Land of Promise (13 page)

The next two months were a blur of military hardware procurement stops in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Israel, and South Africa. They needed to book as many deals as possible before the expected arms embargoes.

They next travelled by train to the city of Thun in Canton Bern to visit the company Brügger & Thomet to get price commitments on Galil and HK G3 Picatinny scope mounts, suppressors, MP9 submachineguns, and GL-06 40 mm grenade launchers. The latter were shoulder-fired single-shot launchers that broke open like a single-barreled shotgun.

They then traveled to Bern to visit the headquarters of RUAG Ammotec, and place an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for small arms ammunition and hand grenades. They planned to purchase millions of rounds of ammunition, from 9mm pistol cartridges up to .50 BMG, but the quantities still needed following their initial purchases had not yet been determined. The company’s civilian ammo brands were Geco, Rottweil, and RWS. But their generic military ammunition (in ball, tracer, and API varieties) is what they bought first. This included 15 million rounds of 5.56mm NATO, 10 million rounds of 7.62mm NATO, and 1.5 million rounds of .50 BMG. This included some 200,000 each of the more versatile API and APIT varieties. They also ordered a few thousand rounds of exotic (and expensive) explosive Raufoss ammunition. Added to this order were 10,000 HG 85 “baseball” style hand grenades. And they got a quote on Ultra High Molecular Weight Poly Ethylene (UHMWPE) body armor plates and Multicam camouflage armor plate carriers.

They visited Rheinmetall Air Defence to place a firm fixed price (FFP) order for 24 Oerlikon GDF 35mm twin anti-aircraft cannons. The Rheinmetall sales executives also gave them pricing information and discussed mounting options for LLM01 lasers for rifles and light machineguns.

Their next stop was the Military Superstore in Pratteln, near Basel. The store, part of a Swiss chain, had a great selection of military surplus web gear and even military surplus vehicles. There they stumbled into a pile of ancient and bulky first generation (“Gen 1”) Z51 Fero German night vision scopes that worked remarkably well after the substitution of modern battery packs and replacement of the soft rubber parts that were falling apart. They were also noisy, emitting a high-pitched whine. But these scopes would be useful to the Ilemis even if they eventually cannibalized them, because each scope came with the peculiar claw mount needed to fit HKG3 or HK91 receivers.

Even more importantly, while touring the Military Superstore the Akinses were put in touch with an arms broker in nearby Allschwil, a town just on the other side of Basel. That same evening over dinner they achieved a handshake agreement with the broker to supply 915 used but recently re-arsenalized FN-MAG light machineguns. Although these 7.62mm NATO belt-feds were an 80-year-old old design, they were very robust and famously reliable in harsh environments. Weighing in at more than 26 pounds unloaded, they were too heavy for long-range foot patrols but perfect for vehicular use.

The next day they traveled a short distance east to Shaffhausen to meet the marketing staff of Swissarms and placed an order for GL 5040 40mm co-axial grenade launchers. The company had CNC blueprints on hand for adapters to mount the grenade launchers under the barrels of HK G3 rifles, but they were initially stumped when asked if they could be adapted to Galils.

In Germany they immediately went to Oberndorf (on the Neckar River, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany). There they visited the corporate headquarters of Heckler & Koch and scheduled a firm fixed-price purchase of 21,000 reconditioned G3 rifles, 50,000 steel magazines, 300,000 alloy magazines, and a variety of spare parts, armorer’s tools, gauges, manuals, and bench fixtures. To complement the G3s, they also placed an order for 1,200 scoped HK MSG90A1 sniper rifle G3 variants. They also placed an order for 2,000 reconditioned HK21E belt-fed light machineguns, 1,500 new HK121 belt-fed light machineguns, and a variety of accessories, ordnance tools, training videos, and spare parts.

Next they visited ThyssenKrupp in Essen (in the Ruhr valley) to order 35mm cannon shells and 40mm grenades. They also checked on price and availability of a variety of larger cannon shells and mortar rounds.

