Normally, when doing sothing like this, it was best to move with as few people as possible.
But Iraq wasn’t exactly a safe place, so we had no choice but to move with a fairly large group.
“Boss, from here on we’ll have to proceed on foot.”
We had been driving along a dusty unpaved road for quite a while, yet we still hadn’t arrived.
And now we were at a point where even the vehicles couldn’t go any farther.
“They really hid it well.”
I got out of the car and looked around.
The dark sky glittered as if stars were about to pour down.
There wasn’t a single speck of artificial light—only silence and darkness.
The only thing we could rely on was the GPS device. Checking it, we moved even deeper inside.
It was a rugged mountainous area, but unlike Korea, there were no dense forests—nothing but rocks everywhere, which felt strangely unfamiliar.
After walking for so ti, just as we were nearing the center, Igor stopped.
“Over there.”
I followed the direction Igor pointed.
“Wow, if you didn’t know the exact location, you’d never find this.”
“Exactly. Even knowing the latitude and longitude, it took us quite a while.”
There’s a saying: if you want to hide a tree, hide it in a forest.
Where Igor pointed, naturally ford caves were scattered everywhere. One of those countless caves was Hussein’s secret cave.
No wonder no one had found it even after decades.
“Let’s go in.”
Perhaps because it was artificially modified, the entrance was very small.
An adult man had to lower his head just to squeeze through.
It was impossible for several people to enter at once, so we went in one by one, practically wedging ourselves through.
Relying on faint light, we walked for quite a long ti before finally reaching a large cavern.
“I think this is it.”
Inside the cavern stood a tightly sealed steel door.
Aside from that firmly locked door, there was nothing particularly distinctive.
“Can you open it?”
“Yes. It could be dangerous, so please stand back.”
I nodded and moved well away from the steel door.
The rcenaries attached two small charges to it, then retreated.
At Igor’s signal, they detonated them.
Bang! Baang!
Two explosions echoed through the cavern.
Even with my ears covered, the shock was so sharp it made my head ring.
Thick smoke filled the area in an instant, but it quickly dissipated.
It seed there was so kind of ventilation system installed sowhere inside.
As the smoke cleared, the once tightly shut steel door was now visibly warped.
Igor and the rcenaries grabbed it from both sides and forced it open, securing an entrance.
“Boss, we’ll go in first.”
Igor went down ahead with the rcenaries to secure the interior.
While waiting for him, I spoke to Manager Ma.
“To move artworks or artifacts all the way out here, how many people do you think they needed?”
“Since vehicles can’t get in, they would’ve needed quite a large number.”
If they went as ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) far as creating an artificial cave to hide them, the quantity must have been substantial.
Artworks don’t grow legs. A significant workforce must have been mobilized to transport them.
Which ant people—whether elite guards or not—had been involved...
No matter how discreet they were, as long as people were involved, rumors should have spread.
Yet all that ever circulated were vague rumors about the Hussein Collection, with no one finding even a trace of it. That was the strange part.
Just then, light leaked out from where Igor had gone in.
Not flashlight beams—real lighting.
Monts later, Igor ca back out.
“Boss. There’s another door inside, and bones are scattered all around in front of it. We also found equipnt near the entrance that can power the lights, so we’ve turned them on temporarily.”
At Igor’s words, the mystery was instantly solved.
“...So after moving everything here, they killed everyone involved.”
“That seems to be the case. We’re clearing the remains to one side now, so please give us a mont.”
“Where’s the power coming from?”
“There appears to be a separate internal generator.”
Electricity was necessary to preserve artworks and artifacts. Leaving them unprotected would inevitably cause damage.
If a generator was still running despite long neglect, they must have spent far more money than I expected.
“Boss, everything’s cleared.”
The rcenaries dusted off their hands and ca out. Guided by Igor, I went down inside.
Just as he said, there was another door. In a corner, I also saw what looked like a tarp covering sothing.
“Is all of that... human remains?”
“Yes. Even a rough count showed there were quite a lot.”
“That’s very Hussein-like—never trusting people. And the ones who killed these people must have been killed too, right? That way, the only person who knows about this place forever is President Hussein.”
Killing this many people just to protect his collection—truly the stuff of horror stories.
Maybe that’s how rumors of other hidden treasures ca to be as well.
Stories like Hitler’s treasure or Yamashita’s Gold spread far and wide, stirring people’s curiosity, sending treasure hunters roaming the world on a faint hope.
And even though a treasure like that—nothing more than an urban legend—was right in front of , it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“Let’s go in.”
Leaving the other rcenaries on standby, I entered with Igor and Manager Ma.
There were wooden crates lying about casually, and artworks carefully preserved inside glass display cases.
As I examined the items, my eyes fell on a necklace in the nearest glass case, and I couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Wow, so this was here?”
Manager Ma, who had been keeping watch, asked,
“Boss. Is that necklace important?”
“We’ll need to verify it, but it matches the necklace said to have been given by Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor, to his daughter.”
I never expected the custom-made necklace commissioned by Nicholas II to be here.
If sothing like this was right at the entrance, I couldn’t help wondering what else lay inside.
“From the outside, the design matches what’s known. If it’s genuine, its value would be impossible to put into money.”
Just this alone made the amount I’d promised to pay worth it.
I had no idea how Hussein had obtained it, but that ruthless dictator wouldn’t be the type to keep a fake.
After that, we continued checking various jewels and artworks.
There were pieces believed to be by Picasso, others believed to be by Da Vinci, and countless other high-value works.
I stopped again in front of one piece.
