Empire of the Ring

Georgia's Poti Sea Port was one of the most well-known trade ports at the Black Sea.

Since it was only an hour away from Batumi by car, Youngho's group had flown to Batumi first and was on their way to Poti Sea Port on a minibus, Marshrutka. Youngho had bought a Marshrutka since he thought that he would be moving in groups frequently from Batumi's Arirang Hotel.

Cho Chulhwan and Um Sangtaek, who had been living in Batumi and looking after the hotel's construction had joined the group, the bus was filled with robust guys.

Upset by the fact that they were excluded from the last operations, the two friends yelled at Youngho that if he was going to work on an operation in Georgia, he should get permission from them since it was their territory. Thus, the two had come along with the group this time.

Poti Sea Port was like a Mecca of cars.

Among the three nations of the Caucasus, Georgia was the most advanced in the car parts industry. Georgian government was also advertising it proudly, so foreigners often misunderstood that there were countless parts factories lined up in Poti.

However, all of the parts in the city were used ones. The city was famous for collecting used or scrapped cars from North America or Europe and polishing their parts to sell in the market.

That was why one had to be cautious when buying a car in the city. Cars could look polished from outside but their parts could have been put together forcefully to make the cars work. The safety of those cars was not guaranteed.

That being said, Poti Sea Port was no different from an open-air flea market. Since many raw materials and used products were unloaded at the port, the cargo handling area was so packed that there was no place to put anyone's feet.

The port's cargo handling system was different from other advanced countries' ports by far. Any freighters visiting the port had to wait at the outer harbor until there was an empty space at the dock. Especially, if a freighter was carrying the cargo of arms that could not be shown to the public, the sailors would wait until the port got quiet.

The French freighter was one of those vessels.

"They're so shameless. Do they think that they're not detectable since they have another country's flag up? The crewmen are all talking in French."

At the stern of the ship, a Panamanian flag was hung and at the front of the vessel, a Georgian flag was hung. Usually, when entering a foreign port, a freighter hung on the flag of the country to enter at the bridge, and the flag of the country that the vessel was registered to was hung at the stern of the ship.

No one would be able to guess that the freighter was French by looking at those flags but some of the sailors who got off from the vessel at the dock were all speaking French to each other.

"They're not shameless but fearless. They'd only be able to come to themselves when their fingers are burned."

"At least this time, they did not have an over-sized cargo. I can see the waterline, the vessel must be bigger than the previous one."

"Look at them, they're obviously soldiers in anyone's eyes."

Where Youngho was pointing his finger, a group of young sailors passed by smiling.

A strange thing is that some non-sailor-looking men were mixed in among them. If one looked at them carefully, he could figure out that they were soldiers.

Their manners in which they acted gave a hint of well-trained soldiers. They acted in orderly and neat movements. Even the mafias had noticed these facts by observing them closely.

Also, the mafias did not forget to convince the port officials to be cooperative with them. Whether they threatened them or had something on them, Youngho could only guess that mafia-style way was used to convince them. It was something only mafias could do. He thought that he made a great decision to work with mafias.

***

"Mr. Lee, we got something. It seems like most of the sailors would get off the freighter tomorrow. Tomorrow, the crewmen are having a group lunch at a downtown restaurant. The restaurant staff told that they were expecting thirty people. Excluding one or two people guarding the vessel, all of them would be there."

"You've done awesome work. Mr. Michael that's important information. Please reward your men who had gone through troubles for this."

To get this information, the mafias had been laying low in the meantime. Michael had mobilized dozens of his men to stalk each sailor. As he achieved a satisfying result, he was exuberated. In fact, Michael and his men were the key parts of this operation since information was the most important backbone of any operations. Youngho's group's work in the operation was only an outcome of such hard work from mafias.

Thirty sailors were not needed to move a vessel in the 20,000-ton class. With the development of technology, freighters these days used a diesel engine and including sailors on different shifts, only about ten people were needed.

Since most of the crewmen were getting off for lunch, Youngho thought that taking over the vessel could be a better solution than exploding it. Although it was staying at the outer harbor, he was not sure how big the explosion would be if there were missiles on board. Also, it was a great chance to attain the cutting-edge weapons worth an astronomical amount of money. He was excited.

Two rubber boats approached quietly near the French freighter, Youngho's group was in them.

They threw a hook tied to a rope to the side railing next to the bridge of the vessel and climbed up the vessel quickly. They could see a little light from the steering house and the bright light was coming out of the windows of the cabin on the deck.

Everyone approached the gangway after Youngho hand-signed to them. Jongil and Insoo went near the cabin's door where the bright light was coming from, while Youngho and two other juniors went up the stairs to the steering house since there must be a communications watch in the bridge.

There were four watchers on duty left on the ship. Youngho's group had subdued them immediately and let them at a corner of the cabin. Although the freighter carried weapons, they did not expect anyone to approach the freighter that was floating at the outer harbor. Moreover, since they had been waiting for a long time in boredom without any risk elements, they were now off guard.

The guys who were left on board were one communicator and three French soldiers in service. Now that the freighter was seized, dozens of Michael's men came on board through the gangway. They were sailors from Russia that Michael had hurriedly hired, and among them, there was a technician that could neutralize GPS attached to the vessel.

