The Bonner Incident: Joshua's War (39 page)

“Little egg can move,” Moore mumbled, making sure his seatbelt was buckled.

In minutes, he could see the end of the lake as the pilot slowly brought the chopper up and shot over the treetops. Looking out the front window, Moore could see Upper Priest Lake and the ravine Joshua had used the bear trap in.

When the pilot banked east away from the ravine, Moore gave a sigh, not really wanting to go back there. Leaning out, he saw a clearing at the bottom of a ridge with a man wearing an orange vest, standing and waving his arms. The pilot banked and started to descend and Moore looked back, hoping the tail didn’t hit the trees as the little chopper landed in the clearing.

Undoing his seatbelt, Moore jumped out and turned to see the Cayuse shoot straight up and bank to the west, speeding over the treetops. He looked down and saw Winters putting her backpack on. “Thought the pilot took off before you got out,” he grinned and put on his pack.

“I’m Park Ranger Simmons,” the man said, walking over. Moore looked up and stifled a laugh.

The man was wearing an orange reflective vest with State printed across the front in reflective letters. “Not taking chances,” Moore said, nodding toward the vest.

“You got that right,” Simmons said. “It’s along the ridge so follow me, but don’t get close. I don’t want someone popping me when they aim for you.”

“Fair enough,” Moore said, pulling out his phone. He looked over at Winters and saw a depressed expression. “It will get better,” he said, using his thumbs to type on his phone as he followed Simmons into the trees.

Putting his phone away, Moore pulled out his map. “Caribou Hill is to the west of us, right?” he asked Simmons who was staying ten yards ahead of them.

“To our southeast,” Simmons said and glanced over his shoulder, making sure the feds were staying back. “How are you planning on getting these guys out?”

“We are here to mark them and identify,” Moore said and Winters paused her step, looking at Moore in shock. “You out here alone?”

“No, Paul is at the site,” Simmons said.

“I should tell Simmons the truth and let him shoot us both,” she mumbled and continued on.

It took over an hour to reach the clearing and they saw another park ranger wearing a reflective vest and standing beside two four-wheelers. “Good, we can go,” Paul said to Simmons.

“No, you can’t,” Moore said, looking around. “Any attempt to abandon us will be viewed as hostile treatment and your governor won’t pardon you. So just wait and let us look around. I’m sure you don’t want to be close to us anyway.”

“Let’s just leave them,” Paul said to Simmons.

“Fine, but I’ve already sent back that we were here with park rangers,” Moore said, looking at the other one. “I’ve sent your names along as well,” Moore smiled.

“Hurry up then,” Paul sighed. “I’m surprised the bears haven’t showed up yet.”

Moore took his pack off and walked carefully to the bodies and froze, seeing the cards scattered around. Moving forward and looking at the ground, Moore felt his heart speeding up. He saw a large blood stain in the dirt and the ground was scarred up as if someone had pulled himself up. 

“Well, fuck me,” he said and Winters walked up unenthusiastically.

“What?” she sighed.

“Horse tracks. Joshua was using horses, not an ATV,” Moore said and smiled.

“Moore, it could’ve been anyone,” Winters said, knowing it was a lie.

“Oh, so it’s only one set of boot prints that happens to know Joshua leaves cards,” Moore said and looked back across the clearing. “These two in the ghillie suits were the over watch and came from there. The shot that got him came from that way.”

As Moore walked across the clearing, Winters followed, walking around an agent who’d been shot in the back and half of his head was gone. She followed Moore into the woods, hoping to hear the four-wheelers crank up and leave their asses.

“There,” Moore said, pointing ahead and Winters saw two large rucksacks propped up beside a tree. As they walked closer, they saw a bolt action rifle on a bipod. Turning back to the clearing, Moore’s face got red. “A hundred yards away and you only wounded him,” he spat out, kneeling beside the gun.

Working the bolt, he ejected a round, catching it in his hand. “Fuck!” he shouted and held the bullet up to Winters. “Armor piercing.”

“Yeah, they work,” Winters popped off.

