Word Count: 6,298
Summary of Events:
Vera and Hammy met with the head of the Agency, Z, who briefed them on their mission: five fellow agents were hired as bodyguards, four are dead, one is missing. They then travelled to Italy, where the deaths had been discovered, and met with a fellow agent, working as a police officer for cover, they then checked into the hotel and were taken to the private airfield where the plane was located and met with the other police officers investigating the case, as well as the millionaire's son who had hired the agents . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
"She heard a shout and turned while the other two continued on. Two officers were watching rather helplessly as a young man in a rumpled suit and tousled black hair hurried over to her urgently.
"Are you one of the special investigators?" he asked, making the sentence sound like one word.
"Yes," Vera replied in English.
"You must help me," he said, still in Italian, and again like it was all one word. "My ruby has been stolen and I positively must have it back!"
"Your ruby?" Vera asked, still in English.
"Yes," he replied. "I bought it while I was last in Thailand and I hired bodyguards to keep it safe all the way here and now one of them has gone and stolen it and killed all of the other bodyguards."
"I've heard," Vera replied. "Could you please describe this ruby?"
"It was beautiful and magnificent and the most beautiful ruby you could ever have seen," he replied. "It was uncut and very red and I wanted to put it as a centrepiece in my mansion that I am building and you must find it!"
Vera shifted her jaw. "Approximately how big was it?"
"Bigger than the biggest ruby that has ever been unearthed," he replied. "I tell you it was the most magnificent–"
"Yes, I know," Vera replied. "How much did it weigh, approximately?"
"I don't know," he replied. "But it was so beautiful and wonderful and it was going to be the perfect–"
"Yes, yes, that's fine," Vera said. "You said it was uncut?"
"Yes," he replied. "But even in its rough and uncut shame it was gloriously beautiful and amazing and such a deep red and–"
"Was it clean?" Vera asked.
"Clean?" he asked.
"Yes, had it just been dug out of the ground?" Vera asked. "Or was it washed already?"
"He showed it to me underground and it was the most beautiful thing that I could ever have seen in my life–"
"You were shown it before it was taken out of the cave?" Vera asked.
"Cave?" he asked. "We weren't in a cave."
"Well, where did you find it then?" Vera asked.
"My dearest love's brother was selling it because he's a dealer in jewels and things like that and I've bought several other pieces from him although those were mostly jade pieces but as beautiful as they are their beauty pales in comparison to the beauty of this ruby that I simply must have back and you must get it back for me or I haven't the faintest idea what I am going to do with my life because I have lost something so beautiful–"
"Thank you," Vera said, wondering if he would know a sentence if it came out and slapped him. "Now are you Geminiano Zanetti?"
A look of disgust and rue came over his face.
"Yes," he replied flatly. "I am Gemo Zanetti.""
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