Empire of the Ring

Chapter 47: The Godfather of Southern Russia (1)

The next day, Youngho woke up as usual while the other two were still asleep. It would have been weird of them to get up like usual since they drank for two nights straight. The little bungalow had everything they needed to stay in, so Youngho made himself a Russian ramen in the kitchen, but it was too oily for him. He missed kimchi and Korean ramen which were both spicier.

After taking a shower, he went out of the bungalow. Yaniv’s henchmen greeted Youngho politely. After recognizing Youngho’s extraordinary skills from last night, they seemed to have gained respect for Youngho. They reported to him about the attackers from last night. Youngho also remembered their faces. They looked like traditional Central Asians. Allegedly, they attacked Yaniv’s organization because they lost their sales for their daily necessities business because of Yaniv’s Korean products. Their actions were just childish since they tried to take care of business matters with violence. Now, it was obvious that Yaniv’s organization would take revenge on them.

Yaniv and Sergey showed up with disheveled faces. After talking with his henchmen, Yaniv called Youngho.

“Lee, let us pack our belongings and move to somewhere else. The mansion is a mess now.”

“I’ll go get my belongings.”

“Everything should be wet because of the sprinklers. You might have to get new clothes.”

“My luggage is a hard case. I’m sure mine is fine.”

Youngho’s bedroom floor was all wet, but his clothes inside the closet were safe. He changed into a suit and came out with his luggage. Yaniv looked around his mansion, frowning, and got on his car.

The car drove from the birch tree woods, into a sunflower field, and finally arrived at a quiet country town. Dachas were closely built together in the town. Dacha was a Russian country cottage, and many middle and high-class Russians had at least one dacha with little gardens in a country town. Yaniv’s huge dacha was located near a serene lake. His dacha magnificently represented its owner, a boss of South Russian mafias. Since all of the people at Yaniv’s mansion came together, the quiet place soon became crowded. They seemed to come here frequently since the mafias moved naturally, moving their luggage and going into little bungalows next to Yaniv’s dacha. Yaniv must have bought all nearby lands surroundingthe lake.

Sergey showed Youngho to his room and suggested that he go kayaking on the lake. He felt apologetic, because their guest had been pulled into danger that was not related to Youngho at all. Not to mention, Sergey could not take care of Youngho since he was busy dealing with the emergency.

Youngho changed into sportswear and went up on a kayak. The lake’s circumference was about six kilometers long. He rowed for two hours, sweating hard to refresh his body from yesterday’s drinking. When his palms became sore, he stopped rowing and came back to the dock. It looked like more henchmen had arrived while he was on the lake. The dacha was even more crowded with more cars. They must have been summoned to discuss the urgent issue regarding the attack on their boss.

As Youngho also guessed, the attackers were members of the Kazakh mafia organization. Sergey informed him that the leading members of the Kazakh mafias had sent an action squad to attack Yaniv’s organization. From interrogating the attackers from last night, they could find out about them. Youngho decided to leave for Baku. He had no reason to be in the middle of the disputes between mafias.

He had done enough to gain trust from Yaniv by drinking with him twice and also catching the attackers on the mansion. When Youngho said goodbye, Yaniv did not stop him again.

“Lee, my life has been lengthened because of you. Let’s meet often for a drink. I’ll be in Baku soon for a business. See you then.”

“I hope you’ll resolve the dispute with the other mafias well. Let me know before you come to Baku; I’ll prepare drinks for us.”

Sergey escorted Youngho to the Volgograd station, so Youngho returned to Baku without any trouble. From this trip, Youngho gained a new experience in another part of the world. He learned that mafias battled fiercely over huge commercial supremacy. When common people battled with their quality of services or products, mafias battled with rocket launchers and guns. Their scale was at a different level. It was a world where only stronger organizations could survive.

Youngho sent a report about his visit to Volgograd to Edward. The CIA considered local mafias’ movements important since they were the first ones to be affected by political affairs. Youngho’s role was a direct link to the South Russian mafia boss.

In a short period of two years, Youngho had become a foreign entrepreneur in Baku and made the boss of a South Russian mafia group his friend. He was an unprecedented agent in the CIA. Youngho received a call of encouragement from Edward, the head of the European chapter, because of Youngho’s trip report to Volgograd.

On top of his regular payment as an information agent, which was 100000 dollars, Youngho received information expenses for any expenses during his trips and any businesses related to the CIA. Youngho could request up to a million dollars worth of information expense depending on the importance and scale of businesses. It was a way to support and appreciate their agents, so the encouraged agents could work more freely. In the past, the CIA had paid Youngho a lot of information expense for his excellent job during the local battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan because he even mobilized foreign investors and officials.

Witnessing the attack on Yaniv’s mansion made Youngho worried about his own farm’s security. There were so many defenseless places in his farm. Youngho discussed his concern with Jongil, and Jongil suggested installing security cameras and alarms and burying claymore mines around the farm.

“You’d just have to push a detonator when the alarm goes off. Why do we even have the safe room? We should install monitors and detonators in there!”

Jongil’s idea was to doubt everyone who did not come through the gate. It sounded like a terrible idea, but Youngho was intrigued.

There were even mafias firing rockets to a mansion full of guards. Watching out for invaders with security cameras and alarms was a good way to check all the blind spots.

“How are we going to take care of it if people die?”

“You are being too lenient here. If you’re going to worry about people who come to kill you, we shouldn’t do this then.”

Jongil was right. Thinking about where he could get claymore mines, he thought about Sergey. Since those would be easy to get in the Russian black market, Sergey could be of help.

Youngho called right away and suggested installing security cameras and the things that Jongil talked about. At the end of the conversation, Youngho asked Sergey to get him some mines when he would buy his own.

A few days later, Sergey came to the farm with two claymore boxes. He looked brighter since Youngho last saw him at Yaniv’s dacha.

“Mr. Lee, I told your idea to boss, and he loved it. Here are the mines you asked.”

Each box was filled with twenty Russian MON-50 claymore mines. When the detonator was activated, the mine would fire tiny steel balls to its surroundings.

“My boss was even happier to hear that it was your idea to install claymore mines. They’ll be useful for securing the mansion.”

“How are things going with the Kazakhstan mafias?”

“We paid them back in the same way as we always do. They are almost demolished.”

“Well, I’m glad you got things sorted out.”

“Now that our opponent is gone, we came to a conclusion that we could provide more Korean products to consumers. We’ll order the same products worth three million dollars this time.”

“What? Like I said, I don’t get anything from your order. It’s my sister and brother-in-law in Korea who are making money.”

“Don’t they say, ‘What’s good for the goose is good for the gander’?”

Sergey did not mind Youngho’s words. Cho Sangchun and Yunsuh would be thrilled to hear about this order.

“My boss set apart something for you. I have them in the car; would you like to see?”

“I don’t care for it. I thought we were friends and it’s not a friendship if you have to pay for it.”

Sergey leaned backward with a weak smile on his face. He looked like he had a lot to say.

“Mr. Lee, although we used black funds when we first made our organization, the most of the money we made were from legal businesses. In fact, we began legal businesses when I received a doctoral degree in business administration.”

Youngho took out a wine bottle. It looked like the story would be getting longer.