Land of Promise (10 page)

They were married four days later at Nairobi’s Marula Manor, with Mark Mtume officiating. Meital’s younger sister Liel was able to fly down for the wedding, on special leave from the IDF, where she served as radar technician. Two connecting flights left her exhausted, but she was thrilled to attend. Not surprisingly, Meital’s parents did not respond to the invitation.

Harry Heston flew in on his Embraer Legacy 700 corporate jet. With him were three of Alan and Rick’s closest co-workers from GlobalMAP and their wives. There were also two security guards.

Mark’s wife and Alan served as the witnesses. Meital wore an Italian-designed wedding dress that she found waiting for her “off the rack” at the Fever Group fashion store on Ngong Road. With just a one-day delay for fittings, the formal white silk
crepe
dress fit her like a glove. With the train removed, it could be worn as an evening dress. And because the
crepe
material showed no wrinkles (since
crepe
was already a mass of wrinkles), it would be ideal for traveling. Meital wanted it to look elegant, but she always had a practical streak.

The Marula Manor staff arranged for a large round decorated cake, and lunch was served by caterers. Everything was arranged on very short notice, but the event came together nicely. The late morning wedding was held outdoors, followed by an indoor luncheon in anticipation of afternoon rain.

During the reception luncheon, one of the caterers asked Mark Mtume a question in Kiswahili, assuming that he was a local minister brought in for the event. He answered, “I’m sorry, but I don’t speak your language. I’m from Zambia.” Then Mark’s wife added, “And I’m no help either. I’m from Canada, sister.” This soon devolved into a hilarious series of echoes: “I’m no help either, I’m from…” with Texas, England, Scotland, Germany, Utah, Wales, Ireland, and several other countries and states in the U.S. mentioned.

Liel was amazed that both such an elaborate wedding had been arranged on such short notice, and surprised as well that a well-known figure like Harry Heston was attending. This was also Liel’s first time attending a Christian wedding. Several times she commented, “I feel like I just walked into a Hollywood movie!” It became even more surreal for her when Nancy Mtume stood up and sang her song
Love, Eternal
to the wedding couple
a capella
. This song had been a worldwide crossover hit on the pop charts five years earlier. As she was hearing it, Liel did a double-take when she realized that the woman who was singing sounded
just like the original
because
she
was
the singer who had originally written and recorded the song under her maiden name.

A half-hour after the cake-cutting, Harry approached the cluster of people who were gathered around Rick and Meital and said, “If you folks will excuse us, I need to talk with these newlyweds privately for a few minutes.”

The three of them went out to stroll on one of the wide paths. Looking down and kicking pebbles ahead of him as he walked alongside Rick and Meital, Harry said, “I promised you a contingency fund of one billion NE. But I’ve given that some more thought and prayer, and I’ve decided to increase that to at least two billion, mostly for armaments of all descriptions. We’ll need to move quickly on this.”

Rick nodded and then asked, “Worried about an arms embargo?

“Yes. I’m almost certain that the UN will slap on an embargo, perhaps only a few months after declaring Ilemi nationhood. So I’m going to be immediately hiring several purchasing agents to scour the globe, buying the whole works: rifles, pistols, light machineguns, grenade launchers, APCs, tanks, artillery, helicopters, radars, lidars, and surface-to-air missiles. The agents will probably have to visit about 20 countries. To facilitate this, I’m in the process of setting up a GlobalMAP subsidiary that will be called the Isher Trading Company and building a warehouse up on the plateau for weapons, aircraft, and sensor systems.

Rick let out a laugh and said, “
Isher
, as in
The Weapon Shops of Isher
? That was a great science fiction novel -- and quite an appropriate name.”

“I’d like you and Meital to both be paid Isher Trading Company agents,” Harry said, “on open-ended contracts.”

“Okay… “I guess it could be a sort of combination trip, for our honeymoon. But keep in mind that I was Air Force, not Army.”

“No worries,” Harry assured him. “I will be giving you
very
detailed lists. I’m also bringing in a few subject matter experts as consultants on air defense artillery, SAMs, sensors, and so forth. They’ll be fine-tuning our shopping lists, and you’ll have the benefit of technical briefings from them, as well. I’m sure that you’ll do fine. I’ll also retain some military logistics folks to ensure we have the tooth-to-tail to support the purchases and fielding.”

Most of Mark Mtume’s intended cabinet members would be drawn from the Christian Libertarian Virtual Roundtable of Africa (CLVRA), a Tor forum where Mark had been active ever since his teenage years. Because Internet users in several African nations, including Zambia, were under Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) by their governments, many participants had to utilize encryption, VPN connections, and Tor Pluggable Transport proxies.

