The Bonner Incident: Joshua's War (7 page)

“Negative, but we need evac.”

“What’s your situation?”

“A man stepped in a huge trap and another was shot.”

“The suspect engaged you?”

“Negative, gunshot was a ricochet from trying to free the man in the trap,” he paused. “I’ve lost two of my team that I sent to establish radio contact and haven’t been able to contact them.”

The radio was silent for several minutes. “Team twenty, we’ve got a civilian medevac flight coming. All our choppers are still not on site. ETA twenty minutes.”

“Command, he won’t make it that long. This trap almost chopped his leg off!”

“Put a tourniquet on the leg.”

“We did that GOD DAMN IT and had to chop a log in half just to get the man out of the woods! Now get us the fuck out of here!”

“You are federal agents and will act like it. Help is coming but as you know, this area is remote. Your second casualty, is he mobile?”

“Affirmative, but I’m carrying him and the other six have to swap out on the stretcher.”

“You’re doing a good job, twenty. Now, move toward the road and units will pick you up. The med chopper will only be able to carry wounded.” Several minutes went by and twenty didn’t answer. “Team twenty, did you copy?”

“Copy, but doing CPR on critical now.”

Joshua rode along a ridge listening to the conversation and shaking his head. “All that hard work you did and point man dies. Man, that’s got to suck.”

“Team twenty, the chopper is inbound, keep CPR going.”

The radio fell silent as Joshua rode on, but came on five minutes later. “Command, doing CPR still but no response, pupils fixed but CPR continues until chopper arrives.”

“Well, you chopped a log in half with hatchets. It wasn’t a total loss,” Joshua said rounding Upper Priest Lake.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Sitting in the conference room, Griffey stared at the massive grizzly trap on the table. “Sir, may I start until they get here?” Wagner asked sitting beside him.

Griffey looked up at the clock, seeing it was 1015. “No, Moore will be here soon,” he said looking at the trap. “My God, what kind of person would use this on another man?”

Ten minutes later, Moore busted into the room with Agent Winters behind him carrying several folders. Both were wearing mudstained boots, jeans, Gore-Tex jackets and were soaked. “It’s really raining now,” Moore said taking off his jacket and hanging it up.

“This meeting is for senior command members only. Agent Winters will have to leave,” Wagner snapped.

Moore dropped down in his chair, shaking his head. “She stays and you can leave, if a woman offends you so much,” he said as she sat down next to Moore, spreading out the folders and smiling at Wagner.

“Wagner, just shut up,” Griffey moaned. “Well Moore, what did you find?”

“It was a trap so Joshua could watch how we dealt with wounded. The other two team members were shot at the top of the ridge with a high powered rifle, one shot apiece. One of the crime scene guys had to be flown to the hospital because Joshua put a flashbang under one of the bodies,” he said opening a notebook that Winters passed him.

“Where the hell did he get a flashbang?”

With a tired face, Moore looked up. “From us. The agent we found it under was on the hostage rescue teams and the spoon clearly said, ‘Property of the FBI’.”

“Okay, so he,” Griffey waved at the monster trap, “set this contraption up for one of our guys to step in and just watches? Moore, I’m not stupid, the area out there is huge. How could he know where they would walk? That trap is big but come on, you’re kind of pushing this a little,” Griffey said and Wagner snorted.

“Oh, I looked where it was placed and Joshua placed the trap in a natural funnel. The only way he could’ve known that, would be if he was following them and moved ahead,” Moore said glancing at the trap. “It’s a number sixteen grizzly bear trap.”

“So, did you find ATV tracks?” Griffey asked.

