Summary:
Kid and Nikov will face up a chance to see the Kachin rebels, where the Turkish fugitive and suspect, Çelattin Albayrak, is believed to be there. However, this is already a trap on plan. When it is about to come, suddenly, the surprising element arrives and they are carried to meet Albayrak. The story of Albayrak later influences them to realize something far complicated. Meanwhile, Than Myint and Zheng Wangji's hidden hostility reveals.
Mandalay, Myanmar
"Eli, are you alright?"
Eli, who was in the room during the blast, suffered unstable injuries. Her friends, Nico, came and almost got cried to see painful Eli trying to be under surgery.
…
…
…
…
…
Meanwhile, in the smaller hotel, the Boss, Kid and Nikov underwent secret cover. Being almost targeted before, they became very cautious on their actions. Kid and Nikov looked outside often, to see who.
Three days after the detonation and their escape, Kid and Nikov wanted to kill those morons. But after there was nothing threatening for the moment, Kid decided to go out. Of course, still carrying weapons for sure.
But in the city, CCTV was everywhere, so even if Kid tried to hide much, his presence would be also recorded. And the city's officials themselves were heavily tied with Than Myint. When Than Myint needed, he would get immediately.
In the local Mandalay market, he was recorded by the camera, and one of them reported to Gen. Than. Than Myint, having heard about the report, told to his henchmen to make a trap against them. Htun Yaw and Htun Zaw entered into the city and soon watched about. They discovered that, Kid and Nikov were there.
Kid and Nikov had moved to another hotel and planned to depart away in tomorrow to Kachin State. They would call a local taxi tomorrow at 06:00 tomorrow morning in Burmese time, so it would be solved faster. Little known for them, the Burmese Tatmadaw was also watching them and, perhaps the worst thing for the Doras were, they didn't know that Mandalay was completely run by the General.
But why Than Myint despised them remain unclear.
…
…
…
…
…
Kid and Nikov entered into the hotel, having bought some few Burmese foods and some Chinese good stuffs, and Kid just addressed to Nikov after going back.
"Can we trust anyone in Mandalay?"
"(I dunno. What's waiting for us specifically?)"
"Same. I feel that, this city is being run by someone."
"(Then we should leave tomorrow. It's ugly enough now.)"
"Yes, we should."
"(Then, let's get the hell out of here.)"
"I have prepared enough. Now, I wonder Albayrak in person like. It's interesting."
"(Great. Let's get our ass out of here, sooner or die there.)"
Dora-the-Kid and Dora-nikov saw their fate if they stayed too long, so the best option was to escape from there. Mandalay was no longer a heaven for them, and they must be fast, from now.
…
…
…
But even in the hotel, no one wanted to leave them alone. One of hotel's managers, was an agent of Than Myint. Name was unknown, but he reported to the General and they were quick to place these report as worthy.
A man there told about Kid and Nikov being there. From the mansion of Than Myint outside, it came out.
"အဆိုပါကြွက်နေဆဲကြွက်ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အဲဒီမှာသငျသညျရ။ မနက်ဖြန်ကျနော်တို့အစီအစဉ်ကိုလိုက်နာပါလိမ့်မယ်။" (The mice is still the mice. There I get you. Tomorrow, we will follow the plan.)
In this conflict saw their war to come …
…
…
…
…
…
06:00
Morning in this Mandalay was nothing very different than any other morning. Sunshine, and put people to passion. The capital of old Burmese empire has always been spectacular for having some of the best scenes in Burma.
Buddhist monks wake up early and go to pagoda for their prayer. In a country of majority Theravada followers, being a Buddhist there reflects the amazing culture of the Burmese people, a country with hospitable people.
When Dora-the-Kid and Dora-nikov, they woke up early this time and they got all of their luggage in their small bag, and they were about to leave. They waved hand to call the taxi, which one of them quickly approached to the hotel. The driver, luckily, was good in English.
"Sir, we are you going?"
"Can you help me go to Hpakan?" Kid questioned.
"Hpakan? Do you agree?"
"Yes, yes I do. Have a private meeting there."
"Okay. Then, sit on."
