Empire of the Ring

Chapter 65: People’s Choice and a Trip (1)

Youngho was drinking beer with the Goethe University’s students, Arsen and Batzen, after the CIA’s monthly meeting in Frankfurt. When he just finished his third mug, Jongil called him in an urgent voice. He said that the farm had been attacked. According to Jongil’s drastic phone call, there was a shootout and Cha Insoo was shot on his arm during the fight. He was taken to the hospital and just had an operation. There were no other casualties in the farm family. Jongil said that he did not report it to the police yet.

After the phone call, Youngho reported the situation to the European chapter and returned to Baku on the earliest plane.

Youngho did not think that the attack was done by someone unknown. It must be someone who was affected negatively by Zeynep Farm, or someone who held a grudge on Youngho.

He went to the hospital where Insoo was staying straight from the airport. Surprisingly, Insoo’s condition was better than he expected. His arm was bandaged, but he was moving as usual. They returned to the farm after telling the doctor that Insoo would receive outpatient treatments. Fortunately, he did not have any nerve damage, although he had some muscle damage. The doctor said that his arm would recover completely after a few months of rehabilitation.

At the farm, Park Jongil was waiting for the two. He was outraged at the people who hurt his friend and threatened all of the family members in the farm. Youngho was worried about Insoo’s fiancé and parents who must have been shocked by the attack. However, they were contrastively calm. Youngho did not know how Jongil and Insoo lied to them, but it seemed that they did not know what really happened.

Youngho went through the record of the farm’s security cameras.

In the early hours, three men approached the farm from the Southern stream and touched an alarm sensor. The alarm in Insoo’s room went off, so he had rushed out and chased them away after a shootout. Because it was in the dark, Insoo could not aim at them accurately. After three or four shots were exchanged, they ran away. Since it ended quickly, the farm family was not surprised badly. Insoo had lied to them and said that he was chasing wolves and he got hurt because of an accidental firing in the process.

It was a mistake that Youngho had turned off the security light because it would disturb the growth of grapes. Because there was no light, he could not tell their faces. The security guards of the farm were in name only, and they were not even trained with weapons. He felt bad that with him gone to Frankfurt, there was only Insoo who could protect the farm.

The next day, Youngho called Sergey to interrogate the two guys working in Siberia, the previous intruders of the farm, whom he sent to Sergey. He thought that they might be related to the recent armed raiders. If they were related, Araz of the Charles company might be behind of all this, since the previous two were paid to burn Youngho’s farm. However, there was no reason for Araz to attack Youngho’s farm now.

The European chapter considered the incident a serious matter. Youngho was a valuable agent who settled into the Azerbaijani mainstream society. If he had local businessmen as his enemies, it could cause big problems for his position. The European chapter commanded Youngho to expand the manpower on his farm to reinforce security with the CIA’s information expense.

Youngho hired five people who were former policemen with the recommendation of the chief manager, formerly the director, of Main Police Department. They rotated in guarding the farm at day and night as armed guards. Youngho regretted being complacent about the security, trusting his friends’ strength. Jongil still insisted on installing claymore mines, but Youngho thought it was too extreme for now. Jongil, who had been saying that he would live in an apartment in the inner city after getting married, said he would come live on the farm now because he wanted to protect his friends. Youngho was relieved by his decision. The farm was like a little Korea town in Baku, and it was Jongil’s will to protect it on his own.

The newly hired armed guards complained when Insoo insisted that they needed to learn martial arts. They worked comfortably even when they were policemen, but Insoo forced them, saying that they would be paid according to their martial arts level. They had to comply with Insoo since the job paid better than other jobs in Baku. As they were trained by Insoo, they became confident and comfortable in their guarding duty, and now they trained on their own.

Sergey contacted Youngho and said he did not find anything from the two men.

It was weird, because he could not find any other companies who would sabotage Youngho’s farm since he had been maintaining great relationships with other companies recently. Also as for the Charles company, Youngho was the one who helped Araz by buying his farm and factory.

