The Bonner Incident: Joshua's War (2 page)

“Sirs, I have to report that activities against us have started,” he said looking up. “At 2210 last night, all Stingray and Omi boxes were taken or destroyed.” Moore shook his head. Stingray was a box that many law enforcement used, just setting it out and any cellphone that passed by was scanned and cloned. The Omi box was a large box set near a cell tower that captured every call that tower received.

“When you say all? Just what does that entail?” Griffey groaned.

“Sixty-four Omi boxes and twenty-seven Stingrays,” Agent Schmidt said. “But I, um, must tell you, sir, before they took the Omi boxes, they dumped a virus in. As you know, our Omi boxes were connected to NSA back east by satellite and they are a trusted system, so it did some damage.”

Snatching up the Pepto, Griffey drained the rest of the bottle. “Damage? Is that why the director of the NSA has been trying to get me on the phone?” he asked setting the bottle down.

“I would imagine so, sir. I just found out about the virus and that’s why I came here before my scheduled briefing.”

“You know the damage?”

“They lost a super computer. Thankfully, I was told it was one of the older ones, but it was a complete loss,” Schmidt said.

Wagner snorted, “I’ll call him back,” he said. “It’s his own fault for not having protection running on something that was outside his facility.”

“After this meeting, handle it,” Griffey said relieved he didn’t have to talk to the NSA director. “What else, Agent Schmidt?”

“We’ve been getting reports of armed men moving to many private locations in the search area and they are being escorted by local law enforcement.”

“Yes, I know, and we are working on a way to deal with that later. Until then, they are not to be engaged unless they attack and make sure your men understand, that means until they are shot at, they will not fire.”

“Yes sir,” Schmidt said making a note. “Now, the most disturbing,” he said tapping on his computer. “At the house of the suspect, no longer are regular civilians manning it, but a new group.” He turned to a big flat screen on the wall which was showing a view from a drone.

“Sir, I’ve been doing this awhile and I can tell you, these boys know what they are doing. They have dug defensive positions in depth around the area and put concrete barriers on the road that have to be slowly driven around. Passed that is a heavy chain across the road, the dozer is gone now.”

Pushing a button, a series of photos taken with a big lens started flipping across the screen. It showed heavily armed men in tactical gear moving around and all had their faces covered with black balaclavas. “We can’t get an accurate count, but it’s between thirty and forty,” he said.

“The suspect could be there,” Wagner said pointing at the screen.

“No, he’s not there,” Moore said studying the pictures.

“Well, I wanted to get better intel and sent a team around the back,” Schmidt said and Moore jerked his head staring at him. “It’s federal land and in our search area, sir,” he said holding up his hand. “I sent men I could trust with strict orders not to fire unless one was hit.”

“Well, what did you find out?” Wagner asked.

“They control the ridge and slope behind the structure. My team was intercepted a mile away. My team leader said they were very professional but did say, this would be the only cordial conversation. Next time, they would view it as a hostile act.”

Slapping the table, “They can’t do that,” Wagner snapped.

Looking at Wagner, “They could’ve just as easily shot my team, but they didn’t,” he said pulling out an envelope and sliding it down the table. “They gave my team leader this and every one of them showed a deputy sheriff’s badge with a card. One of the cards is in the envelope. It’s signed by the sheriff and states that this is a deputy sheriff of Bonner County whose sole mission is to provide security at the residence of Sonya Anderson. After establishing a reasonable perimeter, any attempted breach without the sheriff will be viewed as a threat and dealt with accordingly. The identity of these deputies is known to me and me alone.”

Wagner looked at Griffey, “I have all four of my Special Response Teams here. Let me show them who the boss is. They can’t stand up to my SRTs.”

Griffey looked down at Schmidt. “Agent Schmidt, do I have your undivided attention?” he asked and Schmidt nodded. “If Agent Wagner attempts to launch any patrol or action without mine or Agent Moore’s written approval, you are to pull your sidearm and discharge it until empty into his face for attempting to incite civil unrest, is that clear?” Schmidt stared wide-eyed at Griffey, nodding slowly.