Kid and Nikov carried their small luggage into the taxi as the car departed from the Boss Hotel, a three-star hotel that was built in a typical British way.
Shortly after they went into the taxi and left, another car followed. It was a jeep and they followed from behind. Taxi turned to be something …
Kid and Nikov were not informed about it, as the jeep slowed their speed to not let anyone in the taxi to see. But the bigger danger happened to be …
…
In the taxi itself, the yellow taxi, it had a headphone chip spying their activities and its voice. And this taxi was a spying taxi used by the military's agents, and she was meant to spy Kid and Nikov.
Spying Kiddo and Nikov was the job of the taxi driver, who happened to be Htun Yaw, one of the twin. The driver of the jeep behind was …
…
"ထွန်းယောဖားကန့်မှသူတို့ကိုဦးဆောင်နေသည်။ တစ်နာရီအကြာမှာကျနော်တို့မြင်လိမ့်မည်။" (Htun Yaw is leading them to Hpakan. An hour later, we will see.)
Zheng Wangji, on the same time, stayed quiet as the jeep was following the taxi. They kept going and going until it reached the Hpakan mine, where the meeting was supposed to happen.
Kid and Nikov, meanwhile, took weapons and beware with any possible threat, but just they were not early enough, because the opponent was even more cautious. The taxi just headed to the mine.
And this mine was …
…
…
… the famed Hpakan jade mine.
The mine was extremely rich of jade and is still like that. Large sum of jade and other resources have been the cause of bloody war between ethnic Burmese Army and the local Kachins. The mine, despite this, is still being used and used by military presence.
This jade mine could become verge of greater conflict, with the Kachins allied with other ethnic rebels against the Burmese. More, Kachins are openly Christians opposing the Burmese Buddhists. Christian-Buddhist violent is very permanent in Kachin State.
When Kid and Nikov reached the famed Hpakan jade mine, they were not aware, this could be …
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
The taxi stopped there, in the supposed meeting. In fact, it was used to be a site of more than mining. It is also an execution ground. Over the past 50 years, thousands of people lost their lives. The Burmese Army had executed at least 500 people in the mine for opposing the government's presence in the state.
China's participation has further burdened the budget of the poor Kachin land. Economy of Kachin State has been drained, and Chinese, Burmese to Kachins are creating a triangle battle for their interests.
When Kid and Nikov reached to the jade mine, they decided to carry only their bag, and this was their only luggage carrying with. The guns on arms, they looked to the taxi driver and said goodbye. The driver intended to say goodbye, only to put out a special gun to make ready.
Meanwhile, Htun Zaw also arrived. He arrived to Htun Yaw's position in the taxi, and both nodded to take actions. Meanwhile, in the jeep far away, the Chinese sniper, Zheng Wangji, arrived with a sniper rifle, QBU-88 mode, to wait in patience.
Zheng was about to reach the target, but from his own binocular, he discovered something was also coming to the jade mine, so he decided not to act.
And Zheng's awareness was no waste. Only Htun Zaw and Htun Yaw didn't see this coming.
…
…
…
"Where's Çelattin anyway?"
As Kid and Nikov had not turned their head back, Htun Yaw and Htun Zaw raised their arms with two Baretta-made pistols. They were waiting for the final shoot.
When they were aiming, of course. They just hoped to see the end and to gain higher position in the government and the Tatmadaw. And it could have come …
…
…
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
In a minute, the twin, unaware with the arriving, got their bodies and its heads hit by something silver, skinny. Not just one, but many came. It was so fast that neither Htun Zaw or Htun Yaw were able to respond. And from that moment, they fell down together, without even a scream.
The Chinese sniper, former soldier of the Special Forces, Zheng Wangji, who accompanied with the twin, got startled to see it coming and he quick to not open fire. Then, he chose not to surface, instead left the jeep and abandoned it.
The gunfire also arrived to the ears of two Doras. Both Kid and Nikov were startled too, and stayed out as some few ethnic-based soldiers with their native turbans arrived and surrounded them. Kid and Nikov raised their hands to show that they didn't want to fight.
"Hold on …"
Meanwhile, two other soldiers of the mysterious force came out, when they checked on the bodies of the lying. And they spoke in native language as well.
