Empire of the Ring

The Turkish freighter was moving slowly ahead of Youngho's speedboat.

The ship was about 3,000 tons at best.

Lights were on all sides, so the deck was as bright as daylight.

Youngho's group, which was able to catch up with the freighter around evening, was closely following the freighter with all of the boat's lights turned off. Now they were crossing the open waters past the Kazakh waters. They were waiting for the night to deepen before they could start their operation.

"Let's get ready. Tell them to drop the boat."

"I don't know if the rubber bullets will be sufficient. I'll use ammunition if I have to."

The group decided to use a non-lethal weapon—baton guns—since they did not want to fire live ammunition against innocent Turkish sailors who were only hired to transport the president's valuables. It was a non-lethal weapon, but it could cause a lot of pain for the people who were shot by it and even kill them. It had to be used carefully.

The agents, wearing masks, helmets, and bulletproof vests, were divided into two groups. Led by Youngho and Jong-il, each group approached the freighter slowly. There were no high waves, so it was accessible by a small boat. The unusually calm waves were helping them today.

The majestic sound of engines peculiar to the freighter made the engine sound of the motorboat unnoticeable. It was almost impossible to find boats approaching in secret, as the guards of the freighter did not stand out on the deck like a battleship.

As Youngho and Jong-il's group were close enough, all of the agents immediately climbed to the deck using hooks.

There was no one on the deck, but there were only a few people in the steering house.

People on the freighter did not expect anyone to secretly invade the ship. Most of them were asleep.

While Park Jong-il's group took over the steering room, Youngho raided the crew room.

Even the most well-trained presidential security guards would be seasick since they were not used to be on ships, so it would not be difficult to take them down.

Youngho, who quickly overpowered the crew room, immediately took control of the engine room. He expected some resistance from the president's security guards, but it was too easy, so he felt a little disappointed by the completion of the work. It took less than half an hour to suppress and tie-up everyone.

"How are these bland people the president's security guards?"

"There's no reason for them to fight for their lives. Would you die to protect some cargo? They must be sick of this mission."

"Where's their destination?"

"They said that there would be someone at the port of Istanbul to take over the goods. That's the end of the duty. They don't even know what's in the hold"

"Let's check the cargo hold first and check how close our car ferry is now."

All the goods in the hold were gold bars, as expected. As soon as Youngho saw the stack of boxes, he could tell. He had not seen boxes that had 1,000 gold bars each a few times before, so he could figure it out in a single moment by looking at the box.

"Looks like the president is the biggest thief in Kazakhstan. How many of these are there?"

"I think there are more than 300 of them. If we sell them on the market, the price of gold will fluctuate around the world."

"I'm sure he didn't take all the gold out of the central bank. He must've gathered all of his hidden gold from everywhere."

"Man, he's done a hell of a job. It smells like gold. I'm suffocating."

***

It took quite a while to move the gold bars from the freighter to the car ferry that arrived later.

When they were done moving a total of 350 boxes, it was almost dawn.

The freighter was left to the security company's employees and the ferry carrying gold headed for the Port of Baku.

The freighter and people inside it would be released about half a day later.

The yacht, dressed up as a pirate ship, would go back to the Russian waters and return to the autonomous state.

Now, the car ferry was sailing diligently toward Baku.

"We're not going to sell these?"

"Yes, we're not. The reason why central banks are piling up gold is that they are strategic reserves."

Russia and China's sharp increase in their gold holdings were because they were anxious that their foreign reserves were too focused on dollars. So now, dollars' holdings against gold had been reduced from 90 percent to around 60 percent. In other words, the number of gold reserves increased by that amount.

If dollars, the key currency, fell sharply, gold was the only asset to replace it.

That was why central banks were trying to save gold.

Global financiers believed that it was possible for the U.S. Federal Reserve or Treasury could return to a gold standard to make up for the dollar's slide. Those put countries that did not have convertible currencies of gold or gold at risk of having to pay off their huge dollar debts. This meant that the country that depended on the dollar system would soon become a slave. It was a structure that must be subjugated to the U.S. to prevent that, countries had no choice but to increase their gold holdings, which was also formidable.

There were only 3,000 tons of gold produced a year around the world, and only a few hundred tons of gold left after they were used for industrial purposes.

After excluding the volume traded in secret, only about 100 tons were officially in circulation.

The amount was far short of what individuals and countries had in place of the dollar.

Last year, China announced it had increased its gold holdings by 15 tons, but no one believed it. It could have increased by 150 tons.

In this regard, each central bank was bent on buying even premiums.

"I think the president gave us a big present."

"It's a wrong idea to have something that should've been sent to the central bank as an individual. It's proof that he doesn't even care what's going on in the world. The foreign debts that Kazakhstan owes only believing in its resources are immeasurable. If the dollar falls and we go back to the gold standard, Kazakhstan will be bankrupt in a moment."

Russia and China produced a quarter of the world's gold, and Kazakhstan produced no less than them. However, President Nazarbayev had all of it under his private property.

Of course, there was a huge amount of underground resources as an alternative means of payment, but it was not enough to pay back short-term debts that should return immediately.

"I hope it rains gold in our state too."

"We've already got a lot now. We'll have to keep an eye on all the high-ranking officials and any cargo going out of the harbor. If the regime changes, Kazakhstan will receive bills from abroad, so we'll need a lot of money."

"We're not responsible for it. Why do we need to pay for it?"

"You have to show a responsible attitude to get legitimacy from each country. As soon as you declare the default, the cross-border credit is over. We're going to get some debt relief, but we're going to end up as a rogue state forever. I'm glad there's a way to secure gold bars at least this way."

***

As soon as they arrived in Baku, they quickly moved the gold bars.

It was convenient to transport them since they were moving Zeynep wine to the dock to export to Russia. Youngho was nervous that anyone might be nearby since he was responsible for 350 tons of gold. He was also so excited to have that amount of gold that it was hard to fall asleep at night. The number of gold bars he had gotten before did not compare to what he had now.

"Let's go to Volgograd right away."

"Your kids will be sorry that you didn't stop by."

"Let's take a few days off after coming back from Volgograd. My kids will get even more upset if I left shortly after showing my face."

"Phew, I don't know what we're living this busy for. We can't even be good dads."

"Well, I'll be a good father later all at once."

"By then you're ready to be a good father, they'll be all grown up and tell you that they don't need a dad."

Sometimes Youngho regretted coming this far because he felt like he was abandoning his family. It was not that Fatima or Leon asked him to build a great nation, but somehow he ended up at the autonomous state, and now he was responsible for so many things.

Park Jong-il, who had been Youngho's close friend for a long time, now was also living a hectic life for being a good friend. Other close friends of Youngho were also living busy lives. Come to think of it, he was sorry that he had gotten everyone involved in a matter that they were not related to because he invited them to it.

"Well, blame it all on me. I guess you've got a bad friend."

"Whoa, it's good to know that you know. You'll have to make it up to us for the rest of your life."

"Once this is all done, I'll leave everything to you guys. You can live a rich life all you want. I won't say a thing."

"You're saying you're going to control us from behind."

"The autonomous state and Kazakhstan should be left to the people who own it. If I try to control it, I'll be the same as President Nazarbayev. When I'm done, I'm just going to travel with Fatima and live a peaceful life."

"Let me join the trip, too. I get a rash whenever I sit down at the desk."

Both of them liked to travel around freely.

Even though they did not have special ambitions when they first came to the Caucasus, the complicated world was turning ordinary people into extraordinary people.