Land of Promise (18 page)

They were all ready to go at dawn the next morning. While they were boarding the busses, a crowd of locals gathered and began to taunt the refugees; as soon as the busses pulled away from the legation complex, the crowd swarmed in to loot the buildings.

Passing through Astana International airport proved remarkably easy. The busses disgorged the passengers in front of the terminal, and they quickly gathered up all of their suitcases and clothing bundles. Then, with Alan Pilcher in the lead, they walked single file through the A Terminal building. The two dogs were in kennel crates, wheeled on dollies. The Kazakh Customs official looked at Alan’s diplomatic passport, gave cursory glances at each subsequent Ilemi passport, and waved them through; he did so without even stamping the passports. It was then just a short walk to the waiting IL-76. As the last of their group made their way up the plane’s mobile stairway, someone began to sing
Amazing Grace
. As they took their seats, they all sang, using the same tune, but only about half of them sang in English. The rest of them sang in their own languages, blending in a strange but beautiful way.

A faint aroma of tea from the previous cargo could still be detected. Once the plane’s door was closed, Bill Tulloch announced over the plane’s intercom, “Buckle your seatbelts, ladies and gents. In approximately 19 hours, after one stop at Ben Gurion, Lord willing we will land at Tulloch Field in the Ilemi Republic.”

The flight to Israel went by quickly, with spontaneous joyous celebration and intermittent dancing in the aisle. There were many tears and praises to God for their deliverance. Grace sat next to Alan, weeping tears of joy.

Their stop in Israel was just 90 minutes to take on fuel and cargo. The refugees’ baggage was shifted forward, and then 70 wooden crates and 200 cardboard boxes were loaded and strapped down. The boxes and crates were unidentifiable; all original markings were obscured with dark brown paint. The flight engineer had become too talkative with one of the passengers, and less than a half hour after the plane had taken off, a whispered rumor was passed up and down the rows of passenger seats: “Those crates and boxes are filled with Galils and magazines and spare gun parts.”

Twelve-year-old Timur Usenov, still wearing his
Terminator 7
t-shirt, asked Alan, “What is a Gah-Leel?”

Alan smiled and said, “Come on. I’ll show you.”

He got up from his seat and walked to the rows of boxes. Opening his Chris Reeve tanto pocketknife with a flick of his wrist, he opened the top of the nearest cardboard box. He pulled out a Galil 35-round magazine in a clear plastic wrapper. He handed it to a passenger in the rear-most row of seats and said, “Please pass that up to Timur.”

Then he walked further back to the wooden crates, and with greater difficulty unstrapped one and opened it, which necessitated removing four thumbscrews. He removed a Galil 5.56mm battle rifle from the top layer in the crate and pulled it out of its brown VCI protective wrapping paper. Out of habit, he checked its chamber to be sure that the rifle was unloaded.

Back at his seat, he sat on the armrest, and holding the weapon by its handguard, he showed the Israeli rifle to Timur.

The boy handed the magazine across the aisle and enthused, “That rifle
so Arnie!
Can you show me how you load it, Mr. Pilcher?”

Alan removed the empty magazine from its wrapper and inserted it in the rifle’s magazine well with an audible click. He stepped out into the aisle and held the rifle over his head, grinned, and racked its action. Then he recited the motto of the IRDF: “Every Citizen a soldier; every soldier a marksman!”

He noticed that one of the women in the refugee group gave his words a disapproving scowl, so he quoted, “… ‘But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.’ That is from Luke, Chapter 22, Verse 36.”

After returning the rifle to its crate, he closed it, clumsily strapped it back down, and again took his seat. Grace leaned over to Alan and asked, “Can we move to the back row of seats so that I can discuss something privately?”

“Sure.”

As they took new seats side by side in the more isolated row, Grace said in just over a whisper, “I am not a very forward person, so this is difficult for me…”

Alan looked down at his hands and self-consciously rubbed at a smudge of grease on the side of his index finger. He interrupted, “Go ahead, say what you need to say. If you think that what I just did was inappropriate or somehow offensive, then I need to hear it.”