"Clear!"
Then, in a surprising story, a man turned the environment into a more partying. The man, tall, didn't have bear, a Turkic-based face with a Hristo Stoichkov-apearance. Saying this because Hristo Stoichkov was hot-headed and quite handsome at young age, when he played for Bulgaria and Barcelona.
This man's resembling a lot of Stoichkov, just … with a different temper, more cautious, careful and well-managed.
And he was …
"What on earth are you going here without noticing they're Tatmadaw's agents?"
"Wait … what?" Kid and Nikov got stemmed when they found out that two dead bodies in the back were agents of Tatmadaw. They ran back and …
… okay, that's surprising.
…
…
…
"ထွန်းယောနှင့်ထွန်းဇော်ကိုတုံ့ပြန်ခဲ့ပါဘူး။ သူတို့ဟာဖြစ်ပျက်ရဲ့အဘယ်အရာကိုမပြောခဲ့ပါဘူး, ဒါမှမဟုတ်သူတို့နှစ်ဦးကိုနိုင်ငံခြားသားတွေကိုသတ်သို့မဟုတ်ခဲ့ပါဘူး။" (Htun Yaw and Htun Zaw didn't respond. They didn't tell what's happened, or did they kill those two foreigners or not.)
"ဘာဖြစ်နေတာလဲ? ဘာဖြစ်သွားတာလဲ?" (What's going on? What happened?)
Reaction of Gen. Than Myint was furious. He was so angry to realize it had been an hour and there was no respond. However, a pig bird of Gen. Than soon reported to the Burmese Major General.
After hearing it, he decided to smash the table down.
"သေရော! ဒီရယ်စရာသို့မဟုတ်ကဘာလဲ?" (Fuck! Is this funny or what?)
"အထွေထွေ, ထိုအမွှာမှားဘာလဲ" (General, what's wrong to the twin?)
"ငါအလောင်းဘုရားစစ်တက္ကသိုလ်မှာဆရာမအခါထွန်းဇော်, ထွန်းယောငါ့အနှစျခုကအကောင်းဆုံးကျောင်းသားများကိုများမှာ! နှင့်တစ်နည်းနည်းနဲ့အဘို့, သူတို့ကတောင်တော်သူပုန်များကအားဖြင့်သေဆုံးခဲ့သည်!" (Htun Zaw and Htun Yaw are my two best students when I was a teacher at the Alaungpaya Military Academy! And for somehow, they were killed by the mountain rebels!)
The new of Htun twin's deaths shocked the whole army staff in Mandalay, because of the Htun twin's seriousness. So, General Than Myint interrupted again, much was being under uncontrolled anger.
"တရုတ်ဘယ်မှာလဲ?" (Where's the Chinese?)
"အထွေထွေထက်, တရုတျစနိုက်ပါပြုမူခဲ့ပါဘူး။ သူကတချို့အကြောင်းပြချက်မြားအတှကျရိုက်ကူးမပေးခဲ့ပါဘူး။" (General Than, the Chinese sniper didn't act. He didn't shoot for some reasons.)
"ARGH!"
He soon kicked his own sofa and on the anger, he soon recalled an old story …
…
…
#####
Back in five years ago, Zheng Wangji and Than Myint worked together to battle the Shan rebels. Like the Kachins, the Shans were hostile to the Government, and had been in a tense battle last years.
Zheng knew well English, but he didn't talk much. Yet, during a fight, Zheng's Tatmadaw force was unable to collaborate with Than's force, thus missed the chance to kill the rebel Shan commander, Thai-born Phanit Phitsalon.
Phanit Phitsalon is a wanted figure in Burma due to himself behind the ongoing riots in Rakhine and his men secretly armed the Rohingya rebels against the Government's force. Phanit, himself born in a Shan-Thai family in Buriram, he had played central part on ongoing conflict between Shan natives and the Burmese Army.
The Thai Government has never talked about it as Phanit had left Thailand to reside abroad, and he is a dual-citizen with an Australian passport, and this had a big trouble on Thai-Burmese ongoing relations. Despite recent Thai investments, Burmese nationalists suspected Thailand had knowledge of Phanit.
