Page 30 of Marcello

She glared at me, then backed off. “They’re just really bad news.”

“You’ve made that clear,” I said coldly. “Forget I asked.”

We walked back to the apartment in silence.

When we got home, Federica smoked some weed, but she didn’t try to initiate sex.

I wouldn’t have slept with her, anyway. I was still pissed at her for chewing me out – plus I was lost in thought about how I could find somebody in the Camorra.

I knew Federica wasn’t going to be any help…

So I’d have to find another way in.

Turns out, I had to go underground.

Literally.

11

Federica had a bunch of friends, and we dropped by their parties all the time.

Her friends were usually in their twenties or early thirties… incredibly artsy… mostly broke… but a lot of fun. The wine and beer at their parties was cheap but always plentiful.

We were at a gathering one night in a building even more dilapidated than Federica’s. The guy throwing the party had a small loft, and there were 30 people crammed inside a space that should’ve only held 15 at most.

The walls were covered with canvasses. I thought they were pretty bad – the kind of modern art where people say, “My three-year-old could’ve done that” – but the guy who painted them was friendly.

His name was Pasquale.

Federica introduced us in the kitchen as we poured wine into red Solo cups. Then she asked, “How’s it going at Sotto Napoli?”

“Not bad, not bad,” Pasquale replied.

“‘Under Naples’?” I asked.

“Pasquale’s a tour guide,” Federica explained.

“For what?”

“You know,” he said, like it was common knowledge. “All the tunnels under the city.”

“All the what?”

Pasquale looked at Federica. “You didn’t tell him about the tunnels?!”

She laughed. “I was so busy showing him art, it slipped my mind.”

“How dare you,” Pasquale said in a fake-outraged voice.

“There are tunnels under Naples?” I asked.

“LOTS of ‘em,” Pasquale said enthusiastically. “When the ancient Greeks first settled here, they needed building material. Luckily, there was a ton of it because of all the volcanic eruptions.”

“Mt. Vesuvius?”

“Good guess! But no, that happened in 79 AD, and the Greeks were here a thousand years earlier. A much bigger volcano than Vesuvius erupted over 15,000 years ago. In fact, modern Naples actually sits in the crater of that extinct volcano.”

“See?” Federica asked. “Doesn’t he sound like a tour guide?”