The Bonner Incident: Joshua's War (31 page)

Pfft sounded from the suppressed shot making Joshua realize just how quiet that bow really was as he swung his rifle to the other tent, seeing the man sitting up. He squeezed the trigger when his sight rested on the man’s head.

Seeing the man’s head explode, Joshua lowered his rifle. “Sorry, I only had six arrows, the rest are on Jack, and I didn’t feel like going back,” he said and moved to each tent, pulling out the backpacks and rifles.

Finding more grenades, Joshua sighed looking at the bodies, “No, I’m sure I won’t get any more that way,” he said and continued to rummage in the packs.

Taking a small pile, Joshua pulled some of the bodies out and arranged them, then pulled out a deck of cards. Blinking his eyes, Joshua tried to get his tired brain working. Giving up, he pulled out his small notebook to find out where he was in this game.

“Well, we need a full house for this hand,” he grinned, fanning the cards out and pulling out the cards he needed. Like the scrench, loggers had lots of cards. The truth of the game was only to keep his mind active. The short naps he was taking during the day and nights were starting to catch up and taking a toll.

Putting the cards beside the man sitting, Joshua put the deck up and picked up the bag of supplies. “Ding,” he said, with a grin. “Like my son would say, by George, I have an idea.”

Putting his bag down, he grabbed the radio and took off the cover for the battery. Taking the battery out, he tried to fit a grenade in the cover but the cover wouldn’t close. “We will conquer,” Joshua said, grabbing a coat and laying it down. He pulled out his knife, then jabbed it into the bottom of the radio.

Using the blade like a shovel, Joshua scooped out the broken electronics. It took several tries but he was finally able to fit the grenade inside and close the battery cover. Undoing the cover, Joshua pulled the pin on the grenade. Squeezing it so tight his hand hurt, he put it in the battery housing, slowly closing the door till he couldn’t hold the spoon.

Letting go quickly and shutting and locking the battery cover, Joshua cringed and closed his eyes waiting for the explosion. Realizing over a minute had passed, he opened his eyes, letting out a long sigh. “I’m taking a nap,” he said, grabbing the coat and rolling it up with the broken electronics and battery. Tossing down his scrench, Joshua got up.

Making a change to the cards, he set the radio near a pack. Joshua had the spare batteries and hoped those that came didn’t try to repair it in the field. “Time for some shut-eye,” he said, picking up his bow.

When he climbed on King, King gave a snort, wiggling his ears. “Hey, we are going to take a nap, so don’t talk to me that way,” Joshua snapped, grabbing the reins.

At dawn, he was over a mile away from the area, moving into a small draw. Checking his map, he made sure no other patrols were close. “It’s getting really crowded here, time to spread the love,” he said, folding the map up. Taking his helmet off, Joshua looked out at King and Jack eating their grain. “We’ll head to the dugout for a day or two,” he said, laying back and was soon fast asleep.

The sound of a helicopter a few hours later made him stir as Joshua’s body demanded sleep. Pulling out of his sleep, Joshua yawned and grabbed his spotting scope. Crawling out of the draw, Joshua went to see who had shown up at his latest attack.

***

Sitting in the briefing room, Moore looked at the cards he had recovered from Joshua’s latest attack as Tanner carried on with the others in the meetings. Tanner glanced over to see Moore staring at the cards in the plastic bag and Winters staring at her laptop, making notes.

“That will be all,” Tanner said. He looked over to see that neither Winters nor Moore were moving to leave. “I’m glad you are staying,” he said, and Moore looked up with a startle.

“Huh?” he said, looking around and seeing the others leaving.

When Moore started to push back, Tanner stopped him. “Hold, I want to talk.”

When the last person had left, Tanner got up, walking back to the table loaded with snacks, “I have to say, seeing Joshua’s work firsthand is impressive. But I think he’s a little perverted,” Tanner said, loading a plate.

“He changes his MO too much to be predictable,” Winters mumbled, writing as she looked at the screen of her laptop.

“Ah, but soldiers do that,” Tanner said, walking back carrying a plate loaded with snacks.

