The Bonner Incident: Joshua's War (22 page)

Nodding, Griffey stood up, gathering his notes. “I’ll need to draft a report before I tell Wagner,” he said. “How about the plan at Joshua’s cabin?”

“It’s actually sound,” Moore said with a shrug. “It all depends on how big those monitors are.”

Reaching in his jacket, Griffey pulled out his hard reading glasses case. “Half as long as this, but about as wide,” he said holding up the case. “Wagner had someone at NSA make them for his team. He’s used them more than a few times.”

“And it has video?” Moore shouted in shock.

“High definition normal, thermal and infrared,” Griffey said, putting his case back in his coat. “Even I was impressed when I saw them.”

When Griffey left, Moore looked at Winters. “I’ve seen small ones inside rooms because you had power but man, to hear that makes me feel old.”

Turning away, Winters gathered her stuff. “They also collect any phone data from any cellphone that comes close. They will put up a relay half a mile away that sends the feedback encrypted.”

“You’ve seen them?”

“Only the plans,” Winters said. “One of the guys on HRT told me about it a few months ago. I’d asked how in the hell Wagner had known about that drop in Miami. Seems he’d put them everywhere the suspects had visited, including their neighbors.”

“That was a lot of effort to bust up a software pirating ring,” Moore said, tossing Winters’ empty bottle that he’d drank.

She stopped and looked down at him. “They killed six men, two women and hurt a kid with a flash bang. The kid lived next door and was just trying to get his ball that he’d thrown over the back fence. You and I both know, the weapons there were planted, along with the supposed ‘child pornography’ that was collected.”

“Oh, I know,” Moore said getting up. “They love using the child pornography claim. It’s damn near impossible for a defense attorney to find out when it was put on, with the software they use to do it. And we learned a long time ago, if we say child porn: the public will let us do whatever we want.”

Watching Moore gather his stuff, Winters shook her head. “Please don’t tell me that you’ve done that?”

“No, but I’ve been on task forces that have,” Moore said. “I’ve been waiting on Griffey or Wagner to propose it here on Joshua’s friends.”

“Please,” Winters scoffed. “It’s very well-known that most of the people around here don’t know shit about computers; Joshua being one of them. It’s stated on his wife’s media pages. By now, I’m sure his lawyers have downloaded all internet activity to be able to prove we’ve tampered.”

Picking up his stuff, Moore headed for the door. “I know and warned Washington of that but I’ve seen with my own eyes, hard copies of VHS, DVD and photos that they will bring into a scene to ‘find’. Even close friends will pull back with their support when we use the child porn charge.”

Winters sucked in a breath as her jaw dropped open. “They were going to plant that in Joshua’s house?”

“Yep,” Moore said, backing into the door and opening it. “Now I really wished they would’ve because after that video he put out, more people are going to back Joshua.”

With a startle, Winters shook her head and picked up her stuff. “Moore, he’s not some serial killer. He was a working man until we turned him into a fugitive,” she said as Moore held the door open.

“That may be, but Joshua is now a threat to America,” Moore said in a low voice as she walked out and he walked beside her. “I’m worried that others will try to fight the government with force.”

They weaved through the halls until they walked in their area. Other agents on their team were working away on computers and Winters dropped her stuff on her desk. “When I started this job, that would’ve terrified me,” she said looking over at Moore. “Now, after what I’ve seen, I really couldn’t blame them.”

“You don’t fight your government with force,” Moore said. “You elect new officials and get laws changed.”

“Ah, Moore, how many laws have we broken since we’ve been here? Without even thinking hard, I know of several dozen.”

“The elected officials justified them,” he said sitting down. “Where do you want to start?”

Winters almost said she wanted to pull her gun and open fire, but realized the Minutemen would lose too much intel. “We need to go out and look at the latest site.”

“I sent a team out,” Moore said grabbing a pen. “And I sent a team to the site where that search team killed those two boys.”

“Boys?”

“Both were twenty,” Moore said, filling out a government form.

Dropping in her chair, Winters fought the urge to toss her badge on the desk and walk out. Tapping her keyboard and waking up her computer, she sighed. “People in America are too cowed down anymore. They just want their easy life, not caring that they are losing everything it means to be an American,” she thought, but mumbled unintelligibly.

“What?” Moore said not looking over as he wrote.

“I was just thinking that you and I need to go over the search patterns the teams are using. I looked at them yesterday and they literally, just drop a group off at a random spot,” she said cursing herself for mumbling.

