Ray spoke toward the bookcase in a loud voice. “Okay, all clear. We set a new record: forty-three seconds. You can pull the wedges.”

There was no response.

Ray repeated, now shouting, “I said, you can pull the wedges now!”

Malorie shouted, “Give us a minute. We’re busy kissing.”

Ray shook his head and muttered, “Well, I guess the best man won.”

Phil and Malorie were married two days later. Phil explained that they’d put their relationship “on a wartime footing, with none of the usual engagement pretensions.” The ceremony was conducted at the home of a retired Wesleyan minister who lived near Anahim Lake. All six of them (including Stan Leaman) squeezed into Phil’s crew cab pickup for the short drive.

•   •   •

Running the intelligence analysis cell violated one of the basic tenets of the NLR movement: The cell had connections to some other cells, and hence the risk of their detection and location by counterguerrilla units was much higher. They recognized, however, that unless a few cells were willing to gather and analyze intelligence, the NLR would be far less effective. Following instructions that were frequently mentioned on shortwave radio and distributed along with resistance pamphlets, several NLR cells, such as Team Robinson, compiled intelligence spot reports in SALUTE format, detailing “The Five Ws.”

One of the flyers read:

Resistance Fighters: Your Battlefield Intelligence Is Crucial!

The intelligence that you provide will help win the war against our occupiers.

Please do not courier hard copies! (They are easier to find in a search, and can carry fingerprints or DNA traces.) Instead, put it on an unmarked USB memory stick (“thumb drive”) with the date of your report included in the file name and then use hand sanitizer or oil to wipe off your fingerprints. (After that, handle the USB sticks only with gloves.)

How to send intelligence reports: Use SALUTE or 5Ws formats:

S

Size (Platoon? Battalion? # of vehicles, # of persons.)

A

Activity (Convoy, checkpoint, patrol, cordon, training, interrogation, relocating/evacuating citizens, etc.)

L

Location (GPS/grid coord, address, road name/#, direction, proximity to landmarks, nearest town, etc.)

U

Unit (Domestic/foreign, police, military, branch, guard/reserve, unit designation, civ supt, volunteer, uniform, vehicle stenciled bumper numbers or license plate numbers, etc.)

T

Time & Duration (Time/date group: Yr mo date 24-hr-time e.g., 20131117 0930 Mtn/Pcfc/Zulu/etc.)

E

Equipment (Weapons, equipment, supplies, vehicles, armor, etc.)

Who

(Who are you [code name]? Did you witness this yourself? Who did? Is this person credible/reliable? Who did you speak with? Who told you this? Did you get his/her contact information?)

What

(What happened? What did you see? What did you hear? What did they say to you? What was the end result? [CREATE A TIMELINE, in chronological sequence].)

Where

(Same as L [Location] in the SALUTE report. Where did this happen/is this located? What direction? Location of first and last observation? Be as precise as possible.)

When

(Same as T [Time] in the SALUTE report. Time/date and duration.)

Why

(Explanation given for activity [yours & theirs], if any. Why were you there and why did you have access to this event/information? [Passerby, observed, participated, solicited, coerced, detained, etc.])

How/How Many

(How do you know? How did they treat you? How did you react? How were they carrying out this activity? How many people, trucks, tents, crates, trailers, antennas, backpacks, etc.)

All files should be in standard formats, such as .doc, .rtf, .jpg, or .wav.

Lastly, without compromising sources and methods or your own identity , give an honest written summary of the reliability of your source and rate it on a scale of 1 to 10.

INCLUDE DOCUMENTATION: Photos, sketches, maps, copies of documents, videos, audio interviews, radio intercepts, or interview transcripts/notes. SCAN THEM and put them on the USB stick with a related file name and matching dates. Each piece of documentation should be accompanied by a description with basic 5Ws/How (or SALUTE) information. Audio files should be in .WAV file format.

Working together, with God’s Providence, Victory is inevitable

Death to the New World Order.

They are on the run, and we are on the march!

We are the Resistance! NLR!!!

It was Stan’s dairy that allowed courier drop-offs and deliveries to the McGregor ranch without much chance of being noticed, even if the courier was followed. The McGregors owned their own producing dairy cow, but the milk delivery truck would still stop five days a week and exchange a full bottle of cream for an empty bottle that was left in their oversize mailbox. Hidden beneath the mailbox, a small sheetmetal box had been constructed by Ray. This spring-loaded box, only seven millimeters deep, allowed the delivery truck driver to surreptitiously drop off and pick up USB memory sticks. The tray would hold up to eleven sticks.

43

FERTILE CRESCENT

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

—General George S. Patton

British Columbia—October, the Fifth Year

The resistance war in British Columbia continued, with UNPROFOR steadily losing troops and equipment. Replacements were sporadic and never brought the units back to full strength. Morale of the French troops was deteriorating. Their road patrols became less frequent, more heavily armed, and more likely to be aborted, with an early return to base (RTB). There were very few nighttime patrols. Increasingly, the ALAT and IMa troops stayed bottled up in their compounds, and their helicopter flights became less frequent.

The few convoys that ventured out were always escorted by an APC or two or more technical trucks—pickup trucks with pedestal-mounted machine guns. Ambushing the UNPROFOR convoys was a challenge at first, but eventually the resistance cells became quite adept.

Rather than the traditional L-shaped ambush formation, the resistance adopted a crescent-shaped ambush perpendicular to a road, usually in places where the ambushers had the advantage of commanding terrain. Putting troops only on the short leg of the L and claymore mines on the long leg of the L made it easier for the ambushers to withdraw in an orderly fashion. Some of the resistance cells were large, so they could field fifteen-man ambush teams. Many of their ambushes were devastating, and so complete that they were able to advance into the kill zone and quickly scavenge weapons and ammunition from the dead UNPROFOR troops. Most of the ambushes, however, were conducted in classic guerrilla style—a method that minimized casualties among the ambushers: pounce and retreat.

Team Robinson, with just five field fighters (and sometimes only four, depending on Alan’s intermittent back problems), preferred deliberate crescent ambushes, using plenty of carefully positioned improvised claymores, which were detonated simultaneously. They used “breadpan claymores,” a popular design that they heard had been developed in Idaho. Theirs used explosives salvaged from French land mines instead of dynamite.

Malorie was exhilarated by her first ambush, but seeing two running men fall after aiming her M1 Carbine at them and squeezing the trigger had a strong effect on her. It was the knowledge that she personally had snuffed out their lights that bothered her. To just be “someone shooting” in an ambush was one thing, but to see two of her particular targets go down, and one of them kicking after he fell, was troubling. The images of them falling plagued her dreams for weeks. Gradually, she became more inured to it, but in a way she was never the same person again. She was now a killer, but she still had a Christian conscience.