‘Our Name is Legion’

Editor’s note: Longtime WorldNetDaily.com contributor Anthony C. LoBaido has published the first installment of his fictional, Christian-oriented action/adventure series entitled “Our Name is Legion.”

KHO PHA NGAN, Thailand – Imagine encountering an ancient evil older than mankind itself. Imagine committing the worst crime possible under the influence of this powerful demon. Then imagine summoning the faith to turn to the one person who could forgive your transgression. Finally, imagine making a special promise to undo what you have done, no matter how long it took or how it might tax your very being.

This is the premise of “Our Name is Legion,” which takes up where the popular “Left Behind” series left off, yet goes where “Left Behind” never dared tread. This new series details the adventures of a small group of men and women battling what many Christians might refer to as the Spirit of the Antichrist.

Yet for this remnant, something far more important than the traditional notions of “The Great Tribulation,” “The Rapture” or even “The End of All Things” is at stake. What is paramount is the eradication of the sin in their own lives along with their spiritual growth. They’re realistic people of flesh, blood and desire rather than pseudo-saints.

Leading the new remnant is Petra England, a true lady hailing from British aristocracy. Clearly, Petra is no ordinary British tourist. In fact, the pristine southern islands of Thailand have never seen the likes of this beautiful, blonde British intelligence agent before. When Petra’s grandfather Lord Wellington is assassinated in Burma while trying to help the persecuted Karen hill tribes of that nation, she is stripped of her intelligence access, protection and even her vast fortune. Petra’s name and looks have allowed her to waltz through life. Now she’ll have to make it on her own in this strange and dangerous world.

Despondent and alienated from her once-strong faith in the Lord, Petra then journeys to an island paradise off the coast of Thailand, where she meets Jean-Claude, a handsome and mysterious soldier AWOL from the French Foreign Legion.

Jean-Claude’s parents were killed in the 9-11 WTC attacks. He joined the Legion to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida, but now he will be forced to fight a totally different kind of enemy. It is an enemy seeking to destroy his future and even his very soul. Petra and Jean-Claude have lost everything they once held dear, yet now they have the chance to gain a peerless and priceless treasure – God’s approval. But only if they can summon the faith to trust the Lord without relying upon their own understanding.

From the ageless sands of North Africa to the 19th century incursion onto the shores of Mexico, through its split into half-pro and half-anti-Nazi factions during World War II, and into its present-day mission guarding of the European Space Agency’s satellite launches in South America, “Our Name is Legion” traces the history and evolution of the French Foreign Legion. They are men who fight not for France, but rather only for the Legion. “Legion Patria Nostra,” is their code – “The Legion is our home.”

It’s “March or die” meets high technology as the Foreign Legion has fatefully arrived at the most crucial juncture in its long and storied history. All this because Jean-Claude has emerged from the jungles of French Guyana harboring a terrible secret no legionnaire was ever meant to find out. And now the ends of the Earth won’t be sufficient cover to hide from the wrath to come.

This secret has been generated by the CIA’s supposedly defunct MK-Ultra program. Yet MK-Ultra continues under the radar of an unsuspecting world. Is this program simply a rouge modern endeavor, or is it somehow connected to a timeless vortex of darkness? Did Petra’s grandfather find out about this evil while interned in a Japanese POW camp in Burma during World War II? Did he try to expose it – only to pay the ultimate price?

Now a ragged cast of characters will come together to face down an evil force stalking them with utmost cunning. There’s Kola Roberto, an American Indian who lost his wife and child in the most bizarre manner possible; Mango, the sensitive and artistic transvestite Thai kickboxing champion; Sarah, a sexually abused Tahitian girl; Gretchen, a young German with a penchant for knowing the unknowable; Jimmy, a UCLA-trained Hmong archaeologist unable to escape his troubled past; the gorgeous, happy-go-lucky Stephanie; Donna, a pregnant, unwed mother; and the butcher Ta Mok, who once stood at the right hand of Pol Pot.

Each of them is flawed in a unique way, but nothing can get impede their desire to be truly good people. They save discarded animals and care for children. They diligently work to create order and purpose within a world of chaos. They give each other the courage to change for the better. They seem to embody the very meaning of words like courage, honor, generosity and love.