Zheng's chance to capture Phanit failed and so was Than. The Burmese General then blamed Zheng Wangji while Zheng accused Than for not collaborating with him. This began the friction between Zheng and Than.
…
…
#####
"သူသည်ဤပုံပြင်ကိုမေ့လျော့တစ်ခါမျှတူသောဒါဟာပုံရသည်။" (It seems like he had never forgotten this story.)
"ဘယ်ဇာတ်လမ်းကိုဗိုလ်မှူးအထွေထွေ?" (Which story, Major General?)
"လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ငါးနှစ်က, ငါနှင့်သူ့ကိုသူပုန်အုပ်စုတစုမှာထားတော်မူသောသူတစ်ဦးနာမည်ဆိုးဖြင့်ကျော်ကြားရှမ်းခေါင်းဆောင်ဖမ်းဆီးဖို့အတူတကွအလုပ်လုပ်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ သို့သော်တစ်ဦးခွေး၏ဤတရုတ်သား, ငါတို့စစ်ဆင်ရေးပျက်စီးနှင့်ခေါင်းဆောင်လွတ်မြောက်ရန်ကြကုန်အံ့။" (Five years ago, I and him worked together to capture a notorious Shan leader who commanded a rebel group. But this Chinese son of a bitch, he ruined our operation and let the leader escape.)
"ဒီအစစ်အမှန်ဖြစ်ပါတယ်လျှင်, အဘယ်ကြောင့်ကျွန်တော်သူ့ကိုကိုးစားစောင့်ရှောက်သလဲ?" (If this is real, then, why do we keep trusting him?) A senior officer questioned again.
"ဒီတစ်ခါလည်းငါအချိန်အားဖြင့်သူ့ကိုသတ်သင့်ပါတယ်။" (Maybe I should have killed him by that time.)
Than Myint himself seemed to have some bitterness with Zheng Wangji. Not sure of Zheng's reaction, but Than's tensions with Zheng might have something with the past …
… but it was for later talk …
…
…
…
Kachin State, Myanmar
It was …
"Çelattin!"
"I am glad you have come. You know the Burmese Army is notorious for being merciless, right?"
It was Çelattin Albayrak, the Turk who is the leader of a group of Kachin fighters. Albayrak was the name of him, but he looked like nothing muslim at all.
"Are you a muslim?" Kid asked for fun.
"No. I am irreligious now." Albayrak smiled, yet sighed on them: "Come with me. This is not a good option to stay away and then trying to become a hero of all time, ya."
"We're not looking to be heroic." Kid addressed back: "We're looking for you."
From the word "you", Albayrak was surprised. The Turkish guy didn't expect someone willing to go to Myanmar only to meet him. But Albayrak soon turned on and …
… yes, he reacted.
"Dang … Reddington!"
"Raymond Reddington. He told me about you. And, a record of the lost story."
"Wait, what?" Çelattin Albayrak got a bit hilarious by laugh, but he acknowledged that, he was not smart enough. Yet, Albayrak expressed that he truly had tie with Reddington, only just without perpetration.
"Well then, come in. I welcome you. But there's no second." Albayrak added before he left to the main base.
Well … That's it.
Kid and Nikov were escorted by a bunch of Kachin fighters, who put their arms on hands to bring them in. And it truly did have a lot of job for that.
And that's all what they needed.
Kid and Nikov were … ready for that.
…
In a mysterious base of the Kachin Independence Army, the main rebel group of Kachin State, Kid and Nikov got his own talk with Albayrak, the Turkish man who left Turkey ten years ago.
Kid was influent in Turkish, so he could answer.
"Kardeşler, size ve arkadaşınız için tam destek sağlamak için mutluyum. Fakat neden böyle bir kanunu olmayan bir ülke olan Myanmar için risk alıyorsunuz?" (Brothers, I am glad to provide full support for you and your friend. But, why get risk to Myanmar, a country with no law like that?)
