.”

And suddenly the Police Head ran to the window and killed himself. Alberto couldn’t stop him. The guilty man was found. Alberto was rewarded a lot of money. Also, a lot of information about the mafia was found when Roberto and Elisabeta turned in, and in exchange for the information they didn’t go to prison. With the money, Alberto turned his life around and became a private detective. People say that being stubborn is very bad. But in some situations that, together with the ambition can save you.