Empire of the Ring

The intelligence agents of the autonomous state investigated Naiman’s movements and confirmed who was helping him behind. Surprisingly, the former Mayor of Almaty was Dauren. He lived in a luxurious house, so it was hard to believe that the protestors were not receiving any help from him. It was a mystery.

“This is obvious. That Naiman is either a great actor or a con artist. We were both so gullible to fall for his sincere face.”

“It’s too early to jump to conclusions. He was maybe being played by the former mayor who lives in this house, or maybe is pretending to be fooled by him.”

“Can’t you see? They’re partners. The mayor must have known what was in the Presidential Palace and told Naiman about it, and that’s why the protestors were only gathering at the palace.”

“If so, that Naiman guy is dead.”

“Whoa, how did the former mayor get so rich?”

The top leaders of the country turned out to be the most corrupted people, but it was still a mystery how a mayor had acquired so much wealth. It was just stunning how luxurious his place was even though he was not an entrepreneur, but a former civil servant.

“Well, what can I say? The whole officialdom is evenly rotten. There is no immediate solution to this problem in this country. All we can do is to teach children well and hope that they will be better. Let’s not make a fuss about the fact that’s not even surprising anymore.”

“We’ll take him down tonight, then we’ll know the truth.”

Youngho and Jong-il signed as they looked at the former mayor’s luxury house.

“Are you kidding? This guy with a suspiciously luxurious house is concerned about the future of Kazakhstan and supports anti-government protests? No one will believe it unless he’s a fool.”

“Yep. His house is no less than the second daughter’s house. Man, he must’ve siphoned off so much of the city budget.”

“That Naiman guy must be as corrupt as him.”

Naiman, who wanted to establish the principle of the country by doing anti-government protests, had a corrupt politician watching his back. There was no doubt. There must be something that he was after, other than the anti-government protests.

Youngho was even disgusted after he went over the fence of the former mayor’s house.

With a large pool and a garden, the house was decorated with luxurious materials and furniture. Compared to this, the Grand Palace in the autonomous state was modest.

“Hey, hey! Calm down and let’s find and interrogate him first.”

“If all officials and politicians are like this, it’ll be better to give their jobs to nomads and farmers.”

The two acted as if they were intelligence agents sent by the Kazakh government.

Dauren, who was flustered to think that he met robbers in masks, found some peace as the two introduced themselves as agents of the government.

“It’s quite rude that you came to visit me at this hour when you could’ve sent a formal notice.”

“Everyone knows that you’ve been in contact with anti-government protesters. How can we visit you officially? We had no other choice but to climb over your fence.”

“The young people who are concerned about the country’s future visited me to make me their pivotal center, but I already refused their request.”

“We already checked that Naiman had been coming in and out of your house. Don’t pretend that you don’t know about this. Speak the truth or you will face a rough ride.”

He looked slightly embarrassed as Youngho mentioned the name of Naiman.

“I couldn’t get him away from my house because he kept visiting me. If you don’t like the fact, why don’t you put policemen in front of my house?”

“The demonstrators are focusing on the Presidential Palace. How will you explain that?”

“What’s that got to do with me?”

“You are one of the few people who know what is there. We know that you are the one who slipped that information to the demonstrators. Isn’t that why they are focusing on the palace which is only a tourist attraction to other people? Also, a few days ago, someone took the entire contents from the palace. That’s why we had to be here tonight. We’d like to know where you’ve taken the valuables in detail.”

Dauren was devastated to hear that the gold bars, which apparently he was after, were gone. He was so stunned that he verbally asked if those gold bars were all gone, which revealed his purpose to siphon off the gold. Since then, the torture began. Knowing how Kazakh agents and police department tortured people, Youngho and Jong-il did exactly the same. They kept yelling to Dauren to tell where he hid the stolen gold bars, and Dauren, who was not responsible for the stolen gold bars, did not know what to do.

As the people who had been talking to him in a nice manner suddenly turned violent, Dauren finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

In front of violence, he was helpless. With tears and a runny nose, he started to answer Youngho and Jong-il’s questions. In the process of examination, they found that Naiman knew about the existence of the gold bars. But, he only decided to cooperate with Dauren since he promised that the gold bars would be used to support the anti-government protest. Using Dauren’s greed, Naiman attempted to secure funds for anti-government protests. However, whether he had other intentions behind his actions was still unclear.

***

The former mayor turned out to be a bad guy already, but Naiman’s true identity was yet to be revealed.

