Empire of the Ring

Ilkwon’s family adapted to the life on the Charles farm and started finding peace as they focused on working on the farm along with other workers. Seeing their changes, Youngho made a suggestion to Ilkwon.

“Ilkwon, what do you think about becoming the director of the Charles farm and look over all the farm work? So far, the farm doesn’t have a person in charge. I think it’d be great for your family too.”

“Boss, I don’t have any experience of running a farm, especially something of this size.”

“It’s just a symbolical position. Existence of a director on farm makes the whole work process go smooth. Just think of yourself as a manager.”

“Alright, boss. You’ve been so kind to us, I don’t know what I should to payback for your favors.”

“You know, we already took you in as my family. That’s why Jongil and Insoo insist that they are your big brothers and let you call them hyung. You don’t have to feel like you owe something to us.”

“…”

Deeply touched by Youngho’s words, Ilkwon could not say anything.

“I’ll do my best so that I can return your favors even for a little bit.”

“Everything here is yours to enjoy for your hard work. I’ll send a language tutor, so you and your family can learn the language here, then we can think about what we can do for your sibling’s future.”

“Thank you, boss.”

Ilkwon was such a genuine and sincere person. For him, the only way to payback Youngho’s favors was working extremely hard, so that the farm could be successful. There had not been a person in charge of the Charles farm, so the workers had been lagging behind without anyone watching them. Since Ilkwon and his family decided to settle down on the farm, it was a perfect decision to make Ilkwon the person in charge. He was a loyal, hard worker.

Youngho looked at them working from a long distance and he could already tell that they were working as if the farm was their own. He planned to re-assign another job for Ilkwon once his family gets comfortable with the farm work. He thought that such an elite like Ilkwon should do something else to put his abilities to good use rather than being stuck at the farm.

Youngho had expected that there would be a lot of annoying problems when Ilkwon’s family came to the farm. However, now that they live in the Charles farm, it was more than convenient for him. Ilkwon was a great resource since whatever he did, he did everything to close to perfection. He worked smoothly with other workers on both Zeynep Farm and the Charles farm.

It seemed that after Youngho gave him a car, he sometimes took his family to downtown. He also taught his sister the accountancy work and she was doing a great job as well. The whole family had survived a life-threatening imprisonment, so they were determined to have a better life for themselves. Youngho was rooting for them as well in his heart.

On one weekend, Ilkwon’s family even visited the farm and dined with the others together. Their conditions had dramatically improved since they did not fear people anymore.

***

When Youngho was having tea with Sevan, he received a terrible message that there was a fire on an offshore drillship.

After searching all day for a way to get to the ship, he could finally get to the drillship riding on the boat of the ocean police. When he arrived, the fire was under control but no one knew about the situation inside the ship. The lifeboats were left untouched on the ship. It meant that the workers were still stuck somewhere, probably the safe room, inside the ship. Youngho spotted two workers on the ship waving at the police boat. However, the ocean police only sprayed water to control the blaze since there were no special rescue guards on the boat.

Youngho could not just watch them like this anymore. He gave Jongil a look. Jongil hurriedly talked to the head of the ocean police and explained that they were specially trained back in Korea and borrowed their equipment. They had to act fast to prevent any loss of lives. Not having another solution to the problem, the head of the ocean police decided to trust them.

After putting on fire suits and oxygen masks, they took a safety ax and got on the side of the drillship where it did not catch fire. The two wornJudithkers on the ship looked at the two crawling to the ship in surprise.

“Is there a safe room inside?”

“Yes, everybody is taking refuge in there. We were doing our job on the ship when the fire broke out, so we couldn’t go there with them.”

Youngho was relieved to hear that the workers were in the safe room. The safe room was a sturdy room that would not be damaged even with rocket bomb attacks. However, if the inside temperature went up too high, people would not be able to hold up too long.

“You can use this escape rope to get down the ship. There is a possibility of an explosion in this ship.”

After listening to the structure of the inside of the drillship, Youngho and Jongil let them get off the ship.

“Jongil, I think we still have some time. Let’s put out the fire.”

There was a reason why Youngho said this. It was because all Navy soldiers practiced firefighting procedures from the very beginning of their service years since all of the soldiers would die suffocation once there was fire on a ship. Firefighting and escaping drills were the most important basic training of the Navy soldiers.

Although the fire was scary, it was not something they had not experienced. For the firefighting drills, they used to put oil in a huge tank to make fire and practiced putting out the whole fire repeatedly. People might ask if it is possible to put out fire burning on oil with water, and the answer was yes. Using a universal nozzle of a water hose to create various ways to spray water, such as direct water and mist, you could successfully drive the fire to a corner and eventually the fire was killed.

Youngho took out a hose from a side of the deck next to a fire extinguisher. Then he connected a universal nozzle. He grabbed the handle of the nozzle and Jongil grabbed the hose to secure it from shaking due to the water pressure. Of course, it could not be done with only two people but believing the power of the leather shoes and the ring, they decided to try. Youngho turned the tap and sprayed water directly toward the fire coming inside of the ship.