“Agent Schmidt, if you fail to do this I promise you, I will have you thrown in a hole in the darkest prison I can find with the most sexual deviant convicts known, to use you as their personal sex toy, are we understood?”

Schmidt’s body jolted in his chair. “Crystal, sir. I promise to insert a second magazine into my sidearm and empty it as well.”

Griffey turned to Wagner who was pale. “I’ve got enough problems without you pulling your shit. I know what the director told you but you pull your shit, you will not leave this state with your testicles, understand?”

Clearly mad, Wagner nodded and Moore grinned, looking down at Schmidt. “Anything else on this group?”

“I made a report sir. They are good. We’ve been setting up on mountain tops and slopes around them. Granted, miles away, but they know. One will come out and point a laser pointer at us, letting us know. From the gear they have and the way they operate, they know our procedures, equipment and tactics.”

Grabbing a bottle of water, Griffey took the top off. “So, you think this is the group who messed with the Stingrays and Omi boxes?”

“Not the group at this location but associates. They have laser disruptors on the house and shop. They have a stereo outside playing music, so it’s hard to filter their voices with boom microphones. They do have radios, but they’re scrambled. I’ve asked justice to look into that since they are deputies, but the encryption is above military grade. On a lighter note, every two hours an elderly woman we’ve identified as the suspect’s mother comes out doing this,” Schmidt said and the screen showed Mrs. Anderson waving her middle finger at the surrounding mountains and everyone chuckled.

Nodding, Moore looked at Griffey as he asked. “Schmidt, what would it take to breach them?”

“Heavy armor and tactical air. Even with that, our losses would be high.”

“That’s the trap Griffey. Whatever we do, don’t let anyone spring that. It’s the show of force that we need to ignore,” Moore said ominously. “If we attack, you can expect hundreds from the county to respond quickly and the rest of Idaho to follow.”

“Agreed,” Griffey said.

Clearing his throat, “Um, just want to point out, the suspect could be there,” Wagner said.

“And he could be in your office,” Griffey said. “Our intelligence says otherwise.”

The door flew open and Agent Winters came storming in, carrying a laptop and heading for Moore. “This is a closed meeting!” Wagner yelled.

“Shut up Ivan,” Winters said setting the laptop down. She yanked the cables from Schmidt’s computer almost pulling it off the table. “It’s happened Moore,” she said connecting the cables.

She pushed a key and a man popped up on the flat screen on the wall. “Once again, our government lies. This manhunt in Idaho is like I’ve always said, a hunt for an innocent man whose only crime is fighting for what he earned and they wanted to take it away. The reports the government released saying that they were in fear for William Anderson’s safety from his own father, who the government has labeled a ‘lone wolf’ terrorist, which is against the law because Joshua Anderson is a US citizen that the government has stripped of citizenship without due process.

“As you will see, that wasn’t an accident in Idaho, it was retaliation by a father against those that abducted his son,” the man stopped and a picture of William with a swollen face and busted nose appeared next to the reporter. “As you can see, this thirteen=year-old was a violent subject whose only crime was that his father shot three officers that were sent to kill him, so the government could take his property and money. This is the culmination of Civil Forfeiture. Watch what one father did to those that hurt his only child, a child that had lost his mother at the age of five and was being cared for by a loving stepmother now, because the government was out to kill his dad.”

The screen shifted and the reporter was gone and a view of a small handheld video camera came on. It showed the control tent and people standing around and Griffey and Moore knew where the shot was taken from. The camera panned down showing a bomb. “This is Joshua Anderson. I do this of my own free will. You fucked with my family and now I have to kill all of you.”

The screen blinked and it showed the bomb being placed under the fuel trailer. Blinking again, the screen showed the huge command tent and Moore sighed, seeing some people he knew that were dead. What really bothered him was, he and Griffey were inside that tent when Joshua had filmed this only yards away.