Whipping her head back to sling her hair over her shoulder, Winters shook her head. “No, Colonel, they don’t. They may change plans, but a good soldier can look at the remains of an attack and tell if it’s someone he’s fought.”

Grabbing a napkin and wiping his mouth, Tanner nodded. “That is true, but I’m curious as to how you know.”

“She’s a military brat,” Moore said, staring at the cards. “Don’t play trivia with her unless you’re on her team because she loves to read.”

Winters rolled her eyes, “Moore, I always let you answer the sports questions,” she said and turned to Tanner. “Like I said, even a soldier, be he a grunt or commander will use attacks he has used before because he knows they’ve worked. The only reason I can pin these attacks on Joshua is he leaves that damn scrench with his thumbprint. Each scene is different.”

Grabbing a can of soda, Tanner took a drink, shaking his head. “No, there is one thing that tells me it’s Joshua,” he said, putting the can down. “None of the attacks have been hands on.”

Throwing up her hands, “Oh come on, just because he hasn’t gutted someone with a knife, you can’t make that assumption. You’re a soldier, so you know how hard it is to kill a human with a knife.”

“Yes, I do,” Tanner said, with an expression Winters didn’t like. “Now, I’m no forensic expert, but those arrows were shot from very close range.”

“All but the agent against the tree were feet away,” Moore said, leaning back and still looking at the cards. “Why the hell did he leave a joker? Is it supposed to be an eight or queen?” he sighed.

“Like I-,” Tanner started, but Winters let out a gasp as her eyes got big, spinning to her computer. She tapped the touch pad several times, then grabbed her notebook.

Tanner just continued eating, not wanting to interrupt either of their thought processes. “Moore, look,” she finally said, sliding the notebook over. “If you get the deck we first discovered, and break the cards down into five more hands. Then, compare them to what Joshua has left.”

Moore looked over, “Yeah, he beat us every time.”

“No shit, he’s alive, smart-ass,” she popped off. “Look at the difference. He left a Royal Flush at his cabin and this hand had two pairs. Joshua’s telling us he beat us easy.”

Moore gave her a skeptical look. “Wait, look at what he left at that attack where he took the orders, clearing agents to shoot anyone, he barely won. He’s saying he almost lost.”

Looking at the hands, Moore nodded. “Okay, so how does that help us?”

“Moore, you’ve seen the pictures, Joshua left stuff that he normally gets that time. He missed two hand grenades. He made the choice to attack too fast. You’ve seen the video of that attack last night-.”

“Whoa, another video?” Tanner interrupted.

Winters and Moore looked at him, surprised he didn’t know. “Um, yeah the NSA forwarded me a copy before they shut the site down,” Winters said.

“I want to see it later, but please continue,” Tanner said, putting his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his hands.

“So, anyway,” Winters said, turning to Moore. “Joshua was only like fifteen to twenty yards away when he opened fire and the cards he left, his hand only won because he had a king for a high card.”

“I still don’t see how that helps.”

“Moore, Joshua doesn’t like attacking until he plans it out. He can’t make attacks up quickly,” Winters said, hoping Moore and Tanner were buying it. “He can’t pass up a target, but likes to plan. Hell, look at his traps. That man can make traps to rival the Goonies.”

“True,” Moore said as Tanner made a mental note to find out what the hell a goonie was. “So why the joker?”

“I don’t know. It beats our two pairs, but not by much.”

“You think he just happened up on them?” Moore asked hesitantly.

“No,” Winters said. “I think he stumbled across them while hunting. He’s an avid bow hunter and we know he has tons of ammo.”

“That I can see,” Moore said, and Tanner nodded.

“Most of their food was gone,” Tanner said.

“That’s why I said, he was hunting,” Winters said slowly.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Tanner said.

“Why in the hell would he tell us he almost lost?” Moore said, picking up her notebook.

Winters just looked at the side of Moore’s face. “Moore, Joshua is letting us know he’s going to die and that’s the end of the game,” she said in a quiet voice. “He’s not going to run, and he’s not going to hide. He let us know he almost lost, but he’s still here.”