Grace let out a laugh, and said, “No! That isn’t what I wanted to talk with you about at all. I support the right of the people in the Ilemi Republic to defend themselves, and the right of the nation to defend itself, as a whole. We are living in perilous times, and it is very clear that the IS wants to see the Ilemi Republic and in fact all of Christendom wiped off the face of the Earth. You -- I mean
we
-- need to be armed and vigilant.”

After a long pause, Grace continued, “Mr. Pilcher, after so many years of praying for rescue from my situation, I feel overwhelmed that rescue finally came. But before I find a place for myself in your new country, I need you to understand my past.”

“Go ahead. But please, call me Alan. Mr. Pilcher is my father.”

She continued with a trembling voice, “Alan, I have a shameful past. I am 27 years old and still a single woman. I was born in Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. My mother worked as a cook at the French consulate -- the old one on Charoen Prathet Road. My father, whose name I never mention, was a French diplomat. He lied to my mother and told her that he was going through a divorce that soon would be decreed final. But in reality his loyal wife was living in Rueil-Malmaison, thinking that their marriage was secure.”

Alan nodded again, and Grace continued, “My father charmed and seduced her. But after my mother became pregnant, he abandoned her and requested reassignment to another country. He just vanished from her life. Once a year he sent a birthday card to my mother and enclosed 200 NEuros. Those were the only contacts we’ve ever had. I have found it very difficult to forgive him. But I have found it even more difficult to forgive and accept myself. In my heart, I will always be a bastard child.”

She fell silent, and Alan said, “I see. But as Christians, you must know that we are
new creatures
in Christ, and there is no sin, there is no guilty stain that is so deep a shade of crimson that it cannot be forgiven and forgotten. All of our sins are washed away by the blood of Christ.”

They both began to shed tears. Grace reached out, and they clasped hands.

After a minute, Alan said, “I have a confession of my own.” He took a deep breath and then went on. “You are the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever met. You have a wonderful personality, you have an obvious depth of intelligence, and it’s abundantly clear that you are a Christian who genuinely cares for everyone around you. I see it in your eyes, and I see it in the way that you interact with everyone from the legation. Oh, and I must say that your mastery of so many languages has absolutely
stunned
me. Honestly, what I’m feeling right now is a mixture of both love and lust. So please help me
control
the lust part of it.”

She nodded. Then Alan concluded, “And speaking of being forward, I want ask you something: May I court you for marriage?”

Grace smiled and said, “Yes, Alan, you may. I promise to seriously consider you as a suitor for marriage. Now, in recognition of your self-admitted lust, I suggest we move back to the row of seats with Timur. I have, after all, read all about Perfidious Albion. You Englishmen are not to be trusted.”

They each laughed and nodded. Alan repeated the words, “
Perfidious Albion
, indeed. But thanks be to God, I’m an Ilemi now.”

Landing at Tulloch Field came as a shock to those who just a day before had been in wintery Kazakhstan. It was 35 degrees Celsius (95F). Since the solar farm was still under construction, the airfield only had limited power. There were only two air-conditioned rooms: the mobile RLST control tower and the communications/server room. Even though they were painted white, the interiors of the portable chemical toilets were at least 43 degrees Celsius (110 F).

Four days later, they were surprised to see Dr. Darzi arrive in Solus Christus, riding as a passenger on a tanker truck full of diesel fuel that was arriving from Lokichoggio.

He told Alan, “The more I thought and prayed about it, the more I realized that it was my destiny to come here. I am forever in your debt, and I am now at your service, Mr. Pilcher.”

Alan shook his head and said, “No, here in the Ilemi, no man is a slave to
another
. No tax slaves. No regulation slaves. No debt-interest slaves. Each man earns his own living, with pride. And with no taxes levied, we keep
all
that we earn, so that everything we
choose
to tithe or give charitably is strictly between each individual and God. We reject the redistributionist schemes that are used by nearly all national governments. Nothing can be ‘given’ to another by a government unless it is first
taken
from someone else. And whether it is taken with a tax, tariff, fine, or license fee doesn’t really matter, because they all come down to
force
exerted by a monolithic state, with a penalty attached in some form. We would be honored to have you work here as a doctor. Welcome to the Ilemi Republic, fellow Citizen.”