“You know, they don’t mushroom out causing more damage,” Moore said, working the bolt and ejecting the rounds. “Only one shot fired,” he said, getting up and throwing the bullets on the ground.

He looked over at Winters, “How bad do you think he was wounded?” he asked.

“He left,” Winters huffed.

“Will you quit it, so we can get this over with?” he snapped. “Now that’s a lot of blood but like you said, he left. I’m thinking he’s hurt pretty bad because he somehow made the horses come to him and he’s never let them near any ambush.”

“The horses could’ve been right behind him,” Winters said, as Moore walked past. “Moore, it’s already 3:30, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“We will,” Moore said over his shoulder, walking back toward the clearing. Kicking the rifle over, Winters followed, cursing the rangers for not leaving them behind.

She found Moore kneeling beside the blood stain and looking at the horse tracks. “Moore, neither of us are trackers, so give it up,” she sighed.

“Don’t have to be,” he said, standing up pulling out his map. “Simmons,” he said, walking over to the rangers.

Winters couldn’t help but chuckle, seeing the rangers back away when Moore walked over. “How long would it take someone on horse to get from here to the town of Priest Lake?”

“First, it ain’t a town, it’s a spot on the map. But you’re talking a good twenty-five miles, so if the rider was experienced and on good mounts, he could do it in ten hours,” Simmons said.

Moore looked up from the map. “I’m making the distance closer to sixteen.”

“In a straight line sure, but look around, fed boy. You’re in the mountains and that is only if the one riding is good.”

“What’s this about?” Paul asked, stepping up beside Simmons.

“One of our agents was on horseback with this team and as you see, there are no horses and I’m one body short,” Moore said, folding his map up. “How long to get to your ranger station?”

“We leaving?” Simmons asked with a smile and Moore nodded. “We’ll be back around dusk. Want us to call someone for you?”

“Your damn station is only ten miles away and you’re on ATVs?” Moore snapped.

“Fed boy,” Simmons said slowly. “You are in the mountains and we aren’t cutting cross-country because that would take longer. Have you seen how these roads twist and turn, following the rise of the mountains?”

“Okay, we’ll follow you,” Moore said and they both jumped. “Well she’s driven these before and I didn’t think you two would want us riding double with you.”

Not even pausing to think it over, Simmons looked at Paul. “I’ll ride with you.”

“Better keep up because I know some folks are out here still looking for feds,” Paul said, moving to one of the four-wheelers.

After he’d climbed on, Simmons jumped on behind him and Moore turned to see Winters slowly climbing on the other four-wheeler. “I know where Joshua’s at,” he said, getting on behind her.

“No, you know where he’s headed,” she said, starting the engine.

Moore grabbed the side of the rear rack as Winters followed Paul down the ridge. Weaving around the trees and creeping along the slope, Moore was getting a very good idea of how hard it was to move with a four-wheeler through the countryside.

It still took them close to half an hour to reach the clearing where they’d landed as Paul drove through it and back into the woods. Even with the ground moderately flat in this small valley, they still weaved between the trees and around fallen logs that the ATVs couldn’t go over.

An hour after they’d climbed on Moore gave a sigh, seeing a dirt road. When Winters pulled on the road, Moore saw it wasn’t much wider than the four-wheeler. “This is an ATV trail?!” he shouted.

“No, this is a logging road,” she shouted over her shoulder.

Looking down at the narrow road, Moore shook his head. “Anyone driving a logging truck on this road needs a psych eval.”

Seeing Paul speed up, Moore held on tight as Winters gunned the engine, staying ten yards behind him. As they rounded a curve on a ridge, Moore looked out and saw Priest Lake to the south. “Okay, traveling in mountains, distance is judged by time, not miles,” he mumbled, looking at Priest Lake in the distance. Trees cut off his view as Winters sped along after the rangers.

Several times, Moore let out girly screams as Winters hit a bump, sending them airborne. Wanting to ask her to slow down, Moore looked up to see the rangers further ahead and kept his mouth shut, holding on for dear life.