Mtume discreetly contacted several of his trusted CLVRA friends, many of whom he had known for more than 20 years, via encrypted e-mail. He first swore them to secrecy, and then asked them “hypothetically” if a new Christian homeland nation were ever formed, would they be available for either virtual part-time volunteer work, or for a paid position requiring immediate relocation to another country. The key positions were: command of the Ilemi Republic Defense Force (IRDF) -- who would only be appointed once, and then elected from within the ranks of the IRDF officer corps thereafter -- and the administrators of the “P5” offices: Passport Office, Patent & Copyright Office, Public Lands Pastoral Management & Brands Registration Office, the Postal & Internet Office, and the Private Property Deeds & Surveys Office. The responses were mixed, so Mark had to go through a second round of contacts before he had enough commitments to form a cabinet.

The first of these men was Colonel Petrus Kamwi, a recently retired Brigade Commander in the Namibian Army. Kamwi was educated at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) in Berkshire, England, where he received the honor of The Overseas Sword as top RMAS foreign student of the year. Most of his experience was with Zambian Army units equipped with Chinese WZ 523 APCs and various South African wheeled APCs. When Mark asked Kamwi if he would be interested, he responded enthusiastically, saying that he would make himself available immediately if the new nation were formed.

Then Mark contacted two men who were fellow members of his local church: Greyford Namulambe, who once served as Zambia’s Minister of Education & Vocational Training; and Wilbur Tembo, who was Zambia’s Minister of Agriculture & Livestock. Namulambe agreed to take on a volunteer advisory position, while Tembo agreed to relocate and be the salaried head of the Public Lands Pastoral Management & Brands Registration office in the new nation.

Another CLVRA friend was John Kimario, a professional land surveyor from Tanzania. He would head the Private Property Deeds and Surveys Office.

The Patent, Trademark, & Copyright Office would be headed by Bennet Tlhako, a patent attorney from Pretoria, South Africa.

The Postal & Internet Office would be headed by Gabriel Nkaya, the former Postmaster General of Malawi. This was a volunteer part-time position, since private contractors would handle mail collection and deliveries inside the Ilemi Republic. It was anticipated that the national Postmaster would mostly be concerned with reciprocal mail handling agreements with other countries. Handling of international mail would be subsidized by the sale of postage stamps. The artwork for these stamps would come from an Internet-judged international art contest. The focus of the stamp series would be on lifelike renderings of wildlife found in the Ilemi Triangle. The top award each year would be an Ilemi passport to the artist or a relative of the artist’s choice.

Chapter 9: Partition

“In an ideological age, diplomacy may seem weak and prosaic. But sometimes it is all we have.” -- Noah Feldman

On The Kibish Road, The Ilemi Triangle -- November 1
^st
, Three Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

Six helicopters arrived in two loose formations: three helicopters from South Sudan, and three from Kenya. Evan Riley and three members of his road crew, still in their work clothes, were awaiting them. They had been working until 2 a.m., hauling and spreading gravel. Their equipment was parked just 300 meters to the north. They finished marking the helipads and the border demarcation in silver survey spray paint only minutes before Riley heard the first helicopter.

The helicopters landed in rapid succession and disgorged an assortment of Presidents, Generals, and Foreign Secretaries. There were also three news reporters and three cameramen. The news teams were from Southern Sudan Television (SSTV), Media Max Network of Kenya, and Britain’s SkyNews. They immediately began filming and conducting impromptu interviews with anyone who would stand still to talk with them. This included Riley and two of the helicopter pilots.

The President of South Sudan gave a speech that lasted only five minutes. There was no need for a bullhorn, since there were only 29 people present. In his speech, he congratulated Mtume and stressed the importance of creating a dedicated Christian homeland nation. He began with a humorous comment. “It was rumored that today’s press conference would be about a concert. Instead, I am pleased to say, it is about a
concerted
effort, by Christians from all around the world, that has resulted in the establishment of a new nation…”

The Kenyan President’s speech that followed was even shorter. He began, “Today we stand in manifold witness to a historic occasion. The Ilemi dilemma has been resolved once and for all, and I can attest that this solution is to God’s Glory and will come as a great relief to persecuted Christians worldwide…’

Mtume walked up and gave an eight-minute long address in which he outlined the terms of the Constitution and his personal goals for the new nation. His wife Nancy then gave a moving solo rendition of
Amazing Grace
, announcing it as “our national anthem.” She then pulled the Ilemi flag from her satchel, and the three Presidents lined up and displayed it in front of themselves and exchanged handshakes in a prolonged photo op. Photos were taken of them signing the final MoU and Mutual Aid Pact, with more photos of Mtume and Clive Pilcher signing the Ilemi Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The photographers also asked them to pose for some clichéd pictures of the three Presidents and Pilcher shaking hands across the chalk line, with shots of them pouring soil from shovels at the base of the new
Now Entering the Ilemi Republic
sign Riley brought with him and erected the night before. Then there were the requisite photos of Mark hoisting the Ilemi flag, with even more pictures of Mtume and Pilcher smiling and holding up Ilemi passports beside their faces.