Then after a pleasant train trip, they visited Glock GmBH in Deutsch-Wagram, just east of Vienna, Austria. There they placed an IDIQ order that started with 7,000 Gen 6 Glock Model 19 variant pistols and 65,000 magazines in capacities ranging from 13 to 33 rounds. The Glocks would be assembled in a special order, which combined some features from two existing Glock 19 variants:

This new Glock 19 variant was dubbed “The Ilemi Special.” When shipped from the factory, each came with compensators and tritium sight slide toppers installed. Owners could then modify them with other muzzle devices, other slide toppers, flashlights, or laser sights, to suit their own needs.

They then took a three-day break and toured Vienna and Salzburg. It was not until this break that they felt like they were on a honeymoon trip. On all three evenings, they attended classical music concerts. The cities were beautiful, but seeing so many new mosque minarets was disheartening.

While they were in Vienna, they stopped at a wine merchant shop and ordered a 12-bottle full case of Grüner Veltliner wine from the famed Schloss Gobelsburg vineyard and arranged to have it delivered by air freight to Meital’s parents. This wine was bottled in 2044, a prime year, so bottles of this wine sold for up to 800 NEuros each at auction. Grüner Veltliner was unusual for a white wine, because it aged well. Knowing that her father was a wine connoisseur with a weakness for Austrian varietals, Meital thought that this would make a good “peace offering” to help mend the rift with her father.

The finale of their first procurement trip was Israel, where they worked with several arms brokers to obtain a sizable portion of Israel’s deep war reserve of obsolete 4.2” mortars, Galil rifles, spare Galil magazines, M2 Browning .50 Caliber machineguns, tripods, pedestal mounts, ring mounts, and a large variety of accessories and spare parts. They also found a source for 250 of the MKEK Turkish-licensed copies of U.S. Mk19 belt-fed 40mm automatic grenade launchers that came into Israel via a back channel: “an un-named North African country.” They also tried with less success to source Dillon Miniguns. These were electric motor-driven high-cyclic-rate Gatling-type guns. But they were rebuffed because of severe re-export restrictions placed on the Israel Defense Force by the United States. Later, an Isher Trading Company agent was able to find just three M134D Miniguns, at great expense, elsewhere.

Rick and Meital checked into The Liber, an older nondescript hotel just across from the beach on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv. Their small high-ceilinged room was up three flights of stairs and only had a shabby view of an alley, but the staff was very helpful and discreet. The night manager recommended a restaurant called The Old Man and the Sea in the old town of Jaffa, just down the coast.

They arrived after a short cab ride to find that the restaurant was built into a large remodeled seaplane hangar and looked out onto a marina with berths for both fishing boats and pleasure craft. Rick was delighted when, without being asked, their waiter delivered more than a dozen small bowls of appetizer fixings -- hummus, sweet carrots in vinegar, shredded beets, creamy egg salad, spicy hot tomato basil, mint salad, creamed cucumber, eggplant salad, cabbage/carrot salad, and hot-off-the-grill pita bread. As a Texan, Rick enjoyed the many
picoso
items, but Meital preferred milder food, so she concentrated on the hummus, cabbage, and carrot dips. After such a hearty appetizer, they only ordered small main courses. They shared a long, delightful dinner, watching the sunset over the Mediterranean and enjoying the delicious food. But the spell was broken at 7:30, as they walked up the ancient steps to see the St. Peter’s Church and its silenced bell tower and catch a cab back to their hotel. This was when they heard the
adhan
wailing of the
muezzin
from the Jaffa minaret loudspeaker, announcing
isha
-- one of the five daily prayers. Hearing this was a reminder of the importance of their ordnance-buying trip.

