Empire of the Ring

Frankfurt was more crowded with businesspeople than tourists.

Expositions of different products such as books, electronics, daily necessities, motors, and instruments were continuously held throughout the year in the city.

Most of the European cities were filled with backpackers from all over the world, but Frankfurt was filled with people in suits and ties.

Romerberg in November, however, was a tourist hot spot. Youngho and the follower couple were taking a tour around the square as they had landed at Frankfurt earlier. The couple who had been busily taking pictures of the city caught up with Youngho who was walking way ahead of them.

“Mr. CEO, isn’t this the meeting place?”

“We are meeting at Bockenheimer. You can take a tour and return to the hotel first. Get there before it gets dark. This place is full of pickpockets so be careful.

“We will come with you.”

“This client doesn’t like to have many people around. You must be exhausted for flying too long today. Just get some rest for now. We’ll get busy tomorrow since I have many places to visit including Zeynep Wine distribution store.”

Leaving behind the young couple, Youngho entered the restaurant to meet Eriksson.

Eriksson who was having coffee at the table near the windows waved at him.

“It looked like you had company.”

He saw the couple who followed Youngho to the entrance of the restaurant through the glass.

“They’re new recruits of my company. They follow me around like little chicks.”

“Well, they must have been keeping you entertained.”

“They’re like my younger brother and sister. I call them the followers.”

Eriksson laughed out loud.

“Oh, that just reminded me of my past. When I was young, I followed around my big brother but I lost him every time. I don’t know what kind of trouble he was up to, but he tried hard to keep me away.”

“Well, we’ve all been there where we wanted independence and secrets from others. If he had let you know of his secret, you’d have told your parents about it.”

“That’s true. You just can’t tell your little brother.”

“Right. It feels better to share secrets with someone your age.”

“Lee, come to think of it, you and I are on the same boat.”

Youngho did not care for that. He was only treating Eriksson as a business partner.

He just wondered who would be the Information Agency’s clients. If the intelligence department of the autonomous state got bigger in the future, he was certain that his information network could catch up with the Information Agency.

Eriksson—who was having a conversation with Youngho—suddenly wrote some initials on the newspaper that he had.

He wrote ‘G’ and ‘R’ and connected the two letters. Again, he wrote ‘G’ and ‘A’ and then put a question mark in-between.

G would be for Germany and R would be for Russia. Then naturally, A would be for America. Since there had been an intense war of nerves among the heads of those countries, Youngho quickly solved the riddle.

“And what about them?”

“I heard that America is making investments in Kazakhstan.”

He was asking for Youngho’s unofficial information. Youngho stepped back.

“There are rumors about it, but they are not officially determined yet.”

“Central Asia will become the new arena of competition. Russia and the U.S. will have brutal economic and political warfare there… I need more information.”

“Kazakhstan and Russia have economically and politically cooperative relationship, and the whole world knows about it. What other information do you need?”

“When America intervenes, things always get more complex.”

Many Europeans tended to look at America as some kind of a monster and Eriksson seemed to be one of them when to Asians—Europeans and Americans were the same.

***

Youngho busted Zeynep’s apartment unannounced.

Szechenyi had gone to stay in Denmark as soon as the summer break started. It was only Park Seo-young and Zeynep who was currently at the apartment. When Youngho entered the apartment, it was a mess. It seemed like there had been some sort of party last night.

Park Seo-young and Zeynep jumped out of their skin to see Youngho unexpectedly. There were a few bottles of wine on the floor. It looked like the two had a wine party together.

“You should come home when you’re on your summer break. Why are you two still here when Szechenyi’s not around to protect you?”

“Phew, oppa. Don’t worry about us. The guards from the hotel follow us around and we’re almost tired of them. We’ll have some fun for some more days and return to Baku.”

Park Tae-young—the security team leader of Arirang Hotel in Am Main, Frankfurt—did his best to take care of the girls, but Youngho was still worried about them since Frankfurt had the highest crime rate in Germany. He was glad to hear that the security team looked after the girls for him.

“Did you have breakfast yet?”

“No, we just got up.”

“Let’s get out. We didn’t have breakfast yet because we wanted to have brunch. We’ll wait outside, hurry up.”

“We? Did you bring Il-kwon oppa too?”

“No, they’re new employees of our company. You don’t know them.”

As Zeynep and Park Seo-young came out, the follower couple seemed to have been stunned by Zeynep’s beauty. The three women soon became chatty that Youngho’s ears were now hurting.

“Miss Kim. Would you like to go shopping later today?”

“Shopping?”

“My oppa gives me not much allowance so I can’t go shopping these days. Look, my shoes are all ragged.”

Zeynep was the chairman of the Arirang Foundation. It was a total lie that she could not afford to buy shoes. Kim In-hwa was confused since she knew that Youngho was a wealthy businessman.

