Empire of the Ring

Although Youngho had his right reason, an assassination was still a job he did not prefer, especially when it was going to be a global issue that could change different nations' relations. Moreover, Philip would not agree to what Youngho was about to do. Thus, he decided to finish the job before meeting Philip. He would have to sneak into the hotel and finish the job.

Youngho and Jongil quickly approached the hotel.

Like many cities in Europe, Geneva had many small buildings in lines. The Hotel de la Paix was located in a place where small buildings were closely built together. It was an old hotel but it was maintained pretty well that it did not look that old.

Many European hotels focus more on the luxury indoor facilities and high-quality service rather than the exterior of the building. Although the hotel had only six stories and 75 rooms, the inside of the hotel was very elegant as it was a famous hotel that many influential people of the world had visited.

Youngho and Jongil jumped from a nearby building's rooftop and snuck in to the hotel through an open window. Looking at an old stone railing that had been smoothed out by many people's touches, Youngho could see how old the building was. It amazed him how a building that was built in the late 1800s could be maintained this clean.

He felt guilty to that he would be staining the old hotel's history with blood. Avoiding CCTVs installed inside the hotel, he went down through the stairs but he had to stop when he neared the third floor. It was because there were sharp-looking men guarding around the hall entrance.

Youngho and Jongil put masks on their faces and body slammed them. Even to well-trained bodyguards, it was hard to avoid unexpected attacks done when they were off guards. Not to mention, the two moved at the speed that was beyond what a normal human would have. Soon, the two moved three bulky men at one corner of the stairs and opened the entrance door to the hallways.

There must be other guards at the room where a secret deal was being carried out at the moment. Sure enough, three men were roaming around the hall. Two were at the elevator and one was standing in front of a room with a bored face.

As soon as the door opened, two objects moved like a flash of lightning. Since it happened too fast, the guards could not even fight back. There were only attacks from one side.

After taking down the guards in the hall, the two kicked the door into the room where a guard was protecting. There was only one guard inside the door and he was knocked down immediately. Only five mid-aged men talking at the couch were stunned and looked at the two intruders.

Among the five of them, two were French and three were Armenians.

Since Youngho had lived overseas for long, he could tell who was from where only by looking at their faces. As if the men were about to sign on contracts, they were holding pens but were stunned to see intruders.

Youngho took their documents first.

The next step was to shoot their knees with a gun, with a silencer. Although they screamed loud in pain, as Youngho put his finger on his lips, they only groaned in fear.

Youngho and Jongil searched the men's pockets to identify them. They picked the leaders of each party and shot them in each of their abdomens. Not wanting to kill them, Youngho stopped at that point. If they did not go to the hospital soon, they would die for excessive bleeding tonight.

***

"Lee, why do you take so long? It only takes about twenty minutes to get here."

"I was inspected three times on the way here. They even searched my backpack, so there was nothing I could do. I could get away since I didn't bring my pistol."

"Phew, I thought something bad happened to you."

Philip must have been nervous thinking that he would have to deal with those officials alone.

"Did they leave yet?"

"No, the negotiation must be still going on since nobody came out yet."

"That's great. Philip, you've done a great job catching their meeting alone."

They sat at a cafe across the hotel and as Youngho was taking his mouth to his coffee to sip, about ten vehicles of police cars and ambulances approached the hotel building with loud sirens. It seemed that the incident was reported to the police now.

Soon, the hotel entrance was crowded with reporters and broadcasting vehicles. The police line was set up and an armed quick reaction force surrounded the hotel. The police must have thought that the attackers were still inside the building. Even if the suspects had gotten away already, the police department had to show some efforts since an influential French politician and diplomat had been attacked in order to save their face to the international public.

Philip was discouraged after exchanging some conversations with a policeman.

"Was someone attacked?"

"They're still not sure but it looks like the French diplomat was attacked."

"What about the Armenians? Did they leave the hotel already?"

"No, they're still inside. I remember their faces clearly since I've been following them around for the past week."

A few more ambulances arrived and reporters surrounded the vehicles. To Youngho and Jongil, it was such a pain to wait to see what was going on even though they knew about the whole situation. Philip insisted to wait until the Armenians came out, so they had to wait two more hours at the cafe until the news broadcasted that two French and three Armenians were attacked.

After coming back to the hotel room, Youngho sent the arms purchase list document which he had taken at the arms deal meeting to Eriksson.

Most of the items were missiles and there were even fighters on the list. He was not sure what the Information Agency would do with the list but his part of the job was complete. To Michael, Youngho just told him that he had no idea what really happened.

Michael was just relieved that the arms deal was foundered at least. He ordered Youngho to standby in Geneva until there was further instruction.

The press all around the world was talking about the incident in Geneva. It was indeed a big issue since Italian, French, and Armenian politicians and arms providers had been assaulted in a row.