‘Wait, his farm and factory! I had bought the site at a cheap price for not having enough money, but I just paid off the mortgage recently. This must be it!’

Someone related to the bank might have slipped to Araz that Youngho recently paid off the mortgage, and it could have been seen as Youngho buying Araz’s property for cheap even though he had money. There would be no one other than Araz who would have the motive to come and invade Youngho’s farm.

Youngho regretted paying off the mortgage too quickly. In the small business world of Baku, words spread fast. Araz would have been furious to lose his farm overnight. Although he wanted to turn in Araz to the police since he could come again and harm the farm family, he had no evidence. He decided to verify it for himself.

Araz lived in a rich neighborhood in the city of Baku where high officials and wealthy businessmen resided. His house had a huge garden and a luxurious pool.

At night, Youngho, dressed in black clothes and mask, visited Araz’s house. Sneaking in through the blind spots of Araz’s security cameras, he climbed up the wall around the house and got in the house through the balcony on the second floor. Because the windows were open due to the warm weather, Youngho could easily sneak into the house.

Youngho had investigated Araz in advance and found out that all of his children were studying abroad in Moscow. Only Araz and his wife were supposed to be in the house, but there were three bulky men sleeping in a room on the second floor. After thinking, he changed his plan and decided to interrogate the three first.

With the grip of his Beretta pistol, Youngho struck two of the sleeping guys’ temples and they immediately passed out. As for the last guy, he struck the guy’s Adam’s apple and then gagged him. The guy who had been unconscious for a moment opened his eyes and looked at Youngho fearfully after finding himself bound and gagged. Youngho threatened him at gunpoint and asked him how he was related to Araz. He told him that he was Araz’s distant cousin and he had been helping Araz lately.

Because Youngho could not reveal himself, he could not ask if they were the intruders of the farm at night. Instead, he decided to threaten him even more to get more words out of him. With his free hand, he pressed a pain pressure point of the guy. It was a point where someone could scream in pain if pressed hard enough. With another hand, he intimidatingly put the muzzle of the guy’s mouth and yelled at him asking if they were the culprits of the recent street mugging.

The guy, almost crying in serious pain, answered Youngho that he was not a mugger. He kept on and said that the three guys were paid to attack a grape farm in Baku. They had failed once, so they were waiting for a chance to attack the farm again. Youngho smirked, pleased to find that Araz was the one behind the attack of his farm.

To be seen as a petty thief, Youngho asked where all the valuables were stored in the house. After the guy answered his question, Youngho knocked him cold by hitting his temple.

Youngho went down to the first floor and woke up Araz and his wife in their sleep. He gagged the wife and threatened Araz to open his safe. Although he did not need Araz’s money, he took it anyway to be seen as a thief. Before leaving, he shot Araz’s knee and did the same to the other three guys upstairs. They would be living handicapped for the rest of their lives. If Araz still sent people to Youngho’s farm despite his wound, Youngho was determined to kill him then. Youngho did not use the silencer on the gun and made loud gunfire noise, thinking that if he attracted police and the press, Araz would watch his actions in the public’s eyes.

It was uncommon in Baku that a high-end house was robbed and gunned down by thieves. Also, because it was a case where an influential businessman was shot on his knee and became handicapped, it made turmoil in Baku’s society. It was not a simple robbery because four people had been shot. The police assumed that someone who was badly related to Araz tried to cover the incident as a robbery.

Because of the ongoing investigation, Araz had to list the people who might have any grudge on him while he was still being treated in a hospital. He could not say all of the truth about why someone would have a grudge on him since he also had done many illegal crimes. The police also doubted the three guys in the house. There was no reason for them to stay in Araz’s house in the long term, not to mention, Araz could not explain why they stayed with him. They concluded that Araz was plotting illegal crimes, but he was attacked by his enemy all the more in the process. Although Araz was a victim in this accident, he was treated like a criminal at the same time.