Chapter 15: Own Goal

“When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”
-- Matthew 16:2-3 (KJV)

Edinburgh, Scotland -- February, Four Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

The agent had been well-trained at the WIS-MOIS academy. He was one of the academy’s top graduates. Born to Yemeni parents who were resident in Germany, he held a coveted EU passport that allowed him unrestricted travel throughout Europe. EU passports were accepted by the Scottish government for tourists to enter the country without a visa. After landing at the Edinburgh airport, he rented a car and drove directly to the Iranian Embassy in Edinburgh. There, he picked up a six-kilogram package that was wrapped in three thicknesses of Jenners Department Store shopping bags.

When he left the embassy it was 7 p.m., so he had several hours to wait.

After each stop on his planned route, he erased the memory of the car’s GPS, in accordance with his training.

He went to dinner at Kebab Express and then drove to the Odeon Edinburgh Lothian Road cinema, where he bought a movie ticket to a Bollywood musical movie. He thought that Bollywood actresses were hot, but he disliked the fact that there was never any kissing in their movies. After watching that movie, he theater-hopped for the next four hours and ended his evening with a midnight showing of a French mega-action film that included a lot of Parkour stunts. That film ended at 1:30 a.m. He waited an hour in his rental car, playing first-person shooter video games on his Smartphone. At 2:30 a.m., his phone’s alarm sounded.

He drove to an address three blocks away from Rick Akins’s cottage in Fairmilehead. There, he again cleared the GPS system’s memory and removed the package from the car’s trunk. In the top of the package, there was a pair of nitrile rubber gloves and a Pincher LED flashlight that he could hold between his teeth to keep his hands free while he worked.

It was 2:50 a.m. when he approached Rick’s parked car. He confirmed its license plate number and started his work. The 24 year-old was thin and able to squeeze his shoulders underneath the front of the car.

Wiring the Iranian-designed and Syrian-constructed IED to the frame of the car was straightforward. All he needed to do was strap the bomb to the frame with cable ties, clip the ground wire to the frame, and then connect the other wire to one of the cables leading to a headlight. Wired this way, the car bomb would detonate as soon as the car headlights were turned on. The bomb was positioned just forward of the driver’s seat. The leads were then fed forward along the frame, toward the front bumper. His MOIS bomb instructors had always stressed the need to do a “clean installation” so the insulated wires were cable-tied to the frame or other wiring in several places along their path and would not dangle.

What the agent did not anticipate was that the Audi E14 had the latest-technology “smart” LED cluster headlights. These included an active overhead streetlight photocell detector mounted on top of each headlight to reduce battery drain when traveling on streets that were lit with streetlights. When he touched the bomb lead tab to the headlight wire connector, he brushed it momentarily against the “hot” light sensor wire. The bomb detonated instantly.

Investigators were unable to find any body parts larger than the terrorist agent’s legs. His feet had lost their shoes and socks in the blast. That afternoon, his car was found parked three blocks away. Not only was his rental car agreement in the car, but his passport as well.

The Edinburgh bomb squad investigator summarized the incident dryly. “I think that we can safely chalk this one up as an ‘own goal.’” This was the British football term used to describe a player accidentally kicking the ball through his team’s own goalposts.

Hearing about the car bomb incident put a scare into Rick and Meital. They resolved to no longer store any of their possessions outside of Solus Christus. And having to warn their family members in both Texas and Israel to keep watch for suspicious strangers or packages was troubling. When Rick did go back to Scotland to clear out his possessions from his Fairmilehead cottage, he took the precaution of having the bomb squad clear the building for him just before he planned to be there. A bomb technician entered the cottage through a side window in case the door lock mechanism was rigged. There were no devices found, but Rick still felt slightly anxious as he sorted through his clothes and books and boxed them up for shipment to a storage company in Tel Aviv.