The next day they had a scheduled meeting with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) in Hashron. The factory was a spinoff of a kibbutz. IWI primarily produced Tavor bullpups in several variants, but they still had a stock of the obsolete Galil rifles, which by the 2040s were mainly purchased by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The reconditioned Galils had been re-barreled with 1-turn-in-7 twist barrels, Picatinny rail topcovers, forends with integral infrared lasers, and fresh tritium night sights. Rick negotiated a purchase of all the reworked rifles that IWI had in stock, and he requested another 5,000 Galils or R4s, built to the same specifications, whenever they might become available. They also ordered a large stock of spare parts, magazines (12, 35, and 50- round capacity), magazine pouches, slings, cleaning kits, and armorer’s tools. They had lunch with some balding, well-tanned IWI executives who were clearly fascinated with the advent of the Ilemi Republic. They had lots of questions about the enigmatic Harry Heston, some of which Rick had to politely rebuff. After lunch, they concluded their contract negotiations and provided the obligatory End Use/End User certificate and letter of credit. Hearing that they were planning to take a cab, one of the executives had his personal assistants give them a ride back to their hotel in Tel Aviv. After showers and a change into more casual clothes, Rick grew visibly nervous about what was to come: Meeting Meital’s parents.

Chapter 11: Trepidation

“Fear cannot take what you do not give it.”
-- Christopher Coan

Tel Aviv, Israel -- January, Four Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

The Landstuth family’s house was on Moshe Mukdi Street in the upscale coastal neighborhood of Ramat Aviv, where many of the Tel Aviv’s high-tech millionaires lived in gated seclusion. Their house was just a short walk from the beach and immediately north of the site of the former Sde Dov Airport. The old airport closed in 2018 and its operations moved to Lod airport, thus making way for the construction of several huge blocks of apartments, which the Ramat residents hated even more than the noise of the old airport. Their main complaints were that the apartment blocks spoiled their view of the coast and that the swarms of new residents from the 16,000 apartments crowded what had formerly been a fairly secluded beach.

They stopped by the big shopping mall (
kenion
or “canyon”) on Einstein Street and bought one final gift for her parents: a bouquet of mixed flowers. This was one of the Austrian traditions still strong in her family. Meital had been brought up with the admonition: “Never show up as a dinner guest without a bottle of wine or a
Blumenstrau
, or better yet,
both
.”

Via e-mail Meital learned that her sister Liel was at Palmachim Airbase attending a course about a new model radar, so she could not get away to be with them for the dinner. It saddened Meital to know that only her mother and father would be there.

Rick would always remember walking up to the front porch of the Landstuth family home, ringing the doorbell, and waiting to hear the approaching footsteps of Meital’s father as a few of the most terrifying moments in his life.

They were both relieved when her father answered the door with a smile on his face and pleased that he shook Rick’s hand before he crossed the threshold of the door. “Come in, come in,” he urged.

Meital’s mother stood two steps farther down the hall and greeted Meital with a hug. She made all the right noises when her daughter handed her the bouquet of flowers, and that broke the ice. Rick was pleased at the sight of Meital’s mother: She was still slender, and although graying and slightly wrinkled around her eyes, she had a timeless beauty. Unlike her husband, she seemed to be of Middle-Eastern ancestry without the Western European features -- perhaps her parents had come from Lebanon or North Africa. Rick thought of this as an opportunity to see what Meital might look like in 30 to 35 years, and he liked what he saw.

The front hall of the spacious, airy house was lined with fine artwork; their taste seemed to run toward landscape paintings. There were also several bronzes of birds, pleasing to the eye, and the whole house exuded an air of refinement. Absent anything crass or garish, by the furnishings and artwork it was clear that the Landstuths had significant wealth.

They sat in the living room, where a pitcher of iced tea was already waiting for them, beaded with condensation. The room furnishings were eclectic: modern couches and a large beveled glass table, but the walls were lined with antique mahogany dressers, cabinets, and display cases filled with collected rarities. The divider between the living room and dining room was dominated by a large, dimly LED-lit smoked glass temperature-and-humidity-controlled wine case, which in Israel’s Mediterranean climate was the only way to keep their wine collection at the proper storage temperature. To Rick it looked as if the large case could hold 250 bottles, and it was nearly full.