When Winters turned the headlights on, Moore wanted to look at his watch, but wasn’t letting go of the rear rack. Looking ahead, Moore gave a sigh of pure relief at seeing a paved road. When the rangers hit the paved road, they took off and Moore squeezed his legs, holding on to the ATV.

The four-wheeler leapt a few inches in the air as they hit the pavement and Winters opened the throttle wide open. Squinting his eyes in the blast of wind, Moore looked over Winters and saw the rangers were several hundred yards ahead. “Don’t lose them!” he shouted.

“It’s wide open,” she shouted back over her shoulder. Seeing they were gaining, Moore relaxed some but couldn’t enjoy the ride, knowing he was close.

Ten minutes later, they took a side road that had a sign ‘Ranger Office’. When Winters slowed, he looked ahead and saw the rangers getting off of the other four-wheeler in front of a building.

Pulling up beside the other four-wheeler, Winters shut off the engine and tossed the keys to Simmons. “That was fun,” she said, smiling at them.

“For a fed girl, you ain’t bad,” Simmons laughed as she jumped off. Standing beside the four-wheeler, she turned to Moore and the smile fell off as Moore pried his hands from the rear rack.

“These things can’t be safe,” he said, climbing off. “Your supervisor inside?” he asked, looking at Simmons.

“Yeah,” he said, and just walked away, opening the door.

Moore looked over at Winters. “Let me handle this. You can wait out here if you want,” he said and followed Paul inside.

Not in the mood for shit, Winters leaned back on the four-wheeler as the stars slowly started to shine in the clear sky and the last rays of the day disappeared. “Please don’t be there,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

Hearing the door open, she looked over her shoulder at Moore walking out with keys in his hands. “Let’s go,” he said, heading to a park ranger truck.

“How in the hell did you get them to let you take it?” she gasped following him.

Holding up his phone, “Told them I was going to post on Facebook that they had been helping the feds all through this,” Moore said, opening the driver’s door.

“You’re going to get us shot,” Winters said with some hope, climbing in.

As Moore backed out and pulled onto the road, she stared straight ahead. “Just how do you know where to go?” she asked.

“Joshua has three people that have medical training that he’s close to. One is a doctor, but he lives in Lamb Creek and they are all gone. The other two are veterinarians. The one near Coolin has a clinic at his house. The other is retired and lives near the spot on the map called Priest Lake,” Moore said. “When Joshua started fighting back, I did some research. He knows more, but those are on his wife’s Facebook page.”

“And you really think he’s there?”

“Hey, I know we’ve come up short, but don’t get down now,” Moore said, slowing for a sharp turn. “Joshua was shot sometime late in the afternoon. Those agents didn’t have tents up yet, but had firewood gathered. It wasn’t dark because all of their flashlights and night vision weren’t out. At best, Joshua made it to the doctor this morning, but I think it was closer to noon. I can’t see a wounded man traveling fast in these cursed mountains. Hell, I’m sore from an ATV. I don’t even want to think about jarring around with a gunshot on a horse.”

Letting out a long breath, “He could be dead,” Winters said.

“No, one thing we know about him, Joshua is tenacious, intelligent and tough. He would stop the bleeding and if he started feeling too weak, he knows others around here and would’ve gone to them to carry him the rest of the way to Dr. Edward Vellum. I know he doesn’t want to involve others but in this case, I know he would make an exception.”

Winters spun on him like a caged animal. Seeing the sudden movement out of the corner of his eye, Moore swerved as she snapped at him. “Moore, what is with you? You’ve never been this obsessed about a perp and we’ve taken down some sickos. You’re willing to get us killed to save those fucks in D.C.?”

Slowing down, he turned to her. “No, what is with you? You act like you don’t care about this change or how violent it can turn. We can stop it. Sure there is corruption, but it’s everywhere.”

“Please, let’s just leave,” she almost begged.

Speeding back up, Moore glanced over at her. “Joshua isn’t superhuman, so don’t be afraid he will hurt us,” Moore said, mistaking her actions for fear.