Empire of the Ring

“Ed. It’s been long.”

“Lee. I can’t keep my promise again this time. The CIA’s headquarters is just hectic over the Crimean Peninsula. I can’t make time to visit you.”

“I know that you’re busy. I’m in Frankfurt for a meeting and I thought of you today.”

“About the helmet, you requested before, the company said it will be sending about its information soon. You can read about it and let me know. Its functions will be limited and different from what the U.S. military is using though. Would that be okay?”

“Of course. I’d be thankful if one or two functions were added to the bullet-proof helmets.”

The two talked about each other’s life for a while and finished their conversation after agreeing to meet next time.

Edward was sad that he could not visit the autonomous state for this summer as he had planned to.

It was an unwritten rule for agents not to contact one another apart from work. It was to prevent any errors that could be caused by information exchange between agents. However, it was already well-known to the CIA’s insiders that the two were especially close, so there was no problem.

Youngho was the one who traveled to Colombia to save Edward and the two did not have any contact point in their areas of assignment.

The reason that Youngho hastily called Edward was not to ask for something.

It was because of a thrilling sensation that felt as if small needles had pricked all over his body swept him from top to bottom. This could be the mystical ring signing a warning, or this might just be Youngho’s guilt over Armenia.

Youngho knew that Edward would definitely mention about Armenia while talking. It was because he was an Armenian American, a very loyal one. If one wanted to know about Armenia’s news, Edward was the one whom he should go to.

When he used to be the agent overseeing southeastern Europe, his heart leaned toward his own people rather than staying neutral and rational as an American intelligence agent. He even earnestly asked Youngho to help Armenians.

Despite his request, Youngho could not help Armenia since Armenia’s policies conflicted with many of his businesses. He inevitably had to harm Armenia and it had left a scar in his heart too. That was why Youngho did not want to pay attention to any event related to Armenia. Even so, the ring’s signal that stimulated him consistently reminded him of the place.

Youngho wanted to find out Armenia’s situation through Edward but he did not find anything special through the phone call. Edward’s voice was heavier than before but it was probably because he was stressed over work for now. He did not seem that he wanted to give Youngho any message about Armenia.

Another reason that Youngho was eager to find out about Armenia was that this could be related to the future of the autonomous state.

The situation of the Caucasus was quite complicated now and if Armenia joined to add to the problem, it would affect the autonomous state too. The state was finally stabilized and if Armenia was in its way, Youngho would have to intervene to stop it.

Since he could not hear anything from Edward, he was going to push Michael to find out about Armenia.

Youngho knocked on Michael’s door again.

“Hey, you’re still here?”

“I still got time before my flight schedule.”

Realizing that Youngho had come for business, Michael took off his glasses.

“Talk to me. What interesting suggestion do you have for me now?”

Thinking that he had given away too much from his reaction to Youngho, he was on his guard.

“You know, Armenia has been too quiet lately. I just wondered if there were any strange movements. Don’t you think it’s odd that a country that had caused so many troubles so often had quieted down recently? The political leader’s not even changed.”

Michael gently pushed down his temples with his fingers.

It seemed that Youngho’s remark was giving him a headache.

Armenia was like a troublesome child to all employees of the CIA.

“I didn’t hear anything from Philip.”

He replied back at Youngho annoyingly as if he wondered why Youngho was bringing up an issue when the agent in charge of the region had not reported anything. However, Youngho knew that Philip despised the country. All he would be doing would be checking news about Armenia. Since there was nothing special going on in the country, he must not felt the need to pay attention to the country.

Indeed, Youngho’s feeling was not wrong.

Michael grilled the staffs of the electronic communication department to find out about Armenia and according to the satellite data analysis of Armenia’s movements in the past few years, it was confirmed that the number of Russian Army had increased remarkably.

Increasing the Russian Army in the country would mean that the country was up to something.

“Chief. Will you inform this to Turkey?”

“We shouldn’t be concerned with this number. I don’t wish to increase the tension between Turkey and Russia. Let’s keep this sealed for now. Now that we know Armenia and Russia had been preparing for an action, I shall report this to the headquarters.”

The reason that Michael believed that Russia was planning on action was that Russia’s attitude toward the railroad project that would connect to the Gulf had changed drastically all of a sudden.

Youngho also agreed with him. Although there were many reasons that Russia could not focus on the railroad project, it was still odd that the country did not put the project as its priority since it was the project that would make high profits for Russia.