Igor imdiately recognized it and exclaid in shock.
“Boss, isn’t this a Fabergé egg?”
“Yes, it seems so.”
The Fabergé eggs.
Easter eggs commissioned by the Russian imperial family from the jeweler Fabergé.
Of the 52 designs created for the imperial family, 50 were delivered, but two never made it due to the Russian Revolution.
Currently, the whereabouts of 44 Fabergé eggs were known.
And yet here, three eggs with unclear provenance were sitting together.
“That one looks like the Alexander III morial Egg.”
Igor pointed to the leftmost of the three.
“The Alexander III morial Egg?”
“Yes. It was made in 1909 to commorate Alexander III. I rember seeing it in black-and-white photographs.”
Igor rarely showed emotion. But now, uncharacteristically, he looked quite excited.
“To think I’d see this in person...”
It was a completely understandable reaction.
Although they were treasures of the Russian imperial family, it was known that the Russian governnt currently possessed only around ten Fabergé eggs.
The rest were scattered across the world.
The British royal family had three, and the publishing tycoon Forbes—who released annual rankings of the world’s richest—owned nine.
The remaining eggs were in the hands of various collectors.
Russia had long been displeased that the Romanov legacy was scattered worldwide.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say it wounded their pride.
They had attempted behind-the-scenes negotiations with all owners, including the British royal family, to buy them back—but no one sold.
“Are you that happy?”
“Yes. I never imagined I’d see this with my own eyes.”
I smiled at Igor’s reaction and asked,
“Igor, can you identify the other eggs too?”
At my words, Igor began examining them closely.
“One looks like the Nécessaire Egg from 1889. It’s another one known only to have been purchased, with its whereabouts unknown.”
So at least two of the three had a high chance of being genuine.
“The last one... I don’t know. I’m sorry, Boss.”
I lightly patted Igor’s shoulder as he bowed his head.
Even Igor didn’t know the last one...
“If Igor doesn’t know it, there’s a good chance no photograph exists.”
“That seems likely. I don’t recall seeing it even in photographs. Fabergé eggs are taught in school, so most Russians are familiar with all known eggs.”
No mory of it even in photos. It could be one of the two eggs that never reached the imperial family—or one whose photos were never preserved.
Of course, it could be a fake. But given it was part of Hussein’s collection, the odds leaned toward it being genuine as well.
“For now, we can assu it’s likely authentic, like the others.”
There was only one obvious use for items like this.
Since the Russian governnt wanted these eggs so badly, gifting one to the Russian Tsar would be the wisest choice.
“Will you donate them to the Russian governnt?”
I shook my head. Donating them to the governnt would be aningless.
“I’ll gift one to the president, and keep the other two. First, we need to confirm their authenticity.”
At the ntion of gifting one to the president personally—not the governnt—Igor nodded.
If we donated them officially, we’d have to reveal their origin, and then the Hussein Collection could no longer remain hidden.
I looked around and continued.
“Seeing this, the amount we promised Hussein’s family almost feels small.”
The value of the items here was ten tis—no, dozens of tis—the amount we’d agreed on.
Just one of these eggs would be worth tens of millions of dollars.
“Igor, can we trust the rcenaries we brought?”
“Yes. Black Bear—no, their loyalty to you, Boss, is absolute. Nothing will leak.”
There was no way to bring all of these artworks back to Korea.
“There’s a storage facility at the villa in Greece. Let’s move everything there first. The problem is figuring out how to move it all without getting caught...”
The closest safe location was the villa we’d built on a Greek island.
But that didn’t an we could simply fly everything there on a private jet.
“I’ll figure out a route.”
“Can you?”
“If we move the cargo overland through Syria without passing through Europe, then ship it by sea to Greece, that seems like the best option.”
“Syria...”
Syria and Greece lay across the diterranean from each other.
For now, Igor’s proposal seed like the best plan.
“Can you pull it off? These are items that must never be taken. Their value can’t be asured in money.”
“I have contacts in both Syria and Greece. Through them, we can cross the borders safely.”
I nodded at Igor’s confident answer.
“Good. Then I’ll take the three Fabergé eggs, the necklace we saw earlier, and a few artworks with . I’ll leave the rest to you. Make sure everything gets to the villa safely. Oh—and make an inventory as well. Can you do that?”
“Yes. I’ll see it through.”
Igor answered firmly. A man who had survived countless life-and-death battlefields was soone I could trust.
“I trust you. Then let’s decide what I’ll take.”
After a long deliberation, I finally selected a handful of items.
The three Fabergé eggs, the necklace, paintings believed to be by Picasso and Da Vinci, and even artifacts believed to be from the Babylonian civilization—about twenty items in total.
“Take good care of the rest. Until everything is moved, you’re responsible for guarding this place.”
“Yes, Boss. I will.”
Inside the cave, aside from the storage vault, there were several rooms suitable for people to stay in.
If they stayed here and moved the items gradually, they could relocate everything without being discovered.
“Even if it takes ti, everything must be moved. Don’t rush it. Move them little by little, over several trips.”
Even though I repeated myself, Igor nodded each ti, listening intently.
Since I rarely repeated instructions, he seed to feel the weight of the responsibility.
“Once transport is complete, increase the number of rcenaries stationed at the villa.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Now bring in the n and let’s start with the items I’m taking.”
Igor brought a few rcenaries, and they packed the treasures I’d chosen into boxes and crates.
I watched from the corner and spoke quietly to Manager Ma.
“Manager, I’m planning to enter Russia via the UK. Please prepare in advance.”
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