Wagner took off in a sprint, hitting the door hard and charging down the hall outside, knocking over two people. When the doors had closed, Griffey turned back to Winters.
“Sorry sir, but that satellite is one Homeland’s Civil Overwatch birds. My friend is only one of a dozen at NSA on the program,” she said in a low voice.
“Winters, I ran that program for a year,” Griffey said looking back at the screen. “We had to use weather and other assets to monitor the continental states.”
“Well, um,” Winters shuddered. “This is off the record, right?”
“Of course,” Griffey chuckled.
“Four dedicated satellites were put up two years ago,” she said in a low voice.
“Understood. You will destroy this thumb drive when I have images delivered here, but I’m sure I won’t get them until tomorrow,” Griffey said and Winters gave a huge sigh of relief. “Winters, you won’t get in trouble for this. I swear.”
“Thank you sir,” she said and tapped the keyboard as the images started flipping across the screen. “On cloudy days, he sent radar images.”
Moore and Griffey walked up to the screen. “You have good friends,” Moore said in wonder, looking at the screen.
“Yes sir,” Winters grinned.
“Hold,” Moore shouted and the images stopped rolling across the screen. “Go back, one at a time,” he said as the images clicked back. “Stop.”
Griffey looked at the cabin shaking his head. “What?” he asked looking harder.
“The chimney has smoke coming out,” Moore said. “Look at the date.”
Looking at the bottom of the screen, Griffey’s eyes grew wide. “That’s the day he blew up our command area.”
“Yes, but notice the time, it’s late afternoon and we know he left for Spokane soon after the explosion,” Moore said and then turned to Winters. “Move six days out and keep the images slow.”
Winters typed the keyboard and the images started rolling. “Hold,” Moore said and the image froze. “This is after Spokane.”
“Smoke from the chimney,” Griffey said softly. “I don’t see an ATV.”
“Griffey, he could have a tank in the woods and we wouldn’t see it until we drove up. The forest cover is too thick there,” Moore said. “Winters, go to the next day.”
The screen changed images and Moore nodded. “No smoke.”
“He’s resupplying?” Griffey asked more than stated.
“Or returning to plan,” Moore said. “It doesn’t fit his profile. Staying mobile is what he does.”
“Even guerrilla fighters have to have a base of operations,” Griffey said.
“Griffey, Joshua isn’t a guerrilla fighter,” Moore said.
“Beg to differ,” Griffey said then looked over his shoulder. “Continue, please.”
The screen changed keeping the same image of the cabin from different angles, but different times and days. “Hold,” Moore said looking at the date. “He doesn’t go back after every attack.”
“Sir,” Winters said behind him. “We don’t know that because there’s no smoke from the chimney. I’m sure Joshua wouldn’t start a fire if it was warm.”
Moore shook his head, “I’m starting to think like a dumbass.”
“No sir. You are under a lot of pressure,” Winters said.
The door behind them busted open and Wagner was carrying a coffee cup and a box of donuts. “Here sir,” he panted walking to the front of the room out of breath.
Griffey held out his hand, and Wagner put the coffee cup in it. “Thank you,” Griffey said just holding the cup. “So, how should we hit the cabin?”
“I think we should just watch it until he shows up,” Moore said. “You have UAVs, so put one overhead.”
“I have one,” Griffey corrected. “How about a sniper team?”
“No, Joshua knows that area and the risk is too high that he would spot them. We only have one chance to nab him,” Moore said.
Griffey turned to Moore. “There will be no ‘nab’. Joshua will be shot on sight.”
“I know, just habit,” Moore sighed.
“What about putting two men inside the cabin?” Griffey asked.
“Griffey, see that small building off to the side? That’s an outhouse. They would have to go outside to take a shit,” Moore said.
Stepping up to the screen, Griffey pointed. “That’s a satellite dish.”
“Yes sir,” Winters said. “It’s for satellite internet.”
“You think that’s how he keeps in touch?”
“No sir. We haven’t detected any transmissions from there,” she said.
