Empire of the Ring Chapter 152 - Crisis and Opportunity (3)

Chapter 152: Crisis and Opportunity (3)

What Youngho was worried about must be happening right now.

Stopping freelance journalists definitely ant sothing was happening in Nagorno-Karabakh. Soone needed to find out what was going on to encourage international publicity to put so pressure on the Azerbaijani governnt.

Youngho called Michael.

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

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

“I had the sa feeling too and I’ve been looking at the satellite cara. 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 governnt’s military actions. No leaders would ignore international publicity. If they do, the country would be isolated from the international community. The Azerbaijani governnt would definitely be cautious about their next move since it had been trying to establish their mbership in the international society.

Even with the best quality satellite cara, 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 governnt’s action. Youngho made up his mind to secretly go into the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, so he could catch critical evidence on a cara to stop what the governnt is doing. Youngho only beca an Azerbaijani citizen because he needed it to do his business. He still would not agree to any inhumane asure, and he wanted to save innocent lives at risk. Moreover, he did not want to be a shaful 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 governnt would go that far?”

“I can’t forget the looks on the faces of the injured Arnian soldiers, and it doesn’t make sense how freelance journalists were arrested and deported. Sothing’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 Arnians. The Azerbaijani governnt has nothing against us. Now you are going too far.”

“You’ve got to be kidding . Think about it. Serbian Village will be part of our group. Do you think the governnt 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 governnt would definitely interfere before Serbian Village becos 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 seed like a great idea to manipulate the Azerbaijani governnt. When did Jongil beco 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 seed to beco stronger. Jongil was wondering about it as well.

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

“I was wondering about that too for a long ti. 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 policen 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 forr militia commander, Margos, but the house looked as if it was emptied long ago. He was wise enough to retreat to sowhere as soon as he found out that the Azerbaijani governnt 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 governnt 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, soone 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 Arnian language, saying that he was a journalist. The woman hesitated for a mont, then opened the door for them.

***

When Youngho and Jongil arrived at the place where the Arnian 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, nurous people seed 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 Arnian 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 Arnian governnt 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 inford 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 ant 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 ca 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 extrely 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 governnt 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 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 governnt did not know what to do but panic. Azerbaijan governed tried to put the bla on so 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 Arnian autonomous state. Still, the Azerbaijani governnt took away a right to have its own military forces and promised to compensate for their loss. Though so 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 that I need so treatnt for a post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“You are saying that a man from special forces is having nightmares because of a mission? Give a break! If you keep telling this nonsense, I will put you in a ntal 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 ti. I appreciate your swift move since it saved a lot of people... and you saved our face too.”

It was such a big complint since Michael never complinted anybody.

Since Nagorno-Karabakh still there, the U.S. Congress was able to shut Arnian politicians’ mouth who had been raising their voices for their advantages. The Arnian 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 Arnians ought to make a statue for Youngho for saving their lives, no one was supposed to know his work.