Empire of the Ring

Chapter 52: A Dangerous Gamble (3)

Park Jongil had returned from Germany after receiving his training from the European Chapter. Now he was officially an agent. With his great physical abilities, he stunned the CIA’s drill instructors. They showed the power of Korean Special Forces’ training.

Now that Cha Insoo was guarding the farm and Park Jongil was working as a backup agent, Youngho felt relieved. Since they were good friends, it was easy to communicate and plan strategies for defense. Cha Insoo’s official title was assistant manager under Gerhardt, who was the director of the farm.

Youngho wanted to make Cha Insoo the director but he could not. By Azerbaijani foreign investment law, foreign investors had to have a local person as a business partner as an executive manager. They could replace the manager if they did not like them but they still needed a local person in the place. Azerbaijani government made a wise law for its economic development. They made their citizens a local agency for foreign investors’ business to prepare for the case when they ran out of oil. While making money, the local people learned how to run businesses working under foreign investors of developed countries.

However, the local business agents’ abilities were not up to international business standards. Youngho was using Gerhardt since he was loyal but he did not have management ability. He had hard time dealing with contracts and other business-related documents, though he was good at labor and what he was told to do. Also, the law stated that the foreign investors should hire 90% or more of needed employees among local people, as a great way to raise local employment rate.

Cha Insoo was as surprised as Jongil when he first witnessed diverse weapons stored in the basement safe room.

“Youngho, I heard about this from Jongil but you seriously need to have an armory or something. What if somebody finds out about this?”

“The safe room is my armory. I have the key to the room. It’ll be fine.”

“Don’t they have like a sudden inspection or something?”

Youngho never thought about it before but there was no one in Baku, who would dare to search his property. He had the president and head of Main Police Department.

Cha Insoo’s opinion was different.

“We are foreigners. No matter how much you think you have gotten used to this life, you are still just a foreigner. This country is as same as a socialist state. If things went wrong, they’ll not hesitate to come and search your belongings without any notice.”

“…”

“I’m talking we should prepare for the worst case. Just simply think.”

“You are right. They can do anything in this autocratic country.”

Cha Insoo was a careful person. The safer room was to prepare for an emergency. Cha Insoo’s idea was to hide the safe room, so it would not be discovered by others and to have a month of food supply stored in it. So, Youngho, Insoo, and Jongil renovated the basement interiors. Now the safe room could not be seen by people who had not been to the room before.

Youngho told his two friends about potential changes and dangers due to giant oil corporations and Edward’s possible reckless action. He also shared his mind that he would pull out his friends in the Armenian militia. Cha Insoo told him not to worry about them.

“Chulhwan and Sangtaek already have girls that they want to marry in there. Even if you want them out of there, they’ll not come. I know you’re the one who brought all of us in here, but from then on, the choices is ours to make. And should you be worried? It’s us! We can take care of ourselves in danger. You’re thinking too much.”

At Cha Insoo’s words, Youngho’s heart became heavy. They all came here for money but now, it was not sure whether Nagorno-Karabakh would still persist to exist in near future. Their identities were disguised as Korean language teachers but it was a matter of time when they would be revealed. Youngho just hoped that the worst case would not happen.

Having received blazing sun rays, right temperature differences, and enough water, Zeynep Farm’s grapes were maturing well. Gerhardt excitedly said that there were more fruits than he expected for the first cultivation. Youngho expected to have 300 gallons for each acre, but it seemed like he would have much more yields than that.

With Cha Insoo added in the farm family, the farm became even livelier, Insoo took care of small and big things that Youngho and Jongil have not been able to care for since they were busy for outside work. With his meticulous personality, he managed to fix anything Fatima asked. He was known as the ‘Midas touch’ in the farm.

His skills learned from UDT such as; underwater welding, dealing with explosives, running and repairing different machines and equipment, were useful in the farm work. Insoo did not have anything to do outside of the farm since he did not speak Azerbaijani and his English was also short. Until he could at least language, he was living almost a half-mute. Therefore, Zeynep became his English tutor. Cha Insoo followed her around everywhere, and she loved it since it felt like having a bodyguard following her.

There was a fuel station in the farm. When constructing the farm facilities, they had buried two huge tanks underground, so they could get any oil needed for farm equipment from the system. In Azerbaijan, oil was cheaper than water, so people did not care for oil prices.

Zeynep and Gerhardt’s children drove four wheelers around the farm all the time and when they got tired of driving, they went to explore the nature around the farm, such as the mountain, woods, and river. In the summer, the mountains were full of fruits and fun things to do. They sometimes brought wild berries picked from the mountain. Youngho also enjoyed fishing in the river with Szechenyi. Although Insoo did not have fun following around the kids, Youngho was relieved that a trustworthy bodyguard was protecting the kids.

Sergey called to announce the on-board party’s date.

Youngho, the siblings, Jongil, and Karajan all got ready and went to a dock in between the Old City and Carpet Museum. The size of Yaniv’s yacht was immense. The giant yacht was 60 meters long, it made Youngho wonder how much money the mafia boss had.

With Yaniv’s welcome at the entrance, they got on the yacht. After touring around the yacht, Youngho wanted to ask how much the it was but it seemed not classy to ask about the price.

Sometime later, they were served a luxurious dish made out of Caspian Sea’s popular caviars.

“Mr. Yaniv. How much do you need to pay for this kind of yacht? It would cost you a ton just for the maintenance.”

Youngho had to ask laying down his pride.

“Why do you ask? You must like this yacht.”

“…”

“This cannot be among the leagues. The yachts of wealthy people who cross the ocean probably cost ten times more than mine.”

“Phew, I shouldn’t have asked. I’m just going to make wines and go climbing on the mountain behind my farm instead of yachting.”

“Hahaha…”

“I like doing physical exercises. It makes me feel like I’m alive.”

Although Youngho envied Yaniv’s luxurious life, he did not show it.

“Well, if you need a yacht, let me know. I’ll let you borrow mine.”

Youngho was embarrassed.

“I appreciate your offer but I don’t think I’ll be using a yacht like this. I’ll just be happy if you invite me to your parties sometimes.”

“No, you’ll need it some time. President Aliyev sometimes borrows mine too. He should have saved a lot of money behind but he can’t just buy a luxury yacht in front of many eyes. So he borrows mine.”

From Yaniv’s answer, Youngho caught important information. It sounded like President Yaniv who was known to be integritous and clean, had been storing funds in secret.

A long-term seizure of power by one man always needed money to maintain the power. The money was used to maintain supporters and to hush people speaking against him. It was the government that the president received from his father. It must have been done from the president’s father’s generation to receive lobby funds from officials and big corporations. It got Youngho worried about whether he should have bribed the president since he would be expanding his business in Baku. He had not prepared anything when he was invited to the presidential palace. In order to survive as a businessman in Baku, he thought he should also bribe some funds.

Youngho subtly asked Yaniv about his concern. Yaniv’s answer cleared his mind. He said that the president earned so much money from selling oil that he does not care about small funds. He would not receive anything even if Youngho gave him and Youngho should not worry about it since President Aliyev would not even care for it. Yaniv was predicting that the president must have astronomical amount of money to maintain his government.