Land of Promise (5 page)

As they sat on couches that were nearly facing each other, Heston said, “Before you begin, I’ve got to say that while your idea is not entirely original, it has great merit. I should also mention that I have reason to believe you’ve been talking about this with Alan Pilcher, in our Political and Nation States Studies group, as well as with a Jewish Israeli art appraiser.”

“Yes, both of them. And by the way, she’s actually a
Messianic
Jew.”

“That’s good news. So, tell me: Does she have any Mossad or Shin Bet connections or ties to any other nations, intelligence agencies, banking or major corporations?”

“I’ve asked her directly, and she’s told me ‘no’… I trust her word fairly well. And I have it on good authority that the Mossad and Shin Bet don’t recruit Messianics.”

As they spoke, Rick found that Harry Heston’s port-wine stains, a facial birth defect, were distracting. These were large irregular purplish blotches that covered Heston’s left cheek and continued up to his left forehead. Rick had seen them many times before, in photos and videos, and when he’d seen Heston from a distance at public events. But from less than eight feet away, they were an uncomfortable distraction.

Heston put his palms together, and said, “I’ve taken the liberty of asking Alan Pilcher to join us in this meeting. Do you mind?”

“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:

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.