Bonner Incident (38 page)

Buck threw his head back laughing, “Moore, you’re incredible. You want me to sacrifice an innocent man, have my people lay down so you can walk over them as you violate everything it means to be American. Then you act horrified when I tell you we are going to fight you and kick your ass.”

“I’m a realist,” Moore said sitting up.

“No, you’re not,” Buck chuckled. “You’re worried about the stuff on the sidelines and don’t see the wrath coming.”

“Oh, how so?”

Slowly turning till he faced Moore, Buck looked in his eyes. “You knew it, I saw it in your eyes when I showed up after the explosion, Joshua has started his war. You created this monster and you will have to deal with it.”

“You knew Joshua shot that agent in Spokane?” Moore gasped.

“As soon as I heard. It was 0912, if you want to know.”

“Sheriff, he can’t fight the three thousand they are putting in the field to find him.”

Giving a chuckle, Buck lifted his glass. “Yes, he can. You know how you eat an elephant by yourself? One little bite at a time. I’m sure in time you’re going to bring in people that are pure warriors but in the end, they too will lose. He’s fighting in an area he knows and has the support of the population. But most importantly, as long as he’s killing you, you can’t focus on his family. And Moore, I hope you don’t make that mistake again. That was some of the message from Spokane, he’s going to fight your war on the field. But mess with his family again and you’ll have more mass casualties, and I’m sure it won’t be here. Joshua will reciprocate in kind; he will go after your families.”

“I tried sheriff. I wrote to every congressman and senator, but they will not pull out,” Moore said dropping his shoulders.

Turning in his chair, Buck looked at Moore. “You know that one in Spokane was a warning. This I’m telling you for your own good because out of everyone stacked against him, you are Joshua’s biggest threat. He was letting you know; he can come and go as he pleases. He could hide and never be found. He can kill your people and remain anonymous. But he showed you, he’s not scared letting you know it was him and he’s coming to kill. No agent in America is safe,” Buck said then sighed. “My only concern is where he’s going to draw the line on who is his enemy.”

Moore jerked back and Buck laughed. “Oh, I know he will never fight us because we didn’t threaten his family. No, I mean is it the receptionist at some federal building? Any federal employee? I’m praying he keeps it to agents only, sorry,” Buck grinned.

“Then there is no stopping it,” Moore said.

“Sure, but on your end only,” Buck said seriously as his mother-in-law drove her scooter back at the sliding door still screaming at Moore. Sally ran and turned her around back into the house. “I believe the people around here are sick of getting shit on by Washington. Taking land and money and demanding more.”

Glancing at the sliding door, Moore was happy he didn’t see the demented woman. “How did Joshua convert two state troopers?”

“Convert? What is he some kind of preacher now?” Buck laughed. “Moore, today I stopped several hundred people from attacking you. Did Joshua convert them?”

“Sheriff, Agent Kellogg was a friend.”

“Like I said, for that I’m sorry, but he was a friend who didn’t belong here. Now I’m going to give you one final warning, don’t go after his family again. Not only will I come after you but heaven forbid, if you hurt Sonya or William, Joshua’s going to go after your families. I mean your wives, kids, siblings, and pets. Shit, I’ll lay money that he’ll kill the kids that played with you on the playground. Family is everything in this world Moore. Don’t push him that way because nobody will be able to stop him until the body count is so high it will seem unreal.”

“Well, sheriff, the tally from that explosion is four hundred and ninety-six so far, the three missing are presumed killed on a mountain somewhere and with the one in Spokane, Joshua’s war is over five hundred. That seems pretty high to me. There are still over two hundred listed in critical and unstable condition.”

“Nope, that was just payback for going after his kid. Plus, you know the feds will never admit that Joshua did it, even if he confesses.”

Nodding, Moore stood up. “Well, sheriff, I must say I wish I could’ve met you under different circumstances.”

“Yes, I think I would’ve liked that,” Buck said as Moore picked up his laptop case. “Moore, this will be the last time you come to this house unless you get your boys to pull out. If you want to talk, come to my office. I have a feeling you’re going to end up on the wrong end of my gun,” he said pausing and looking up at Moore. “I walk the line and only those that cross it, end up on the other side of my gun. Drive careful,” Buck finished and looked away over the dark lake.

Very sad, but knowing Buck was probably right, Moore left walking around the house to his car. At the front window, Buck’s mother-in-law was beating at it with her cane and screaming at him. “Yeah, if I was Buck, I wouldn’t turn in the wife either, if she killed someone. I’d hide the damn body myself, so no one would find it.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Joshua had the car parked and the horses saddled and was moving back into the wilderness before 1000. What had taken him so long was that he’d had to drive the BMW to the place where he’d stashed the horses, unload the car, drive it back to park and then walk back to the horses. Before he left the car, he looked at it with a sigh, not really believing he would be able to use it again. “Well, it served its purpose. If it’s here, it’s here,” he said and left.

Back in his battle gear, Joshua steered the horses northeast, heading to the dugout to drop stuff off and grab other stuff. On the drive up, he’d heard on the radio the feds were building up at the Priest Lake Forestry Service Airport. Which was just a big name for a dirt runway beside the road with several Forestry Service buildings. At one time, the explosives he’d stolen had been stored there, but OSHA and the EPA had said they couldn’t be and they’d moved the storage building north.

The airport was used for community events like sled dog races and outdoor events so he knew it well. What he didn’t like was that it was only  four miles away from William and Sonya. On the hourly reports, he’d heard of a large group of citizens that had formed up to stand guard at his house with the sheriff’s department. Knowing his crew would watch his family did set Joshua at ease, but he still felt it was his duty to protect them.