Moore scoffed. “We made a State Park Ranger go up there with us, the east side of the lake is all state park. We picked him up but when we dropped him off at the ranger station, he offloaded an ATV from his truck and showed me. Unless Joshua rode through dirt or what the ranger called ‘tread lightly’ which means not making the tires dig into dirt, you won’t find tracks. In the forest, Griffey, there are ferns waist high and the ranger said in a few weeks they will be chest high in places. He pulled out a shovel and dug down in the forest and I shit you not, he dug a foot and a half before hitting dirt. There is so much loam on the floor, you can bounce on it. Now, we didn’t find where Joshua rode in the forest because the Ranger said there an ATV would leave a trail, disturbing ferns. The ranger said even a city slicker would be able to spot it.”

“But on a ridge to the north just inside the tree line, the ranger spotted what could’ve been ATV tracks, but he said with the rain he couldn’t be sure,” Moore said looking at his notes. “The ranger said it would be the right location you would leave one at, so you wouldn’t leave tracks and still get down into the draw where the trap was set.”

“And you think he’s right?” Griffey asked.

“He’s from here, I’m not. That’s what the power of local help can do so, yes,” Moore said. “Joshua took all the ammunition, rifle magazines, night vision devices, one thermal scope, two self-opening tents off the bodies but left-,” he paused looking at his notes. “BATF Agent Conley’s M4 and side arm, but took a Barrett fifty caliber sniper rifle with ammunition. Agent Dotson of the FBI was missing his SAW and all ammunition.”

Griffey lowered his head to the table. “What the hell was one of them carrying a Barrett for?”

“Ah, I asked and your orders cleared them for shoot on sight and every team has sniper capabilities,” Moore said, then glanced up at Wagner. “What does this stuff he took tell you, super-secret agent?”

“Well, um, it suggests he is collecting superior firearms to use against us,” Wagner said lifting his chin.

“Winters,” Moore said leaning back. “What does this tell us?”

“He has weapons and ample food supplies, but is limited on what he can carry. We now know he has night fighting capabilities and can take out material targets at extreme range. The self-opening tents are impervious to weather and would make a good stash pile protector. This would allow the suspect to make multiple caches around him, thereby limiting what he has to carry.”

Blinking rapidly, Wagner shook his head. “I would’ve known that had I actually seen the area.”

“Then I’ll bring you next time,” Moore said reaching over and taking a small notebook from the pile of stuff around Winters. “Griffey, Joshua pulled the radio out that Conley was carrying and it looks like he tried to get it to work.”

Griffey almost looked relieved. “Well, unless you know the code, the radio is useless.”

Moore opened up the notebook and held it out for Griffey. “If Joshua had looked harder, he would’ve found it. Granted, that radio was only programmed with the fifteen frequencies we are using this week, but it would’ve given him great insight. You have to tell the teams that they can’t write the codes down for anything.”

Winters cleared her throat. “And may I suggest sir, that we make sure someone checks the radios before the teams get to the field. It’s very easy to program the frequencies into the radio and if one team went out with all of our frequencies and the code for that radio, Mr. Anderson would know every move we make.”

Picking up a pen, Griffey looked at Wagner. “If I find out that a team goes out with the code written down again, I’m blaming you Wagner, and will report that directly back to Washington, are we clear?” Wagner nodded dumbly. “You will make sure every radio that leaves this command area is only programmed with the codes needed.”

“I will have it done before the next teams go out tomorrow,” he said with his voice breaking.

“What else Moore? Surely, you have more bad news,” Griffey said.

Getting out of his chair, Moore walked over to a huge wall map and picked up a marker. “Like I said, Joshua was watching. He could’ve killed all of them, but wanted to watch how they performed under stress,” Moore said marking the map. “He could’ve set up anywhere along the ridge and observed. Now, we know the rifle he used blew through the ballistic plates of the agents’ vest, front and back, so his rifle is large and powerful. No projectiles were recovered but I had Schmidt with me, and he said his money was on a .338 Lapua by the look of the wounds. His other reasoning was that it offered more bang for the buck when compared to the weight of the rifle and ammunition.”

