Empire of the Ring

At Frankfurt airport, Michael and two other agents politely welcomed Ilkwon. Although he was a defector, they were treating him as a diplomat of another country.

“Chief, we are here.”

“Mr. Lee, welcome. Thank you for doing us a favor, it must’ve not been an easy decision for you.”

Seeing the other two agents politely greeting Youngho, Ilkwon’s hardened face was relaxed a little bit. He had judged that Youngho is not a low-ranked.

After they arrived at the European chapter, Michael escorted them to a secret room which Youngho had never seen before. He knew that it was where any conversations would be recorded, and that meant that Michael was not going to talk about classified top secrets or request an unfair favor. Moreover, Youngho was allowed to be with Ilkwon for the conversation. He was relieved. A few moments later, the two agents who greeted them at the airport also joined them, making the atmosphere even more welcoming.

Water and coffee were served to them. After they were all settled, Michael began to speak,

“Mr. Kim, we did not wish to expose Lee’s identity but we couldn’t help it because this is more important. Since we exposed Lee to you, we’d like to let you know that we are all on the same boat together now. I already know that you two are very close.”

“…”

Youngho was not sure why Michael had directly claimed that they were all on the same boat, but he stayed calm to listen for more.

“As far as we know, Mr. Kim, you had been an agent who was in charge of security for North Korean representatives in Azerbaijan. Is that correct?”

“Yes, you are right.”

Kim Ilkwon was now naturally answering him, even though he has been trained all his life that the US was their enemy.

“By any chance, do you think you can cooperate with the CIA? We’d like some advice from someone like you, who had been an elite agent of North Korea.”

“…”

Because it was an unexpected suggestion, Ilkwon could not answer him right away. Youngho wanted to say something but he stayed still to respect Ilkwon’s free will.

“We know how you think of the USA and we could guess your opinion of our country when you chose not to go to South Korea. Agreeing with us might be a gesture of betraying your own country but I’m only asking because your help will be used to benefit North Korean people ultimately.”

“Well… Is this something that I have to give an answer right now?”

“No. We just want to know whether you’re willing to help us in the future. Of course, we’d need some time to gain your trust.”

“I’ll give you my answer before I leave Germany. Thank you for treating a mere defector like me so nicely.”

As Kim Ilkwon said in a polite manner, Michael showed a satisfactory smile.

“Very well. I hope this meeting can be the foundation of our relationship.”

***

Youngho was listening to Kim Ilkwon at a café in Frankfurt.

“That’s what I concluded, Boss.”

It seemed that Kim Ilkwon had regained his calmness since he was calling Youngho ‘boss’ again. Majorly, He was saying that whatever it was, he would like to cooperate with the USA.

“Ilkwon, I’ve been working in the CIA for four years now. The CIA is a pretty flexible organization as long as things don’t harm the national interest. I don’t think they will demand you to go to North Korea for a secret mission.”

“No, I’d rather go back to North Korea to get some people out, I think that’s a more honorable thing to do. Whoever that is receiving America’s help, he must have decided to betray his own country.”

“…”

“I still can’t dismiss the phrase ‘our archenemy, American Empire’, and I’m reluctant to work with them but I’m confused since I can’t deny the reality.”

Although he understood what was going on, he could not accept the idea of cooperating with the US CIA in his heart.

“You don’t have to care about my position being sabotaged. Your concerns are understandable since you’ve been under the North Korean systems for so long. Just do whatever you want. Judging by today’s conversation, I think they only want some verbal advice from you.”

Ilkwon, who sipped on his tea and gazed at a mountain in a far distance, spoke as if he was finally determined.

“Alright. I’ll tell them I will cooperate.”

Although it was not going to be an easy job for him, Ilkwon had made his own decision. Youngho respected his judgment and decided to see the bright side. Kim Ilkwon’s appearance on his farm would be serving as a momentum for him to work for North Korea-related jobs. As a businessman, there would be many times for him to have a point of contact with North Koreans or North Korean-related issues. His existence just expedited the time.

***

After returning to Baku, Kim Ilkwon spent time taking the moral lecture from Sangchun’s father with other Korean recruits and sometimes training with them. The recruits of the security service company were slowly taking Ilkwon as their coworker because they saw him almost every day. They now sometimes exchanged jokes with each other. Since Ilkwon called Jongil and Insoo ‘hyung’, it was hard for them to keep despising him. Also, as Ilkwon now tried to get close to them by joining their activities, they also opened their heart to receive him.

***

Youngho was on the way to Volgograd with Ilkwon after receiving a call from Sergey to renew the wine distribution contract. Since they were not in a rush they traveled by train. Youngho’s heart was peaceful because cultivation season was already over. Although the farm was still running busy, the busiest part of the year had passed, and it felt like this year was almost done.