He looked over at her as his pen hovered over the page. “Winters, we do that and we will be stuck with it. I know they haven’t got a chance in hell of finding Joshua with the way they are searching now, and I’ve talked to Griffey about it several times.”

“I just want this clusterfuck to end,” she sighed, leaning back in her chair. “I want to go after real criminals.”

Moore nodded. “Let me finish this and we will get the others, and then come up with a plan to organize their search.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

As the sun was setting, Buck was sitting in the passenger seat as Cory wove around barricades, heading to Joshua’s house. “Sheriff, these boys look like they know what they’re doing,” Cory said, looking at three men wearing black balaclavas.

“Yep,” Buck said as a man pointed for Cory to pull up to the house. “Hope they don’t have to prove how good they are.”

When they’d stopped, Buck got out and looked over at Cory, “Wait here and listen to the radio. If you need me, tell one of the guards around here to get me. I’m afraid if you just run up into the house, someone will shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Hell sheriff, Mrs. Anderson may be near ninety, but she yelled that out the last time we were here, holding onto that big ol’ shotgun,” Cory said leaning his seat back.

When Buck shut the door, Gene walked up. “Follow, don’t talk out here,” he said then spun around, heading for the house.

“Shit, I’m scared to talk anywhere anymore after finding out how easy it is for them to listen,” he said following Gene. Looking over his shoulder at Buck, Gene just nodded but said nothing.

They walked inside and Gene led Buck to the kitchen to see Ernest, Sonya, Ben and Chris sitting at the table. “I take it something is wrong,” Buck said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

“Two of the people watching Gene’s house were killed,” Ben said as Gene sat down, pulling out a can of snuff.

“What?” Buck snapped as Ben just took Gene’s can.

“Hold on,” Ernest said holding up his hand, stopping them from talking. “Let me brief Buck, then everyone here can add on.”

Gene looked at Ben in shock as Ben just opened his can, filling his bottom lip with snuff. “Why, you snotnose little shit,” Gene growled balling his fist.

“Gene,” Sonya said standing up and putting a hand on Gene’s chest. “You know as hard as Ben’s head is, it will only hurt your fist.”

“Listen to her Gene,” Chris said, taking the can from Ben and filling his lip.

With his face flushed, Gene glared at one then the other, “I swear, if we ever get back to logging, you two will pull every shit job until I die.”

Reaching in his pocket, Ernest pulled out a can, holding it out to Gene. “Here,” he grinned.

Seeing what it was, Gene took the can and saw it was unopened. “Didn’t know you dipped,” Gene said running his thumbnail around the top.

“I don’t, but I’ve watched how those two treat you,” Ernest said opening his laptop. “So when I had the boys run into town, I told them to bring you back some.”

“Much obliged,” Gene said getting a big pinch of snuff and filling his bottom lip as he sat back down.

Buck laughed, “Gene, as expensive as that stuff is now, you could file charges against them.”

“That is a thought,” Gene said, shoving the can in his pocket.

“Okay Buck,” Ernest said, spinning the laptop around with the screen facing Buck. “The reason I wanted to talk to you is that Joshua risked his life to send a message here that your wife was in danger.”

Jumping up, “Again?! I sent her and her mother to her sister’s,” he shouted in panic and Ernest held up his hand.

“No, it was the same threat. Joshua doesn’t know a little bird gave you a warning,” Ernest said and Buck let out a sigh of relief as he sat back down. “Buck, Joshua not only risked his life to get you this message, but the lives of his friends and his family.”

“What did he find out?” Buck sighed and Ernest leaned over, tapping the keyboard. Buck’s eyes grew wide, seeing a group of men he knew were government agents about twenty yards away from the camera. He had seen the videos Joshua had sent out and this wasn’t one of them.

Then his mouth snapped shut, listening to the men talk. Leaning over the table, he thought two looked very familiar, but were out of the camera’s focus range. When two men walked up and joined the others, Buck was beginning to wonder if one of Ernest’s men had taken this video.

He jumped as the camera jarred when Joshua pulled the trigger. In shock now, Buck watched as Joshua shot six men in seconds. Then, he flinched when Joshua shot several again, making sure they were dead. When Joshua aimed at the two that Buck had thought looked familiar, Buck stood up slowly as he gasped.

“That’s the ones who were in my house,” he mumbled, pointing at the screen. Then Joshua pulled out every man’s ID and held the camera on it. When the camera turned off, Buck dropped in his chair, panting.

