Bonner Incident (33 page)

“Like blowing up the Elk Lodge wasn’t devious,” he mumbled.

He ordered pizza and a bottle of Mountain Dew, since he was in an urban combat zone trying to fit in. As he waited, he searched the want ads and made a list of stops tomorrow. After his food, Joshua checked his pistol and drifted off to sleep.

When the alarm went off at 0300, he got up and packed up everything and loaded the BMW. He drove downtown and parked at the building he’d seen that would give him a clear line of sight to his target on the other side of the river.

Glancing around again and still not seeing any cameras or people, he moved to the fire escape and jumped up to catch the ladder and pulled himself up. Scurrying up the ladder quickly and quietly, he took off his little backpack and pulled out his spotting scope and rangefinder.

Setting up the scope on an air conditioning unit, he looked over at the federal building and zoomed in. He could see Larry’s parking spot rather well. Pulling up the range finder, he saw it was a little over half a mile. “Shit, that’s point blank for the Lapua,” he said putting the range finder back.

Seeing it was only 0350, he pulled out some tools he’d bought and walked over to the roof door. Using a voltage detection pen, he moved it around the door to find where the alarm was. Pulling out the strips of metal he’d cut, Joshua wiggled them in the crack of the door. Then he pulled out tiny screwdrivers and thin metal shims he had filed to make some lock picks. He was sorry to say, Ben had shown him this in his own shop, showing Joshua just how easy it was to break into a building.

Just to prove his point, Ben had shown him on several other buildings as well. But all of those buildings had alarms. “Locks are only for honest people boss,” Ben had chuckled. “And alarms are only to make people feel safer. You want to be safe, have a gun on your body.”

Gathering up his stuff, in case he hadn’t learned from Ben well enough, Joshua shimmed the lock and picked it. Feeling the lock turn, he held the knob and put his backpack on, just in case he had to make a quick getaway. Taking a deep breath, he cracked the door open and sighed with relief. “Guess I learned something from Ben,” he said opening the door. Reaching up, securing the strip over the contact, he made sure the door was unlocked before he closed it.

Moving back to his spot, he pulled out his spotting scope, setting it back up and waited. While he waited, he pulled out his notepad and continued outlining the plans of attack till the sun started peeking over the horizon. Putting his notepad away, he watched the parking garage.

Before 0700 cars started showing up, pulling into the garage as he watched through the scope. When he saw a car pull into the spot he was watching, Joshua glanced at his watch. “0724, not bad for a government paid henchman,” he mumbled and he saw Agent Durrell get out of his Lexus. He watched the man put on his suit jacket and smiled, thinking that the picture on the website had been taken very recently.

When Durrell headed into the connecting pedestrian tunnel, Joshua packed up and left using the door he’d unlocked. Moving down the stairs rapidly, he looked at his watch as he reached the ground floor. “Need to put stairs on the logging sites, I can move up and down the mountains faster,” he grinned and looked out into the lobby to see that it was a big open reception area.

Seeing a camera aimed at the door, he moved over and under it, grabbing a cap and putting it on before pulling up the collar of his jacket and walking out. Satisfied the camera had only caught the back of him, Joshua headed for the car.

His first stop was the Goodwill store and he bought clothes he would normally wear, complete with work boots. Then he bought several different outfits and shoes. Satisfied, he left and found a women’s supply salon. The woman behind the counter smiled when he bought two black wigs and some hair dye.

Just outside of town he pulled into the lot of a trapping supply store and walked in. He had some traps but needed more, and not just for survival. Traps worked twenty-four-seven after they were set, but Joshua preferred snares. They were easier to set and didn’t snap at you when you messed up setting them. He couldn’t find any Duke 0430 traps but found the Conibear 330 which was just a little smaller. Grabbing a dozen, he walked around grabbing a few more items, paid, and then left.

