Empire of the Ring

What Youngho was worried about must be happening right now.

Stopping freelance journalists definitely meant something was happening in Nagorno-Karabakh. Someone needed to find out what was going on to encourage international publicity to put some pressure on the Azerbaijani government.

Youngho called Michael.

“Michael, I have a strong feeling that something terrible is going on in Nagorno-Karabakh’s territory. The movement of Armenian military forces seems unusual.”

It was only a feeling, but sometimes a feeling can be more accurate than evidence. Youngho suggested checking if something like a mass-massacre or ethnic cleansing was going on in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I had the same feeling too and I’ve been looking at the satellite camera. We cannot choose profit over humanity.”

In order to stop whatever was going on in the battlefield, the CIA’s European chapter is manipulating publicity. If the public was stirred, it would have an effect to hinder the Azerbaijani government’s military actions. No leaders would ignore international publicity. If they do, the country would be isolated from the international community. The Azerbaijani government would definitely be cautious about their next move since it had been trying to establish their membership in the international society.

Even with the best quality satellite camera, it was impossible to catch what was going on inside of buildings. Publishing news based on speculations would not be enough to stop the Azerbaijani government’s action. Youngho made up his mind to secretly go into the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, so he could catch critical evidence on a camera to stop what the government is doing. Youngho only became an Azerbaijani citizen because he needed it to do his business. He still would not agree to any inhumane measure, and he wanted to save innocent lives at risk. Moreover, he did not want to be a shameful adult to the future generation.

Youngho persuaded Michael to send him to Nagorno-Karabakh to collect evidence.

Jongil said, “Do you really think the Azerbaijani government would go that far?”

“I can’t forget the looks on the faces of the injured Armenian soldiers, and it doesn’t make sense how freelance journalists were arrested and deported. Something’s not right. ”

“If that’s true, then don’t you think our descendants wouldn’t be free in Azerbaijan in the future?”

“Please, we are not Armenians. The Azerbaijani government has nothing against us. Now you are going too far.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Think about it. Serbian Village will be part of our group. Do you think the government would be happy to see a huge number of outsiders taking over a part of their country?”

Since Youngho and his people were not from Azerbaijan, the government would definitely interfere before Serbian Village becomes big and out of control.

“You are right. I haven’t thought about that.”

“I sure am. We need to spread Serbian people not only to the ranch but also to the grape farms.”

It seemed like a great idea to manipulate the Azerbaijani government. When did Jongil become so wise?

Youngho was running through the snow-covered mountain trails, but eventually, he had to slow down because the wind was hitting his face too hard. The power of the ring seemed to become stronger. Jongil was wondering about it as well.

“The ring is getting more powerful. I wonder how they made the ring in the old times? The people who made this must have had extraordinary abilities.”

“I was wondering about that too for a long time. But, I’ve already reached a conclusion.”

“What is it?”

“The ring must be one of the artifacts from aliens to test humans.”

“…sure…”

Even though they did not try to run fast, it only took them less than three hours to reach the boundary of Stepanakert. The Azerbaijan army and policemen were everywhere, and only little kids were playing around on the street. There was no sign of other adults.

They waited ’til it got dark before visiting the house of the former militia commander, Margos, but the house looked as if it was emptied long ago. He was wise enough to retreat to somewhere as soon as he found out that the Azerbaijani government was arresting and deporting the nationalists.

Youngho and Jongil infiltrated into Nagorno-Karabakh to find evidence of a possible ethnic massacre. The U.S. would not be able to officially stop them due to the relationship they had been building but they can try to stop them by using the global publicity.

They approached Europe Hotel where they had stayed before. Surprisingly, almost every guest room was bright despite the ongoing war situation. It could not be travelers. Drunk high rankers of the Azerbaijani army were roaming around the streets. It looked like they were using the hotel as their lodging. Youngho was thinking about kidnapping one of them to interrogate, but it would alert the whole army and before Youngho and Jongil could do anything, the Azerbaijani government could erase all of the evidence of their wrongdoings.

They quietly moved to a local neighborhood. They knocked on the door of a house with lights on. Soon, someone answered the door in a scared voice. Joingil tried speaking in English but he did not understand English. So he started to speak in his broken Armenian language, saying that he was a journalist. The woman hesitated for a moment, then opened the door for them.

***

When Youngho and Jongil arrived at the place where the Armenian woman told them, they found blood stains everywhere. The blood was frozen before it was absorbed into the ground due to the coldness. By the amount of blood around, numerous people seemed to have been executed. They tried to find a trace of burying corpses but a small lantern was not good enough.

