A Mighty Fortress Read online

  “If necessary I could work the lyrics to a nigger rap song into the conversation,” said Cody.

  Nightshade and Cody drove to the Assembly of God together in the old Nissan, followed by two carloads of armed NVA Volunteers. They pulled over at a corner two blocks down from the church building. They ran quick test on the audio from the bugged Bible and it worked. “Okay, scope the place carefully before you go in,” Barrow told them. “Remember the distress code, ‘Rugged Cross.’ Good luck.”

  The two of them drove into the church’s gravel parking lot, which had about two dozen cars and trucks and Christian bumper sticker-bearing SUVs in it, unusual for that time of the morning on a weekday. “I’m assuming that you can hear us okay, comrades,” said Nightshade into her Bible. “There’s Regenthal and Sheldon at the door of the fellowship hall.” She waved at them. “They’re wearing civilian clothes. So far no visible weapons other than Regenthal’s usual sidearm, or any danger signs. We’re going in.” They got out of the car and walked across the parking lot, Emily with the Bible under her arm. Cody was carrying a battered and annotated paperback copy of Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth, which was held in almost as much reverence as the Bible itself in evangelical circles.

  “How’s your father doing, Cody?” asked Pastor Leonard as they came up to the door of the fellowship hall. “Brother Jesse told me he was hurt by the Antichrists last night.”

  “He’s laid up, and it will be a while before he can go back to work, but he’ll make it, praise God,” Cody told them.

  “Praise Him! Where did he get shot?” asked Regenthal.

  “In his left hand,” said Cody.

  “No, I mean where did it happen?” pressed Regenthal.

  “He was in Eastgate Mall in the Drug Hut getting some things, and there were some Federal anti-terrorist cops there who were doing some kind of radio telethon about the President’s speech. He stopped to listen, and before he knew it the Nazis came out of nowhere and starting firing into the crowd,” said Cody, shaking his head as if in disbelief. “He got hit in a crossfire. I didn’t catch all the details, but I understand it was a bloody mess. A good Samaritan got Dad out of there and got him to the hospital.” Cody hoped they wouldn’t ask for any further details, since quick casual lying wasn’t his forté, but they seemed satisfied.

  “We will add him to our prayer list for the sick,” said Sheldon.

  “Thank you, pastor,” said Cody. “Dad hasn’t found the Lord yet, but I’m sure he’ll appreciate the gesture.”

  “Well, my young brother in Christ, are you ready to help us get the dirty Natsie bastards who did it?” asked Regenthal, laying a serious hand on Cody’s shoulder.

  “Yes, sir!” replied Cody immediately. Regenthal responded by giving him a crushing bear hug.

  “And how about you, Emily?” he asked, turning to the girl. “You know that this might turn out to be a very dangerous witness for Christ indeed.” She rolled up her arm and showed one of the scars from her self-inflicted cigar burns.

  “What do you think, captain sir?” she replied.

  “Good girl! May Jesus bless and keep you both!” boomed Regenthal, giving Emily a slightly less crushing and more dignified embrace. “Come inside, kids. We have a lot to talk about.”

  “How did that hug feel to you?” whispered Cody as they entered.

  “He was feeling me up, but not like Sheldon would have done,” she returned sotto voce. “He was feeling for a wire.”

  “Yeah, me too,” said Cody. “He’s not as dumb as he looks.”

  “Nobody could be as dumb as he looks,” whispered back Nightshade.

  They went into the long and spacious fellowship hall where the church held all their bake sales, dinners, meetings, and some of their revivals. It was a high-ceilinged building lit by bright flourescent lights, and with a well-buffed linoleum floor. There were large murals and paintings of Biblical scenes along the walls, and a large crucifix hung over a small stage or platform at one end of the hall, with a speaker’s podium in the center. There were long rows of folding chairs facing the stage; the place could comfortably seat at least three hundred people. A group of about thirty other men, mostly middle-aged, from the church’s congregation were waiting for them, clustered in the front row. Cody knew from careful listening during his several weeks of attendance that almost all of them had some kind of military experience in Iraq or Saudi Arabia or other parts of the American oil empire. Emily was the only woman present. Another man whom Cody had never seen before, who had a distinctly military haircut and bearing, was sitting in a chair beside the door and seemed to be acting as doorman, and Cody noticed he had what looked like a 9-millimeter in a holster on his belt. At the rear door to the hall sat yet another newcomer, similarly armed. Cody immediately noticed some suspiciously long, unmarked OD green cases that were stacked at the side of the stage, and he nudged Emily and nodded in their direction. “Uh, gee, captain sir, what’s in those long boxes?” yawped Cody for the benefit of the bug in the Bible.

  Regenthal grinned and strode over to the stack of boxes. “How are you on the Psalms, Cody?” he asked.

  “Uh, sir? Which one?”

