Land of Promise (6 page)

Chapter 5: Eagle Earth

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
-- Thomas Jefferson

Edinburgh, Scotland -- Late May, Three Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

Rick, Alan, and Meital became fascinated with researching the Ilemi region. All three of them spent countless hours on EagleEarth and Mapcarta, virtually “flying” over the terrain and place-marking the few small pastoral settlements and the far more numerous places with evidence of abandoned villages. Rather than evidence of Ebola DRC, this was just the semi-migratory settlement pattern in the region, where seasonal cattle grazers over-grazed patches of a few square kilometers and then moved on after a few years. Many of these former village sites still had massive thorny Acacia wood walls that took decades to decompose. They also noticed that the mountains of the region were noticeably rounded, indicating that there had been no recent volcanic activity.

In several places, they had each pinned locations with titles like “Un-named Settlement-Abandoned?”… “Village Ruins” … and “Former Village?” Most of these were along the periphery of the territory. The center of the country-to-be had three highland regions, but these had
no
signs of recent habitation. It was hard to believe that there was 15,000 square kilometers somewhere with
hardly anybody there
. The region was sparsely populated before Ebola DRC swept the continent; since then, only a few seasonal herdsmen from South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya ventured there.

The climate in the Ilemi was classic “equatorial-hot.” The high and low temperatures each day varied an average of only 5 degrees seasonally. March was typically the hottest month, and August was both the wettest month of the rainy season and the coolest. At low elevation, the nighttime low temperature rarely dropped below 20 Celsius (68F) degrees, while the daytime highs ranged between 32 (90F) and 39 (102F). At the highest elevations, the nighttime low temperature for August could reach 10 Celsius (50F) degrees, and the high temperatures in March often reached 35 (95F).

The Ilemi region (also called Ilembi, Ilembe or Elemi) was named after the Anuak Chief Ilemi Akwon. The Ilemi was the full-time or seasonal home to five ethnolinguistic communities: the Turkana, Didinga, Toposa, Inyangatom, and Dassanech. Tribally, the region was influenced by the Toposa (of Sudan), the Merile or Dassanech (Ethiopia/Kenya), the Nyangatom and the Tirma (of Ethiopia) and Turkana (of Kenya.)

As was his habit, Rick penned some pros and cons in one of his notebooks. He started with the advantages of forming a new nation:

1) Solves the Ilemi border dispute problem without either South Sudan or Kenya losing face. The leaders of both countries will be praised as humanitarians.

2) Promotes regional economic growth with the infusion of billions of NEuros in investment from individuals or businesses in Western nations. Since this money will come from the private sector rather than from governments, there will be no strings attached.

3) Fosters regional infrastructure development, especially new road construction and improvement. This will both provide South Sudan with better road access to Kenyan seaports for teak wood and other exported goods and provide lucrative road building contracts for companies in both South Sudan and Kenya.

4) Provides a haven for persecuted Christians worldwide. Simultaneously will provide a virtual safe haven for the Christian diaspora that has delayed plans for physical re-settlement.

5) Rapid economic growth will curtail the chronic cattle-raiding problem.

6) Will stabilize borders and allow greater access to ports and international markets for both South Sudan and Kenya.

7) Will increase security in the region by forming a barrier to Thirdist expansion (al-Shabab, Janjaweed, etc.). Will also prevent Nuer rebels in South Sudan from using the Triangle as a base or corridor from bases in the adjoining portions of Kenya or Ethiopia.

Then he jotted down a list of disadvantages. There were three strong disadvantages, but just three:

1) Lack of existing infrastructure.

2) Remote locale.

3) Immediate conflict with the Thirdist Caliphate.

Chapter 6: Mtume

“That Old Wheel,

That old wheel is gonna roll around once more

When it does it will even up the score

Don’t be weak: as they sow, they will reap

Turn the other cheek and don’t give in

That old wheel will roll around again.”
-- Lyrics to
That Old Wheel
, by Jennifer Ember Price, as sung by Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, Jr.

Edinburgh, Scotland -- June, Three Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

The exercise regimen paid off -- most noticeably with Alan, who shed 40 pounds over the course of four months.

With a special invitation from Harry Heston, Rick and Alan became members of the West Edinburgh Shooting Club. Scotland’s gun regulations had been loosened following its independence, and the club offered shotgun, smallbore rifle, fullbore rifle, and pistol shooting. Submachinegun shooting was also allowed on the pistol range, but only on pre-arranged Wednesdays, when the range was usually closed to the public. Scotland’s long decline in private gun ownership, which had bottomed at around five guns per 100 residents in 2010, had turned around, and by 2040 there were 19 guns per 100 residents; but arguably much of that increase was attributable to existing gun-collecting families building larger collections due to loosened restrictions.

Meital also joined the club under Rick’s sponsorship. Known by many members only as “that hot Israeli chick,” Meital soon became a sensation on the pistol range.

Alan had no shooting experience aside from playing laser tag as a teenager, and Rick’s firearms experience with the Air Force was cursory and perfunctory. However, Rick was an accomplished deer hunter who handled bolt-action rifles with comfort and ease and handguns with the balance of confidence and caution born of professional familiarity. Of the three, Meital was the most highly trained in firearms. Serving as a Military Police Corporal with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), she trained regularly with Tavor-2B bullpup rifles and laser-sighted Glock 9mm pistols. But her training was a full decade in the past. Bottom line: All three would require dedicated firearms training.

They eventually settled on buying 9mm H&K P2020sk pistols, one of the smallest models made by H&K. These had rail-mounted combination lights and lasers that were made by SIG. A ten-round magazine was standard, but they bought a large number of 14-round magazines to carry as spares.