“Moore, study this and give me your recommendation this afternoon; with a briefing on what you’ve found,” Griffey said. “I have to notify Washington.”
“Sir, they will demand a hard approach and we will lose him,” Moore said.
“I’ll argue against it, but I have to keep them updated,” Griffey said putting his full coffee cup down and Wagner gasped as Griffey walked out.
“I don’t need a delivery boy, you can leave,” Moore said to Wagner. “Winters, let’s go see what we can find out.”
***
Sixteen miles to the southwest, Joshua crept through the forest. When he’d left Middle Earth last night, he was going to check and see if the government had found the cabin yet. He had even gone so far as to start a fire in the fireplace a few times but they’d never shown up.
Soon after he left them, Joshua headed south to the group watching Squaw Road. He wanted that hard copy that had been delivered.
At daybreak, the team had reported in and given their location, two miles from him on the state line. Leaving King and Jack, Joshua headed over the mountain to the spur the group was set up on. Moving slow and quiet, he heard them long before he spotted them.
Pulling the hood of his ghillie suit over his head, Joshua eased out on the spur. It took him an hour to move the last few hundred yards, making him very thankful for all the years he’d stalked elk. He stopped outside a very small clearing, seeing the small tents set up in it.
Slowly crawling, he stopped ten yards outside of the camp to see four men in t-shirts, leaning back on backpacks in a half circle and talking. Looking at the tents, he counted six.
“Man, this is bullshit,” one of the men said and taking a drink from a bottle. “Joshua wouldn’t drive down the road on an ATV.”
“Yeah, any man that can do the shit he’s done, knows better than that,” another man said.
“Who gives a shit? We aren’t humping these damn mountains,” another chuckled. “Besides, Joshua has only hit teams that were moving. I think, he lays up till he spots a group and follows them till he can ambush ’em.”
“This area is awfully big for that,” bottle man said. “You realize that if we pop some civilian, the local law will shoot at us.”
Laughing boy snorted, “Officer Everett, local law has been dealt with. Any day now, the sheriff will be in mourning.”
“You don’t need to advertise the fact,” the last one said and Joshua didn’t like the tone of his voice. It sounded cold and distant.
He noticed that the others didn’t even look at him when he spoke, they all seemed very afraid of him. “Agent Vance, just stating fact,” laughing boy said, turning to Vance.
“I don’t want to know anymore,” Everett said looking at his watch. “Who’s up for next shift?”
“I’ll go,” the second one he’d seen speak said.
“Shit, I’ll go,” Laughing boy said.
“Wait till they return and report, we may need to move,” Vance said.
‘You die first’ Joshua thought. Vance was very calm and the way he moved, Joshua knew he was dangerous.
“I’m not in the mood to hump to another spot,” Laughing boy said. Out of everyone, he seemed the least intimidated by Vance.
“Didn’t ask,” Vance said in a steady, dead voice. “When we get called in, the shit has to stop.”
“Vance, we lost nine of our group because they won’t take our chains off. We move, we run the risk of Joshua spotting us,” Laughing boy said.
Patting his thigh cargo pocket, “I have the letter that says our chains are off, Agent Butler,” Vance said.
“If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have that letter,” Butler said. “Vance, if we didn’t have that letter, they would fry our ass if we popped some kid riding down the road.”
“Yes, and that was very smart on your part,” Vance nodded. This seemed to please Butler and he nodded, leaning back on his backpack.
“So, local law will be out of the picture?” the one Joshua didn’t know his name asked. “I’m asking because they know the area better than we do and could make our lives hell.”
Vance nodded his head with a very cold smile. “At least you can think,” he said. “All I will say is the sheriff’s wife will be in the hospital in the next few days, but I’m afraid it’s terminal.”
No name nodded with a shiver as two men walked into the camp, both wearing full tactical gear. “No movement on the road,” one said and put his rifle down, then started taking off his gear.
“Heard an engine to our east, but never saw anything,” the other said, dropping his gear.
