Empire of the Ring

The resources buried underneath the Caspian Sea were three hundred billion barrels of crude oil, 2.6 trillion m3 of natural gas deposits, even Russia announced that two hundred billion barrels of crude oil was buried underneath their territorial waters. The region was the El Dorado of energy resources, which had the second most oil deposits after the Middle East.

The regions around the Caspian Sea also had lots of mineral resources such as uranium and copper all over the place and Kazakhstan has the greatest amount of uranium production and deposits in the world. It was amazing to know that among the regions of Caspian Sea, 7 billion barrels of crude oil and 400 billion m3 of natural gas deposits were underneath Azerbaijan's territorial waters and they were ready for mining, it was amazing.

Since the oil price was fluctuating over the world now, Zeynep Oilfield Service agreed with the Azerbaijani government to produce natural gas from District seven, which had been tested for extraction. The Azerbaijani government hurriedly announced that District seven's estimated amount of gas deposits was 10 billion m3. Until 2006, the government had imported gas from Gazprom, Russia's large oil and gas company. However, after the discovery of gas reservoir underneath Azerbaijani territorial waters, Azerbaijan now became an exporting country. It was natural that the government was so proud to announce their new resource discovery at District Seven.

The estimated daily production rate was 5.6 million m3 which was the amount that summed up to 2 billion m3 a year, the buried amount was what they could produce steadily for five more years. Although natural gas price particularly changed often, based on the standard of 2010, they were sold at 250 dollars for 1,000 m3, and every year they could make 500 million dollars from gas sales. They could make more money if the price fluctuates like this time.

When developing oil, the Azerbaijani government and oil corporation's profits were split at the ratio of 75% and 25%. Even if subtracting the pipeline installing fees and taxes, Yaniv would earn 80 million dollars a year, and since Youngho's share was 5%, he would get 4 million dollars for his portion. They say that oil exploration is either a jackpot or nothing. Since it was a success, Youngho would be rolling in money soon.

These days, it was hard for Youngho to stay calm. If there would be no safety accidents like gas leakage, he would be making 20 million dollars over the next five years, so it would have been weird if he did not laugh. There was another thing that made Youngho smile. It was the fact that Sergey officially requested security service from his company.

Including District six, which Yaniv already had before buying the exploration license for District seven, the two districts needed thirty security guards and six more for supervising positions for day and night shifts. Since the land pipeline should be under watch, the number of guards needed had increased. Youngho made a system where he used locally hired people for regular guarding positions and Korean crews for supervisor positions. He was happy for several pieces of good news but there was a crucial problem for his security service company, it was that most of his Korean crews did not speak English since he did not give weight to language when he hired them.

The ones that spoke English although not fluently, were already sent to guard Baku's famous CEO, and the security guards sent as security supervisors of District six and seven were having a hard time since they mostly relied on translator apps on their smartphones and communicated using body languages.

Among the recent ten new recruits from Korea, three people could speak English but since they were still being trained for localization on Zeynep Farm, it did not seem right to place them in the work field.

After their work shifts were finished, the Korean recruits were busy to learn Azerbaijani and English. Since Youngho was also learning Russian from Kim Ilkwon he could not blame them. He knew learning a language was difficult, especially when they have to learn while working in the field with local people in a foreign land. Once the language problem was resolved, life in a foreign land would be half a success because there would be nothing to fear once people could communicate with others. Not being able to communicate would make people feel timid and act passively. If that continued for long, people's personalities could turn passive. In fact, there were a lot of Korean people who had been living in foreign lands for a long period but many of them would not even dare to go out alone due to communication problems, unless they lived in somewhere like Los Angeles, where there was a lot of Korean population residing in Koreatown.

***

The second floor of the Zeynep Farm's mansion or the management building was under renovation. Cha Insoo had called a renovation specialist and was making a plausible home for Youngho and Fatima.

When Youngho first built this building, he made a lot of rooms so he could use it as a residential floor for farmers, but now the rooms were useless. So, Insoo was combining rooms to make bigger rooms of different purposes. Although Youngho refused to have a bigger room, Insoo insisted and since Fatima also liked his idea, he had to shut his mouth.

Fatima, who had been shy when there was a wedding rumor was now actively involved in the preparation process and told her opinions. She wanted to make the mansion a more family oriented place now that Sangchun's parents were living in together. Keeping in mind the future babies, she worked with the renovation specialist with deliberation. Youngho did not say anything to intrude because Fatima was the one who would be in the mansion more often than Youngho and he felt awkward looking at her. It was unbelievable that he would be sharing a bed with her and it was also embarrassing to look at Szechenyi and Zeynep. They were like a family but now they were becoming in-laws.

"Youngho, Fatima requested to make three kids' rooms. Did you agree on that?"

'Is she going to have three babies?'

"No. I haven't even proposed yet. How can I ask that kind of question?"

Insoo looked at Youngho in absurdity.

"Do you even want to get married? I can do house makeover for you but you need to…! Man, I'm lost for words."

Insoo clicked his tongue and gave Youngho with a pitiful look.

"Hey. How do you do it?"

"Jeez…!"

Making a fuss, Insoo called on Jongil who was downstairs. Coming up the stairs, Jongil made a comment,

"Dude. What do you even live for? You want us to propose to her for you? Fatima must be waiting in tiptoe for your proposal. Now, stop testing her patience. We'll help you. First, we need to go downtown."

