Chapter 313: A Baby Step (3)
Frankfurt was more crowded with businesspeople than tourists.
Expositions of different products such as books, electronics, daily necessities, motors, and instrunts 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.
Rorberg 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 eting place?”
“We are eting at Bockenheir. 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 co with you.”
“This client doesn’t like to have many people around. You must be exhausted for flying too long today. Just get so 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 et 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 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 of my past. When I was young, I followed around my big brother but I lost him every ti. I don’t know what kind of trouble he was up to, but he tried hard to keep 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 soone your age.”
“Lee, co to think of it, you and I are on the sa 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 departnt 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 so 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 Arica. 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 Arica is making investnts 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 beco 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 Arica intervenes, things always get more complex.”
Many Europeans tended to look at Arica as so kind of a monster and Eriksson seed to be one of them when to Asians—Europeans and Aricans were the sa.
***
Youngho busted Zeynep’s apartnt unannounced.
Szechenyi had gone to stay in Denmark as soon as the sumr break started. It was only Park Seo-young and Zeynep who was currently at the apartnt. When Youngho entered the apartnt, it was a ss. It seed like there had been so 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 co ho when you’re on your sumr 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 so fun for so 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 cri 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 ca out, the follower couple seed to have been stunned by Zeynep’s beauty. The three won soon beca chatty that Youngho’s ears were now hurting.
“Miss Kim. Would you like to go shopping later today?”
“Shopping?”
“My oppa gives 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 to co along, I will co...”
“Did you hear that oppa? Miss Kim wants to shop with . 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 ti 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 eting at the CIA’s European chapter tomorrow.
After three hours, Zeynep said that she was unhappy that she could not hit so other floors. This was what happened every month when Youngho visited her for his monthly eting since she used his card. But, she still made Youngho smile for donating her money to the foundation.
Kim In-hwa seed to have discussed the Arirang Foundation. When it was ti to part ways, Zeynep was signing a few docunts that Kim In-hwa gave her.
It seed like they had spent their shopping ti quite productively.
***
“You ca 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 ti checking on a re agent.”
“Why would I go through such trouble for you? Eriksson called .”
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 sotis so cute.’
“I wouldn’t think about it. I can’t do anything if I don’t know anything. Should I hear that Arican 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 when Arican corporations co to Kazakhstan? What corporations are they? I should et them at once.”
“They’re trying to use you as their agent. That’s what’s giving a headache.”
It seed 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 Arican 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 sa 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 investnt. Because many related businesses could be derived from it, it was going to be a necessary investnt 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 investnt. What Arica wanted was to secure a safe route for oil crude for now. It was relieving that Arica 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 Arican corporations making its foray into Kazakhstan. It was because Russia was not fond of Arican investnts in Kazakhstan although it welcod other foreign investnts in the country.
“First, you can inform Yaniv that an Arican corporation wants to invest in Russia and see how the Russian governnt 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 Arican 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 sothing happened to .”
“No, no. That’s not what I an. We just want to make an opportunity to make an agent that has Russia’s trust this ti.”
“I should follow any orders from the higher-ups, but don’t you have any return service for ?”
“I’ll arrange so 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.”
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