As the police officers who had been protecting the Presidential Palace retreated, Naiman, moved to other sites of the city and continued to protest. As a professor of a university, he led a protest group that consisted of professors and students. It did not seem that his sole purpose was the gold bars. Youngho began to think that he was only cooperating with the former mayor as a way to obtain protest funds. Youngho’s money which was given to Naiman earlier as a support for anti-government protest enabled the group to keep on their protest. Now that there were decent demonstrations everywhere other than the palace, Youngho was pleased.

“I guess they now have enough funds.”

“Well, it’s not that Naiman is completely off the hook but I’m glad that we have confirmed his pure passion.”

“I’m sure he wanted to hold on to anyone because he had no immediate recourse to rely on.”

“There are people who you can get along with and who you shouldn’t. No matter how hard their situation was, it was a bad choice to get involved with the former mayor.”

“Hey, without money, there are no protesters. I’m also sorry that they joined hands with the corrupt mayor, but we should let that go now. At least, they’re doing a great job now.”

Although Jong-il did not think too deeply about this matter, Youngho’s idea was different. If one wanted to correct Kazakhstan’s wrong government, he should distance himself from politicians who were no different from the corrupt leaders of the country. It was right to overthrow this regime at all costs, but he did not want to join hands with anyone who could be of help.

“Hey, I don’t think we can leave protests solely to professors and students. They’re passionate about their country but they don’t have a strategy. If they keep their ways, all sorts of trash will try to intervene with their good cause. We should act.”

“Are we going to take the lead?”

“We need to get involved systematically.”

“All right. Let’s clean up the trash first.”

Jong-il was enthusiastic about Youngho’s decision. He rolled up his sleeves as if he was going to act immediately.

As demonstrations, which were limited to the Presidential Palace, took place sporadically throughout the city, the entire city slowly began to stir up.

Protests performed by regular citizens were bound to begin with someone’s instigation, and the agents of the autonomous state took that role. Naturally, student organizations and ordinary civic organizations were linked to each other under one purpose, and citizens were now leading the protest. Student organizations now also begun to recognize that effective anti-government activities required the power of civic groups.

Before returning to the autonomous state, Youngho met up with Naiman again.

“Mr. Naiman, civic groups are joining the protest, and they’re asking for funds. What do you think?”

“I was going to meet you to discuss it. The protest had been difficult with the strength of students only, but the civic group’s involvement is a big help. We don’t care if you support the civic group or the student group, as long as we can keep our anti-government protests.”

“It’s very fortunate that the two organizations are supporting each other. How long can you stay focused on the protests? Some of you have to teach students at school, don’t they?”

“I can’t leave the student protesters to seek my own comfort. Also, I can’t give up on the expectations of the people who help me from behind.”

“You’re not connected to politicians, are you?”

He admitted it without much agitation to Youngho’s question.

“I cooperated with politicians because we had a shared goal. It’s not important since it’s in the past.”

“They could be a threat to the whole protest group.”

“I’ve already made a great sacrifice. Because of my stupidity to gain funding, young students were sacrificed. I’m the one to blame for since I made that decision. But now we don’t have to work with politicians anymore. I don’t have any shared interests with them.”

“I see. I guess the politicians had a separate purpose.”

“There’s been a little bit of shameful event. They wanted to use their power to fund, and we responded to that.”

It seemed that Naiman had realized that he made the wrong choice.

Youngho did not bother to make a comment because it was already in the past. He was rather thankful that he did not lose someone like Naiman for this. Naiman was someone with great potential to become his good ally, so Youngho was excited that he had found a pearl in the dirt.

“Would it be so easy to get a man? It is fortunate that the misunderstanding has been resolved. You were almost angry at all of the intellectuals of Kazakhstan.”

“That’s why politicians shouldn’t get involved.”

“That Naiman is a man with a straight mind. He will never take that route again.”

“That’s right.”

“Did you give away all the money we got from the mayor’s house?”

“Of course. We gave evenly to families of those who were killed or injured during the protest, and the rest is given to fund the demonstration.”

Before leaving the mayor’s house, the two collected all of the expensive items and sold them at the black market. The money was distributed evenly to young people who were killed or injured in the protests and their families.

Naiman had been suffering from guilt, and when Youngho delivered the consolation money to the casualty family, he was moved to tears.

“Man, I left him alive for no reason.”

“He’ll be crippled for life. That’s enough punishment for him. Let’s go back to the state. Looks like our work is done here. I have a lot of work to do.”

“I’ll take care of some priority work at the autonomous state quickly and go to Sweden.”

“What’s up there? Are the fighter jets ready already?”

“I need to sign a warplane extradition document and discuss the establishment of an air defense network.”

“What do you mean? An air defense network?”

“Our state doesn’t have an air defense system at all. Even if the old Mustang shows up, we’re going to get destroyed helplessly. We need to have an anti-aircraft missile system.”

“That’s an awesome thought. How did you come up with that?”