***

The inside of the drillship was dark because the generator had stopped working.

With flashlights on in their hands, the two ran toward the safe room. Even though they could not put out the fire completely, the fire was temporarily gone down. There was smoke all around the inside, but they were safe since they had oxygen masks on. After five minutes of searching, they reached the safe room. With a safety ax, they stroke the door hard so that the people inside could hear them.

There were some reactions of sound coming from inside. They looked at each other’s masked face out of relief. All of the workers in the safe room were waiting to be rescued in fear.

They could successfully rescue all 32 workers from inside of the drillship. The hall was dark and full of smoke but people could walk out the ship by grabbing each other’s waist and covering their nose and mouth with clothes.

People might wonder why the workers did not jump into the water when there was fire on the ship but that was even a more dangerous choice. Since the deck was more than 20 meters high, so if dived wrong, people could be injured or pass out and sink under water. Then it was the end of the story.

***

Although Youngho had made sure that the person in charge of the ocean police to not make a fuss out of this, broadcasters and newspaper journalists kept coming to the farm to interview Youngho and Jongil. It was an amazing story for them since there were frequent fires on drillships and usually a few workers would die in the accident. However, the representative of the company risked his life to directly go into the fire to rescue his workers, it was not only impressive but also a good story for them. Zeynep Farm was now in the center of the public’s attention again.

“Mr. Yaniv, it’s not that. We went in because it was safe enough.”

“Hey, I almost passed out after listening to what happened. What if something happened to you? You need to take care of yourself first.”

“I know it was a spontaneous decision but I did it because I had done countless firefighting drills in the Navy. I wouldn’t have gone in there if I was going to risk my life. And not to mention, I can’t manage going here and there if people were killed or injured.”

“Phew, Lee. I’m going to increase your share for this, just for your information.”

“Mr. Yaniv, I’m already overwhelmed by the share you gave me. If you keep raising my share because of these kinds of incidents, how are you going to deal with this in the future?”

“That’s mine to consider. Anyway, I’ll visit Baku sometime soon. Let’s meet when I’m there.”

***

Youngho and Jongil who became famous due to the fire on the offshore oil drillship were realizing their fame these days. Although their faces were not revealed by the press, the officials whom they had known before all treated them like heroes since they knew what happened. Even the ocean police asked them to teach them how to extinguish oil fires.

Although there was a big fire on the drillship, the ship was not damaged hugely. The most damage was done by smoke, not the fire since it was made out of sturdy steel. The drillship would be good to go after a little painting work.

However, because it was true that it was a safety accident, the company received a penalty assigned by the government. The company had to re-install various fire apparatus and get the ship re-inspected, which would take about fifteen days.

It was lucky that there were no casualties. Even though the company was insured for workers’ safety, it would have caused a huge problem for the company since they would have to pay the family of the deceased workers to console them for their loss. If this process was not dealt right, then the company would have a hard time recruiting for other workers. Since oil exploration was a risky work, laborers would not even look to consider the company if it was known to ignore such safety issues. However, since the representation of the company had rescued the workers by himself, the company had been getting calls from workers for recruitment.

“Mr. Yaniv, welcome.”

“Lee, I’m proud of my company because of you.”

Youngho greeted Yaniv at the hotel he was staying. Yaniv had just gone to the presidential palace to meet President Aliyev.

“Let’s go to my room to talk, instead of staying in the lobby.”

“Mr. Yaniv, Zeynep would be coming if you wait a little longer.”

Yaniv’s face brightened as soon as he heard Zeynep’s name.

“What? What on earth is going on that she’s going to give me a welcome greeting?”

“Don’t get mistaken. She’s coming to get the presents from you.”

“Hahaha…”

“How was meeting the president today?”

“He talked about our company a lot. He also liked how we resolved the fire incident wisely.”

Because of the fire, the company stopped the exploration for fifteen days but Yaniv did not care.

“I’d be great if the government quickly passes the inspection process then.”

“Hey, don’t be so hasty. We need to be patient especially when this kind of accident happens and maybe this will bring us a better opportunity. You know, you are my lucky charm anyway.”

Yaniv was being honest. He had made a lot of profits after meeting Youngho.

Today, Youngho planned to negotiate the price of wine with Yaniv. The taste was known to be great for its price already. Now that Zeynep Farm’s wine was popular in Russia, it seemed plausible to raise its price. He would raise two dollars for tank-aged wine and five dollars for oak-aged wine. Since Yaniv would be making more money as well by raising the price, Youngho thought that he would agree to the price change. Looking at Yaniv’s face, he was calculating the prices in his head.

The wines produced from the oak-cask aging process would not be released for a few years. If they were aged more than two years, they could be sold in the West European market as premium quality wines. Since Zeynep Farm’s wine was only famous in Russia now, Youngho thought that the company needed a different market to sell wines, in order to make the company world-wide famous in the future.