While Meital’s mother busied herself at the kitchen sink getting the bouquet of flowers in a vase and then positioning them on the dining room table, Meital poured glasses of iced tea for her father, Rick, and herself. They sat nervously for a few moments, wondering who would speak first. It was tense and awkward moment for all three of them.

Finally, just as her mother was coming back to join them, Meital’s father said, “We got that case of wine that you sent us from Austria -- all safe and sound. We’ve already enjoyed two bottles of it, but we are rationing ourselves. The bouquet of that vintage should be at its peak in 2052 or 2053, so we will be saving most of the case until then. But of course, we could open a bottle tonight. Yes?”

Rick answered, “I must confess that Meitali and I don’t drink much wine, so I’m afraid that the qualities of that Grüner Veltliner would probably be lost on us. We wouldn’t be able to tell it much from
vin ordinaire
.”

Her father chortled. “By your selection of that wine, I had expected you to be a wine expert. It was a
very
well-chosen wine, and I’m quite grateful.”

Meital replied, “If I’ve learned anything in the art world, Father, it is to defer to the judgment of experts. We took the wine merchant’s word for it. But I did first make sure that he had a great rating on the Net.”

Rick added, “Speaking of wine, I also bought this for you when we were in Switzerland.” He handed her father the Swiss Army knife.

He opened the box and smiled. He flipped up the knife’s corkscrew and let out a chuckle. Looking up, he said, “Thank you, Rick. This is a great knife.”

Then her mother changed subjects. “I’m so sorry that Liel could not be with us here tonight.”

Meital and her father said in unison, “Duty calls.” And then they all shared a little laugh.

Meital’s father put on a more serious expression and said, “I don’t even want to discuss your worship of
Yeshu
and this concept of a New Covenant, which began with him.”

“No, Father, the New Covenant was first mentioned in
Yeremeah
31:31, where the prophet Jeremiah revealed a New Covenant for the Remnant of Israel -- and that was written in the sixth century B.C. But I don’t want to get into an argument with you. You are right: We can probably never reconcile our very different views of
Yeshua HaMashiach
. So please let’s just set that difference aside and concentrate on
family
.”

Her father sighed and then said, ‘So be it. You have been a Yeshu follower for too many years, and now you have married a Christian Gentile. Realistically, I do not expect you to ever return to our faith. So, to keep peace in the family, let us just ‘agree to disagree’ and get on with our lives.”

Meital reached out to clasp her father’s hand and said, “Thank you,
Aba
.”

He let out a short laugh and then pivoted toward Rick and asked, “My question to both of you is: How soon do you think that I might expect to hear the good news that I am to be a grandfather?”

Meital answered, “Rick decided to let
Ha-Shem
plan our family, and I agreed.”

“Aha! So then I can expect
many
grandchildren?”

Rick replied, “Yes, many, if He wills it, and
soon
, if Ha-Shem wills it.”

The rest of the evening was pleasant. Meital’s mother served a dinner that included potato cream soup, schnitzel with noodles, broccoli, and cheesecake. Their conversation continued through dinner, and Rick learned a lot of Landstuth family history that Meital had never mentioned, including the story of how her great-grandparents had emigrated to Israel in the 1930s, but how some others in the family had stayed in Austria and perished in Nazi death camps. Meital’s father also recounted his service in the Israeli Defense Force and his work as an artillery Forward Observer in the Third Lebanon Invasion, working with laser target designators.

The mention of the laser target designators piqued Rick’s curiosity, so he asked, “Do you remember which model, after all these years?”

He answered, “Yes, I do, but I can’t tell you.” The Israelis were obsessive about military secrecy, and most of them applied that throughout their full lifetimes.

Meital’s father died of a heart attack just seven weeks later. Meital was glad that she and her father had reconciled before his death, but she was saddened that he had not become a completed Jew in Yeshua. When she and Rick traveled to attend the funeral service, Meital was suffering from morning sickness: She had learned fifteen days earlier that she was expecting a baby. Meital brought with her a fist-sized piece of green Serpentine stone that had been tumbled in the bottom of an Ilemi wadi to place on her father’s gravestone.