  Regenthal raised his voice so all could hear. “Our young brother here has asked me what is in these boxes which I’ve brought from Fort Lewis, and I recommended he look in the Psalms. So say I to you all, my brothers, and sister. It’s true that these receptacles contain something that you may find unusual in a house of God, but these end times are strange, and ye shall see many wonders, which we must not fear. You know that the Bible is replete with men who were both strong in war and strong in the Holy Spirit. In Psalm Number Two we find: Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. My friends, last night I was deeply saddened to learn that the President of the United States became one of those princes and powers of the earth who imagines the vain thing. This weak woman of little faith has set herself up against the Lord and the Lord’s Chosen, the Jewish people who are the Apple of His Eye, and she has traduced the unfolding of God’s revelation in the holy land of Israel that is the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. She goes now to treat with the servants of damnation, and she’s doing it right here in this green and pleasant land where by right the peace of Amurrica and the grace of God should reign! Last night was a terrible night for us all, a terrible night for Amurrica and for those who believe in His promise of redemption in Zion! But when we seek further in the Psalms we find, in verses eight and nine: I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Regenthal threw back the top of one of the crates and lifted out a new, military-issue M-16, which he held aloft. “Behold the rod of iron with which we shall fight the battle of the Lord! In the One Hundred Forty-Fourth Psalm we are told, Blessed be the Lord my strength, who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.”

  “Praise Jesus!” several of the men shouted aloud. “To hell with Hitler!” another one yelled. No one seemed overly surprised at Captain Regenthal flourishing the weapon aloft in a church. Cody understood that Regenthal had been working on them and psychologically prepping them for some time. “Where’d you get those guns, captain sir?” he asked as Emily clutched her Bible high in both hands, apparently in religious fervor, but in actuality to make sure the hidden transmitter picked it all up. “Golly, you got six boxes, why that must be sixty M-16s! But I only see about thirty of us here, including me and Emmy!” he said, hugging Emily around her shoulder and pulling her and the Bible close, so he could speak over it. He hoped that Regenthal couldn’t catch on to what he was doing, which was carefully describing to the listening Volunteers what was going on in the hall.

  “There will be mor
e,” Regenthal told him confidently. “The Lord God has friends in all kinds of places, Cody, including the United States military. Let’s just say that when His hosts arise to break asunder the foes of His Chosen, we won’t be lacking for rods of iron to do it with. These weapons will never be missed from any arms room, and they’re untraceable. The Lord does indeed provide. Now brothers, if we might all have a seat, I’d like to get serious for a bit.” They all trooped to the folding chairs and sat down while Regenthal ascended the podium.

  “My friends and brothers in Christ,” began Regenthal solemnly, “There are some of you who already know why we are gathered here today in the shadow of apostasy and despair, but some of you other folks including our younger comrades are new to our little group, and so an explanation is required. I don’t have to tell you what has been happening in this part of our beloved nation for the past five years. Satan has been unleashed upon the earth in an orgy of murder and racial hatred and terrorism, and revilement of God’s Chosen, as the sacred Scriptures predicted would happen in the end times, when the Great Enemy shall be given dominion over the earth for a period so that the Lord may come to know his own, and the Great Tribulation begin, as was written. The Pacific Northwest has become yet another of the many battlegrounds upon which Amurrica must fight the War on Terror, which as we all know is really the Biblical war against the Anti-Christ who has manifested himself among men as Gog and Magog, in the equally devilish twin forms of Islam and Nazi fascism. These are but two heads upon the Great Beast upon whose back rideth the Whore of Babylon.”

  “What the hell is Nazi fascism?” whispered Cody to Nightshade. “The two are completely different world views! Doesn’t this asshole have a clue what the hell he’s talking about?”

  “Shut up!” she whispered back urgently. “Smile, dammit! You’re in church, Jesus loves you, and I’m gonna kick you in the balls if you don’t act like it!” Both of their faces assumed the slack-jawed, slightly eager lobotomy grin which was customary for evangelical services.

  Regenthal went on with his rant. “Now our country’s crisis has come to a head. The Bible also tells that in the end times there shall be false prophets, and that those who are saved in His Only Son must face betrayal and rejection from their loved ones, from their leaders, and from all the world,” he told them. “This we know already. But just as this development was predicted in prophecy, I have to tell all of you that it has not been unforeseen in the halls of power in Washington, D. C., either. I will be honest with you folks. My presence in this congregation is not an accident, and the presence of military and law enforcement men of faith in certain other congregations today all around the Pacific Northwest is no accident either.