There were dark storm clouds moving in from the north, so all six helicopters were quickly loaded and hastily flown out in two directions. It would not be long until they were beyond Ilemi territory. The new nation was only about 3/4ths the size of Israel, which was one of the smaller sovereign nations. The new Republic’s southern border was 175 Kilometers (109 miles), with a western border 135 Kilometers (84 miles) long. The third side of the triangle followed the tight curves of the River Kibish for much of its length, so it was more difficult to measure.

Evan Riley and his workers were left standing at the border site. The only noticeable changes from before the entourage arrived were a white plastic folding table and two folding chairs, which had been left behind, and the new Ilemi flag, which was fluttering in the breeze. Evan Riley sat down in one of the folding chairs, just north of the painted borderline, and he let out a long, rolling laugh. The sharp contrast from the recent flurry of activity seemed quite surreal.

Then he shouted, “Well, they left us a flag. I suppose we’d better get busy building them a country for it to fly over. We have some grading to do, gentlemen!”

A few minutes after they started their engines it began to rain, but Riley liked grading in the rain. It kept the dust down.

Evan Riley’s picture ended up on global news websites, and a video clip of him commenting on the infrastructure development still needed was broadcast on SkyNews. When his wife saw this the next day, she scorned him. “You could have at least shaved and put on a clean shirt!”

Soon after Ilemi’s independence was made public, Rick Akins began receiving letters from distant cousins -- some that he never even heard of. Suddenly, he had Akins cousins by the dozens -- and all of them, it seemed, wanted Ilemi passports for free or at greatly reduced cost. He only responded to a few of these e-mails.

One relative that Rick did accommodate with a reduced-cost passport was a third cousin, Peter Klein, who wrote him an impassioned e-mail describing how he had been forced out of business. It read:

In his announcement speech, Mark Mtume used the phrase “To the Greater Good, to God’s Glory” several times to describe the importance of voluntary Christian charity. This soon became a catchphrase and part of the Ilemi culture, under the acronym TTGG-TGG, which was spoken “Tig-Tig.” Whenever someone expressed thanks for a charitable act, the giver would humbly say, “That’s just Tig-Tig.”

Caliph’s Palace, Medina, Arabia – November, Three Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

Premier Prince Caliph Uthman Ibn Suleiman al-Medina’s latest irritation was hearing of the new Ilemi Republic partition. He asked himself aloud, “How dare they declare a new Christian nation? This is like seeing another Israel -- another nation of infidels. Another nation that refuses the yoke of submission, and this one is particularly defiant!” After going through the motions of the
raka āts
of his Isha prayers, he lay in bed and made a mental checklist. He resolved to call his counselors and plot a way to immediately disrupt the plans of the infidel Ilemi planners.

Nadwat, Kenya -- November, Three Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

Before they could begin constructing roads in the new Ilemi territory, they first had to re-grade, widen, and add culverts to the dirt track on the Kenyan side of the border. Evan Riley staged their bulldozers, a grader, two dump trucks, a front-end loader, a diesel tank truck, and a backhoe in the roadside Kenyan village of Nadwat. A few of the local characters seemed to have greedy eyes, so the solution was simple: They hired them as security guards for the equipment and fuel at the high end of the pay scale for day laborers. This sort of protection money payoff was the norm in Africa.

They had two bulldozers: a Caterpillar D6 and a Komatsu D155, which was the equivalent of a Cat D8. Their lead bulldozer driver was Evan Riley. He was born and raised near Alice Springs, Australia, but had come to Kenya in the 2030s. Now in his 50s, he was a well-experienced heavy equipment operator. He made his home just outside of Webuye, Kenya. He was famous for his willingness to operate a Cat on steep slopes, where Riley’s steel nerve and endless stamina were both widely admired.

Riley jumped at chance to work on the Ilemi road project, knowing it might give him the opportunity to earn a third passport. Riley was an Anglican Church deacon at the Kamukuywa Parish in Webuye, and a teetotaler. He was famous for keeping an ice chest full of non-alcoholic ginger beer with him at all times. He was fond of saying, “My machinery runs on diesel, but I run on this stuff.”

Riley’s right hand man was Owiti Toure. Also an Anglican, he’d worked for Riley for over 15 years, and he was competent with every piece of equipment on their job. An AIDS orphan, he was educated at St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit model orphanage and school in Nairobi. Toure had an excellent eye for road grading, and he was a master mechanic and welder.

A larger contingent of road workmen and equipment was due to arrive in seven months from Solid Rock Builders (SRB) in Australia, but for now, Riley and his crew would have to make do with what they had.

Once their roadwork crossed the Ilemi border, they dug their first gravel pit at the side of a riverbed near Kokuro. After excavating there for just a day, they realized they needed to add a tracked excavator to their equipment ensemble. They found a nearly new Komatsu PC200LC-8 for sale at an exorbitant price in Kampala, Uganda. But because of “customs difficulties” (meaning bribes), getting it out of Uganda and up to the gravel quarry took nearly two weeks. This same excavator later proved to be invaluable in constructing the new road from Liwan up to the Mtume Plateau. That road was their highest priority.