Dragged by Jongil to downtown, Youngho bought a decent ring at a jewelry shop. Since Fatima did not like glamorous things, he picked a simple design. Although Jongil insisted him to propose to her romantically at Flame Towers, he refused his suggestion and called Fatima to the reservoir of the farm. The moon was full just in time and it created a plausible atmosphere. Youngho felt the cringe since he had to see her as a woman whom he had been treating like a little sister but it would not be acceptable if he did not propose to her, especially in the culture here.

In the Caucasus regions, there were many proposal agencies that planned and helped out whole proposal event. Fatima would not forgive him for the rest of her life if he skipped the process just because he felt awkward. Youngho seated Fatima on the bench near the reservoir and kneeled down before her holding out the ring toward her.

***

Youngho sent out invitation cards individually to Yaniv and other close friends. There was still a month left but he informed people in advance, so that they could set the time apart from their busy schedules in-between other year-end events. Since December 20th was a Saturday, many Westernized people might feel uncomfortable coming to his wedding since they would be taking their Christmas break. However, because it was that time of the year, it seemed that many people far away could make it for the Christmas break or end-of-the-year break.

Only Yunsuh and her husband would be coming from Korea and other long-distance guests would only be his two friends in Yerevan, Armenia and Yaniv's company in Russia. He did not contact the CIA people, since many of them would still be working but he called Eriksson of the information agency because he was acquainted with Eriksson's family in Stockholm and he needed to maintain his relationship with Eriksson for future potential businesses.

***

Youngho now was hurrying his steps to the gas field construction site of District seven. In concurrence with the Azerbaijani government, the site was in the middle of installing conduit line. Today was the day of President Aliyev's visit to the site, there would be a tape cutting ceremony to celebrate the beginning of the construction of the oil field production line.

The work had begun fifteen days ago already but the official event was being held today. Of course, Yaniv, the major shareholder of the company from Russia had flown into Baku yesterday. Looking bright as if he had enough rest at the hotel, Yaniv shook hands with government officials and politicians. As soon as he found Youngho, he gestured to Youngho to come near him.

"Lee, today's guest of honor is you. You can't hide in the back."

"People already know that you're behind this."

"I'm just an investor, you are the representation of the corporation."

"I'm a disguise representation, Mr. Yaniv."

"Hahaha…"

"Anyhow, it's such a wonderful thing that we found this much amount of gas field only after seven months of drilling."

At Youngho's positive remark, Yaniv smiled and began to talk about wines.

"I heard that you've made an impression to the president by showing up with wine boxes in your hands."

"Haha, I did that. The president said the wines taste great."

"Do you want a little nudge?"

"Well, it would be great if you could slip some words to the president. Can you mention that Azerbaijan can't mistreat the wine from his own country, which Russia buys out every year? If my wines get picked as the wine for the official national banquet, you'd be able to distribute them in higher prices as well."

"I sure will do that, I also told some of my men to find a market in Western Europe. Since Russians like the taste, wouldn't it work for Europeans too?"

"As a matter of fact, if my brother-in-law comes, I'll let him be in charge of sales in Western Europe."

"Man. Then, our markets will overlap with each other. Should we combine the distribution companies with your brother-in-law?"

"My brother-in-law will want to work alone. He doesn't like collaborating with other companies."

For the Western Europe market, Youngho wanted to work individually apart from Yaniv, so he made up some words. It was because there would be more profits for Youngho when Cho Sangchun finds the market alone and he thought that it was enough for him dealing with mafias. Although he had a good relationship with the mafia group, it was him and their relationship. There was no guarantee that they would also be kind to Sangchun.

The group was exhaustively after profits, meaning that they would not be mindful of others to the point where they lose money. Whether because Yaniv knew Youngho's heart was not sure but he did not say any more.

***

After running up a mountain as part of their training, the security crew was panting heavily. Since Youngho and Kim Ilkwon were running with them, they fell over themselves to show off their strength. They were competitive not wanting to be beaten by Ilkwon who had been a North Korean agent and their senior Youngho, who years older than them. However, their efforts stayed as only efforts. Youngho had beaten them even without putting on the leather shoes.

"Huff… Huff… Boss, what do you even eat? How can you be so fast and strong?"

"Eat what? I train every night to stay strong. I can see that you've been smoking for years. I'm not going to tell you to quit but you don't believe that you can outrun me when you smoke like that."

"Phew, I should really quit smoking this time. After being discharged from the Navy, I've been doing all sorts of bad things to my body. I'll take me a while to get back in shape."

"You know, your seniors maintained the best physical condition by training every single day when we first came to overseas."

Youngho added a little lie in there. There were days when he drank too much until he passed out and the next day he would be wobbly all day long. However, it was true that he did not try to lose tension in the body. To be specific, it was after he became a CIA agent.

The security crew was stronger than most people but they fell short of Youngho and his friends. When Youngho and his friends did not have any special thing going on, they always trained in the evening. It was partly because they were trying to get used to the ring and leather shoes and expand its power, and partially because they were also training Szechenyi. When the weather was not great, they worked out in the basement of the mansion to stay focused and maintain the best condition. Looking back, living in a foreign land and facing many enemies, Youngho and his friends always tried to stay alerted and not to loosen the tension.