The majority of Ilemis were Second Reformers, so they rejected both Easter and Christmas celebrations. Because they considered both holidays flawed and tainted by their origin as ancient pagan holidays, they substituted Resurrection Day to coincide with Passover (Pesach), and Advent Day to coincide with the Feast of Tabernacles. They also celebrated Hanukkah as Conception Week. All three of these holidays were considered more in alignment seasonally with the historic conception, birth, and resurrection of Christ. A Beseeching Statement from the Council of Elders stated: “We shun Easter (Ishtar) and the Druidic winter solstice ritual that became ‘Christmas’ for both their commercialism and for their calendar connections to ancient pagan holidays.” While never an official policy of the government, the new holiday schedule was widely adopted by the Citizenry, and the IRDF adjusted their training and operational calendars to match it.

There was a great diversity of Christian beliefs in the Ilemi, but most of the new residents were members of Protestant or Messianic denominations. Many categorized themselves as Neo-Reformists or Neo-Puritans and therefore they shunned ecumenicalism, watered-down gospels, easy-believism, “inclusiveness” that tolerated sinful behavior, and the nearly two-century-long retreat from effective internal church discipline.

One significant divide among Christian Ilemis was in their observed Sabbath days. The Saturday and Sunday Sabbath crowds were about equally divided, and this became an ongoing polite “we agree to disagree” issue. One positive unintended consequence of this disagreement was that some militia members would be available on another’s Sabbath to handle security at border checkpoints and at the planned airports.

As was noted at the main Ilemi Republic web page, applicants for Ilemi Citizens fell into several categories:

1) Persecuted refugees from all walks of life who wanted to reside in the Ilemi.

2) Tax refugees and Perpetual Travelers (adherents to W.G. Hill’s Five Flags Theory) who wanted to reside elsewhere but who want the benefit of an Ilemi passport. Many of them were not Christians, but they were willing to pay for a passport: The appeal of holding a passport from a country with
zero
taxes was tremendous. These constituted 80% of passport applicants.

3) The New Pioneers -- People from ostensibly still “free” countries who wanted to make a fresh start living in the Ilemi. These were mainly cattle ranchers from South Africa and the southwestern US and Messianic Israeli greenhouse farmers who were willing to move to a stark, inhospitable climate with minimal infrastructure. Many of these had been
moshavniks
or
kibbutzniks
.

4) The Ten- Hectare Ghosts -- Wealthy people worldwide, predominantly Class G Citizen Christians, who bought land in the Ilemi Republic with no intention of moving there except in the event of a future crisis.

After the first year, which was dominated by Israeli and South African immigration, less “spiky” immigration patterns emerged, showing that the new immigrants were:

- 66% Protestant Christian (of various denominations or nondenominational)

- 28% Messianic Jews (of those, about half were from Israel and half from the United States)

- 2% Secular

- 2% Other Faiths

The small native population (542 people, according to the first online passport census) was:

- 85% Christian (of various denominations)

- 12% Animist or Christian/Animist

- 3% Secular or Other Faiths

Of the first 2,000 new immigrants, 5% self-identified as pacifists, and of those nearly all who were of military service age filed for Conscientious Objector (CO) status. More than half of these COs opted for military service as Medics or Chaplains. The remainder fulfilled their national service requirements as unarmed Border Protection Agents (unarmed and non-patrolling, at airports and border checkpoints), or in various private, for-profit, or charitable programs such as the Ilemi Republic Voluntary Education Fund (IRVEF) elementary school or public health programs.

One controversial IRDF policy regarded armed medics and chaplains. This was later settled in one of the first national Referendum votes that confirmed that medics and chaplains could be armed with pistols, PDWs, or pistol caliber submachineguns (with or without suppressors) for their self-defense if they chose to do so, but that they must pledge to avoid shooting during any
advancing
fire and maneuver tactics when attached to a military unit. They pledged to shoot only in self-defense.