Anybody could guess that Armenia had contacted French politician and arms provider to have an arms deal.

Azerbaijan was also shocked by the fact. From all over the country, people boycotted French products and there were multiple mass crowd protests. The Azerbaijani government had sent a letter of protest to the French government since it was trying to incite a war by selling weapons to Armenia. Even President Aliyev had announced a written statement to France.

France, which not only had not accomplished what it had planned but also had its diplomat and arms provider assaulted, was attacked by the press of the world. It was same with Armenia. The country was downgraded into a hostile country that only cared about wars against Azerbaijan with was seeking peace. Although Armenia stated that the purpose of the arms deal was only to protect itself, nobody bought their statement.

Because of the aftermath of this incident, clouds of war hung low over the border of Azerbaijan and Armenia. It was rumored that Azerbaijan would launch a preemptive attack.

***

Youngho and Jongil who were responsible for all the recent issue were enjoying their peaceful time at the Lake Geneva as they fished.

Located at the border of Geneva and France, the Lake Geneva was the biggest lake on the Northern Alps, which had 72 kilometers of length and 1.4 kilometers of width. It was shaped like a crescent moon.

"Man, have you only been fishing instead of working?"

As Philip was catching more than what Youngho and Jongil had caught altogether, Jongil teased him. Philip smiled and showed them a little earthworm.

"You can catch them if you dig the ground a little bit."

The two had used fishing lures and indeed it made sense that the trout were attracted to real baits.

After catching quite a lot, they grilled the fish at the barbecue facility at the lake and drank wine together.

"How long do we have to standby?"

"The conference will go on for two more days and I should report to Michael that we're taking off. I'm afraid that we're going to get an earful from him since we didn't accomplish much."

"Those attackers… they were like ghosts. I am glad that they exposed the arms deal instead of us. The Azerbaijani government won't sit back and watch if those missiles made it to Armenia."

Youngho was uncomfortable to hear Philip since he was the attacker.

Even though they could stop the deal this time, missiles would eventually make into Armenia. The only way to stop it was to inspect every cargo delivered through Georgia but the Georgian government would not allow it easily since it could affect its relationship with Armenia.

"The states will pressure Georgia since there is no way for Armenia to get arms delivered to them without passing the Black Sea."

There was another way. If Armenia could go through a third power, they could get arms delivered by an airplane. However, there was no country that would do that for Armenia except for France.

***

"Mr. Lee, our clients were satisfied greatly by the information you sent me."

It was Eriksson calling about the list that Youngho sent him.

"What do they need that for? The purchase list that only had items and their prices."

"Well, this is a business secret but I'll let you know one thing."

According to Eriksson, whether a particular arms company had developed new weapons or not could be conjectured only by looking at the list of items or techniques they had agreed on selling.

If the company was selling the latest manufacture technique of arms to other countries, it would probably mean that the company had made more advanced arms at the moment. Therefore, knowing this information, the companies that treated core materials of weapons like tungsten could call a high price to the arms company for the future deals.

Youngho was only astounded that such information could be implied by the purchase list of arms items. With only one document, many related companies would determine whether to invest in arms development or to call higher prices for materials in their stocks. It was a new world for Youngho.

Before hanging up, Youngho reminded Eriksson about one thing.

"I didn't tell Michael that I attained the document and I can't tell you how I attained it."

"Our agency only values the information in our hands. All pieces of information have fortunately ended in our hands somehow and we ask no questions. I also tell my clients that information could be manipulated on the news too. Are you satisfied with my answer?"

Youngho was relieved by Eriksson's clear answer. No one would find out about Youngho's work in this.

At Youngho's account, five million dollars were transferred soon. It was from Eriksson.

Apart from whether the information had this much value, Youngho was astounded by how much money those related companies paid for such little piece of information.

Of course, Youngho had to sneak into the hotel and fight with many bodyguards in order to attain the document, which was unimaginable to many normal people but was it really worth five million dollars? It was surprising since the agency would have received more than five million.

Youngho could not say anything about the Information Agency to Jongil, so he told him that the commission from Michael had arrived as he gave him 500,000 dollars. It was obvious that Jongil would make a fuss about being an information businessman if he knew about the truth. It was better for him not to find out about it.

Sure enough, Jongil was excited about the money he received.

"Youngho, let's quit the CIA and do this kind of jobs instead. It's almost five years of our payment."

"I pay you more than what the CIA pays you. Don't get too greedy."

"That's that. It'd be nice since we won't have to hear Michael's nagging and complaining."

"We were just lucky this time. Do you really like shooting guns and getting involved in fist fighting?"

In fact, Youngho had wanted to quit the CIA soon now that he had enough money. However, the CIA's job had its charm. Also, it did not seem like Michael would be allowing his resignation. For now, he would have to take advantage of being an agent until he quit in the future.