Empire of the Ring

When there was tension, people tended to make either small or big mistakes.

Especially when young and inexperienced soldiers were exposed to tension for too long, excessive stress would drive them crazy.

The confrontation between Russia and Turkey on the Black Sea had been continuing for almost three months. As soldiers' patience was running out, finally something big happened. A shot was mistakenly fired from one of the Turkish naval vessels toward a Russian destroyer. The shot was not aimed as it only raised spray, but the Russian Navy immediately began to fire back at Turkish naval vessels.

This became the trigger of the battle.

Both parties were enraged and kept shooting at each other. Countless vessels were damaged because of the battle. This also caused some casualties. Nearby warships also joined the battle, the battle lasted for an hour.

If missiles were shot, this could have developed into a full-scale war.

Fortunately, the conflict was settled right away because the Navies of both parties admitted their faults not long after the battle and tried to resolve it together.

Jong-il made a comment while watching a TV reporter briefing about the incident.

"I knew that something was going to happen soon. It's bad enough that they have to stay like that for three months. If I were one of them, I'd have already launched a missile a long time ago."

Youngho's mind got busy as he watched the news.

"Hey! That's not the important point here. Do you think any private ship will travel on the sea in this situation? Man, call them to stop all the ships now. If we get damaged by even just a single shot, it will be our loss."

Jong-il—who contacted a few people on his phone after taking Youngho's advice—frowned in frustration.

"A mineral bulk freighter from Kazakhstan is out of contact."

It was unlikely for naval vessels to misunderstand private vessels as warships, but Youngho could not shake off this bad feeling inside of him.

"Tell them to keep contacting the ship. The ship's communicator might be off for being too old."

The next day, Choi Sun-kil, the professional manager of Arirang Shipping flew to Zeynep Farm in Baku. His house was in Batumi, Georgia, and it was not far from Baku by flight.

"Did you hear anything from the bulk freighter?"

"Mr. Lee. Its communicator seems to be down. It's already been 18 hours since we heard from the vessel that it just passed the Bosporus Strait. It must have reached near the Sea of Azov by now."

The battle took place in open waters that were about 250 kilometers south of Yalta Sea Port. It was right in the middle of the Black Sea. If 18 hours had passed since the bulk freighter left the Bosporus Strait, it would have sailed for about 600 kilometers with its maximum speed of 18 knots. Since the Black Sea's maximum distance was about 1,150 kilometers, there was a slight chance that the vessel might have been caught in the battle zone.

"Did you stop all of our vessels from sailing?"

"I told the vessels that belong to Arirang Shipping to stop sailing from wherever they are. But it's making me worry because half of them are on the Caspian Sea and half of them are on the Black Sea."

"…"

"You know Turkish ports charge you a lot for using their dock. They won't care whether there was a battle or not."

No ports would let ships stay for free just because they were frozen because of a maritime battle. Despite the expensive cost of ports, ships could not stay in the outer port for a prolonged period of time because it would need to refill basic supplies such as gas, water, and food.

"We should pay for the vessels' port charges first. We can get it reimbursed from H Corporation later."

Youngho could not let the petty ship-owners pay for the high costs since they worked for Arirang Shipping. Although their ships were old, they were quite helpful for transporting minerals.

***

Although Turkey and Russia had ceased firing at each other after both had admitted that the prior firing was accidental, there was a possibility that they could start firing at each other again. Both leaders of the countries kept emphasizing that the battle was not intended to stop the expansion of the battle. However, even though both governments did not wish to fight, it was questionable whether their already furious navies would tolerate their desire to shoot artillery when they encountered each other in international waters. How many soldiers could keep their sanity when they had lost their comrades? They were more bound to start another fight especially because the two countries had been enemies for a long time.

When Youngho served in the Navy before he applied to special forces, he also experienced a similar case. He was assigned in a warship in the western sea of Korea, and one day, he heard that one of the naval vessels—Chamsuri-class patrol boat—was shot after it encountered a spy ship from North Korea. Youngho felt his blood boiling at the news. He could imagine what the Turkish and Russian navies must be experiencing at this moment. It was a feeling that he could not describe himself. Since the navies had been exposed to the high tension and had been stressed out for months, there was no doubt that there would be another fight.

Youngho's concerns came straight into reality in a matter of days.

There was another artillery duel between the two naval parties. Luckily, no vessels were damaged through the gunfire because of the high waves but this incident confirmed that the Black Sea was no longer safe now.

Except for the naval vessels of the two countries, no other ships could stay in the Black Sea anymore.

Youngho and his friends could not come up with any solution for this even though they had been gathering at Zeynep Corporation's office in Baku to discuss the issue.

"Phew, this is not a small issue."

Listening to Youngho's remark mixed with his sigh, his friends had nothing to say.

"Why don't we sail along the coastline?"

Insoo, who had been quiet all along made a suggestion.

"The coastline?"

"Yes. It's dangerous to sail in international waters because of the two countries, so we can sail around the territorial waters of those countries."

"That will double our sailing distance. I'm not sure if H Corporation will accept that too."

"We are in an emergency situation now. H Corporation would better take this alternative if it stills wants minerals."

"That's the second best plan we got, and I like it. If there are no other ways, we should go with that plan. Hey Jong-il, why don't you come with me? Let's go to the Main Police Department."

Although the Black Sea was not big, exclusive sea area was assigned in the sea territory. Since nations could not invade into the exclusive sea area, which would be a violation of the International law, Insoo's suggestion was a good idea.

