Empire of the Ring

Maintaining uncomfortable relationship with the Korean embassy in Baku, Youngho heard surprising news from Seoul.

Chunho Merchant was being inspected by the taxman. There was nothing to be investigated since Chunho Merchant was a medium-sized company, not a corporation. Youngho knew what was going on; the director who visited his farm was taking it out on Chunho Merchant for embarrassing him. He used his connections to find something to destroy Youngho. It could also be the councilor of the embassy who was using his connections in Korea to take a revenge on him. Whoever it was, it was just pathetic.

Sangchun was a diligent and honest businessman, so the taxman would not find anything unlawful for the business but the inspection process was just a pain. Sangchun would be summoned multiple times to get investigated and people would come to investigate documents in Chunho Merchant’s office. Both of which would disrupt Chunho Merchant’s business.

Tax investigation was a common way for high officials to get rid of a corporation that they have conflicts with. Youngho was dumbfounded by the officials who did not care what they did wrong but only cared about saving their faces.

Youngho had an idea to resolve the problem if the officials kept on shaking people around him: Using SNS. It was not a difficult job to spread the word on the Internet, If he wrote that the high government officials declined to act upon important information, the press and people would be asking for facts. It would be a nightmare for high officials and politicians. At that moment, if Youngho sent emails and faxes to the press revealing the truth, it would be like adding oil to the fire.

‘Just push me to the edge. When you cross the last line, all of you’ll have to be prepared to lose your job.’

***

Hearing what happened to Sangchun, Jongil was ready to fly to Korea and wreck the building of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Stopping him by grabbing his collar, he dragged him to near mountain for hunting, taking Insoo along.

Youngho wanted to train Insoo with the leather shoes rather than to hunt a deer since he had not have a chance to use the shoes unlike Youngho and Jongil. They began to run at full speed in the middle of the mountain where no one was around.

“Youngho, why aren’t we hunting already? We’re just running now, why are you training Insoo suddenly?”

Jongil realized that they were not out for hunting.

“I’m just training to prepare for the future. We never know when we’d be gone for a long-term assignment, then Insoo will be the one in charge of the farm.”

Using the leather shoes, they could run faster than using four wheelers and it only took ten minutes to reach one end of the farm to another. If there was imminent danger, he must use the power of the leather shoes. Fatima and Zeynep did not use the rings and shoes at the moment, so Youngho borrowed theirs for Jongil and Insoo. Szechenyi was keeping his own, since he was also a man trained to protect his family.

Panting after they stopped, Insoo’s face was shocked to experience the leather shoes on his own.

“Youngho. What on earth, are the siblings? Their existence must be so important since they’re protected by these relics passed down by their ancestors. Man, we should really protect them.”

“You’re going to be the one who’d do that mostly now.”

“If their existence make these relics work, I should do my best to protect them. Don’t worry.”

Although it was not the siblings existence that made the magical relics work, Youngho did not tell Insoo about that since it was a better motivation to protect the kids. They were the owners of the relics anyway.

Following the two ahead of him, Insoo slowly learned how to control the leather shoes and became used to the speed of the leather shoes. Only after running about two hours in the mountain to train, they caught a mid-sized elk and headed back to the farm.

Because Youngho was not in a good mood lately, the siblings had been careful not to bother him. Knowing that, Youngho threw a barbecue party again to lift up the atmosphere. As they put on the meat on a grill, everything seemed to go back to normal. Youngho intentionally chatted more as he drank with others to cheer himself up and everyone else as well. Zeynep was also enjoying the party that she showed off her dancing skills again.

Fatima quietly came near Youngho and held his arm. She was thankful that he looked much better after returning from the hunting.

***

It was two days ago when Michael called from Frankfurt. He informed Youngho that Chechen rebels contacted him for help. It was an unexpected piece of information since Youngho had thought that they did not exist anymore. The rest of the Black Widows were all arrested or killed in their attempt to bomb Chechen oil pipeline because of Youngho’s report. Could they have been hiding somewhere waiting to rebuild their organization? It could only be the Black Eagles since the survivors, which was only one-fifth of them, went hiding in the mountains.

It was great news for Youngho since he knew that the rebels were known to have an enormous amount of gold bars. If only he could have deals for their supplies again, it was absolutely possible for him to get gold bars again.

Youngho accepted the mission immediately.

The contact point was a little hotel in the village of Shatili in Georgia. He decided to take both of his friends to the mission this time, so Insoo could actually put his training to use in the real field. Insoo was so excited to get on his first mission after becoming a field agent. When Youngho asked why he was so excited when there was no battle, he said that it was an enough thrill to see the rebels.