The next stop was a sporting goods store. He bought a canvas gun case that looked like a guitar case. As he was looking around, he saw boxes of the match grade .338 Lapua he shot and grabbed them, since he wouldn’t be using his reloading kit at home anytime soon. Granted, he had several hundred rounds at the dugout but more never hurt anybody and at ten dollars a shell, the feds should feel privileged he was shooting them with it. A part of him felt they should send him a thank you card for the thought.

Grabbing a few more items, he left and stopped at a private mail store. He sent the envelopes and left to find another hotel nearby. It took two hotels till he got one with a room on the ground floor that he could park beside. He didn’t want to be seen hauling shit up and down the stairs. It wasn’t a top of the line hotel, which was exactly what Joshua wanted. Looking at the cars around the lot, he saw an old beat up van and walked over to it, dropping two credit cards and the license that belonged to one of the state troopers.

Then he went into the small bar at the hotel and found what he thought would be there; shadier citizens. He went straight to the bathroom and laid the other troopers credit cards and license beside a toilet and left for his room. Walking out of the bar, he saw the van was gone but so were the credit cards. Moving the stuff from the BMW to the room, he closed the blinds.

Setting up his laptop first, he checked the news and the site still hadn’t posted the video. On every major news site, the BATF announced that the explosion was from a generator being too close to the fuel tanks. The Homeland Director had issued a memo outlining safety at all government facilities to make sure it never happened again.

“Set up another one like that close to home and we’ll see,” Joshua said shaking his head.  Scrolling down, he paused upon seeing the death toll so far was over three hundred with more wounded, but the total was expected to rise. “Yeah, see what happens when you mess with the family? This Joshua doesn’t blow horns to make walls fall down, he blows them up.”

Sitting at the little table, Joshua continued writing and refining what he planned to do and how to do it.

***

When Joshua was buying clothes at Goodwill, Agent Griffey was stepping out of a limo at the White House. Following a Secret Service agent, after having his briefcase scanned, Griffey was led to one of the conference rooms and told to wait. He sat down and opened his briefcase, pulling out his notes and folders.

Ten minutes later, the President, Homeland Director and the Speaker of the House walked in, and Griffey jumped out of his chair to stand, as the three walked to the other end of the table. After they’d sat down, he took his seat again.

“Agent Griffey, what the hell is going on out there?” the Director asked, leaning back in his chair.

“Sir, it was an unfortunate event, but we will catch Mr. Anderson. The terrain and the remoteness presents many problems. We are talking over a million acres sir, with very little road access. The teams have to climb up on mountain tops just to radio or use a satellite phone.”

The Speaker leaned over the table. “Have you been watching the internet? They are making this Joshua out to be some kind of savior to fight against the evil of Washington. We can only control the mainstream media for so long and they will be forced to report it.”

“Mr. Speaker, I assure you, we are moving with all haste, but unlike others we’ve faced before, Mr. Anderson isn’t holed up in a cabin or barn. We will get him, I assure you.”

The Director shook his head. “Agent Griffey, if Mr. Anderson leaves Idaho in custody and alive, you will be lucky to get a job flipping burgers. We can’t be seen as ‘taking from the working class’. The IRS has gone through a lot of trouble to seize the assets that our agencies have targeted.”

“Understood sir, and I’ve informed my agents in the field. I have at minimum, two Homeland agents on every team.”

“So, care to explain why you are here and not at a press conference, telling America how he died in a shootout with us?” the Director asked.

“Sir, Agent Moore…” Griffey stopped as the Speaker slapped the table.

“Agent Griffey, choose your words carefully here. Agent Moore is highly decorated. He’s had movies made about some of his captures. Trying to place any blame on him will be detrimental to you.”

“Mr. Speaker, I was going to say Agent Moore provided me with assessments of how to improve our teams’ functions in the field. We were implementing them when the tragedy struck. I’m certain if we would’ve been able to implement these recommendations, we would’ve seen some strong results,” Griffey said, trying to remain calm because that was definitely not what he’d been about to say.

