Empire of the Ring

Chapter 298: A Claim for Damage (3)

Now that they were safe, Youngho and Jong-il felt extremely tired.

The two made a bonfire between rocks and sat down.

Jong-il began searching for food in his backpack.

“Do you still have some combat rations left?”

“What we had last night were the last ones. I’m starving. I’ve got to eat an energy bar.”

Since they had bombed the pipeline, made a fire in the military camp in Urus-Martan and run in the mountain for all night, it was about time they were hungry.

The place where they were taking a break now was Shovi, a mountainous village in Georgia, near the border with Chechnya. At dawn, they set fire to an oil tank at the Russian military unit in Urus-Martan and ran to Georgia.

Since Chechnya was a small country, running to Georgia was not a problem for both of them with their enhanced physical abilities but they were still tired, for they had been nervous all along.

“Why wouldn’t they feature this on the news when two places are wrecked?”

“I have no idea. They just want to keep it a secret. I mean, it’s not something to brag about. Russia wouldn’t want another copycat terrorist attack.”

“I don’t know about the oil pipeline but I what about the military campfire? They can’t hide that. The whole people of Urus-Martan know about it.”

The Russian government could also take advantage of this to blame Chechen rebels and Islamic radicals and pressure Chechnya. It would be revealed what the government was after soon.

“Let’s move. I think it’ll only tire us if we stayed here for longer.”

“At least I feel refreshed for playing with a firework in a long time.”

They went back to Almaty through a complex route and came back to Baku by flight in order to secure their alibis. The world had gotten in an uproar for a while.

Chechen Islamic radicals had announced that they were the ones who attacked the oil pipeline to the press even though that was not true. It was their way to warn the Russian government. Youngho wondered how they found out about the explosion. He was dumbfounded by their reckless action.

“Man, they’re indeed radicals. Would Russia leave them alone if they do this?”

“They just want to attract the whole world’s attention to this matter.”

“It was reported that it’ll take at least two months to restore the pipeline.”

The TV news was reporting the economic loss and restoration period, referring to experts’ quotes.

The aftermath of the explosion of the pipeline was great.

Russia had directly lost a few billion dollars for not being able to export oil crude and its indirect loss was even hard to estimate. The Russian Army was spotted to move to Chechnya in the end.

Watching the news, Youngho had a smile of satisfaction on his face.

“Now, let’s find what’s been going on at the Black Sea.”

“Don’t you think Russia will take some time to retreat from the sea?”

“You know, Chechen Islamic radicals are officially announcing that they’ll continue to attack Russia’s properties. Russia will have to act fast in order to stop them.”

Ironically, Azerbaijan was benefiting from the attack on the Chechen oil pipeline.

It was because the price of oil crude from the Caspian coast had gone up.

Zeynep Security Service now had more work requests since the Azerbaijani government had asked to guard its oil pipeline. The government was concerned that Islamic radicals would bomb their pipeline connected to Turkey.

Cha Insoo was worried that the security guards would get hurt if the company took the job. Being the actual terrorists, Youngho and Jong-il, had to hold back their laughter.

“Insoo. I already inquired about this at the CIA’s European chapter and confirmed that this was only a problem within Chechnya. It’s irrelevant from Azerbaijan.”

“You think those terrorists will care which pipeline will get bombed? I don’t think so.”

“Don’t worry about a thing and just send the new recruits there.”

“They don’t even speak Azerbaijani yet...”

Many hotels in Istanbul relied on Zeynep Security Service for their security. The security guards of the company had been getting great reviews for being trustworthy hard workers. Because of the growing demand for more guards, the company had recruited 30 more employees who had formerly served in the Korean Navy Special Forces Unit just like other security guards.

They came excited to work in a foreign setting but they had only been locked in Zeynep Farm for the past two months since they needed a lot of cultural, linguistic, and physical training. It seemed to be a good time for them to start working in the field now.

***

“The recent information you gave me was very useful.”

Eriksson simply commented.

Useful information meant that he satisfied his customers with the information. Since Youngho gave him a specific period of time of the attack, it would have served him well.

“I’m glad it was useful. I think Russia’s policy would change because of this too.”

“Well, that was something we’ve been expecting. The southward policy will be delayed for a while. The conflict in the autonomous state in eastern Ukraine will calm down as well.”

Surprisingly, Eriksson was slipping out some valuable information. Youngho was not sure if he was doing it on purpose or if he just assumed that Youngho knew about this already.

“Since armed Chechen rebels allegedly said that they will join to provoke Russia soon. Small and big incidents will continue to happen.”

“What will happen from now on does not mean much to my customers anymore. This has already been reflected in the market. A gift to you will arrive soon, Mr. Lee. Since our customers are greatly satisfied this time, you can expect something big.”

“Alright, then. I’ll talk to you next time.”

The tension of the Black Sea was already predicted, but the pipeline situation’s effect was great. Russia suffered a huge loss—Youngho and Eriksson were benefited by that. Although Youngho received the damage for his businesses from an unexpected entity, it did not matter to him. All he needed to know was that the Black Sea would be open soon.

The evacuation of the Russian Navy Fleet that had been at the Black Sea which happened five days after Youngho and Jong-il returned to Baku. Having lost their purpose of being there, the Turkish Navy Fleet was also pulled out not long after that.

