The Bonner Incident: Joshua's War

by Thomas A. Watson

  “Major, what are you wanting to add?” Tanner said, picking his chair up like he was going to throw it, then took a deep breath and just dropped it.

  “Six teams didn’t report they’d got the message, but they could’ve misinterpreted our instructions,” Grattan said quickly.

  “Not likely,” Tanner said, falling back into his chair.

  “We did find a bulldozer and excavator at a farm down the road and are using them to clear the runway for cargo planes,” Grattan said cheerfully. “They will be done before nightfall.”

  “Major, any word on the two platoons that were supposed to be on overwatch?” Tanner asked.

  “We found one, sir. All dead,” Grattan said in a low voice. “We still haven’t found the other.”

  “So, they just disappeared?”

  “No, sir. The reason we only found one was the group of men who chased the attackers never returned. I sent a small patrol out before dawn and they found both groups. The group that had gone after the attackers and one of the lost platoons,” Grattan said. “We haven’t located the other one yet.”

  Tanner looked around the table. “If I find out that one of you ordered those men to pursue the attackers, I’m killing your kids,” Tanner said and everyone knew it wasn’t a joke. “You don’t follow an attacker unless you have overwhelming firepower, and we didn’t have it.”

  “Anything else on this fine day?” Tanner asked looking at Grattan.

  “Um, yes sir. I’ve gotten several reports that the group who entered the troop area targeted the German troops hard. Several reported that the attackers shot wounded German troops, but passed by wounded American troops. I have two reports of the attackers dressing wounds on our troops before withdrawing.”

  “Fuck,” Tanner mumbled, bringing his hands over his face. “Did we at least kill some of the attackers?”

  “No bodies were found, but bloody dressings were found near the lake where many of the attackers used boats to get away,” Grattan said.

  Dropping his hands to the table, “Anyone else have something to add?” Tanner asked.

  “Colonel,” Winters said, staring at her laptop. “Are you aware that we weren’t the only ones hit last night?”

  “Yes, when I gave my report this morning, D.C. told me a few federal buildings were vandalized.”

  “How about Spokane, Boston, Boise, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Miami and Atlanta? And Colonel, they weren’t vandalized, they were burnt. Many are still on fire,” Winters said, staring at her laptop.

  Tanner got up, walking around the table as Winters continued. “On every building they broke in, placing a jelled accelerant with thermite and broke the water main, disabling the building’s fire suppression. Fire departments in all cities have pulled back, letting the buildings burn and trying to save any adjacent structures,” she finished as Tanner stopped behind her.

  In shocked horror, Tanner looked at the images of the burning buildings. “Major,” he said, not looking away from the screen. “Mobilize every swinging dick we have and notify every governor in our region; We now have control.”

  “Colonel, none of my business, but maybe you should wait till we have some bullets here before you go announcing that,” Moore said, then let out a soft whistle.

  “They don’t know that we don’t have ammunition,” Tanner said, reaching down and moving Winters hand to scroll through the pictures.

  “On that you are wrong, our attackers do. They left last night, and they knew full well they could’ve wiped us out,” Moore said.

  Leaning down further with his chin almost on Winters shoulder, “Moore, how can you know that? And why would they leave and not wipe us out?” he asked distracted.

  “Hell, the major’s report told me that. They breached us and didn’t leave behind bodies. I’m not a tactician but even I could figure out that I could wipe us out. For the why didn’t they, that’s political on their part. The public wouldn’t look at them as saviors if they killed all of us,” Moore said and turned to Grattan. “Major, just curious, how many German troops are able to take the field?”

  Grattan looked down at his notebook. “Um, they have one hundred and sixty-four combat ready.”

  “See? The attackers gave no quarter to the invading military,” Moore said.

  When he’d finished looking at the pictures, Tanner turned away, “Oh, shit,” he mumbled. “Major,” he said, looking out over the burnt compound. “Hold the announcement until we have ammunition.”

  “Yes sir,” Grattan said with relief.

  “Uh oh,” Winters said and Tanner spun around as he and everyone shouted.

  “What!”

  Winters looked around the table and then at Moore, “Joshua sent another video this morning,” she said and Tanner leaned down, putting his chin on her shoulder. “Colonel, not to sound like an ass, but I don’t know you well enough to let you put your head on my shoulder,” she said, cutting her eyes at him.