He looked over at Gene, “Gene, give me a dip.”

“Buck, you haven’t dipped since high school,” Gene said, taking his can out. He slid it over and Buck picked it up.

“Shit, I-,” Buck said and a thousand thoughts ran through his mind. He put a small dip in his mouth and slid the can back to Gene.

“Buck, do you agree that Joshua risked his life for your wife?” Ernest asked with a sad expression.

Looking up at Ernest, Buck nodded. “Well, yes. Any asshole can see that.”

“Sorry, Buck, I just wanted to reassure you that it’s still the same Joshua out there,” Ernest said, spinning the laptop back around to face him.

“Ernest, I know that and Joshua’s always said he respected how I always followed my oath.”

Ernest looked over his laptop at Buck. “Buck, everyone in this county does. You are fair to all,” he said. “Are you ready for more?”

“More?” Buck barked in shock, swallowing some of his dip. He coughed and Sonya ran to the sink getting him a glass of water. When she brought it back, Buck drained it. “Thank you Sonya, my stomach isn’t used to snuff.”

She smiled, taking the glass as Buck looked back at Ernest. “What else?” he asked with a sigh.

Chris pulled out a large plastic zip-lock bag that held a single sheet of paper. He passed it down and Buck pulled out his reading glasses. He saw the Homeland Seal at the top and his body turned cold as he read the orders to fire on any person found in the search area traveling by ATV or by foot. They were to be viewed as hostile on sight.

He saw the assistant director’s signature along with Griffey’s. “This turns my county into a free fire zone,” Buck said, looking over his glasses at Ernest.

“Yes, and they’ve already killed two,” he said, turning the computer around to face Buck again. “We heard the call out contact on the radio. I had a team close. It turns out the two that were guarding Gene’s house took off on ATVs to run to the store.”

“Oh my God,” Buck said dropping the note on the table.

“Yeah,” Ernest said. “It was Lennard Waylon and Phillip Chance.”

Jerking his head up, “They are just boys, neither one can even buy beer,” Buck snapped.

“They ‘were’ boys, Buck,” Ernest said and tapped the keyboard. The screen showed someone holding a camera aimed down in a valley. Two bodies were in the road with two ATVs in the ditch. The camera operator zoomed in and Buck could see the boys’ faces and the blood around their bodies soaked into the dirt road.

A helicopter landed and the bodies were loaded up as others moved the ATVs into some bushes. When the helicopter left, the video ended.

Buck’s breathing slowly moved from a panting shock to a huffing as anger built inside him. When the video had ended, he looked up at Ernest. “Are these all your boys here, guarding?”

Shaking his head, “No,” Ernest said with a cold face.

“You realize when we start, it’s going to get very wild,” Buck said and Ernest nodded. “Can you guarantee me that your boys won’t get in Joshua’s way?”

“Without a doubt,” Ernest said.

“Don’t hit the compound, but I want you to get close to some of the teams they have out. Let’s start with any to the south. You have enough men to follow three teams, and are they good enough to not get spotted?” Buck asked leaning back.

Giving Buck a look of confidence, “If they spot my boys, it’s because God told them,” Ernest said.

“I need to get word to a few people, so have your boys kick off in three days. I want them all to hit the teams at the same time, so the feds know for a fact that it’s not Joshua.”

Ernest nodded, “Buck, we want to do this but you should know, if they get control of the situation, you’re the one that will pay the price.”

“I follow the law and it’s being blatantly broken by those entrusted to enforce it. If I die, so be it,” he said and then looked down at the letter. “Can I have a copy, and will you make damn sure this original is put someplace safe?”

“Already done that Buck,” Gene said passing over a copy and a thumb drive. “It’s a copy of what you just saw.”

Buck pulled out his cellphone and looked up at Ernest as he turned it on. “How do you think we should guard Sonya and William?”

“Unless they come in with tanks, we can hold them off and get them both out,” Ernest said and then grinned. “But I’ve had a little bird tell me that Sonya and William are safe as long as Joshua is alive and not captured.”

“You have the best birds,” Buck said getting up and grabbing the stuff.

“I take it you’re calling Agent Moore?” Ernest asked.

Nodding, seeing that he didn’t have signal, Buck realized it was because of the stuff around the house, jamming all cellphones. “Yes, he has contacts in Washington and knows it’s wrong but damn it, the man won’t help,” Buck said, turning the phone back off.

“Buck, he’s part of the system and thinks it still works fine,” Ernest said. “Please be careful what you tell him.”