Empire of the Ring

When Philip's van had not left the village of Shatili yet, they heard consecutive gun fires. The rebels said that they would be attacking Russian border security as a decoy to hide their supply transfer. However, the gun fires were echoing from the direction of the mountains where the rebels and their donkeys were headed. Not to mention timing wise, the gun fires should not be heard by now.

Youngho knew something had gone wrong. They must have been caught in an ambush. Although they had left Georgia's border security, it would cause an international discord if the rebel's supplies were shipped out from Georgia.

Youngho told Philip to stand by in the van and took Jongil with him. As soon as they could not see Philip's van, they ran at breakneck speed using the leather shoes. Youngho and Jongil had put on the ring and leather shoes when they left the ski resort just in case something like this happened.

At the mountain path they arrived, they saw the rebels had put donkeys in one spot and shooting Russian soldiers, lying on their stomach. Some of the donkeys and rebels were bleeding and others were trying to give first aid. Youngho approached Basayev and told him that he and Jongil would take care of the Russians and asked to stop shooting for a moment and lie down on their stomachs.

Youngho and Jongil picked up AK rifles and ammunitions from the rebels and went to the side of the Russian army. They had no idea as Youngho and Jongil approached them because they were too focused on shooting the rebels. The distance to the rebels from the Russian soldiers was 300 meters, which normally took 20 minutes for a regular person since the Russian army was waiting from the higher ground of the mountain. Nobody could imagine someone would approached in such short time. Youngho gestured Jongil to split and they each started to shoot soldiers one by one.

The soldiers numbered around 30, fell down from the bullets unaware of. Later when they found out that the bullets were shot from the side, Youngho sprinted at a tremendous speed and hit the heads of the few soldiers left with the gunstock.

When they had finished taking down the Russian soldiers and signaled to the rebels below the mountain, they hastily climbed up the mountain. When they arrived to the ridge, they heard the promised gun fires from afar. It was the rebels starting their operation against the Russian border security.

Two of the rebels died and six were wounded.

Thankfully, there were medical supplies in the items, so they injected morphine to the wounded and bandaged them as a temporary relief. They said that there was a surgeon in their base, who could remove bullets in the rebels' bodies. Among 37 Russian soldiers, only four lived. They were the ones who Youngho did not shot but stroke with the gunstock.

Youngho and Jongil experienced killing human for the first time in the Caucasus mountain range, they killed about 15 each just to restrain them. Because they shot them from a distance, it was less shocking but that did not change the fact that they took people's lives.

While the rebels took care of the bodies and weapons of the Russian soldiers, Youngho put a cigarette in his mouth. His hand was shaking. Noticing Youngho's shaking hand, Jongil patted his shoulders without a word. He must be feeling awful too.

Basayev and the director of the Black Eagle looked at Youngho and Jongil as if they were reapers. They had just seen an unbelievable action since the two had taken down 37 Russian rangers in a moment.

There was nothing to say. Youngho and Jongil came down the mountain leaving words to meet next time. Philip who was waiting in the van asked what happened, the two just shrugged and said everything went well. They were still in the excited state of mind from the unspeakable battle, they did not want to say anything for now. Youngho thought that he would be distressed for a while from today's battle.

Youngho's heart was heavy on the way back to the ski resort in Bakuriani. He did not care about international relationships but felt bad for the rebels and soldiers who had to fight against each other in the cold. Not to mention, he was guilty for taking lives of young soldiers who just came out to carry out an order.

***

Youngho's company would arrive to the ski resort in the sunset hours after six hours of rough driving. Karajan and the siblings nagged to return to Tbilisi as if they were tired of playing hard in the snow for three days straight.

Now that the CIA's official assignment was completed, Youngho planned to enjoy his time touring around until Sergey visits him from Volgograd.

As soon as he arrived Tbilisi and unpacked his belongings in the hotel room, Youngho went to a bank and put the gold bars in a safe box. He was not going to travel with the gold bars. Because of the gold bars, he would have to give up flying to Baku and take the inconvenient train instead but he decided to worry about that later.

The streets were crowded with the people who had just attended the mass from Orthodox Churches. At the gate of the hotel, Zeynep found Youngho coming back and came running toward him. He had asked to go shopping together and went to the bank while the family got ready to go outside.

"Oppa, I almost died starving waiting for you. Karajan unni already went to grab something."

Because it was so cute to see her acting all salty and chatting, Youngho hugged her tight.

"Eww, oppa. I don't like the smell of cigarettes."

Fatima also came near Youngho and held his arm and Zeynep held Youngho's hand from the other side. Szechenyi walked in front of them in a cocky attitude.

