“No, not at all. We’re on the same sheet of music, and we both work for your company, sir. So it is probably best if he’s here with us.”
Heston said, “Good. He should be arriving shortly.” After a moment, he asked, “Is there anything you need to tell me in confidence, before Alan arrives?”
“No, sir. We’re in full agreement on our plan, and we keep nothing from each other.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as they both looked up at the digital clock on the atrium’s framework.
As they waited, Heston waved toward the birds fluttering about and said, “We have quite the assortment here, nearly all finches and few wrens: American Goldfinches, Apapanes, Goldfinches, Gouldians -- those are my favorite -- and, let’s see… Melba Finches, Red Bishops, Superb Fairy Wrens from Australia, and the most numerous are the Zebra finches. And that big one there with the outrageous tail is a Long-tailed Whydah.”
After another long pause, Heston asked, “Oh, one more thing, before Alan arrives. Are you romantically involved with that art appraiser?”
“No. But I’d like to be. She’d be quite a catch. I’m getting up the nerve to court her for marriage.”
Moments later, Alan Pilcher was ushered in by one of the security guards. He looked a bit shaken. Heston gestured for him to join them on the couches. After Alan sat down and the guard left, Heston said, “This is a secure room, and our meeting today is being logged as a database issue discussion, but in actuality it’s about your plans for founding a new country. Our conversation is to be kept in strict confidence. You may, however, summarize it to Miss Kathe M. Landstuth, if you choose to do so. I also have to tell you that if my involvement in this is revealed before the new nation is declared, I will deny any knowledge of it.”
Rick and Alan nodded, and Alan cleared his throat, seemingly caught off guard by the mention of Meital.
Heston’s gaze quickly darted between the two men’s faces, and then he continued, “So, lay it out for me, as a brother in Christ.”
Rick spent the next 35 minutes outlining their plans, with Alan Pilcher supplying only the details on Kenya, South Sudan, and the Ilemi Triangle, with a top level overview of Thirdist power politics in eastern Africa. As they spoke, Heston hardly uttered a word, but he often nodded vigorously. Rick ended his summary with the words, “So there you have it: A new nation, conceived in Christian liberty.”
Harry gave another nod and responded, “As they say here in Scotland, ‘Full Marks.’ You have my enthusiastic support. For several years I’ve been hoping that there would be some opportunity for me to get actively involved in stemming the tide, as it were.”
There was a long pause.
Alan asked, “How shall we proceed, sir?”
“For the record, I’m going to be assigning both of you to do research on a long-term transnational database project that we’ll call ‘Project SWILL.’ Just between us, that acronym is actually is short for Sovereign Will, because I believe that this is all happening by divine appointment. Nothing happens by chance, my friends. You will be reassigned from your current responsibilities within the company, and you’ll be given a shared two-desk office and carte blanche on travel expenses to pursue this. And if God wills this thing to happen, I’m going to set aside one billion NEuros to be divided equally: half for establishing a mint and vault storage company in country, and the other half for a benevolent fund to rescue people out of persecution and get them settled in the new homeland nation. Oh, and in exchange I expect to get 20 passports for my family and my closest friends -- and that my personal passport will be a diplomatic one, with the designation Roving Ambassador.”
Heston suffixed that with a self-deprecating snort. Then he said, “I’m also going to help open some doors for you, through friends and friends of friends. By that, I mean Christian friends. These are people who will want to buy second passports and who will want to help invest in this start-up nation. The Caliphate must be stopped, and there must be a safe harbor nation established for those who are being persecuted.”
Alan cocked his head and said, “A billion NEuros is lot of money.”
“In the grand scheme of things, not really. That’s only about one tenth of my net worth. So even if my investment there yields nothing, I’ll just consider it a sort of tithe. It sure beats setting up some lame feel-good multigenerational foundation, like my estate planning and tax attorneys keep pushing me to do. By the way, it will take a year or more to liquidate some of my positions and unwind some hedges to free up that much cash, so don’t expect it all to be available immediately.”
Lunch was served a few minutes later, and Heston offered a blessing. As they ate, some of the finches moved in to hop around their feet, hoping to find some crumbs.
They began eating in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Heston glanced down and warned, “Oh. Please don’t toss them anything, or it will turn them into pests. Sort of like dispensing welfare.”
Chapter 4: SWILL
“Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty. It is elan, esprit de corps and determination.” -- General George C. Marshall
Edinburgh, Scotland -- Late May, Three Years After Declaration of the Caliphate
By the time they got back to their desks, an e-mail from HR was waiting for Rick and Alan, informing them of their new office assignment and their new status as “Direct Reports” to Harry Heston. Their respective managers were CCed on the e-mails. Twenty minutes after Rick was back at his desk, a technician from the IT/Facilities staff came to relocate Rick’s workstation and printer to his new office. The Tech had a goatee and was wearing a T-shirt with “IT Staff” on the front and “Have You Tried Turning It Off And On Again?” on the back.
The vacant office was on the first floor, just across the hall from the GlobalMAP gym. When Rick arrived, Alan was already there, unpacking a box of items from his desk. He greeted Rick with a smile and commented, “Once he makes his mind up, Harry Heston doesn’t waste any time. And I’ve taken our office location as a none-too-subtle hint. I’ve been meaning to shed a stone, anyway.”
Rick Akins and Alan Pilcher began a team exercise regimen the next day, and they continued this whenever they were both in Edinburgh. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, they would lift weights, do sit-ups, and ride stationary bikes at the GlobalMAP gym. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, they went for brisk-paced walks (and later, jogs) at Inverleith Park in good weather, or at the St. James Centre indoor shopping mall in bad weather. After the second week, Meital joined them for many of their workouts. She was at the gym so often that many people thought she was a company employee. At Meital’s suggestion, they later added evening Krav Maga martial arts classes at the Meadowbank Sports Centre to their schedule.
