“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
The plan was perfect and consisted of stealing all the cats living in Hemingway’s residence in Key West and selling them. Robert was an American of Scottish and Cuban origin who played saxophone and piano with incredible skill, especially Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Brazilian jazz. But who could not overcome the difficulties in a society where quality is not the most important thing. He played in bars and restaurants at night, which allowed him to live from month to month. However, now he had it all figured out; Stolen and then sold cats could bring you a sum that could run into a few million dollars. Although logic did not accompany him, according to some of his intimate companions and those who refused to participate in the adventure, his purpose was clear and precise. Seize the cats and sell them in Europe as the direct descendants of the cats that grew up with Hemingway and that witnessed the moments in which the writer wrote some of his great works. Robert was convinced that these cats held some secrets that the expert writer never got to share. That is why, in his opinion, European writers would pay a lot of money so that the cats with their mimicry and meows would let them know everything that Hemingway did not share in those blank papers that frightened him so much, because the last years of the author were very hard.
After this first adventure and, according to its result, he would request a visa to travel to Cuba by boat and the cats would be stolen from the La Vigía farm, where Hemingway wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls” his masterpiece, which would make him the best writer of the English language of the modern era. This would be a much more dangerous action, since, as had been explained to him in Cuba, the police and secret guards were half of the population. Something that benefited the Cuban people, but not for their mission to steal the cats and not return them. Preparation for Operation Key West took nearly six months. If they wanted to succeed in their venture, there were many details to consider. I had to travel from New York on Jet Blue, this company was not very curious and offered good services. In addition, the hostesses are very friendly. The vehicle should be rented from the company Budget and this was not decided at random. He only rented a car with Budget once. He and a friend hit the car on the side and Budget did not charge them for the repair. He took a taxi in the Bronx to the New Jersey airport and boarded the JetBlue Boeing 727 to Florida. Arriving in Fort Lauderdale, he took the Ford Mustang convertible and headed toward Key West. The journey from Miami to Key West seemed to him a wonder, designed in a balance between the hand of man and nature, numerous bridges and islands surrounded by the sea and the typical flora of Florida. Upon arriving in Key West, he stayed at a motel near the museum, and returned the Mustang and exchanged it for a truck that could fit all the cats. He only managed to rent one from the Enterprise company and of course, as is understood everywhere, he used false documents and credit cards.
The Hemingway Museum is located at 907 Whitehead Street, the oldest part of the city. In this place there were 50 six-toed cats with exceptional historical value, as well as those found in their home on the farm of La Vigía, in Cuba. Hemingway resided for about ten years in the residence of Key West, and in it he composed his work “Farewell to Arms”. Robert walked around the house for several hours the first night, making sure that there were actually no security guards, only cameras and alarms. A childhood friend who had retired from the army and who participated in war in Afghanistan and Iran was waiting for him. He had already planned to disable the cameras and alarms. The drawback was how to grab each of the cats, because there were many. Therefore, they paid some boys in the neighborhood, telling him that they were doing volunteer work to inject some vitamins into the cats and that it had to be at night. 10 young people were selected who were very proud to participate in such an important program. After disarming all the alarms and cameras, they put food highly coveted by the cats in the center of the garden. Between the two adults and the ten boys, all the cats were taken to the truck where they were locked up. They thanked the boys for the payment and headed to North Carolina. There would be waiting for them a gigantic yacht of a Russian millionaire that would transport the cats to Barcelona. According to the scheme, the place where expenses would be most coveted would-be Barcelona, France and Italy. The individuals arrived effortlessly in North Carolina and proceeded to unload the cats. The Russian millionaire Ivanov allocated $500,000 in advance to each and set sail.
In the morning, at the museum, the director, who arrived as usual very early, noticed that the cats had disappeared and contacted the local police. They arrived eating gum and doughnuts and spent almost five hours asking questions. One of the Irish-born officers found that the cameras and security systems were completely disconnected. And it seemed to him that this was the work of a retired professional of the army’s special troops. They searched for the computers and there were many retired professional soldiers from the army in Key West. Due to the importance of cats and to avoid a scandal, they transferred the case to the FBI, the federal police. These, like fortune tellers who know everything, had already detected a Russian-flagged yacht loading in the North Carolina harbor. The boat had entered the port as a tourist and therefore did not have permission to make loads, but they had no legal pretext to investigate. Fifty famous cats were more than an excuse for the Russian yacht to be inspected on the high seas.
Two propulsion yachts with FBI agents began the pursuit. On the Russian yacht were ten men armed with the latest technology that Russia had produced and were ready to open fire in case of any setback. Within two hours, the two American boats had caught up with the Russian and ordered her to stop. The Russians returned fire and the FBI responded immediately, but the battle lasted only a few minutes. The FBI fire was very intense, as they fired from two boats. Three cats were seriously injured and two Russians as well. The Russians, realizing that they could not match the effectiveness of the FBI’s fire, surrendered. The sentence they all received was severe, as they owned guns and stole the historical heritage of the United States. The injured cats were taken to the hospital and the others were taken to the museum. Russia requested that its citizens be extradited and serve their sentences in Moscow. This was hidden from the press and only fans of the author knew. Robert and his friend were not involved in the case and as everything went well, they are now getting visas to go to Cuba to steal the cats from Hemingway’s house on the La Vigía farm. According to their calculations if a Russian gave them a million for cats descended from cats that lived with the famous writer only 10 years, how much they will give them for those cats that lived with the 28.