He had deep respect for rebels since they were known to be strong and tough. He wished to a drill instructor for rebels as he did it for the militia. He had been protecting the peaceful farm for so long now that he wanted some thrill back in his life.

They flew to Tbilisi, Georgia and drove an SUV which agent Philip had provided to Shatili. March of Shatili was still in winter, the snow still covered everywhere except on the roads, it felt like they were in a winter wonderland.

The hotel that they arrived when it was getting darker, the leader of the rebel force, the Black Eagle, whom Youngho had met before, was waiting for them. He was still alive after the Russian army’s mop-up operation. Glad to meet again, they hugged each other.

“You must have worried about us. We’ve fought with the Russian army for decades. We wouldn’t be called rebels if we were torn apart just because our bases were exposed. The Russian army would be thinking that they have destroyed all of us after desolating two of our bases.”

“The Russian commander I met also told me that you’re all gone.”

His face was hardened to hear about a Russian commander.

“Then, was that you who destroyed a company-sized Russian camp?”

“Well, we didn’t mean to but things turned out that way. So, please don’t spread the word.”

“Oh, what on earth! I was wondering who avenged for us. It was you!!”

The leader of the Black Eagle shook Youngho’s hand again. Youngho was the one who saved them when they went out to deliver the rebel supplies. He was amazed to hear that he was the one who saved them again.

He kept on saying that as the rebels were ready to get back to fight Russia after they were done hiding, they heard that the whole base of Russian border securities was killed overnight. They were planning on attacking the border securities but someone had already taken care of it for them. He laughed.

Because of that incident, the Russian army was alarmed for a while. They tried to catch the attacker by searching small villages of the Caucasus Mountain Range but no one was found.

The leader of the Black Eagle asked to exchange names now since they had the same enemy. However, Youngho disagreed to a high degree to stop him. He did not want to share each other’s identity since he was not sure when the rebel would be caught by the Russian army. It would be stupid to expose his identity to him.

As Youngho told him that he wished to stay the same despite the inconvenience, the rebel just shrugged and let it go. When he asked for any news in Chechnya, he confirmed that the Black Widows of Chechnya was completely wiped out and did not exist anymore. What the Black Eagle requested from the CIA was daily necessities for 500 people and firearms and ammunitions that could arm 200 people. Because they could not ask Georgia’s help anymore, they had to search for a new way to provide the supplies. Since Youngho had to report it to the European chapter, they agreed to meet the next day and parted their ways.

Michael told Youngho to give whatever the rebels needed. Since the rebel force was fighting against Russia and they had contacted the CIA first, he was suggested to help them from the headquarters. Since they could not store the supplies at the storage unit of Georgian border securities, the only way to provide them was to deliver the supplies quietly to a shepherd’s cabin in the mountains, so that the Black Eagle could take them on their own. Youngho thought that it was a no big deal for them since they were experts of hiding.

Youngho’s company met the leader of the rebels again and shared his plan. After their meeting was done, the rebel leader suggested an intriguing idea, he asked Youngho’s company to drop by their headquarters in the Caucasus Mountain Range.

Youngho was glad that he asked since he wanted to find out information about the Black Eagle; such as their size, level of training, and the number of firearms. There was no reason to decline his suggestion, not to mention, Youngho was interested in their gold bars.

After a tight preparation, the three friends went on to a shepherd’s mountain path following the rebel leader. Although he was fast, Youngho’s company was wearing the leather shoes. They felt light.

The rebel leader shook his head seeing Youngho’s company following him without breathing heavily. He looked at them as if they were monsters. There were not a lot of people who would easily climb on high mountains that was at least 3,000 meters above sea level with a heavy backpack on. Moreover, the path was icy and rough due to the cold weather. The rebel leader lost his words seeing the three guys climbing up the shepherd’s path as if they were walking on the flat land.

Stepping on a ridge, the leader asked to rest for a while. He put a cigarette to his mouth and ventured a question.

“What kind of trainings have you gone through? Your stamina is amazing. Can you teach us too?”

What Youngho was eager to hear finally came out of his mouth.

“We could send an instructor but this place is too dangerous. I doubt that anybody would want to come here.”

“If that can’t be the case, we could practice on our own. Do you have any textbooks that we can use?”

“The textbook can’t do anything, training is pushing the limits of your body. They must be trained harshly in extreme conditions and maybe one in ten people could reach up to this level. Can the rebels handle it?”

“We are warriors fighting for our nation. If we can’t endure such training, we should just quit and go down the mountain.”

“Are you certain? Alright then, we’ll check out the rebels once we go to the base.”