"Albayrak'ın, Türkçe'de bir alıntı olduğunu anlamak önemlidir; 'birbirimize verdiğimiz söz ne olursa olsun, size asla ihanet etmeyeceğim ve bana asla zarar vermeyeceksiniz'." (Albayrak, it is important to understand, in Turkish, there is a quote: 'regardless of our promise we made each other, I would never betray you, and you would never harm me'.)
"Suleiman the Magnificent." Çelattin was impressed of Dora-the-Kid. It was the time in Turkey that Kid converted to Islam, until he once again converted to Christian faith five years next.
"Indeed. The greatest of all Sultan, the real Ottoman Sultan." Kid also gave praise to the Ottoman Sultan.
"Even mine is not muslim, I am proud of our heritage. And so, we shall not betray our own destiny."
"What makes you leave Islam, Çelattin?" Kid was surprised about that.
"Well, I am not objected to the religion, even my father was an Imam. I am a free man, who prefer everything abandoned to seek my destiny. And I found there, in Burma, where the local Christians needed helps against the tyrant Burmese Army."
"We are all interested on something." Kid smiled, as both Albayrak, Kid and Nikov spoke in cheer for a good drink.
But … Albayrak himself had a question, privately: "But … do you think … what about the Russian guy? He didn't speak anyway."
"He was special. He is calm, less talking. He is not type of annoying person, unlike me." Kid explained: "But that's his ethics. It helps him work easier."
"That's … strange. In Turkey, we do not have a tendency of keep anything calm. But that's not adapted for Russians and Germans, perhaps." Albayrak smiled. The Stoichkov-faced man laughed happily as they stayed in the same state, where soldiers of the Independence Army guarding outside, protected.
They even used a local Protestant Church, with a huge cross and Christianity symbol, to enjoy dinner. Albayrak stayed outside but with a happy smile, as they later used Italian wines and left with a lot of fun.
…
…
…
After dinner, Albayrak, Kid and Nikov came in talking together. In this moment, Kid asked:
"So, Albayrak, what made you risk a lot in Myanmar, seriously?"
"In a dying moment, perhaps. I chose the land. Came to Thailand, sought story of local Karen tribes near Mae La. That brought me to the Burmese land, where the Karens suffered. Voluntarily joined the local army, we fought and won a lot of battles, but with a lot of casualties. Then, we heard of the Kachins, I decided to join the Kachins. I really love the local, as a Turk, I am proud of Kachin people. Very hospitable, warm and welcoming."
"Is there anything important over your journey in and out? That's why you stay for ten years?"
"Actually, one case that occurred five years ago, had a big impact on mine …"
When Albayrak retold a story background, Dora-the-Kid and Dora-nikov was soon got their feeling thrilled …
…
…
#####
5 years ago
Laukkai, Shan State, Myanmar
Shan State was where a big scene occurred. When insurgent troops of Çelattin Albayrak came to the region, he discovered in Laukkai something that he never imagined before. Laukkai was the city bordering close to Chinese border.
What followed him was …
Albayrak, and his men, discovered that the Burmese Army was secretly doing transportation of different weapons and other big bags and it was all supposed to be …
"Drugs!"
"Ketamine drug! Those Burmese soldiers were doing drug trade!" Albayrak's henchman, Chris Pyu, noted.
"Drug cartel! But how?"
Suddenly, Albayrak saw a special man on guard. He wasn't normal in look, because he wore a foreign military uniform. Turned out, it was …
"The Chinese sniper! We have been informed of him, but … he was so … muscles. If we dare to face, he will kill us all." Albayrak ordered his men to back down a moment to wait until there was anything surprise.
"Carl, take your eyes." Chris told Carl to arm. Carl was the captain of the Independence Army's branch, the Magnificent squad, named after the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman, had something to do with it.
Magnificent squad was watching those Tatmadaw soldiers carefully but the Chinese sniper … had something to do with.
That Chinese sniper was no one but … Zheng Wangji. A former PLA Special Forces soldier, he was carrying a sniper rifle QBU-88. But he also had experiences on combat, so he knew which to tell. Zheng Wangji, suddenly, turned his eyes up to the group.
Zheng knew of their very existence. The appearance of Kachin troops … was surprising.