Arirang Shipping’s Choi Sun-kil called Youngho to inform him that the blockade of Bosporus Strait was also lifted. As the Black Sea was quieted down, the prices that had been going up, then began to fall at once. Although the provision of daily necessities was not fully normalized yet, the security in people’s mind had stopped the rising prices.

All of the ships that had been tied down began sailing again in the Black Sea.

Jong-il complained that his waiting time was extended because of the ships flocking to the Volga-Don Canal at once.

“Man, we’ve done a useless job. I miss the old time when there were no ships here.”

“Oh, what dreadful thing have we done? I don’t remember a thing.”

“Oh, forget it.”

“Russia will make up for its damage because of canal charge.”

“Hahaha...”

Chechen rebels and Islamic radicals were now competitively attacking Russia. The explosion of the pipeline and the fire in the military unit seemed to have motivated them. They were certain that someone who belonged to either organization had done those since there was no reason for them to catch fire without an outside force.

Russian military facilities all over the Chechnya including the capital city, Grozny, were attacked by the rebel forces. Eventually, the situation got out of control that Russia had assigned their specialized units in all over Chechnya.

What Youngho and Jong-il had sown was becoming out of control now.

***

The harvest season of Zeynep Farm and the Charles Farm had begun.

This year, the national broadcast of Azerbaijan came out to report the scenes of cultivation. Zeynep Farm had now become a major attraction that it was one of the first spots that people showed when foreigners visited the country. It was because the farm was equipped with a large-scale vineyard, modern winery facilities, and oak cask production factory.

Moreover, because the Azerbaijani government had been trying to attract agricultural investment and development in the country, Zeynep Farm was a perfect exhibit for the purpose. It was a successful case of foreign investment, so the government was taking advantage of the farm to promote its agricultural development plan.

Baku was a dry place just like Kazakhstan, but because of the plenty water source from the Caucasus Mountain Range, people did not worry about water deficiency. Especially, Zeynep Farm had a stream that had a large volume of water despite its small size, so the farm was immensely benefited by it.

Rich amount of daily sunshine, huge daily temperature range, dry climate, and other factors made grapes with great taste. In addition to that, the wine that was aged in oak casks for years in the dead mines at the Serbian Ranch was now widely-known as premium wine.

Baku’s liquor retailers kept asking Youngho to distribute Zeynep Wine to Baku’s market but Youngho had been rejecting them. There were not enough quantity of wine for domestic sales since every wine was distributed to Russia and the European market. Youngho also did not want to compete with business people of Baku since he knew how dirty they could get.

Common Azerbaijanis were usually kind and innocent people, but business people did not have ethics.

“Boss. That guy’s here again.”

Gerhardt informed that a liquor retailer was visiting as he entered Youngho’s office on Zeynep Farm.

“Gerhardt, I told you that you need to reject them.”

“He came with a business card of a high government official. I can’t handle this on my own.”

“Phew, I can’t give him anything from the export volume. I don’t know what I can do. Okay, please escort him in.”

It seemed that the retailer decided to use his connection to a high government official because he could not turn Youngho’s mind on his own. Youngho was glad to hear that someone wanted his wine so badly, but there was nothing he could do.

After a moment, a huge man in his 40s entered the room.

A mid-aged man called Minerva Jetman lousily introduced himself and began to talk about whom he was introduced by, and how he was related to high officials.

“Have you tasted Zeynep Wine?”

“I fell in love with the wine when I tasted your wine at Arirang Hotel in downtown. Oh, would you please let me sell your wine at my store?”

“You must already know this but most of our wine is exported to Russia and some of them are sold to Turkey and Germany. It’s not a lie when I say that we don’t have enough quantity for you. If I decided to distribute the wine in the domestic market, I’ll also be violating the contract with my buyer and have to pay for my buyer’s damage.”

“I heard that you bought farms nearby the Charles Farm. I assume you have more products now.”

He must have researched about Youngho’s business pretty well.

“Those farms are on test harvest this year. They’d be producing grapes at full scale starting from next year.”

“Can you at least let me sell some for a limited time? It’s a sad thing that Azerbaijanis can’t have what was produced in their land.”

Youngho did not have anything to say but he had given up the domestic market because of the local business people. He sent the retailer away after saying that he would consider it for now.

“Boss. That Jetman guy doesn’t have a bad reputation. Well, it’s not so great either though.”

Gerhardt had inquired about him. In Baku, that much of reputation meant that he was a good businessman. Since most of the businessmen’s reputation was horrible.

“I don’t know if I should ignore him since he is connected to a high government official.”

Although Youngho also had connection to Sevan of the Main Police Department and the president, it was always great to have more connections and good relationships with other officials too in Azerbaijan.

“He seems to be pretty well-off. Why don’t we provide him premium-quality wine? With that price range, you won’t have to compete with other small-scale vineyards.”

“The ones that I provide to Arirang Hotel? Wouldn’t that be too expensive?”

“You cannot refuse to sell our wine to the domestic market forever. Why don’t we compromise and say that we’d only be providing premium-quality wine to Baku? Baku is not a huge market but considering our image, we should promote high-quality, expensive wine.”

“Very well. Let’s then provide him 5-year-aged wine. Let’s compete with the French and Italian brands.”

French and Italian wines were known as the best-tasting wine, but Youngho was confident that Zeynep Wine was better.