  “Sorry,” Tanner said, moving his head and looked at the lieutenant sitting beside Winters. “Move it,” he snapped and sat down as the young lieutenant practically dove out of the chair.

  Everyone sitting around the table got up and moved behind Winters, since there was no monitor to play the message on.

  Clicking play, they saw a hand moving away from the lens and saw Joshua standing in a small rocky ravine. “Hello again,” Joshua smiled, taking his helmet off and sitting on the ground.

  “I guess everyone heard about what happened last night?” he grinned, reaching up stroking his beard. “No, I didn’t help, but I talked to a group I know. They have a chat room on the dark web and last night, talked about what they were going to do. They did ask me to put out one message for them-,” he paused, looking at the camera.

  “Dark web?” Tanner asked, leaning back.

  “Ssshhh,” many said as Joshua continued.

  “All Minutemen are to rise and carry out assigned assaults,” he said with a firm expression.

  “Oh fuck,” Moore gasped as Joshua continued.

  “Now that that’s done, I wanted to send this message today for the troops of the United States. You’re going to be asked to fight Americans and if you do, you will be seen as a traitor. Any person can look and see what the government has done to this once great country. Hell, the way they send troops off to fight for big corporations, even you troops should be tired of that, but hey; I’m not here to judge.

  “To all foreign troops here in the states. You are being viewed as an occupying army, so if you fight Americans, you will be killed,” Joshua said sternly.

  “Now, Mr. President and those little dorks in Congress, you see what happened when you activated the regional commander here just in two counties. Believe me, you don’t want to know what happens when more are activated,” Joshua grinned, still stroking his beard.

  “To all federal agents, if you don’t want to be viewed as the enemy, I suggest you quit. Put an ad in the paper and a sign in your front yard, saying you don’t work for the government anymore. Then find a reporter and tell them something you’ve been ordered to do to fellow Americans. If you carry a badge for the federal government, you fall in this category. You need to hurry with your decision because from what I saw in the chat room last night, many more attacks against you are coming.

  “A piece of advice, get your families away so they don’t get hurt because the pissed off people are going to attack and you have been warned. If your family is hurt because you hid behind them, that’s on you,” Joshua smiled and stood up. “Sorry, but I still have my own war here in the mountains to fight.”

  Reaching over, Joshua shut the camera off. “That’s how he did it,” Moore said, nodding and looking off.

  “Did what?” Tanner shouted.

  Pulling out a notebook and flipping to a clean page. “You have the clear net,” Winters said, writing clear web. “This is the web most people know,” she said, looking at Tanner and saw a blank face without a hint of un
derstanding.

  “Okay, how about; this is the web that Google can search,” she said and Tanner grinned, nodding.

  “Yes, I understand,” he said as Winters wrote dark net under clear net.

  “Under the clear net is the dark net. Google can’t really see what’s on the dark net. A normal person with a basic understanding can find stuff here,” she said and Tanner nodded. “Now, under that is the dark web. Google doesn’t even know it is there.”

  “So you mean, it doesn’t have web pages just computer code?” Tanner asked.

  “Oh no, it has web pages, but unless you know the address you can’t find them. Unlike the clear net, the address on the dark web is only numbers and letters. Nobody knows how many websites are on the dark net because nothing can search it. Unless you know where it’s at and that means its address, you can’t find it,” she said.

  “Oh come on, I’ve seen what the NSA can do,” Tanner said.

  “Hey, if you don’t know the address, how can you monitor it?” Winters snapped. “If you’re smart enough to get on the dark net, you can get on the web undetected and I’m not giving you that lesson today because it would take me a while.”

  “His son,” Moore said, slapping the table and looked at Winters. “Joshua doesn’t know computers, but his son does.”

  “Find his family!” Tanner shouted and Winters raised her hand in his face.

  “You want to think about that, Colonel. You attack his family and all groups will declare all of our families are fair game. That’s what the message was about. If any government group attacks families, they open the door for attacks on their own families,” Winters said.

  “Are you siding with the dissidents?” Tanner snapped.