On Tuesday of the third week of their exercise program, Rick and Alan were surprised to see Harry Heston at Inverleith Park. He jogged up to them in a nondescript black jogging suit that had just barely perceptible bulges at the small of his back, obvious to Rick and Alan as a pistol and a magazine pouch.
Falling into pace alongside them, Heston said, “Gentlemen, I have some very promising news: I’ve spent the last week as a fisher of men. I’ve already secured eight preliminary Letters of Agreement from investors and donors, and I have another dozen LOAs in the works. These are all from Christians, some of them in the corporate world, in half a dozen countries. Most importantly, many of them are involved in construction or communications: road building, monolithic domes, underground construction, well drilling, and so forth. One of the big catches was the CEO of Kim Rhee Photovoltaics and Hydrogen, in Korea. He is matching my stake: a billion NEuros. I’ll get hard copies of the completed LOAs for you in a day or two, and the rest should be available in another week. For now, they are to be kept in strict confidence, and maintained in hard copy only. God bless you, guys.”
With that, Heston turned off on a side path and resumed a slow running pace. Alan
and Rick shared high five palm slaps and grinned. Alan said, “If this truly is God’s will, then all of the pieces will continue to fall into place.”
They had 19 LOAs in hand eight days later. They were all written generically to “Homeland Partners” with a post office box address in Edinburgh. Judging by the way that some of them were worded, it was apparent that Heston had revealed to at least some of the investors and donors that the plan might involve East Africa.
Seeing all of these, Rick said, “I didn’t know we had either a name or an address.” The LOAs included:
1 Billion NEuros for a photovoltaic farm, hydrogen production and storage, and a hydrogen fuel cell facility, from KRPH in Seoul, Korea.
1 Billion NEuros for a mint and vault storage facility, from Harry Heston personally.
An open-ended water well and natural gas well drilling agreement with a 400,000 NEuro initial line of credit, from Newton Bores in the Transvaal region of South Africa.
A road building commitment from Solid Rock Builders (SRB) of Perth, Australia. This agreement extended credit for the construction of 450,000 NEuros’ worth of roads, bridges, water pipelines, and culverts “to be repaid at a later date, by voluntary subscription, by those who benefit from the infrastructure.”
A gift of 25,000 NEuros worth of Iridium satellite phones and 130,000 NEuros’ worth of pre-paid air time, from IntelliSAT of Florida.
A commitment from Caron Caves Construction (CCC) in Michigan to provide an underground house building crew, a tracked excavator, forms, moisture barrier materials, and 27 sets of proven construction plans, all “at cost for the first 12 months, and at prevailing rates thereafter.”
A commitment from Nairobi Concrete of Kenya to start an open-pit limestone mine, build two concrete batch plants, and provide 12 concrete mixer and concrete pumper trucks, within two years.
MobileWorks of Finland, Limited, promised a network of photovoltaically-powered cell phone/Wi-Fi towers with a 580,000 NEuro line of credit, “to be eventually repaid by mobile subscribers.”
Monolithic Domes International (MDI) of Texas promised to provide “with 30 days’ notice: a construction crew, air forms, inflation apparatus, et cetera, all capable of working in austere, off-grid environments, available to work at prevailing rates, with a 12-month minimum in-country presence, and renewable if sufficient work is available.”
ICF Canada of Toronto promised a 275,000 NEuro line of credit for Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs), used for cast concrete building and septic tank construction.
A 150,000 NEuro line of credit from Western Solar of Scottsdale, Arizona, for solar hot water heaters.
A 350,000 NEuro line of credit from PV-USA of Phoenix, Arizona, for photovoltaic panels, inverters, and charge controllers, and “five years of at-cost shipping” from a new warehouse that was to be established in Nairobi.
Pacific Mint in Washington promised to produce “circulating silver coinage -- with weight, dimensions, and hardening formula to be determined -- with designs, special tooling, minting, and shipping provided at cost for the first 250,000 ounces minted.”
Establishment of a “Plant a Tree” charity, with an initial endowment of 50,000 NEuros.
A private donor in Wyoming pledged a gift of 150,000 NEuros worth of homeschooling curriculum materials.
A private donor in St. Kitts pledged a gift of 1,000 ounces of gold.
A private donor in Idaho pledged a gift of 200,000 NEuros “preferably to arm villagers and indigent Christian refugees.”
A rancher in Oklahoma promised the gift of “500 straws of prime longhorn bull semen, to improve the bloodlines of the local Zebu cattle.”
A company in Hamilton, Montana, promised 50,000 NEuros’ worth of assorted small arms ammunition free of charge and “up to 1 million more rounds per year, as desired, at cost (not including shipping)” for a period of four years.
The LOAs gave a boost to the spirits of the two-man Project SWILL team. For the first two weeks they had plunged into deep research about the formation of nation-states; about trade, customs, and postal treaties; establishing currencies; details on refugee NGOs; road infrastructure; agricultural potential of the Ilemi region; and the climate and geography. They even got as far as a preliminary SWOT Analysis -- studying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a new nation-state in the region. Their conclusion: A new libertarian state would be a powerful magnet for both capital and bright entrepreneurs. And given its “frontier” situation, the Ilemi economy would boom in “overdrive” mode for at least 15 years, and then gradually slow to a more sustainable but still vibrant rate. But hearing about the LOAs gave them a more focused sense of purpose: Instead of sounding just fanciful and ethereal, Project SWILL was beginning to appear something substantial.
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 companie
s 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.
Land of Promise (Counter-Caliphate Chronicles Series Book 1) Page 5
