Empire of the Ring

The Southeastern regions of Kazakhstan were bordering Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was resided by forty-eight ethnicities, such as Uyghurs, Kyrgyz people, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Tatars were the majority of people and there were five small autonomous regions inside.

The region was adjacent to Taklamakan Desert and Gobi Desert, which were the seismic centers of the yellow dust blown to Korea every spring and it was the strategic point of the Silk Road in the past.

Since there were too many ethnicities that emigrated, Chinese people considered the region as a foreign country. Naturally, the people resided in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region looked certainly different from traditional Chinese people.

Among those people, the ones who had made their foray into the border area were Han. If they were Uyghurs, Kazakhstan would not have been keeping an eye on them, but Han people were the ones who took over the border area using the force of the Black Society and more Han people were settling down in the area. Since Kazakhstan’s economy was being drained by them, the government could not favor them.

The border was only marked by a checkpoint and it could be easily intruded by Han people. If they decided to take over Kazakhstan’s territory, it was not like Kazakhstan would survey the territory to confirm the border. Since Kazakhstan was a huge territory, there was no reason for the government to get involved in a conflict for the wasteland and it was not like the country had enough troops to guard the border.

However, if Han people claimed to establish an autonomous region, Kazakhstan would be in trouble since it would have no manpower of economic power to stop them. Also, the U.S. would not let that happen since it also claimed to be the police state of the world.

Youngho was that country’s intelligence agent and moreover, he wanted Kazakhstan to be stabilized for the peace of Arirang Farm. There were other plenty of reasons to protect Kazakhstan. One of that was that there was a high possibility that Kazakhstan and Korea shared the same root.

“Do you get what I’m saying?”

Youngho explained why Kazakhstan was important but Jongil’s unexpected response was surprising.

“You sound like you want to take over Kazakhstan.”

“Man, I’m saying Kazakhstan is that important. What are you saying?”

“You know what I usually say.”

“It’s all the same?”

“Right. Man, I have nothing to teach you anymore.”

“Alright, master. I’ll go down the mountain now. Are you satisfied?”

On the airplane to the border city, Almaty, Smith watched the two as they were talking in Korean. He was curious about how many languages the two could speak since they spoke English to him and Russian fluently at the airport, and now they were chatting in Korean. Knowing that they could also speak Azerbaijani and Armenian, Agent Smith felt self-conscious. He regretted proudly mentioning that he was from the headquarters and looking down on them since they did not go through the elite course.

***

The border area of Kazakhstan in February was extremely cold.

The three had spent the night in the rental van and just went out to see the market where Han people had dominated. Insisting that the Kazakh’s territory was part of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Han people had built assembly buildings back to back and were selling Chinese products and Korean cosmetics.

As if they had a separate warehouse, they had a ton of products piled up. Youngho also could spot several Kazakh retailers making a bargain with Han people through Uyghur interpreters.

Smith who was following around Youngho and Jongil went back to the van since he could not handle the coldness anymore.

Jongil was now approaching bulky jogs with a scowl on their face ahead of him. They were standing around a bonfire. He was going to provoke a quarrel. Holding a black plastic bag on one hand which carried a piece of cheap winter clothes that he just bought, he looked just like other shoppers.

Youngho followed behind him from about five meters away.

Jongil squeezed himself in those jobs and casually crouched near the fire. Since a stranger had abruptly joined them and warming himself with their fire, they could not look at him with favor. They spoke something in Chinese and pushed Jongil away.

Jongil fell down in an exaggerated manner and made a fuss. Youngho hurriedly ran toward him and picked him up and began saying Russian to the guys who pushed him. It did not matter if they understood Russian.

“Hey, you! Why did you knock down an innocent person?”

The jobs were startled as Youngho yelled at them with glaring eyes. There was no one who could treat them this way in the market. Youngho also approached the one who pushed Jongil and kept saying things as he pushed his chest.

Baffled by Youngho’s attitude, he stepped back and finally he was pushed near the bonfire but it did not last long. The fire was caught on his pants and he began screaming and jumping.