Asking Jong-il to come to the Main Police Department was just an excuse. He suddenly had another idea to resolve this problem, so he wanted to discuss it with Jong-il. His solution was to mess up with the Russian side.

The Russian government might be enjoying this situation now, since making a tension on the Black Sea was their scheme in the first place. To break this long chain of tension, what Youngho could do was to draw Russia's attention to something else, so it could not focus on the Black Sea situation anymore.

One of the most important businesses of Russia was oil crude and gas provision line. If the oil pipeline was damaged, Russia would have to suffer a huge loss.

Youngho was thinking if he could manipulate a terrorist attack on Russia's pipeline and sell fake information to Eriksson at the same time. This way, he would be able to pay back Russia that caused him a lot of profit loss and make up for his loss by selling the information to Eriksson.

"Jong-il. We should take action on this."

"Man, you and I think the same way. I was thinking, Chechnya would be the easy victim."

"Agreed, we won't get suspected that way. Let's cross the Georgian border. We need to recover what we have lost."

The oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea was stretched to the Black Sea, and the pipeline that passed Chechnya was about 150 kilometers long. If that section was the only one to get damaged then Russia would only doubt Chechen rebels for the incident.

***

"Man, look at them. They're so relaxed even though the Black Sea is in chaos."

Youngho and Jong-il were crossing the border between Georgia and Chechnya through a roundabout route. Jong-il clicked his tongue because the border's security was lax. At the border of the two countries, a lot of Russian frontier guards resided. It was to prevent Chechen rebels and Islamic radicals from crossing the border, but their level of security was ironically quite low.

It was a well-known fact that Russian residential guards were corrupted that they even sold military supplies to rebels. At this moment when there was a battle going on at the Black Sea, the guards should tighten the security but many were spotted yawning and neglecting their duties.

"Man, I want to beat them up, but I'll take care of them later. So, where should we get the explosives?"

"We should sneak into their camp at night. We can't buy them in the black market, right?"

"Do you remember the location of the pipeline?"

"Hey! You flattered me for having a genius brain the other day."

Before making a trip to Georgia, Youngho told Eriksson—the middleman of the Information Agency—that Chechen rebels were attacking Gazprom's oil pipeline that passed Chechnya. Since the Information Agency was an organization that sold classified information to corporations and nations ahead of time and made money from commission, the agency would benefit from knowing important information about oil pipeline beforehand. The damage on an oil pipeline meant that the oil price would fluctuate soon, and when corporations or nations knew this ahead of time, they could make important business and domestic decisions according to their analysis. This was also a great opportunity for Youngho to make some money for selling information to Eriksson.

Eriksson did not ask where the information was from since he trusted Youngho who was a CIA agent. Youngho had given Eriksson just enough time for him to utilize the information, and at the same time, Youngho traveled to Almaty and return by train just to make his alibi secure. He bought a round-trip plane ticket but only used the half of it for now. Eriksson thought that he was still in Almaty. Since Youngho was building a new Arirang Hotel in Almaty, he had plenty of reasons to visit there.

To deceive others, one should be able to deceive his own ally. Since the Information Agency's intelligence network was as great as the CIA, Youngho had gone through the trouble.

***

All they had brought were pistols, some magazines, and flip knives.

In order to bomb the oil pipeline, something more destructible like a bomb or a portable rocket launcher was needed. Thus, they decided to steal some heavy weaponry from a rearguard military unit.

They were now at Urus-Martan where a mountainous border unit was located. Urus-Martan was a city in the north of the Caucasus Mountain Range. The city was most famous for being occupied by Chechen rebels, mafias, and Islamic radicals. Now, the rebels had become only nominal and only Islamic radicals were still actively terrorizing Russia.

"What is this? Is this a military camp or just a training camp?"

"A rearguard unit doesn't need tight guarding."

"Hey you won't need to pocket night-vision goggles, will you?"

If the camp was at the border, such equipment would be common but in a rearguard unit, it would be obvious if equipment like that was stolen.

"I can roughly see things at night too. Don't worry."

Youngho's vision was strengthened by the ring's power, so he did not have a problem distinguishing objects even when it was dark. It seemed that the guard was not as tight as China's border, and he would be able to steal weapons without any problem.

"There's a warehouse at ten o'clock. I'll go search in that area, you stay here and cover me."

"I look like a Chechen too."

The people of Chechnya did not suspect Youngho to be a foreigner because of the western features of his face and his mustache, but Jong-il looked like a traditional Asian. He would be detected as soon as he stepped his foot in the camp.

"I'll be back soon."

Ignoring Jong-il's silly remark, Youngho jumped over the barbed-wire fence.

It was about to be dinner time, and many soldiers could be spotted at the camp. They looked relaxed since some of them were chatting with post guards and smoking cigarettes. This was a good time to move. After their day's schedule, soldiers would be off-guard the most.

The camp was occupied by regular soldiers and civilian employees, so Youngho was certain that he would not get suspected even if he walked around the camp in the open. Since he spoke Russian fluently, he was confident. Some of the people were even in their jogging suit.

As darkness began to fall in the camp, Youngho casually walked toward the warehouse where there were no people around. He was looking around to see if he could get in the building through a window because the entrance was locked. Suddenly, a soldier walked towards the warehouse.

He hesitated for a moment after looking at Youngho whose back was leaning towards the security light. He then slowly approached Youngho without suspicion because Youngho shrugged to him.

Youngho approached him as well and asked if he had a cigarette.