Alan first proposed that each of them purchase two identical pistols. But he soon learned that a carryover from the pre-independence Scottish law did not allow an owner to possess two guns of the same model unless they were a “cased pair.” So they each bought a larger standard HK P2020 for their “second” gun.

Alan became a good competitive IPSC shooter but harbored nagging doubts as to whether or not he could handle “a real shooting scrape.”

Rick reassured him. “I’ve never been in a real gunfight either,” he confessed, “but I’m confident that I’ll revert to my level of training if and when the lead starts flying. I’m sure you will, too. Just train like you’ll fight, Alan, and you’ll fight like you train.”

Once they established a presence in South Sudan, they purchased four semiauto Tavor bullpup rifles with flat dark earth stocks and ten spare magazines for each rifle. This proved to be simple enough: The continuing infiltration of Thirdist guerillas as well as large-scale incursions by Janjaweed in the western half of the country prompted South Sudan to remove most of their restrictions on private firearms ownership, starting in 2035, so there were several well-stocked gun shops in Juba.

In addition to avidly reading
Voice of the Martyrs
e-newsletters, all three Project SWILL planners were inspired by the writings of Pastor Mark Mtume, the Zambian chairman of the international Global Christian Conscience (GCC) group. Known for his articulate and impassioned writings, Mtume was considered a key voice in the emancipation movement of the 21st Century. For five years Mtume had circuited the globe begging nations to make room for Christian refugees. Mtume’s Libertarian essays and speeches were widely circulated, exposing Christian persecution and the horrors of slavery in the Thirdist world. His e-book on Islamic slavery had more than 20 million downloads, all free of charge with a voluntary suggested donation of .004 Bitcoins to GCC.

Caliph’s Palace, Medina, Arabia -- June, Three Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

The Caliph was an angry man -- almost constantly angry. Premier Prince Caliph Uthman Ibn Suleiman al-Medina, Prince of the Faithful, was infamous for mercurial flares of temper resulting in summary executions. He typically held court at mid-day -- beginning just after
Dhuhr
prayers and ending just before late-afternoon
‘Asr
prayers began, six days a week. A man of the 21
^st
century, he was a Caliph without a physical throne. In fact, given the convenience of cyber-rule, he found the concept of having a magnificent chair laughable.

Instead of a throne room, Uthman had a high-tech war room, ringed by two meter-wide flat panel monitors. He paced this room daily, shouting orders to aides, counselors, advisors, and functionaries. They fastidiously recorded cryptic notes on tablets and whispered into cell phones, quickly relaying orders to their underlings. Whatever the Caliph spoke was law, and any order given was obeyed without question, hesitation, or critique.

Every leader of any WIS nation and each Governor had signed a
Mubaya’at
pledging allegiance to the Prince of the Faithful and the Thirdist Movement. Hereto, unquestioning obedience was expected and exacted.

The palace was only recently finished. The four-year construction project was on the site of the former Intercontinental
Dar Al Iman
Hotel on the Prophet’s Mosque Plaza. The Palace was grandiose and featured three helipads. The 20-story building was overlaid in black basalt, laboriously quarried and transported at great expense from eastern Jordan near the
Qasr Azraq
. The dining room was lined on four sides with strips of marine black marble imported from India; the ceiling was paneled in white Cararra marble from Italy. A seven-meter-long black banner emblazoned with
3-12
flew from a pole nearly as high as the building’s solid platinum crescent moon
saharon
.

Now in his 50s, the Caliph had prematurely-gray hair and an unkempt black and gray streaked beard that touched his chest. He wore a white turban and black
thwab
robe. His ornaments of office were his large Caliph’s ring and, tucked into his belt for quick access and immediate use, a
janbiya
dagger with a curved blade and
saifani
ivory handle. Eschewing a scepter, he almost always carried an UltraPad. The Caliph often muttered to himself and sometimes spoke audibly to himself. This caused everyone in court discomfort and confusion, since they listened, for obvious reasons, as if their lives depended on his every word. Not knowing if he was issuing an order or merely making commentary was particularly trying, as asking for clarification risked igniting their Caliph’s short-fused temper. His closest advisors often recognized the subtle difference between his mutterings and his orders, but even for them, sitting in court was stress-filled and fatiguing.

The Caliph was not pleased with the consolidation of power inside WIS territory. The
Jizya
tax was insufficient to force enough Christians into the lower class, as he had intended. There were ongoing but disorganized insurgencies in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Pakistan. The number of forced conversions to Islam was too low; the pace was too slow. The number of infidels was not diminishing quickly enough to suit his wishes. The expansion of WIS territory failed to keep pace with his ambitions. Meanwhile, too many non-Islamic nations outside of WIS showed insufficient respect to his Caliphate.

Uthman was by all accounts an arrogant man, his confidence founded and cemented on successful conquest. Having swept the House of Saud from Arabia in a campaign that took mere months, Saudi princes now sat in exile in Brunei plotting revenge and shuttling their dwindling hoards from bank to bank. Uthman had consolidated his control over nearly all of the Islamic world -- Even the Shiites made concessions to his rule.

Deep in his heart he wanted to personally control the world --
all
of the world -- and to do so within his own lifetime. His deepest secret was that he was a Muslim in name only. He could actually care less about the cause behind the
jihad
. What he really wanted was power, and the campaign of
jihad
was simply a means to that end.

He muttered, as if to himself, one word:
“Quriba.”
-- the Arabic word for “Soon” -- and was undisputedly understood by even the lowest and newest attendant.