After they watched the second bomb placed, the screen blinked beside a cabin. “This I do in retaliation for your actions. Look on the dock for my calling card,” Joshua’s voice said and the screen went blank and the reporter came back on.

“See? We’ve been lied to yet again. From 9/11, Waco, the Liberty incident and I can go on: this shows the government doesn’t want us to know the truth. In Joshua’s case, they don’t want people to know, you can fight back against them when they come to take from you as they continue to take from us. Give billions away overseas and here at home to placate those that won’t provide for themselves.

“Joshua, I offer my sincerest apologies. I don’t have a big staff here and we just found your video. I swear to you, it won’t happen again. You’ve entrusted my news outlet to get your story out and I will do it. And for you in the government and those who think this was staged, Mr. Anderson sent another video.”

The screen changed, showing it was daylight and Moore felt sick, already knowing what he was looking at. “Just want to show you what happens when you mess with my family. It’s 0759 and those down there have thirty seconds to live. To those innocents there, I’m sorry, but they are after my family and I will kill them all. I was just a hardworking man till they wanted it all and tried to kill me, then went after my family. If you stay near them, then you take the chance that my wrath will find you. One man can only be pushed so much and so far, and going after my family was the last straw,” he said zooming in. “Joshua’s war has started,” he said as the area vanished in a fireball.

Winters tapped the computer, stopping the video and pulled a scrench in a plastic bag from her pocket. “This was found stuck in the end of the dock,” she said handing it to Moore.

“Oh my God,” Griffey said. “How can we blow that off? If he had written a letter taking responsibility, we could easily blow that off, but he took video.”

“So?” Wagner shrugged. “Give me a computer and Photo Shop and I can put SpongeBob beside the president with a bat. Get our boys to make a copy of the one video on the ridge, removing the explosion and add a chopper or something flying in the background that you can say was chopped out, and that’s how we knew it was faked.”

“Almost five hundred people died, and you think the public will buy that?” Griffey asked.

Wagner smiled as he chuckled. “Yeah, look what they’ve bought in the past. Everyone and their brother knows you can alter video Griffey. I bet I could go to a junior high school and get a kid to do what we want.”

“It has merit,” Griffey said turning to Moore.

“You know this will blow up later, but Washington wants this downplayed for now. If you do this, you make sure and tell them they’d better use the best and it better not be more than one or two people that they know for a fact, they can control,” Moore said as Winters sat down beside him, not liking what she was hearing.

Griffey looked up at Schmidt, “If you talk about what you’ve heard, what I can do to you is nothing compared to our bosses. You’ve signed the nondisclosure, so I’ll remind you to keep your mouth shut.”

“Sir, I only saw the briefing I presented,” Schmidt said reaching over and closing his laptop. “I’m sure I should leave before sensitive matter is discussed.”

When he’d left, Griffey turned to Winters, “You heard, so forget what you heard,” he said and she nodded. “What else can you tell me before I get on the phone?”

Taking a deep breath and clasping her hands so they wouldn’t shake, Winters cleared her throat. “The office for this news site is in Texas. The FBI served a warrant thirty minutes ago to seize all of the station’s equipment and the building and bring the founder and reporter, Alex, in for questioning. Ten minutes after they arrived, twenty state troopers arrived and escorted them off the premises. The governor of Texas held a press conference as the FBI was escorted out of the building, saying the federal government will not suppress free speech in Texas. The Attorney General of Texas has barred our warrant until reviewed by a state judge. I’m told the judge is very loyal to the governor.”

Slapping the table, Griffey jumped up out of the chair. “I knew that man was going to run for president. He’s going to use this to get his votes!”

“Griffey,” Moore said and pointed at his chair that was still spinning around. When Griffey sat back down, Moore leaned toward him. “You have phone calls to make. You offer your advice with your warnings as I told you. You make it crystal clear. This is only your advice and our operation is proceeding ahead of schedule.”