It was impossible to put out the fire on cotton-padded trousers unless he stripped it off, and there was no regular water in the extreme cold and there were no fire extinguishers in the assembly buildings either.

A few guys tried to put out the fire and made a fuss to undress him. On the other hand, they kept peeking at Youngho and Jongil since the two might run away. Since this was the plan, Youngho and Jongil stayed still around them. The guys even spotted the two smirking at them. They turned furious.

Although they laughed intentionally, the guy’s situation was quite funny since he now had no pants. As Youngho and Jongil turned their bodies as if they were about to leave, several jobs stopped them. Now it was show time.

“You said, you would look around the market for a while.”

Agent Smith could not continue his words. He watched what happened at the market when he was looking for the two to ask to return to Almaty. The view of ten jobs on the ground making groaning sounds and Youngho and Jongil dusting their clothes were quite contrary.

“Man, it’s cold. Why are these guys so stingy about sharing their heat?”

“Of course, it’s cold. Christmas is coming!”

Their conversation left Smith dumbfounded.

“…”

“Well, let’s go. We should warm ourselves by taking a hot bath at the hotel in Almaty. Phew, I thought that they were better at fighting. I was just warmed up.”

“…”

“I think this guy needs time to soak all this. Youngho, I’m going to drive.”

***

Youngho was surprised to find out that Agent Smith was this chatty.

During the four-hour drive, he continuously asked questions without ceasing. In the end, he began to nag that Youngho and Jongil should teach him martial arts skills. His sparkling eyes reminded Youngho of Zeynep.

Eventually, Jongil agreed to be a teacher for him by the authority of Kazakhstan’s operative team’s director. Jongil had assigned Agent Smith as an unofficial member of Youngho’s team.

“So, you’re saying those kinds of jobs are scattered around the border area.”

“Yes, it’s not only that. They’re disguised as street jogs but some of them looked like they’ve been trained.”

After returning to the hotel in Almaty, the group was listening to Smith at the hotel bar.

“How long has it been since they showed up at the border area?”

“It’s been about three years but they had remarkably increased in number since last year. I have some acquaintances in the Kazakh military and although they patrol around in common attires, it doesn’t seem enough.”

Kazakhstan was about twelve times bigger than the Korean Peninsula but had less than twenty million populations. Although many countries around Southern Russia were friendly to each other and crossing borders were not a big deal between them, China was a different story. Historically, China was a hostile country during the time of the Soviet Union.

Since there were only 20,000 soldiers in the army, Kazakhstan could not manage to patrol around the border area. There were plenty of weapons received from Russia but since there were not enough soldiers, those were only being stored in warehouses. Although Kazakhstan had become friendly with China after declaring independence and there were many trades between the two countries, keeping the border was a strict matter. Kazakhstan was alarmed by the Han people’s taking over the territory.

“I’ve got the sense from the headquarters wishing that there would be trouble at the border area. Is your action today related to that as well?”

Agent Smith was quite quick-witted.

“If there is a conflict between civilians at the border area, eventually military will be involved. If that was developed, even more, tension will rise between the two countries at the border, and any conflicts between the two countries would have a third country’s arbitration eventually.”

“Ah!”

“Now. You know why we’re here.”

“Indeed. There were some conflicts in Astana since a China town was formed but somehow it was quieted down suddenly. I’ve heard that a regional mafia organization had ended the conflicts and…”

Youngho hurriedly changed the subject since it was Youngho and Yaniv’s mafias who almost devastated the China town.

“Anyhow. Those jogs would not show their faces for a while. New faces would probably show up in common attires and patrol around the market. We should capture a few and let them talk if we want to find out how many are involved in this.”

At Youngho’s words, Agent Smith looked worried.

“Well, if they find out that we’re involved, it’s not going to be a small problem.”

“I’m saying that’s why we’re here. Trust us. We’ll be acting like regional mafias.”

Agent Smith was excited that Youngho and Jongil were here to deal with the matter. He felt like having two big brothers who had his back no matter what.