Slowly, Joshua aimed at Vance but then moved to Butler thinking he was the greater threat. Shifting his crosshairs to Everett, Joshua moved from man to man till he found the best pattern, with Vance and Butler dying first.
As the first man who’d returned sat down, he looked over at Vance and was about to speak when Vance’s throat exploded, covering no name in blood, then Butler grabbed his chest as no name gave a grunt and grabbed his own chest as another head exploded. In the space of three seconds, four were down as the last two stared and started to move, hearing the suppressed gunfire behind them.
One only moved a few inches and his head exploded while the other hit the ground, grabbing his rifle. He started rolling as Joshua squeezed the trigger, sending up a cloud of dirt and missing him. Moving his aim as the man rolled up onto his knees, aiming toward Joshua. Joshua squeezed the trigger three times rapidly, seeing the man jerk.
A loud ‘boom’ filled the quietness of the forest as the man squeezed the trigger when two rounds hit his chest and the third, hit his shoulder. The man grunted, looking down at his chest just before his head jerked back and the rear blew out, as the small 5.56 punched in a hole over his nose.
Swinging his rifle back to the group, Joshua slowly stood up and saw one trying to crawl away, blowing pink froth from his mouth. Squeezing the trigger twice, Joshua watched the man jerk but he continued crawling. Moving the crosshairs to the man’s head, he squeezed once more.
A puff of dirt surrounded the man’s head as the bullet blew in one temple and out the other side, hitting the ground. Knowing the man was dead, Joshua moved his crosshairs, seeing another moving and squeezed the trigger. The man’s head jerked back and Joshua sat for a few minutes, making sure they were all dead.
Not seeing any breathing, he moved slowly in and checked each one. Satisfied all were dead, he changed magazines, then let his rifle hang across his body. “Got to move fast,” he said and started going through the men’s pockets, finding a white envelope in Vance’s cargo pocket.
“Liking it,” he smiled, shoving it in his vest. Quickly moving to each man, Joshua made a pile of important items, then pulled out a waterproof bag and stuffed the items in. He moved to Vance and Butler, pulling their IDs out and moved his scope over them. “These are the ones who said they were going after Buck’s wife,” he said for the recorder on his rifle.
Next, he looked the weapons over, grabbed ammo and looked at the spotting scope the two men had carried back to camp. “They make smaller ones for a reason,” Joshua said looking at the massive thing.
“Didn’t plan this attack, but oh well,” he said pulling a deck of cards out of his cargo pocket. “Let’s see if they are catching on. I left them the dead man’s hand for the grenade and a royal flush for the trap,” he mumbled pulling out the cards.
Twenty minutes later, he was leaving the camp and pulled out the radio Ernest had given him and the small notebook. Walking over the mountain, he flipped through the pages till he found the codes he wanted. He stopped and turned the radio on, shaking his head. “Wonder who the hell came up with these codes,” he chuckled.
Pressing the transmit key, “Elmer Fudd is dating Mickey Mouse. Sky is black with carrots,” he said, then repeated it once and turned off the radio, tucking back in his vest. Jogging down the slope, Joshua put up the small notebook.
Inside Joshua’s workshop, Ernest jumped, hearing the radio on the bench go off. “Don’t know if that’s bad, but it can’t be good,” he said as the man at the table wrote down the message. The man flipped through a notebook and ran over to Ernest, pointing at the phrase. “Meet Chris at Middle Earth ASAP. Locals in eminent danger.”
Closing the notebook and handing it back, “Did you triangulate?” Ernest asked.
“All I can say is it was to the southwest and no further than ten miles. The transmission wasn’t long enough to get a location,” the man said taking the notebook.
“Keep monitoring and tell the teams outside to watch for feds trying to sneak in,” Ernest said moving to a corkboard that held a map with locations of the search teams marked. Looking to the southwest he shook his head. “I knew we should’ve tried to recruit Joshua,” he said and headed out.
Chapter Thirty-Two
It was late in the afternoon when Moore and Winters walked in the briefing room. “We lost contact with another team,” Moore said carrying an armload of stuff.
