Empire of the Ring

Youngho decided to use his exposed identity in order to get what he wanted.

Edward could not have introduced him to Tracy with bad intentions but it was true that he made a critical mistake as an agent. It was his love for his people that blinded his eyes. The reason for Edward’s relocation to Panama was his nationalism as well.

He was not going to blame Edward for this since he liked him very much. To Edward, Tracy must have seemed like a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that must be the reason that he connected her to Youngho.

What happened already happened and there was no way that he could turn back time. All he could do now was to take advantage of Tracy. Then, he should draw the line after this deal, letting her know that if she asks more from him, their relationship would get worse. She should have that much wit.

If she keeps her tenacious hold on Youngho, then he should come up with another way to break the relationship with her. For now, she trusted Youngho, so he was ready to get on with his plan.

He did not like stabbing someone in the back but since he was a little morbid about weapons, he was excited to think about all the new weapons he would be getting. Park Jongil was the same. Looking at the list of weapon purchased, not only his face turned bright but also he hugged Youngho tightly. After seeing many weapons that he wanted to have on the list, Jongil felt like he would be having his favorite weapons piled up like a mountain. Although the list was for Tracy, the two friends could not hide the excitement from their faces.

Thankfully, there were no cutting-edge weapons on the list but conventional weapons and tanks. Youngho signed in relief. Tracy must have decided to buy more expensive, high-tech weapons through other connections.

With the weapons on the list, Armenia would not be able to go near Azerbaijan’s military power. It looked like Youngho did not have to explode the weapon cargo halfway to Armenia and irritate Tracy. He could simply just pocket some necessary weapons from her pile.

A notable thing was that she was buying a predominant amount of tanks compared to other weapons. It was an amount that could dominate a battle on a flatland. However, in Nagorno-Karabakh where mountainous regions take most of the territory, tanks were merely used as cannons. The rest of the weapons did not look as threatening.

If the Lincy Foundation had chosen the list of weapons, they might have picked grandiose items without considering geographical features of the potential battlefield. The weapons chosen in the purchase list were the ones with great demonstration effects, such as an improved model of Russian T-90s, portable anti-tank guns, Katyusha multiple rocket launchers, and BTR-series armored vehicles.

***

Eriksson contacted Youngho only after a week, saying that he already made a deal with Russian arms company to sell all of them at three hundred million dollars. The price included commission payment as well.

Normally, the delivery of weapons was arranged by the nation seller and a technician who knows how to use the weapons would be sent along with the weapons. However, the delivery had to be done in secret since it was not an official purchase, so Russia would not assign a technician to Armenia. Moreover, confidence should be kept even strictly since the buyer was not a nation, it was Tracy, a mere civilian.

Above all things, the problem of delivery was that Armenia was a country like an island on land, which did not have any ports. The cargo delivery would be shipped to Batumi Port in Georgia first. It was not an easy job to deliver weapons secretly while passing other countries. Although Georgia was somewhat friendly to Armenia, Georgia also was keeping friendship with Azerbaijan since it made tremendous money from an oil pipeline that passed oil crude produced from the Caspian Sea shore.

Youngho informed all of the problems to Tracy and said he would deliver the cargo under one condition; that he would only deliver them to Poti Sea Port.

Since he was in the position of helping her, he thought that he should take the initiative in negotiating with her. He did not want to get too deeply involved with this business. As he said that he had done his best and the foundation should do its part too, Tracy unexpectedly complied with him without a complaint. It was surprising to him since he thought she would ask him to deliver the cargo to Yerevan. She seemed to admit that the geopolitical location of her country was a huge obstacle.

In fact, Tracy was thankful that a mere agent had done this much for her because it was a job that many influential politicians or military officers could not do. She was satisfied with the fact that buying weapons which seemed impossible was accomplished.

She asked Youngho to claim an independent commission charge to the foundation but he flatly refused her offer, saying that he only helped because of his friendship with Edward in Panama. His words meant that if Edward did not ask, he would never have helped her.

If she needed help in the future, she would have to go through Edward. Youngho wondered how Edward’s face would turn when she mentions purchasing additional weapons.

Anyhow, she had accomplished her purpose of buying weapons for her country through Youngho, so she gained something for meeting him.

It did not take a long period to deliver the conventional weapons that had been mass-produced since they were no latest models. Not to mention, the Russian arms company did not want to waste time selling unpopular conventional weapons.

Youngho flew to Batumi, Georgia as soon as he heard that the cargo left from Russian port city, Novorossiysk off the Black Sea.

After the weapons specialist from the Armenian military and a representative of the Lincy Foundation checked the quantities of the items and signed the transfer paper, Youngho’s part of the delivery was finished. His role in the weapon deal was done.

However, the real work was left for him and that he would be running busily soon.

Before the cargo crossed the Armenian border, he had to extort some of the weapons somehow. Since the weapons would be delivered on a freight train, separated into ten cars, he should take away armored vehicles and multiple rocket launcher trucks when the deliverers were off their guards.

