Empire of the Ring

Basayev called Youngho two days after their meeting in Chechnya.

He said that he was able to reach the Black Eagles, the armed rebel force in the Caucasus Mountains. It seemed that rebels around the Caucasus liked the word ‘black’ in their names. Youngho requested Philip to deliver all the necessities at Georgia’s border city, Shatili, by December 23.

Youngho planned to bring the farm family to Georgia this time including the Fatima siblings and the Jongil couple. He would slip out from the family to complete the mission to deliver the necessities for the Black Widows, and after that, he would apply for leave from Michael. He thought, if he did not do this, Michael would give him another difficult assignment.

As for Insoo and his wife, Youngho thought that he could give him a break for their honeymoon when he would return from learning basic education in Frankfurt.

Jongil welcomed Youngho’s plan. Karajan had been complaining to Jongil, so he was glad to have a chance to redeem himself by making Karajan happy.

The farm was excited because Cha Insoo’s wife, Kim Sunghee, announced her pregnancy. Insoo was still in Frankfurt, so the farm family congratulated her. Insoo, who was officially in Frankfurt for farm business to the farm family, heard the good news through a phone call. Insoo became emotional by hearing the news, so much so that he could not continue talking for a while.

Insoo and his wife Kim Sunghee had been dating since high school. They were known to be the couple that never fought. They were both born from poor families in a rural town and had been working hard to get by since young. As soon as Insoo found a job, he had been earning money and paying for his wife’s two little brothers’ college education. Now that he was making enough money, he settled down with his wife in Baku. There was no wonder why Insoo was so emotional since they finally bore a fruit of their love after all those years.

***

“Zeynep, you’re just mean. How can you treat everyone else except me?”

“Oppa, you said you didn’t like ice cream because of your tooth.”

Everybody laughed while looking at Jongil and Zeynep’s usual argument.

At the arrival lounge of Tbilisi Airport, Zeynep bought ice cream for everyone with her own allowance except for Jongil, and now they were arguing about that. Since it was their first trip in a long time, everyone looked excited.

Agent Philip, who resided in Georgia, came to greet Youngho and his family at the airport. Since Youngho and Jongil saved his life, he had been wanting to pay back the favor someday, so he became a guide for their trip.

He picked them up with a twelve-passenger van and drove them to Marriott Hotel that he reserved for Youngho’s company. While driving the van, he gave a little tour around the city.

The guys stayed at the hotel café and the others left to go sightseeing. Since Youngho and Jongil already told them that they would be working during the trip in advance, Karajan and the siblings decided to enjoy the trip by themselves.

After ordering coffee, Youngho spoke to Philip.

“Philip, we’re sorry to bother you. Since I’ve been too busy that I couldn’t spend time with my family, I brought them here. I promise that it won’t affect our job, so don’t report this to Michael.”

Philip laughed as Youngho jokingly asked a favor.

“Lee, I’m sorry that this is all I can do for you. You became even busier because of me, so don’t worry about that. Also, I already hired a bodyguard for your family so they’d be safe around here.”

Philip had assigned a local agent in the city as their bodyguard.

“I don’t think they’ll get in trouble. Isn’t this place known to be safe?”

“No, because of your family’s beauty, there might be some dregs troubling them. I want your family to have a peaceful trip here.”

“Well, thank you for being so thoughtful.”

Saying that he wanted to pay him back for rescuing him, Philip acted humbly. He thought that he would be thankful for his entire life since no one in the CIA came to help him, but Youngho and Jongil came to find him in Nagorno-Karabakh after only hearing that ‘an agent was captured somewhere.’ Despite the danger, they came to rescue him and carried him over a mountain in coldness. It was something that other agents would not do.

Philip reported that the items to be delivered to the rebels were stored in the storage in Georgia’s border security at the village of Shatili.

Youngho’s company would be standing by at a ski resort in Bakuriani, which was located on the way to Shatili, and they would move near to the Chechnya border on the 23rd.

When finishing up their conversation, Youngho slipped about doing business with the mafia in Tbilisi, Georgia to ask for Philip’s help in the area. Philip had heard about how the South Ossetia’s store was opened with the help of the Russian mafias. Youngho explained that the mafias would be using Youngho’s name as the owner of the business since Georgians did not like Russians. Philip agreed to help Youngho, saying that he could look for a spot for their store and get the business permission from the government.