But for somehow, Zheng didn't react or report it. He just … watched them. Watching and watching for a while, Zheng didn't pull the trigger. Albayrak also refused to pull the trigger because they had no reason to place troubles.
And then …
…
…
An explosion occurred and in an unknown moment, the gunfire started.
"သေဆုံး!" (Die!)
Tatmadaw and KIA (shortened from Kachin Independence Army) fought a bloody brutal battle in Laukkai, where troops from the KIA and Tatmadaw fought, a lot of blood fell in the same time.
Albayrak and Zheng could not be the trigger ones, and they didn't know why. Eventually, Zheng and Albayrak shot against each other in order to prevail. The battle became even more heated with present of RPG.
Battle to battle, Albayrak soon realized there was something bigger, Zheng had not seen the same thing. For Albayrak, the face of Chinese sniper was the first time he heard of him.
But this was not a case this moment.
…
Suddenly, a brutal General appeared with a pistol, where he shot cruelly before ordering his soldiers to retreat. Yet, the face of this man was very influential for Albayrak to mention about. Carl fought valiantly to protect the squad, but he lost many of his men. Yet, Carl quickly recognized …
"Albayrak!"
As Albayrak was firing to save his men, the Turkish guy became a feasible target. And the Colonel, by then, was no one but Than Myint, took a shoot!
Then, Carl ran into Albayrak, yelled: "Sir!"
…
…
"BANG!"
Carl got himself eaten the bullet, as he quietly fell down without even saying a word. Albayrak, however, got the shocking image of the painful death of Carl, realized Than Myint on his uniform. Than Myint was a Colonel back then, but he was well-experienced and gonna become General. That was it.
The gunfire occurred as a result, tenser. Then, when he tried to chase Than Myint, the Colonel disappeared. The sacrifice of Carl, aka. Carl Maung Pyi, was special as he could never see anything more from that.
Carl loved the people, and he also had a girlfriend. He was just 20 when he got shot. Now, Çelattin remembered the face, and he had always kept that, to revenge …
…
…
#####
Now
"That bastard shot death Carl, and this devastated me. I maintain calm, and still hold grievances, to now." Çelattin expressed in pain and tragedy: "I want that dog to die. He's nothing but shit and whore …"
"Wow … a battle over drugs … And you did say about a Chinese man, right?" Kid mentioned.
"Yes. Tall, muscles, strong." Çelattin told: "But he was something …"
Nikov reminded Kid that, this features matched with what they saw. It was Zheng Wangji, the man on the list. Reddington surely knew Albayrak, thanked for private link between them. But Zheng Wangji and Than Myint, also on the list, were quite special.
However, what Kid and Nikov really wanted was …
"Okay, I see. But … seriously, do you think … the Chinese sniper tends to have which kind of relations to the Burmese General? You're a warlord there."
"I dunno. I had not met him. I knew his name overall, Zheng Wangji."
This time, Kid and Nikov got surprised, but they tried to ignore it. However, in a moment, they realized …
"Nikov, I guess … it is far more different than what we just saw."
…
…
…
Zheng Wangji tried to contact with a Tatmadaw military base, because of his close tie to Gen. Than Myint. But so far, Zheng was not satisfied.
"I thought … General, you have changed? No."
Zheng had to enter into a military base thanked for pressure, and Zheng's specific badge, used for foreign military advisor in Burma with a Great Wall-based badge mixed with a peacock, the symbol of Burmese culture. It was specifically designed to represent Chinese military advisor in Burma.
And then, he entered the base, leaving the scene … in quiet …
…
…
…
…
…
Mandalay, Myanmar
"Eli Ayase. How surprising." Doctor claimed.
"Victims of bombing? Can she be cured?" Her friend Nico asked in wary.
"We'll try. Calm, lady, calm."
Eli Ayase came to the country trying to make herself famed, but it turned to be a nightmare. More ironically, she stayed near Kid and Nikov to persuade her higher career. She was aiming to become an idol and model together. But she was now a victim of a brutal bombing to a point surgery became an option.
But little known that, she knew the identity … because she was just simply …
…
…
…
…
…
… lived with the … And her friend wondered …
But they would never think about it, right?