  “All across Washington, and Oregon, and Idaho, and beneath the big sky of Montana, small meetings such as this between determined people of faith are taking place this morning. We knew that this day would come. It was known some time ago that there are certain weak and ill-intentioned elements in the United States government who have been pressing for negotiations with these Nazi devils. Negotiations that would violate the territorial integrity of the United States of Amurrica, and which would violate every single principle on which this country was founded and every basis of our faith and our Amurrican way of life! Unfortunately, these treasonous elements appear to have prevailed, for at least the short run. The President’s shameful speech of yesterday evening comes as no surprise to some of us, because we are already involved in the preparations which have been made to defeat this evil purpose, on many fronts. Today we are here to open up one such line of resistance to the powers of darkness and hatred that seek to engulf us. I am going to have to ask you all to take on a significant degree of personal risk for the greater glory of Christ and God’s Chosen People, and some of us may assume the crown of martyrdom, but I want you to know that we are not alone. There are still powerful forces in our nation’s capital that stand for truth, justice, and the Amurrican way.”

  “Can they leap tall buildings at a single bound?” whispered Cody. Emily kicked him in the ankle.

  Regenthal was warming to his task. “Throughout this mighty nation of ours there are those who will be behind us all the way, and who will give us all the support we need in our battle against evil. These rifles and the ammunition behind me are just one small sample of the kind of support we will receive as we gird our loins and go forth to fight the battle of the Lord. Strong in His faith and courage, we intend to make sure that the Pacific Northwest remains a part of the United States of America as it always has been, and that these evil people who have shed the blood of the anointed are punished for their wickedness.”

  “We gonna whup some Nazi ass!” cried one of the audience.

  “We gone slice ‘em and dice ‘em!” agreed Regenthal. “We will give ‘em a dose of their own medicine! In essence, brothers, we are going to do to them what they have been doing to the United States over the past five years. Despite the weakness of our President and those around her, we are going to wage guerrilla partisan warfare against this so-called Northwest Republic, and make it impossible for the fascists to establish any kind of stable society or all-white racist abomination of a government here. Whatever ticky-tacky régime these Natsie bastards set up, we will knock it down and prevent it from functioning. President Clinton will not be able to negotiate away our statehood and our American citizenship, because we will create such chaos and such upheaval that the United States will be forced to step back in, reassert its rightful authority and restore order. They can’t negotiate with a gang that can’t control its own turf and can’t deliver on any agreement. Once the Natsies have been forced out from under their rocks and out into the open, where we can see them and we have visible targets, then they can be destroyed!”

  The men were all staring at Regenthal dumbly, eyes glazed and lips grinning absent-mindedly. Cody raised his hand. “Uh, captain sir, I think I understand what you’re saying. You know I’m with you. I’m going into the army anyway in September to fight against the Ay-rabs who hate us because we’re free and they’re trying to destroy our Bible, and I’m sure ready to fight against the Nazis here in our own country as well, but what can we do if the President of the United States is against us? I mean, who in the government would be on our side and willing to stand up to the President and defy her if she says she wants to talk to the NVA?”

  “Yeah, how can we go against the President?” asked one of the other men in the group. “And how can you? You’re in the army, and she’s the commander in chief!”

  Regenthal smiled unctuously. “Boys, let’s be honest. A lot of times in politics, things ain’t exactly what they seem. The President…well, now, she’s a sweet lady personally, but you know, in real life she doesn’t exactly run things in this country.”

  “Bet this negotiate with Natsies business comes from her momma,” speculated another one of the men. “I always figgered Hillary for the real Whore of Babylon.”

  “Mmm, well, yes and no,” said Regenthal. “Okay, this gets into some really complex politics. Yes, Hillary does still call a lot of the shots, and she is working some kind of plan to get back into the White House even though she’s already had her two terms as specified by the Constitution. But it’s not that simple. Like that vision seen by the prophet Ezekiel, there’s wheels within wheels. The fact is that there’s a faction, or a party, within the United States government that wants to surrender and give up the Northwest over simple dollars and cents, but there are others who want to do it for what is Biblically a pretty good and sound reason, if that’s possible.

  “I can’t tell you everything, because it’s classified, but a lot of it has to do with Israel, and of course anything to do with Israel has to do with the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. And then there’s another faction within the Federal government who are dead set against any negotiations of any kind with the Natsies, for any reason, and the problem is that they’re all good Amurricans too. As you can imagine, a lot of this group that b
elieves in no surrender are Jewish people, so you can bet they love Israel. They just understand that we can’t save Israel by carving up Amurrica. Ain’t nobody in the government who really loves these evil Natsies or wants to negotiate with them, it’s just that some think it has to be done for Israel’s sake. I’m all for Israel, as any Christian man has to be, because Israel is the key to salvation. When in doubt, we need to listen to what the Jewish people tell us.”

  “Uh, I thought the saving grace of Jesus Christ was the key to salvation,” questioned one of the men, his brow furrowed.

  “Well now, you can’t follow Christ’s teachings without honoring and exalting the State of Israel, now can you?” explained Regenthal patiently. “Haven’t you seen Pastor Sheldon’s videotapes and read The Late, Great Planet Earth? But me and my teammates on this mission don’t believe we should be throwing out the baby with the bath water. We don’t believe that we can’t find a way to serve Israel without giving up part of the United States.”