If painted and decorated differently, it would be possible to deliver the armored vehicles and rocket launcher trucks to the Azerbaijani border. Youngho was confident because many civilians in the regions of the Caucasus remodeled military vehicles and used them in their own likings. Unique vehicles like those were not looked at suspiciously since it was common.

***

Ten security crews of Zeynep Security Service cut down trees around the railroad near the Armenian border. They were working on securing the road for armored vehicles and trucks taken from the train delivering weapons.

The leaders of the bandit group who would be robbing the freight train were Jongil and Insoo. The train that carried tanks went into Armenia two days ago and the train that carried some of the multiple rocket launcher trucks and armored vehicles. Now, they would be striking the train that had returned and would be setting off after loading new items.

“Where is Youngho? I haven’t even seen a bit of him today.”

“He left with Ilkwon to get some equipment and buy some paints. He said he would be taking off the rocket launchers from vehicles and delivering them in containers.”

“He’s way ahead of himself. We might fail at getting the weapons in the first place. Man, I’ve become a train robber for having Youngho as my friend. Heck, my life.”

As they had finished checking all of their preparation, Jongil started complaining as usual.

“Mr. Park, aren’t we going to get misconstrued as terrorists for this?”

“Have you seen a good-looking terrorist like me? We’re like Robin Hoods trying to reduce our enemy’s weapons, the cause of innocent people’s deaths!”

“Then why didn’t we strike the trains that had been going into Armenia for the past few days?”

“Why do you have so many questions? Do you need to get reminded of the training days in the U.D.T. Unit, huh?”

As if he was getting bored of waiting, Jongil was teasing his junior Navy comrade.

It was a little too primitive to stop the train to rob cargo but it seemed like an effective way. Youngho could have slipped the information to the Azerbaijani government and stop the weapon supply but in that way, he would not be able to attain any weapons.

He did not worry about the conventional weapons being delivered to Armenia since they could not threaten Azerbaijan’s military power. That was why he was using a cheap way to steal the weapons. Also, the Lincy Foundation had made a huge mistake when purchasing weapons. They did not buy extra ammunition for those arms. Therefore, the weapons would be useless to the Armenian force unless they had extra ammunition of their own. Youngho just overlooked that fact when making the weapon deal but he did not forget to buy his own ammunition for those weapons to keep them for himself.

Since the Armenian army was receiving those weapons free from the foundation, the weapons specialist did not mention anything about missing ammunition. He must have thought that the Lincy Foundation would be buying additional ammunition in near future.

A freight train usually moved at a slow speed but this one was taking forever due to the weight of the arms and the curvy roads. It was moving at a man’s running speed. Youngho and Jongil simply jumped on the moving train. Two engineers were frightened by unexpected men’s appearance on the train. Youngho and Jongil stopped the train by threatening them at gunpoint.

As they were finished with covering the engineers’ eyes and tying their hands and legs, the rest of the crews gave them a sign with a flashlight that they had subdued the soldiers at the end of the train.

Since Youngho had brought only the most skillful crews from the security company, taking down the soldiers was not a difficult task.

They removed the wrappings from the armored vehicles and took them off the train after setting up a freight rail, then went into different freight cars of the train to get portable weapons and ammunition. When they were ready to go, they only freed the engineers, so they could move the train.

***

The train moved as if nothing happened.

It was dark and the engineers thought that some of the weapons were lost because of the appearance of some unidentified assailant. Thankful for being alive, they did not waste time to count what’s been lost but left hastily. The Armenian military force would not be able to complain to the Georgian government for meeting an assailant since the weapon delivery was not official. Nobody should be able to find out about the military supply, so they had a secret deal with Georgian railroad authorities for this delivery.

Seven armored vehicles, two multiple rocket launcher trucks, and a container vehicle that carried portable rocket launchers and ammunition boxes were slowly entered in a storage lot nearby.

From now on, the vehicles should be painted and decorated to look like remodeled vehicles and then they would be able to be driven on the roads like other common cars.

Youngho worried about passing the border inspection but there would not be a problem if he bribed the inspectors or if he could get the help of Sevan. He wanted to take more weapons but since those weapons were used as a defensive means only, they seemed enough. Also, since only some of the weapons were taken, the Lincy Foundation would not make trouble out of this.

Thirty million dollars was already transferred in Youngho’s account. It was the commission from the Russian arms company. From this deal, the company could get rid of the old-version conventional weapons that had been occupying their storage lot. If more time had passed, those would have been disassembled and thrown into smelting furnace with their own expense but since they could sell those at proper prices, the company praised the Information Agency.

Since the Information Agency gained credit, from this deal, the agency earned more than money from this. Soon, Youngho received a call from Eriksson.

“Mr. Lee, our agency now has a better reputation because of you. I’ll provide a few pieces of information for free if you need them in the future.”

“Well, I should gladly take those opportunities since you’re offering, Mr. Eriksson.”

The fact that the Information Agency which calculated everything for money was providing free information for Youngho meant a huge favor, since their information cost astronomical amounts of money. To them, having Youngho as their client meant a lot because not only did he connect them to a buyer but also, he was a client who would keep their secret no matter what. Just for the confidentiality, Youngho was considered someone whom the agency could share their profits.