Ilkwon, who was watching outside through the window, asked all of a sudden,

“Boss, what’s your life goal?”

“Well… I don’t know what to say to such a sudden question. What about you?”

“Well in North Korea, the government only insisted on ‘unification under communism,’ so I didn’t have any other goal.”

Youngho regretted asking him the question because, under communism, North Korean people did not value personal goals since their national goals for the benefit of the dictator were more important than individuals’ happiness. At least they were taught that way and forced to live that way. If they answered it wrong, they would have been criticized aggressively and even get arrested.

“In a capitalistic society, young people would start out with big dreams and the dream grows smaller as people grow up, and in the end, they settle with secure jobs. In fact, I didn’t even have a big dream, I just somehow went overseas and luckily met great opportunities here and there. Now I just have some money and I’d like to use it wisely.”

“I don’t know a whole lot about the capitalistic society but you don’t seem like the other businessmen in the capitalistic world.”

“…”

“People usually want to settle down for a comfortable life with their money but you don’t seem to want to be comfortable.”

“Ilkwon, don’t flatter me anymore. I’m the same as others, I’d settle if I get old, but I still have a young and healthy body. I don’t even have someone to manage my business, if I stopped working now, who will give me jobs? My priority now is gathering people to work with, I still have a long way to go.”

Having this conversation, Youngho realized that it was time to find a professional executive for the wine factory. There were plenty of smart people outside but he wanted someone he could trust. Since he traveled a lot and would be away from the farm, he was not in the position to receive reports and give instructions. He needed a person who would take an active part of the management and make keen business judgments to make Zeynep Farm successful in the market. The only person who could do that was Sergey.

However, he was Yaniv’s man and a business partner of Youngho. He also had Sangchun, who’s in Korea, in mind but he did not even speak English. While he was deep in his thoughts, Kim Ilkwon handed a cold beer can to him.

***

Sergey’s face was full of excitement at the train station.

Wondering what it was, Youngho was about to open his mouth but Sergey spoke first,

“Hey Youngho. Finally, we finally did it! We detected a large amount of gas emission. It’s going to be a success!”

Sergey meant that gas deposits were found in District seven.

“What? Is that true? The captain of the drillship was under a lot of stress a few days ago.”

“One of the staff on the ship called me moments ago. You’ll get the message soon too.”

It was such reliving news. Since they had been drilling for months without any results, everybody was under high pressure. They still need to investigate the field, but compared to District six near the field, it seemed that District seven would have as much as deposits buried underneath.

Among the companies that began drilling since the spring’s public oil field bidding, Yaniv’s company was the second one who had a success. From their success, the Azerbaijani government would also be making profits since the amount of national gas and oil production would increase.

Yaniv had been waiting in front of a table all set up for drinking, and as soon as Youngho entered the reception hall, he hugged him.

“Lee, you are such a blessing to me! I’m the only mafia boss in the world, who has two offshore oil fields.”

“Mr. Yaniv, now you can’t take back the additional share you’ve given me.”

As Youngho made a joke about the company’s share, Yaniv replied,

“Man, of course I won’t. That share was also for Zeynep. Since I’m borrowing her name for the company, shouldn’t I pay for the name price?”

“That’s a huge gift for Zeynep. She wouldn’t even understand what this means since she’s young but I’ll tell her that it’s your gift for her.”

“I don’t know if she’ll understand my favor.”

Yaniv seemed to miss her already.

“You know, in the winter, if you invite her to ‘The Nutcracker’ performance, she’d come immediately.”

“Alright. This time, I won’t bring a lot of men with me, and we could go to Sochi to ski together. I’ll just rent the whole ski resort for us.”

Yaniv was indeed a man of large-scale businesses. For a few people to enjoy skiing as quietly, he wanted to empty the whole resort.

“Oh, Mr. Yaniv. Please don’t. Zeynep likes crowded places.”

“Phew, okay. By the way, who is that firm-looking guy next to you?”

“He’s my secretary and bodyguard.”

“I like his eyes.”

As a mafia boss, Yaniv certainly had keen eyes for people.

With Sergey, Youngho renewed their yearly wine distribution contract. They agreed on the new prices of wines, the stainless steel tank wines were sold at seven dollars and the oak wines were sold at fifteen dollars. The estimated wine sales until the fall of 2015 summed up to $16,000,000. It was only selling wines produced from Zeynep Farm, the grapes produced in the Charles farm were still in the aging process to be turned into premium quality wines for European markets.

While Youngho was thinking about his business plans, he felt his phone vibrating. It was a call from Eriksson, the middleman of the information agency.