The four sailors captured were taken to a house near the port. They would be able to escape on their own by tomorrow or be discovered by someone else.

Cha Insoo and the other junior security crews parted their way from Youngho, Jongil, and Ilkwon as they would be going back to Baku from Batumi on the airplane. They agreed on meeting at Kazakhstan later.

On the other hand, Youngho, Jongil, and Ilkwon were on the French freighter with mafias and Russian sailors. The freighter had started its engine to get to Sea of Azov which was within Russian jurisdiction through the night.

***

"What's all this? This must be a short-distance anti-tank missile and wait, this is a portable size but since it's bigger, this must be ground-to-air missiles."

Youngho, Jongil, and Ilkwon who went into a cargo hold were unwrapping the weapons with curious eyes. There were numerous ERYX anti-tank missiles, Mistral ground-to-air missiles, and MICA air-to-air missiles. A surprising fact was that there were five ground-to-ground missile launchers which had a capacity of launching dozens of missiles.

It was no wonder why a big freighter was needed. The massive missiles and heavy launchers were extremely heavy.

A question was why the MICA missiles were being delivered. Those MICA missiles were installed on French fighter, Rafale. The missile's range was about 100 kilometers that its accuracy was world-class.

Youngho could assume that French fighters would be stationed in Armenia soon.

After the freighter had reached the Sea of Azov, the group had quickly erased the name of the vessel and put a new name on it. Since there were too many freighters that looked similar, it was not easily recognizable if the name was changed.

The problem was the maximum weight of a vessel that could pass through the Volga-Don canal was 5,000 tons. So, the cargo in the holds should be unloaded separately.

All of the missiles were stored in wooden boxes, so they did not stick out but the five rocket launchers were huge that they needed to be disguised.

As the group had finished the preparation at the Sea of Azov, they waited for Michael to bring a freighter in the 5,000-ton level.

"How much do you think they all cost?"

"Shouldn't it be more than two hundred million dollars? Also, look at the missiles and launcher platform, they'll exceed a few million dollars themselves."

"Man, France,and Armenia will so grudge having to lose these. By the way, the problem is that France will be bringing their fighters to Armenia. We can't stop that?"

"If the vessel submerged at the Batumi Port was found to be carrying this kind of cargo, the US or Russia won't sit still for France's action. Let's see what'll happen."

"Where are you going to place these at Arirang Farm? Let's put some of them in the car-ferry freighter."

Jongil was a lunatic collector of arms just like Youngho, he was satisfied just by looking at those weapons.

The French freighter had its own crane so it was not a big deal to move the arms to a ship that would be passing the canal. The emptied freighter would be turned into a new vessel in a shipyard soon.

Youngho and the mafias agreed that the mafias would take the freighter and Youngho would have only the cargo. Mafias had no use for such weapons, so they were willing to give them to Youngho. For now, it seemed that the mafia had made more profit since a new vessel in the 20,000-ton class could be sold at about ten million dollars.

***

Arirang Farm's gigantic storage was full of weapons.

In desire of taking some more weapons back to Baku, Jongil frequently visited the storage even though the only weapons that could be loaded on the freighter, The Arirang, were a portable anti-tank missile and Mistral ground-to-air missile.

Since Mistral ground-to-air missile weighed about sixty kilograms, it was perfect to carry around on a car.

It was lucky that Youngho could seize those weapons this time. If the French freighter had not waited at the outer harbor for a long time, there would have been no chance for him. Since the mercenary company took the whole freighter and arms, which were invaluable, there was nothing to demand from Azerbaijani government.

Now, Arirang Farm in Kazakhstan had secured armed power that even a troop came rushing at the farm, it would be able to hold as a fortress although there would be no such incident. Youngho was now fearless. If he had to use those arms, he could carry them on his vessels.

As Youngho had been busy with the mercenary business, it was his first visit to Arirang Farm in a month, because there was good news at the farm, people were livelier than ever.

Dr. Park Youngsun's stubborn research had finally won. Although it was not large-scale underground water, he had found water that was enough for the townspeople's use and to supply water to form farmland near the water.

The construction of the pipeline to draw water to the town was in process.

Since the winter was harsh in Kazakhstan, the pipe had to be buried deeply more than a meter below the ground so that the pipe would not be frozen in the cold.

A huge reservoir was already built on the farm, so the water from underground could flow to the town through the pipe.

As the farm now had enough water, many problems were resolved at once, plus the speed of the house and stonewall constructions were now faster.

Water was an absolute element in the construction process since concrete could not be mixed without water. Although the amount of underground water could not supply the water needed for the whole farmland, Youngho was relieved since it could resolve the water needed for the townspeople and partial farmland.

At a distance from the town, the photovoltaic power generation system was being completed. All of the solar panels had been installed already, so once the system was completed, the farm would have more than electricity of its own.

The sight of solar panels tightly packed at the slope side of the farm was spectacular. The electricity that could be used by about 3,500 residents would be generated soon.

Because it was a windy region, a transmission tower was not built, but any cables were buried under the ground.

In mid-November when the winter begins, most of the construction would be completed except the stonewall and interiors of each house.

On the airplane back to Baku, Youngho's face which was looking down the reservoir and the residential town being built was brighter than ever.