The Speaker rifled through some papers and held one up. “Were those recommendations about increasing team size, training them in basic mountain survival, learning how to operate long range radios… Stuff like that?”

“Yes Mr. Speaker.”

“In my report, these recommendations from Agent Moore were made before he ever landed and yet, you waited over a week before even attempting to implement them. If you thought so much of them, why didn’t you implement them sooner?”

“In my haste, I thought with enough manpower, we could sight the suspect and corner him. I highly underestimated the terrain and the training needed to operate in it.”

With a slight nod, the Speaker grinned and leaned back in his chair. “Yes, I can see how you’ve risen through the ranks so fast. You downplay your failures with eagerness and zeal, but accept responsibility. Let me fill you in, Agent Griffey. Civil asset forfeiture has grown out of the billions son. It’s become a viable revenue for this great country. We can’t have people thinking they can fight us when we take their money and possessions so our country can prosper.”

“I understand completely, Mr. Speaker.”

“These last three years your team alone has brought this country almost seven hundred billion dollars. That’s great work for your country, son, but letting the masses see one of their own fight back and though he’s not winning, he is fighting back and that can’t be tolerated.”

“Agent Griffey,” the President said, leaning back and swiveling his chair slightly side to side.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“How come I signed a presidential order to secure the suspect’s child, to assure his safety from his father, and this child isn’t in our possession? You think a sheriff in Idaho supersedes my order?”

“Mr. President, Sheriff Harper arrived at our command area with over a hundred armed people and had another hundred coming across the lake to hit us in the back, unless we turned the child over to him. I refused, as my order instructed, and Sheriff Harper ordered his men to spread out and prepare to fire. His instructions were to kill every federal personnel on site and secure the child of Mr. Anderson. Agent Moore intervened and ordered our men to stand down and return Mr. Anderson’s child to the sheriff. In Agent Moore’s defense, he didn’t know of the order as I was instructed and later stated we would be fighting the entire region if the sheriff had opened fire.”

The President slapped the table, looking at the Speaker. “I told you, these sheriffs have too much power in their counties. How can they justify not following federal authorities?”

“I know Mr. President,” the Speaker said solemnly. “Agent Griffey, how do you plan to solve this problem?”

“I’ve made a report Mr. Speaker,” Griffey said taking several stacks of paper out and carrying them to the end of the table. “I’m relocating my command area to a Forestry Service airfield south of the town of Nordman. I want to isolate my command and operating area from the locals. Though we haven’t proved it, we think they are providing Mr. Anderson with information on our movements-,”

“How? You have the phones and radio monitored?” the Director asked, reading the report.

“Word of mouth sir,” Griffey said looking at his own report. “Like I’ve said, we haven’t proved it and we’re working on it, but the information we had built up is gone now and we will have to start over. Likewise, Agent Moore was working on refining his profile and narrowing the search area and as you know, his top aide, Agent Kellogg was murdered. All that work will have to be repeated also, as it was destroyed in the blast. Agent Winters should be there by now and Agent Moore says she is as good if not better than him.”

Reading the report, the Director shook his head. “So, you need two more weeks to get set up again?”

“For full operations sir. I’ve got twenty teams now out in the field. From Moore’s recommendation, most are ten man teams. They will keep the search going, but until those two projects are complete and I have my full complement of agents in the field, I have little hope that they will actually spot Mr. Anderson. But I feel it’s important to the people that they see we don’t stop, even in adversity.”

“I like that part,” the President chuckled. “That should send a message to others until you capture him.”

“Yes Mr. President. I want to show that we will never stop.”

“Agent Griffey, in your recommendations, you are asking for those civilians whose houses were destroyed to have us force their insurance companies to rush payment and also provide them housing until this is over and they can rebuild,” the Director said reading, then looked up. “Why should we take the trouble?”