All of them will encounter Marcus, a hulking mercenary from the Balkans. But who is Marcus, and why is he roaming about the isolated islands of Thailand? And why is he so interested in monitoring the unorthodox series of moral tests this shipwrecked cast of characters must meet and overcome?

Marcus, like Jean-Claude, bares the mark of the Foreign Legion. But is this a legion of soldiers working for the cause of good or wicked aims? Why has Marcus crudely cut away Jean-Claude’s Fleur-de-Lis? And why are the remnant characters on the island slowly disappearing one by one?

Jean-Claude’s secret will ultimately send Petra on her most dangerous mission yet, into the Killing Fields of Cambodia. It is there the hell unleashed only a generation ago by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge will be seen as merely an appetizer for something far more sinister. The fate of all humanity hangs in the balance.

Amid the splendid temples of Angkor Wat in the Cambodian jungle, Petra and Jean-Claude will face down the designs of the Antichrist. All their lives they have run away from evil. Now they have run straight into it. They have been anointed for this quest because they are pure of heart. Have they grown strong enough through their trials to believe God can make the impossible ordinary? Their budding love has made them one in life. Will they remain one under the threat of death? How far will God push the envelope of their faith in order for Jean-Claude and Petra to become the people they were always destined to be?

“Our Name is Legion” is a novel for anyone thirsting for an intelligent, clever and fast-paced, action/adventure story that challenges and builds the faith of the reader. Meticulous on-site research in every single locale of the story (and the series) allows the reader to feel as if he or she is actually living out these adventures along with the stars of these rapidly fluid, imaginative tales.

Most importantly, the reader will come to know and perhaps even love these amazing fictional characters, who themselves seem to understand we serve a great and a good God who delights in making rivers appear in the desert for all those who trust in Him.

As Jean-Claude and Petra can tell you, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Not just someday.

Everyday.

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Order your copy of “Our Name is Legion,” the first book in LoBaido’s series.

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The sequel to “Our Name is Legion” is entitled “Prayer of the Elephants.”

On the Thai-Burma/Myanmar border, a battle is raging for the survival of the brave Karen hill tribe. During World War II, they were fierce allies of the British Empire. Now they have been all but forgotten – except by the local drug cartels, who want to take over their land and end their once peaceful way of life forever.

The United Nations has offered Burma’s fascist junta U.S. $1 billion in cash to turn over the nation to their hand-picked Nobel Prize winner. The junta laughed that off, for they are making far great profits in the Golden Triangle. Yet they are profits stained in the blood of innocent children, and that wickedness has moved the ruler of the cosmos.

It is in these jungles that the orphaned child soldiers of the Karen will find new hope from unexpected sources. They will be helped by a sister who really isn’t much of a nun, a soldier AWOL from the French Foreign Legion who’s a novice at soldiering, and a beautiful ex-British intelligence agent who has lost her access to privileged information. Kola Roberto, Mango and Sarah also return to stand by their friends Jean-Claude and Petra. That friendship will be tried and tested under the worst conditions imaginable.

And all of them will have their hearts transformed by a 5-year old Karen girl named Cloe. Her parents were killed by the black hearts of the Wa cartel – the world’s largest private army. Now the Wa forces have been assigned an elite sniper from Mainland China’s People’s Liberation Army. That sniper is known only as “The Weatherman.”

China is calling the shots in Burma and controlling its vast natural resources like jade, timber, oil, rice and of course drugs. The Weatherman and the PLA want to keep it that way. Did The Weatherman assassinate Petra’s grandfather, Lord Wellington? And has he returned to these jungles to finish the job of assassinating Petra as well?

Like the other remnant characters, Cloe’s facing long odds. She’s poor and dressed in rags. She’s armed with nothing but love for an injured elephant and perhaps enough love for every elephant in the entire world.

Cloe has big dreams and even bigger prayers. She claims that elephants dream and pray as well. And now planet Earth is about to find out Cloe is on to something special as she and her new band of compatriots come together to make their final stand.

“Prayer of the Elephants” will be available sometime in 2005.