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The Reaper was glad to ditch the black cloak. Not needed at this meeting. Spending time with right-thinking people was appealing, thought the constant frustration of inadequate funds was not. Soon there would be enough money to grease every wheel in the hierarchy. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, only two things are certain in life. Patriots would never stop fighting to reclaim this once-great nation. And they would always be fundraising. Because the fight for supremacy was expensive.
And the Reaper was no millionaire. Back in the ‘70s, Ben Klaasen famously funded the “Church of the Creator” using the millions he’d made in real estate, and that worked well—until he committed suicide. In the 2000s, Bill White self-funded “White Homes and Land” and acquired more than a million dollars’ worth of rental property—until he took bankruptcy. Most of his friends’ operations were funded by large outfits like the League of the South and the National Socialist Movement (which despite sounding liberal, was actually a band of patriots typically dismissed by the media as “Neo-Nazis”). They raked in millions selling memberships and merch, $50 swastika flags that cost thirty cents to make, that sort of thing. Their website did more traffic than Etsy. Some groups were even crowdfunding online and distributing funds in bitcoin so they would be near-impossible to trace. He had to pay $20 to get into this event, billed as a “super-concert” sponsored by the Charles Martel Society. The music sucked, but that wasn’t the draw. That was the cover.
The Reaper guessed there were maybe a hundred people in this church basement. Someone was speaking up front, but it was all too familiar, even when the crowd hooted or hollered. It was much like a political rally, except smaller and with fewer codewords. They didn’t call Hispanics “bad hombres.” They didn’t talk about “states’ rights” or “law and order.” They didn’t pretend that building the wall was a security issue.
“Have you noticed how many times the loony liberals and fake-news media talk about diversity? Why do they assume that it’s good to completely transform the nation that was once the greatest on the planet—because of white men? Why would bringing in people and colors and religions and deviants from less successful parts of the world make this nation better?” The crowd responded with cheers. They waved banners and pennants. “A unified nation will always be stronger than a divided one. And that is why all true Americans need to stand up and fight! Before it’s too late.”
Same old same old, although these meetings were good for the soul and motivation. But the Reaper had work to do and probably should never have made this stop.
The search of Kincaid’s office had produced precious little. Most of the critical files apparently resided with the attorney now handling the case in LA, a Gary Quince.
And Pike’s arrival in Tulsa was no great surprise. But kidnaping his boss? That was a bold move. If foolish. This was a skeet shoot, picking off helpless clueless birdies who had no idea what was really going on.
A paid associate followed them as they left the penitentiary. They were heading west, presumably to Los Angeles, but if so, they were not taking the quickest route. An interception might be necessary, before they got too far out of reach. Some bad weather was headed to that part of the world.
“You will not replace us!” the crowd shouted, raising the rafters in this relatively small basement. People slapped one another on the back, sharing their enthusiasm for the cause. But how many would actually do anything? How many were willing to perform the work necessary to make a positive difference? Most of these people were followers. Not leaders.
“You will not replace us!”
Time to leave. There was work to do. And the Reaper’s work would enable these people to do so much more than they had done in the past.
Only took a minute to find the car and head down the road, buoyed by knowing the battle was for a just cause. The stakes were high, and a couple of liberal lawyers were not going to ruin what had been so carefully planned.
After all, they were only fighting for money. The Reaper was fighting for God and country.