Tossing down the marker, Moore walked over to Winters holding out his hand. “Joshua left his calling card as well,” he said as Winters passed him two plastic evidence bags. Moore tossed one in front of Griffey that contained the now familiar scrench. Tossing the other one down, Griffey saw it contained a rolled up leather strap.

“What’s this?” he asked looking up.

“A rein from a horse, Joshua is telling us he took out that patrol and we aren’t going to find them easily. That’s why he let us know, and he posed the man Griffey,” Moore said sitting back down. “Joshua wants us to know he’s killing our men when he wants and where he wants. But I hope you realize, he wants the ones searching for him to know. That’s what that little show was for yesterday. All the teams out heard it and most here know about it because some were in the command area listening to the radio, and word spreads fast.”

Nodding as he started writing. “Wagner, no unauthorized personnel in the command area, is that clear? We can’t have the search teams getting frightened.”

“You really think that will do any good?” Moore said and Winters snorted, trying not to laugh. “Griffey, they are agents and will put the pieces together. If you block them like that, they will think you’re hiding something.”

“I don’t care,” he said looking up. “They have a job to do and will do it. Anything else?”

“No,” Moore sighed.

Griffey lifted his arm up, pointing at the trap with his pen. “Can you just go and buy one of these?”

“Yeah, and have it delivered to your house,” Moore said looking at the trap.

“Do you think he had this beforehand?”

“Oh, I know he did,” Moore said grabbing one of the folders in front of Winters. He flipped it open and flipped through the pages. He stopped and held one up. It showed Joshua and William standing in front of a fireplace and sitting on the mantle was a huge bear trap with a big bone in the jaws.

“Where did you get that?” Griffey said reaching over taking it.

“Joshua’s wife, Sonya’s Facebook page,” Moore said leaning back in his chair. “But that’s not his house. Look at the walls in the picture, it’s a log cabin.”

“Where is it?” Griffey asked looking up.

“We are trying to find out,” Moore sighed.

“You had the information for what, over a week?!”

Shaking his head, “No, it was delivered over a week ago and destroyed in the blast that was a ‘tragic fueling accident’. I had to request it be resent and it’s showing up here piecemeal.”

“Bring his wife here and make her tell us!” Griffey shouted.

“Griffey, you were sitting in that chair and heard what Schmidt said about assaulting that house, and we would have to assault it to get her here.”

Throwing the printed photo down, Griffey jumped out of his chair. “He could have a cabin that he’s operating from!”

“I’m certain he does,” Moore said. “But it isn’t in his name and none of his associates has a cabin like that.”

“Make that a priority,” Griffey said dropping in his chair.

“You think I would put this on the back burner? I’ve been looking for it before I ever landed Griffey. In several posts, it says they were going to ‘Joshua’s cabin’, but no mention of where or how far away.”

“Find a way to get it from them or I will,” Griffey said narrowing his eyes. “He’s killing our agents and you aren’t pushing back.”

“Because I know it would do no good,” Moore growled. “You lift a finger toward his family again and you’ll have another explosion, Griffey. That was your warning in Spokane. Joshua was telling you he will fight this war man to man, but mess with his family again and you’re getting mass casualties. It could be anywhere, like he was telling you in Spokane. He can come and go at will, but he chose to come back and fight you man to man.”

“The government doesn’t back down from threats,” Griffey said.

“Did you read my last report?” Moore asked and Griffey thumbed through his papers. “Griffey, you forwarded it to Washington yesterday.”

“I can’t recall, what did it say?”

“He will target the families of those above us if we attack his family again. Now, do you really want to set Joshua off and have your director’s kids get gunned down?”

Griffey froze and his face paled. “You put that in a report?”

“It wasn’t only mine; the Behavior Science Unit came up with the same thing two days ago.”

Looking over at Wagner, “You make damn sure none of our men go anywhere close to his wife and child, is that understood? If they see his wife and son, they are to turn around and take off running, dropping their weapon.”