“Yes,” Wagner said with a red face. “Two of my best men were on it.”
“That’s not saying much,” Moore said, putting the stuff on the table as Winters set down another pile.
“Wagner, shut up,” Griffey said rubbing his temples before Wagner could respond. “They didn’t make the afternoon check. A team four miles away thought they heard a gunshot this morning, but they couldn’t tell from which direction.”
“Can’t trace a single gunshot unless it’s close,” Winters said, arranging her stuff into stacks.
Moore sat down, looking at Griffey who was still rubbing his temples. “I take it you don’t want to talk about the contact that team 182 had,” he said leaning back crossing his hands over his stomach.
“They were in a search area and armed,” Griffey said rubbing his temples harder.
“Two twenty-year-old boys,” Moore said. “Can I just ask, how many times was each one shot?”
“Until they quit moving,” Griffey said with a sigh.
“It was justifiable,” Wagner said.
“Oh, I’m sure it will be written up like that,” Moore said shaking his head. “We need to start doing head counts here in the command area now. Unless you have video of those boys attacking that team, we will have some locals wanting retribution.”
“We won’t notify local law until a missing person report is made,” Griffey said dropping his hands and giving up on making his head feel better. “That team won’t be back for two more days and we can say they had radio trouble.”
Looking at Moore with a tired and pleading face, Griffey asked. “Do you think there is any way that you can get the sheriff to back us on this?”
“Not a chance in hell,” Moore said immediately. “He walks the letter of the law but we’ve already broken it, so he’s not compelled to assist. I’m sure he’s at the point that he would feel justified to actively interfere,” Moore said turning to Wagner. “Especially since he has proof that two agents from here tried to kill his wife.”
Holding his chin high, “I did what I was ordered to do,” Wagner said.
“No dumbass, you didn’t,” Griffey said. “Your orders were to ‘covertly’ deal with the situation. The sheriff has fucking video of your men entering his residence and swapping his wife’s pill bottle. We don’t even know what lab he sent th
e pills to for the analysis, so we could intercept.”
Grabbing a piece of paper, Moore wrote something and passed it to Winters. She picked it up reading, ‘Almost sounds like the sheriff knew they were coming to his house, doesn’t it?’
“I’ve told everyone, I don’t like notes,” Griffey said looking at Moore.
“I do,” Moore said staring back and not blinking.
Letting it go, Griffey leaned back in his chair. “Please tell me you have something?”
“Joshua goes back to the cabin every few days,” Moore said.
“When? I can have a team there in minutes,” Wagner said.
Letting out a sigh, Griffey pulled his pistol out and set it on the table. “Wagner, I’m very justified to write a report that as I checked my service firearm it discharged accidently, with a round striking you in the face. I can assure you, I won’t even get a reprimand.”
“Sorry sir,” Wagner said softly staring at the Glock.
“Moore, please continue before my sidearm discharges if Wagner speaks again,” Griffey said leaning back in his chair.
“We know he only comes in at night or very early morning. We don’t know how long he stays, but he comes from different directions each time,” Moore said and Winters typed on her laptop. “Look at the screen, you can see footprints in the dew covered grass.”
Griffey rotated his chair looking at the screen. “I have the order for the drone to keep the area under surveillance.”
“Sir, Joshua may get tipped off by that,” Moore said and Winters kicked him under the table. Wincing, he turned to see her barely shaking her head. “Stop it,” he whispered.
Griffey spun around to see Moore glaring at Winters. “Trouble?”
“No Griffey, a difference of opinion. I want my group to have their own opinion and not follow the status quo.”
“Then by all means, tell me how this mere mortal will see a drone,” Griffey said.
“Griffey, look where the cabin is,” Moore said pointing at the screen. “It’s in a small valley. The drone will have to stay overhead in a tight circle. Joshua won’t have to scan much sky with binoculars to see if a drone is overhead.”
The Bonner Incident: Joshua's War Page 15