The only country in the Caucasus that had allowed the Russian Army in its territory was Armenia. There was no way that Russia would have given up the southward policy. There must have been a secret deal between both countries.

The Armenian government once relied on the U.S. but after learning that the U.S. would not be supporting it anymore, it was closer to Russia now.

The U.S. had given up Armenia realizing that the country would not let go of Russia even though the U.S. had supported Armenia with the expense of ten billion dollars. The U.S. government must be feeling bitter toward Armenia too.

***

After returning to Baku, Youngho and his friends discussed future plans.

“Man, brown bears are exercising their talents.”

Jong-il was aghast by another piece of news.

“The Crimean Peninsula is already a captured prey. Why would Russia make a fuss about installing missiles? This was a cheap scheme for such a huge country.”

Russia had turned the whole world’s attention to the peninsula and was carrying on its other plans. The increased number of Russian Army in Armenia was proof.

Armenia’s dream was complete independence of Nagorno-Karabakh and the submission of Nakhchivan. The two countries had enough reason to become allies since Armenia was bordered by Iran and Turkey. This was a very tempting location for Russia.

Turkey and Iran must be restless to think that Russia’s force was targeting them in front of their porch. Turkey was still bitter for handing over the Crimean Peninsula in Imperial Russia. The increase of the Russian Army’s number in Armenia must be targeting Turkey.

If Turkey knew about this ahead, it would have threatened Armenia a long time ago for cooperating with Russia for overweighing Turkey.

“It’s good that Turkey does not know about this yet. Well, there’s nothing it can do now since the Russian Army is already there.”

“You know Russia is now in bad terms with Syria for the recent event. Is this what it’s all about?”

“It’s because of the U.S., not Turkey.”

There was an incident where the Syrian government had sprayed sarin gas in a region where Sunnites were concentrated. As a result of this, the U.S. attacked the Syrian government indiscriminately since the government had gotten its hands on prohibited weapons of massive destruction.

Russia could not act upon the U.S. attack, and Turkey, being Sunni, naturally supported the U.S. Russia that was supporting Shiites must hold a deep grudge against the U.S.

Now, the current situation was revealing Russia’s detailed plan for its southward policy.

Connecting Azerbaijan and Iran, it was making its foray into the Indian Ocean and using Syria, it was dreaming to enter the Mediterranean as well. This seemed to be the only explanation for Russia’s current movements.

“Georgia and Armenia are already connected with the railroad and the Turkey route would be available if Armenia’s border area was repaired. You know it’ll be hard for Turkey to reject Russia’s request to use some part of their railroad to get to Syria to enter the Mediterranean.”

“Man, they’re on point with their plan.”

“Ukraine is already in Russia’s courtyard. Russia can play with it anytime. When the international opinion gets heated, it’ll stop exerting its power on Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Russian Army in Armenia had settled down already. Okay, they have three negotiation cards now; withdrawal of their missiles, arbitration of independence movement of Luhansk, and the decrease of the number of its army in Armenia.”

“…”

“That’s why there’s nothing we can do. We’ll just be bystanders this time.”

Youngho then suggested making a missile ship.

“How are we going to make that with our technology? Should I kidnap engineers?”

“Do you think world-wide airlines produce all of the components of their airplanes at one place? They make components from different places and only assemble them by themselves. This is what we’re going to do too. We already have a lot of missiles. We can buy the rest of the system parts by parts.”

There was a one storage unit dedicated to all sorts of missiles taken from a French freighter a while ago. A body that could handle those could be requested to the shipyard in Baku and the core components could be assembled at the autonomous state.

“I’ve told you about this so many times and you ignored me. Man, I’m glad that you finally made up your mind. This hyung is going to show you what I got, you can just watch.”

Jong-il was very happy to hear about the new project.

“The shipyard in Baku is the best place to make its body. You know they can make icebreakers and that’s an advanced technology.”

“Alright. Now, you can take your hands off from there. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Seeing how highly motivated Jong-il made Youngho worried about the cost, he would not know what Jong-il would do.

But, it did not matter.

He had enough funds to have a missile vessel and it was better to use that money now than regret later. Anyone who stops his people’s well-being would have to suffer a missile shower from an unknown source. It would be funny if a merchant ship was turned into a missile vessel all of a sudden.