It got Youngho worried since Szechenyi had been overly cocky lately, Fatima also said that he had changed so much. He had been affectionate to his older sister but now he did not talk to her anymore. Youngho was worried that Szechenyi might be a troublemaker. Since he was a good-looking boy, he might get involved with girls too. Although Szechenyi was a good-natured and thoughtful person, girls around him would not leave him alone.

Lately, Youngho had been too busy that he did not have time to converse with Szechenyi. He thought that when they worked out and sweated together in the evening, that was enough, but he just realized something important. Szechenyi was a teenager.

To Szechenyi, Youngho was a fatherly and older brotherly figure who had been there for him like a tree. However, he was also a difficult person to talk to. Szechenyi did not share his heart to anyone, even to his friends, who seemed to be less-matured like himself. It was what Youngho had felt when he was a teenager. Finding his own identity, he had acted recklessly.

Many things had changed for Szechenyi since he met Youngho and as he was in the process of becoming a grown-up, he must be feeling many confusions and struggles. Youngho decided to make a chance to have deep conversations with Szechenyi during this trip. He hoped for this trip would serve as a momentum for Szechenyi to let out his burdens.

The capital of Georgia, Tbilisi was a city with heritage. There were especially a lot of churches in the city. Like many other cities of Southeastern Europe, it seemed to be staying in the old times. Although there were decorated cafes and souvenir shops lined up along the food street of the Old Town, all the buildings were more than 100 years old. However, the atmosphere of the cafes were as great as other Western European cities' and the city was still crowded in the cold winter.

Starving, Zeynep and Szechenyi ordered different things on the menu and ate until they were too full. They relaxingly burped in front of Youngho, they did not mind him at all now. As they were full now, they wanted to go out. Since they were getting bored, Youngho told Szechenyi to look around souvenir shops with Zeynep.

"Szechenyi, why don't you take Zeynep and look around souvenir shops? I've seen nice pocket knives."

At Youngho's permission, they left in excitement. It looked like that they did not bring any money since Youngho gave them a bunch of dollar bills, and they did not reject the money. Even though Youngho deposits their allowances in their own bank accounts, they never thought about withdrawing the money.

"Fatima, why didn't you check if they had money and give some?"

Youngho asked it because she was managing the living expenses of the family.

"They're not children anymore. They should ask if they need some. I don't want to spoil them."

Since she was right, Youngho shut his mouth.

After the younger siblings were gone, it was their time alone. They were so focused catching up with each other, they did not realize somebody came close to them.

"You're too romantic. You chased away the kids just to spend this time alone? I was almost lost if I hadn't met Szechenyi on the way."

Jongil spoke like himself as usual. Youngho thought that he would age and die if he expect something more noble to come out of his mouth.

Jongil and Karajan had the same sunglasses. It suited the newlywed couple.

"Did you guys eat yet?"

"Nope, we've been searching for you. Karajan, what do you want to get? You can eat whatever you want now that we have someone to pay for our food!"

Jongil made a fuss sitting down and deciding what to order. He looked up and winked at Youngho, signing him to join for a drink. It was 4 PM in the afternoon. For drinkers, it was a drinking time. On the blessing day of Christmas, they ordered cognac which was Georgia's world-famous liquor. Now that their mission is done, they decided to reward themselves with the famous liquor, which was needed in order to forget what happened previously in Shatili.

Fatima and Karajan were now used to drinking a little bit because of Youngho and Jongil's drinking habit in the farm. Fatima especially began to like wines. On relaxing days, she often came to Jongil with a bottle of wine in his library. When the food and cognac were served, they began to drink together.

The next day, Karajan and Jongil, who were hung over by excessive drinking last night, stayed at the hotel. Only Youngho and the siblings went around freely all day long. The ring on Youngho's finger now exerted more power that it recovered his physical conditions quickly. This was why Youngho was not hung over like Jongil and Karajan. Fatima and Zeynep walked before Youngho and Szechenyi. Since it was a good chance to converse with Szechenyi, Youngho tried to talk a lot with him. Szechenyi was in a good mood and started talking back to Youngho.

It seemed that Szechenyi needed a male figure whom he could talk to and rely on. Youngho felt guilty for not spending enough time with him in his important years. He reminded himself to pay more attention to Szechenyi from now on.

Visiting multiple historical sites and souvenir shops all day, Zeynep now walked leaning against Youngho in exhaustion. He pretended to focus on the trip but he still had uneasy feelings. The aftermath of the Shatili battle was now showing its signs. As he walked on the streets hugging Zeynep's small body, he decided to go to a church the next day and lay down his burdens.

It was bitter to see the happy travelers on streets. He thought that he could only feel better after praying for the souls of the dead in a church.