***

Because of the snow, the tires rotated in the same place without advancing even though they were chained. Around 10 AM in the morning, Youngho and Jongil left the family at the resort, telling them that he had a business in Tbilisi. With Philip, they were on the way to Shatili to make it to the appointed place. It was 3 PM, but the village was still seven kilometers away.

Although Shatili was a famous tourist destination, it was known that no one visited there during the winter due to the massive amount of snow.

There was a blade installed in the front part of the Philip’s van just like a bulldozer. Youngho did not know what that was, but now he learned that it was for plowing the snow. However, because of the blade’s weak power, the van could not proceed at its normal speed. They shoveled the snow around the tires and pushed the car from behind multiple times on the way. They could finally reach the village of Shatili when it had turned dark. In a public parking lot of Shatili, there was no car parked. Instead, there were three donkeys tied to a pole.

At a hotel café, two bearded men and Basayev waited for Youngho’s company. They greeted him as Youngho entered the café with Jongil and Philip. Youngho expected that they would have gone already because it was too late, but they were still waiting for them as if they had expected that snow would delay Youngho’s arrival.

Without introducing names, they shook hands each other.

While Philip explained the location of the items to the two bearded men, Basayev and Youngho exchanged the gold bars and money in private. Basayev took the bag of money that Youngho had brought, and Youngho hid the gold bars that weighed about thirty kilograms in the van. When they returned to the café, Philip was finishing up the conversation. Moments later, Basayev invited them to a restaurant for dinner.

The two bearded men were members of the Black Eagles. Since Basayev agreed on giving 40% of the items to the Black Eagles for delivering the items, they had dinner in an amicable atmosphere. It would take them at least 15 days to deliver the items on donkey backs on the rough mountainous paths, but they did not mind at all. The Director of the Black Eagles was happy, looking as if he had received a Christmas gift. He suggested drinks to Youngho’s company.

He drank cognac as if it was water. Every time Youngho saw him drinking, Youngho felt like his stomach was hurting. Since he was forced into drinking together, Youngho could not help but drink.

The Black Eagles were people who fought against Russia in the cold mountains. They often slept in the open, and drinking was essential in their life to fight the cold. While drinking, Youngho asked why they liked to use the word ‘black’ in their names and their answer was impressive. Chechens loved crows from the time of their ancestors, and they just used the word black since the crows were black.

The Director of the Black Eagles added that the ‘black’ from the Black Widows were not inspired by crows since they were inspired by women’s black chadors. However, Basayev defended the Black Widows, saying their ‘black’ had dual meaning and it was also inspired by crows. They loudly bickered at each other, arguing who was better than whom.

Looking at both sides, Youngho thought that their will was respectable since they were at a guerilla war against Russia for their independence with only 500 men.

The next day, Youngho’s company went to the storage with the rebels. There was a lot of checking process since they had borrowed Georgian border security’s storage. Youngho had no idea what kind of negotiation Philip had with the Georgian government, but now the Georgian government was protecting the weapons and necessities of Chechen rebels.

The border security was not in favor of the Chechen rebels since they frequently plundered their supplies coming down from the mountains when they were short of their own The Georgian government only decided to store their supplies because the US CIA had promised that they would be in charge of the rebels.

After checking the items and quantities, each side signed on the agreement form for the transfer of the supplies.

When they came out of the storage, there were more than a hundred donkeys lined up, snorting violently. They were the fifty Chechen rebels camping around the village from last night. They had been stealthily following Youngho’s company as they moved.

Even with the supernatural sense from the ring’s power, Youngho had not noticed them. It was true that they were a skilled, outstanding force that even the Russian Ranger Unit that was famous for their strength could not make them surrender when they attacked them in the Caucasus Mountain Range.

Youngho only expected belligerence and strong personalities from Chechens who had undergone countless attacks from other countries in the past, but he did not expect them to be this extraordinary. Jongil, who standing next to Youngho smoking, also shook his head. He had not felt anything, just like Youngho.

Loading the supplies on donkeys in line with consistency without causing noise, the rebels’ actions were fast and neat. Thinking that it would be horrible to meet the rebels as enemies, Youngho turned back from saying goodbye to the rebels who quietly left using the trail that only shepherds used.