“Oh, um… Well, if you want me to come along, I will come…”

“Did you hear that oppa? Miss Kim wants to shop with me. Can I use your card? I’ll pay you later.”

Youngho gave her enough allowance, but she always used all of her allowance for the foundation and asked more from him. Kim In-hwa looked at Youngho in a weird way. Zeynep had turned him into a wealthy but stingy brother-in-law.

After having brunch, the three girls went to a mall, and the two guys were killing time at a nearby café.

“Man, these kiddos are having a blast.”

“Mr. CEO, I’ve gone shopping with my mother and sisters. You shouldn’t have high hopes on this. We’ll have to wait for several hours more.”

Youngho already knew that Zeynep could spend hours when she shopped.

He was only frustrated since his mind was busy because he had a monthly meeting at the CIA’s European chapter tomorrow.

After three hours, Zeynep said that she was unhappy that she could not hit some other floors. This was what happened every month when Youngho visited her for his monthly meeting since she used his card. But, she still made Youngho smile for donating her money to the foundation.

Kim In-hwa seemed to have discussed the Arirang Foundation. When it was time to part ways, Zeynep was signing a few documents that Kim In-hwa gave her.

It seemed like they had spent their shopping time quite productively.

***

“You came to Frankfurt during the weekend. Why do you show up so late?”

“How did you know that I got here?”

“Where do you think you are? This is an intelligence institute.”

“You must’ve checked my record of entry here. Well, you seem to spend so much of your time checking on a mere agent.”

“Why would I go through such trouble for you? Eriksson called me.”

Youngho agreed to Eriksson when he said that he would inform Michael about their business.

“I was going to keep it a secret, but Eriksson spoiled it all.”

“Oh please. Do you think you can get away from my influence? No way.”

‘This guy’s sometimes so cute.’

“I wouldn’t think about it. I can’t do anything if I don’t know anything. Should I hear that American corporations are trying to get into Kazakhstan from an outsider?”

Surprised, Michael denied it as he jumped from his seat. His reaction made him look more suspicious.

“Hey, hey. I need to evaluate if this is going to be a plus or minus first before telling you. My head hurts from stressing over it.”

Youngho kept on talking blatantly as if he had no idea.

“But why would it cause trouble for me when American corporations come to Kazakhstan? What corporations are they? I should meet them at once.”

“They’re trying to use you as their agent. That’s what’s giving me a headache.”

It seemed like Michael was worried that this might hurt Youngho and Yaniv’s relationship.

Youngho decided to help him.

“You’re concerned about Yaniv. Well, I’ll give up selling wine to Russia and the share of the hotel in Moscow. What are you worried about when American corporations are trying to invest in Kazakhstan?”

“That’s not all they want, you know.”

Youngho had already heard about it from Agent Smith, but he had to listen to Michael for the next hour about the same issue.

“So, are you saying that they are investing in petrochemical industry?”

Youngho was excited to hear the news. Petrochemical plant business was a large-scale investment. Because many related businesses could be derived from it, it was going to be a necessary investment that Kazakhstan should take even with many risks.

“Major oil corporations have decided it already. We’re going to have to support their decision.”

Youngho was willing to go above and beyond if he could have this investment. What America wanted was to secure a safe route for oil crude for now. It was relieving that America was not looking to get underground mineral resources from Kazakhstan yet.

“Russia must be perking up its ears over this now.”

“Yeah. That’s why we need your help. We’re going to build an industrial goods factory or a daily necessities factory in Volgograd to soothe and distract Russia.”

Russia focused on developing heavy chemical industry during the cold war era in order to get ahead of the U.S., and this caused its light industry to lag behind other countries by far. They had goods produced within the country, but they could not compete with imported goods in terms of their quality and price.

The U.S. wanted to invest in one or two factories for industrial products in Russia and safely help American corporations making its foray into Kazakhstan. It was because Russia was not fond of American investments in Kazakhstan although it welcomed other foreign investments in the country.

“First, you can inform Yaniv that an American corporation wants to invest in Russia and see how the Russian government would react to that.”

Since Youngho was disguised as a well-off businessman who had multiple businesses in Russia, the headquarters of the CIA had decided that Youngho was the perfect agent to do this job.

“I guess the factory in Russia will be our priority first, and then I won’t look suspicious to Russia even if I attract American corporations to Kazakhstan afterward, right?”

“I just hope that Russia takes it that way. If they think of you as a businessman who considers both countries’ growth, that’ll be our mission accomplished.”

“And you won’t care if something happened to me.”

“No, no. That’s not what I mean. We just want to make an opportunity to make an agent that has Russia’s trust this time.”

“I should follow any orders from the higher-ups, but don’t you have any return service for me?”

“I’ll arrange some things so you can use the weapons you took from the French freighter at your convenience.”

“What? A French freighter?”

“Oh, don’t you underestimate the U.S. CIA.”