Moore tossed the notebook down and Winters almost sighed, thinking Moore wasn’t going to entertain the idea. “I see,” Moore said with a grin. “Joshua is telling us he knows we are playing for keeps.”

“Excuse me,” Tanner said clearing his throat. “Like Moore said, how does this help?”

“Give him a target of opportunity that seems too good to pass up,” Winters said. “It may take a while to set the trap, but when Joshua sees it and hits, so do we.”

Tanner jumped up smiling. “Give me some scenarios you think Joshua would attack,” he said and strutted for the door. 

Moore patted her arm getting up and left. Winters closed her laptop. What she’d really seen Joshua was doing, was trying to keep his mind sharp by playing a mindless game. She had to give Tanner hope of getting Joshua, so he would leave Joshua’s family alone.

What she really wanted to do was quit, but seeing Agent Rustin escorted out in handcuffs yesterday put a damper on that idea. So, as long as she was here, she would think of shit, giving Joshua more time and let the movement spread.

Grabbing her stuff, she walked out the door and nodded to the soldier posted at the door to the briefing room. She stepped outside to see Moore smoking. Shoving her stuff under one arm, she stepped up beside him. “Give me a cigarette,” she said, holding up two fingers.

“You don’t need to start,” Moore said, shaking one out and putting it between her fingers.

As he dug out his lighter Winters shook her head. “I have a feeling I won’t live long enough to have to worry about cancer.”

He was reaching to light her cigarette and paused. “Winters, we are doing our job. They don’t punish people for doing their job,” he said.

She just extended her hand to his holding the lighter. He struck the lighter and Winters took a long drag, barely coughing as he put the lighter away. “You don’t even see anything wrong with what you just said,” she told him, exhaling a cloud of smoke.

“Pft,” he huffed and turned away, looking at the mountain. As he started to speak, a muffled ‘BOOM’ sounded on the other side of the compound and they both dropped to the ground.

“I never would’ve thought Joshua would attack inside the fence,” Winters said, thumping her cigarette away, seeing soldiers and agents running everywhere.

Not hearing any more explosions, they slowly stood up, gathering their stuff off the ground as Tanner ran past them with a gaggle of soldiers. “Let’s get in our hole,” Moore said, heading for their building.

Walking in their building, they went to work. Two hours later, Tanner came in taking his hat off. Leaning back in his chair, Moore nodded. “So, was that a for real accident or Joshua?” he asked.

“Oh, it was Joshua,” Tanner huffed. “Somehow he put a hand grenade inside a radio.”

“You’re sure?” Moore asked.

“Yes, one of the techs who had just left the building survived. He said the radio we brought back wasn’t working, so they were going to check it. One of my bomb techs said that’s where the explosion came from and it was a hand grenade.”

“He’s escalating rather quickly,” Moore said, leaning back over his desk.  “How many did we lose?”

“Four agents, but the worst is Joshua just destroyed all the spare radios and radios the teams use when they go out. I have to say, Joshua is starting to irritate me,” Tanner said with a sigh. 

“Join the club,” Moore said, picking up his pen. “I hope we can get more.”

“They will be here in two days,” Tanner said. “We will keep using them because they are better than the gear I brought.”

“Well, from now on, we need to x-ray anything we bring back from an attack site,” Moore said.

Moving over to Moore’s desk, Tanner motioned for the agent who had a desk in front of Moore’s to move. When the agent stood up, Tanner took his chair and sat down. “Moore,” he said in a low voice. “Do you think Joshua was going for our radios?”

“No,” Moore said with conviction. “He wanted bodies, the radios were a bonus for him.”

Winters snorted, “Well Moore, you now have the reason for the joker card,” she chuckled.

“It’s not that funny,” Tanner said, looking over at her.

“It’s not funny that people died,” Winters struggled to say. “What’s funny is Joshua told us and we didn’t see it.”

“I think you are making too much of these cards he’s leaving,” Tanner said.