Stopping on a ridge, he climbed off King and waded through the bracken ferns. When he’d first come out, most of the ferns were barely knee high, now they were almost at his waist. The panhandle of Idaho was a temperate rainforest and the ferns shot up under the trees blanketing the forest floor. This factor would really help his plans because you had to push the ferns away just to see the forest floor.

Lifting his binoculars, he scanned the valley below only seeing trees, but paused over the few glades that dotted it. Then carefully, he followed the narrow valley floor to see if he spotted movement. Not seeing men but a nice moose, he climbed back on King and continued on.

It was just after 1700 and Joshua was a mile west of Little Grass Mountain still in Washington, when King stopped. Riding below the ridgeline in a nice forest, Joshua looked around then down at King. “What?” but King just looked ahead.

Giving King a little kick, Joshua tried to steer him ahead, but King turned southeast like he was heading for the cabin. “King, we can’t go there, they will turn you into glue,” he said yanking the reins. He tried to steer King toward the dugout, but King would only take a few steps and stop.

“Kin-,” Joshua started to say then stopped. Reaching down, he grabbed his M4 and pulled it across his chest. Then he patted King, “Good boy,” he said quietly and climbed off. Leading King with the mule trailing, Joshua headed up the ridge and followed a ridgeline that led north, away from Little Grass Mountain.

Knowing where the ridge led to, Joshua carefully followed it and kept looking over his shoulder at King. King seemed happy to go this way if Joshua wasn’t riding. Seeing a small clearing ahead, he left King and waded through the ferns, pulling out his binoculars.

Below him was a nice-sized valley that eventually fed into North Priest Lake. Bringing his binoculars up he started scanning. It didn’t take him long to see ten people riding horses and following a road on the valley floor, barely two miles away. “Yep, horses are better than dogs,” Joshua said turning around clicking his tongue in his cheek calling King up.

Ambling through the ferns, King led the mule and stopped behind him. Going to his saddle, Joshua pulled out his spotting scope and map. Raising up the spotting scope, he zoomed on the group and it wasn’t difficult to figure out that they were feds looking for him. Ten men riding horses with automatic weapons and tactical gear really gave it away.

Dropping to his knees, he opened the map and tried to figure out where to move so he could follow them. “I’m thinking of following this slope down to the next ridge that runs parallel to the valley. What do you think?” he said looking back at King. King just wiggled his ears.

“Okay, that’s what we’ll do,” Joshua said folding the map up. “Well, high-top’s notes said they only had ten horsemen on patrol, but they were two five-man teams. Guess they combined them to find little ol’ me.”

Moving down the slope and staying in the trees, Joshua kept an easy pace. “You know, we watched them and they never even looked around,” Joshua mumbled. “Why are they following roads? That’s the only place they can see me, so why would I follow roads?”

Not able to reason it out, Joshua kicked King in the side moving back into a normal walk. Thirty minutes later, he came to another clearing near the highpoint on the ridge and hopped off. Moving ahead, he pulled his binoculars out and looked down into the valley and saw he had cut the distance to them in half.

He watched the group pass a draw that led north, staying on the road. It looked like they were talking and he could see several had high powered rifles on their saddles. They followed the road along the valley floor and stopped at the east finger that ran along the draw they’d passed.

Zooming in, he saw one pull out a map as others pointed at the finger that ran beside the draw up to a ridge. He knew what they were pointing at; it was a trail that people hiked, not rode horses on. It eventually led to Hughes Lookout by a meandering way. The horse trail was on the other side of the ridge.

Watching the man with the map fold it up and lead his horse off of the road, the others followed in single file. “You guys are idiots. If you have a map, you can see that’s leading to a sixty-degree slope. I love my horse and wouldn’t trust him on a sixty-degree slope. The trail on the slope is a foot wide in places.”

Lowering his binoculars, he looked at the overcast sky. “It’s getting dark and you’re taking a freaking goat trail with thunder clouds overhead?” he said putting his binoculars up. “You believe that?” he asked turning to King who just looked at him.

Yanking out the map, he studied the trail they were taking. It wasn’t on the map, but he had walked it a few times scouting. He was only seven miles from the dugout. “They either have to turn back or move forward because the only place they can camp is below Hughes Ridge in that little glade,” he mumbled running his finger along the map. “If they make it this far, I can take them here,” he pointed at the map, but King didn’t look. “That is a rocky outcrop and the trail is only a few feet wide from here to here with no trees. Come on,” he said folding the map and jumping on King.

He directed King and the mule down into the valley, darting across the road on the opposite finger that led up the west side of the draw. Its slope was much gentler and was covered with bigger trees. When the rain started in a nice drizzle, he slowed King down. Not wanting to get King hurt, he pulled out his night vision and clipped it onto his helmet.

Like looking through a soda straw that lit up a small area, he guided King and the mule through the trees, looking east at the other ridge two hundred yards away. Seeing the rocky slope ahead on the other ridge, he stopped King and climbed off, leading him.

Finding a spot, he tied King up and pulled out the Lapua and grabbed all of his extra clips. “They had to have turned back. Nobody is that stupid to ride in the country you don’t know on a slope like that,” he mumbled then grabbed the thermal clip on the scope. Setting the rifle up beside a tree, he looked across the draw and could see the trail that went across the rocky area. The rocky area was about four hundred yards long but what took your breath away, was the rocky area that ran right to the bottom of the draw, four hundred feet down.

Four hundred feet might not sound that far, but looking down an almost sheer cliff four hundred feet to a small stream at the bottom, really activated the pucker factor. The slope he was on if he fell, Joshua wasn’t going ass over tea kettle to the bottom. This slope could be walked on and he wasn’t afraid to ride a horse on it. That one, he wouldn’t do it on a bet. Ben would, Joshua knew, but that just meant a sane person wouldn’t.