Youngho sighed and recalled the conversation with the Armenian woman. The woman was shaking in fear even before they asked her about what was going on. According to her, people were arrested to be investigated, but not even half of them returned. The Armenian government found out about it and sent special forces to Nagano-Karabach in an effort to save the civilians but they were all annihilated. Whoever provided food to the special forces were also accused of being spies and executed as well. This happened only a few days ago, and the woman said that the civilian victims would be at least a few hundreds. She informed Youngho and Jongil about the direction where she heard lots of gunshots, and they had been searching for corpses around the place.

“Why don’t we stop our search and publicize the recording of her testimony? This might do the job.”

“Let’s wait until the morning and search up a little more. If hundreds of people were executed, the dead bodies of victims must be found around here. The ground was frozen, and they probably couldn’t bury them deep enough.”

From the scene of execution, they followed the traces of a truck and found an excavator only about half a mile away. They would not be able to dig the frozen ground with human hands only. Finally, a huge hole made by an excavator was found. Inside the hole, corpses were buried only halfway through. This meant that there would be more execution and more people would be thrown in the hole. Youngho could not take out corpses to take a picture, he felt like he would be killing them twice. Instead, he took a picture of blood stains on the excavator and the huge hole. Youngho sent the location of the execution and where they buried corpses to the European chapter. Now the CIA would be able to keep an eye on the place with their satellite. When the scene of the civilian execution by the Azerbaijani military was revealed to the public, there would be no more genocide.

When Youngho and Jongil were about to leave the scene, two military trucks approached near the place. The trucks came here to bury more corpses. Soon, a few drunk soldiers got off the trucks. Even though the two countries were arch enemies of each other, the soldiers could not handle this without being drunk. One of the soldiers got on the excavator and started the engine, while the others were unloading dead bodies from the trucks. Youngho and Jongil were extremely furious because the dead bodies were evidently civilians. The unloaded corpses were wearing civilians clothing. Shaking their hands in fury and fear, they took pictures of them. They wanted to ask where they executed the civilians, Youngho and Jongil waited until the soldiers covered the hole with soil. Now, the Azerbaijani government would have to pay their price for what they had done to Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Let’s kidnap one of them and interrogate. We’ve got to freaking find out where they executed the civilians.”

“No… Michael warned me that we need to make sure not to expose our interference. The CIA needs to keep a low profile.”

“Darn it… Just about how often has the CIA interfered other countries’ businesses?”

***

If civilian casualties were incurred by missile attacks or bombing, it would be tragic but will be considered to be part of a war. A scene of civilian dead bodies being unloaded from military trucks and buried shocked the entire world. It was apparent evidence of genocide. If it was an unlucky accident, the civilians’ dead bodies were supposed to be returned to their families. If they had no family, the dead bodies were supposed to be buried in caskets. Instead, the world was watching a scene very different from what was supposed to happen. The world was furious. The apparent evidence of genocide was revealed, and the Azerbaijani government did not know what to do but panic. Azerbaijan governed tried to put the blame on some of the high-military officers but the international public did not buy it. Eventually, President Aliyev had to officially apologize and accepted Nagorno-Karabakh as an Armenian autonomous state. Still, the Azerbaijani government took away a right to have its own military forces and promised to compensate for their loss. Though some of the Azerbaijani military officers were fired and served sentences in jail, everyone knew that it was only a show to calm the furious international publicity.

Completing the mission successfully, Youngho could demand what he wanted from Michael.

“Michael, I strongly believe I deserve a long vacation. I’ve had nightmares every single night. The scene I had to observe with my bare eyes were too cruel. I went to a hospital and my doctor told me that I need some treatment for a post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“You are saying that a man from special forces is having nightmares because of a mission? Give me a break! If you keep telling me this nonsense, I will put you in a mental hospital of the U.S. Army.”

Youngho thought Michael had no sense of humor.

“If you saw the scene with your own eyes, you would have lost all of your appetites for at least a few days.”

“You did a great job, I’ll give you that. You saved a lot of people from being executed.”

Youngho had been feeling relieved and satisfied after he stopped the genocide.

“I didn’t expect that much of cruelty.”

“Countries in power all over the world had been doing that for a long time. I appreciate your swift move since it saved a lot of people… and you saved our face too.”

It was such a big compliment since Michael never complimented anybody.

Since Nagorno-Karabakh still there, the U.S. Congress was able to shut Armenian politicians’ mouth who had been raising their voices for their advantages. The Armenian victims of the genocide saved Nagorno-Karabakh’s existence. If Youngho was not so stubborn to go to Stepanakert, it would have been impossible to find out about the genocide. Though Armenians ought to make a statue for Youngho for saving their lives, no one was supposed to know his work.