  Jumping up so fast that her chair flipped back, Winters started screaming. “Are you fucking stupid, cocksucker! You realize the resources we would have to expend, along with manpower to guard the families of all federal agents, military personnel and politicians?! If we had the manpower to do it, we wouldn’t be able to do shit else! If you attack families, more of our people will leave just to save their families and I can assure you, if my family dies because you did some stupid shit, I will shoot your ass!”

  The group looked at Winters standing over Tanner as he sat in the chair, looking up at her in shock. “Yes, you raise very valid points,” Tanner said and Moore let out a long breath in relief.

  Clearing his throat, Tanner glanced around at his officers and the other agents. “Under no circumstance are troops to endanger noncombatants unless their lives are in danger, and they better be able to prove it in court.”

  “Yes sir,” the group sounded off as Winters sat back down.

  “Sorry, Colonel, but we are in this shit because of Griffey and Wagner,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Their heavy-handed tactics at the beginning had the population here against us.”

  “Hey,” Tanner said, leaning to the side and looking at Moore. “You know the sheriff. Can you call him and see if he will open the road?”

  “Nope,” Moore said, pulling out his cellphone. “Got a message from him that said to fly out, don’t try the roads and all the German troops were killed. Said we could go jump off a cliff and gave me some locations I’m thinking have really high cliffs,” Moore said, holding up his phone. “Seems the sheriff didn’t like the fact that you sent troops to arrest him for not helping.”

  Tanner stood up, “Okay, I want the wounded arranged to fly out and I want troops patrolling out no further than half a mile. I want a request sent to S-4 by every platoon to be combat ready in twenty-four hours, now move!”

  The group scampered away and when Moore and Winters stood to leave, Tanner put a hand on their shoulders, keeping them in their chairs. “Colonel, she didn’t mean to offend you,” Moore said with a forced grin.

  “The hell I didn’t, that was the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard,” Winters popped off.

  Moving to the other side of the table, Tanner laughed, “No, she was right. A bit blunt, but she was right.”

  When Tanner sat down, Moore leaned over the table. “Colonel, you need to get in touch with Washington and advise them about the dangers of using foreign troops. Don’t tell them not to, but bring up the dangers. If the countries of the UN start losing troops out of proportion to ours, it will cause a crisis and you don’t want to be left holding the bag.”

  Listening, Tanner started to slowly nod. “Yes, thank you, that’s a good idea.”

  “Now, what did you want?” Moore asked, leaning back.

  “Do you think Joshua will stay in this area?” Tanner asked sincerely.

  “Yes,” Moore said and Tanner groaned. “His goal is to make us leave him alone, not run around the country fighting,” Moore explained.

  “Shit, I want out of this cluster-fuck,” Tanner said, leaning back. “Did we ever have a chance to get Joshua?”

  “Oh yes, if Griffey wouldn’t have pissed off the sheriff and everyone under the sun in Idaho, we would’ve had their help. They know this country around here and I think, Joshua would’ve turned himself in if they were looking for him because he wouldn’t want to hurt them.”

  “That’s what I figured,” Tanner said, getting up. “Let me know if you find out anything else,” he said, walking away.

  “Would hate to be in his shoes,” Winters mumbled and Moore nodded as events started unfolding that none foresaw.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Feeling refreshed in the morning air, Joshua rode through the woods, heading north on the east side of Priest Lake. He didn’t go on the attacks and had left the camp before Ernest had. Thinking of the two videos, Joshua couldn’t help but chuckle. He had made both back to back, though they did have to shoot one again because his beard fell off near the end.

  Riding last night, he’d heard the battle across the lake and hoped Gene, Chris and Ben were alright, along with all the others. When Ernest had started passing out ammunition to attackers, Joshua had just stared goggle-eyed as most with ARs were carrying over two thousand rounds. “Use it all,” Ernest said to each one.

  “Sucks to be a fed,” he’d mumbled.

  It was noon when he reached the end of the lake. He had heard what was left of the compound telling all the search teams to lay low until they could be pulled out in the next day or so. Joshua knew where one team was or had been.

  They had reported the night before that they were bedding down not far from where he’d ambushed the group with the bear trap. Before the morning report, that group hadn’t been reached to report in and had only answered ‘Waiting’ when told to lay low.

  Joshua knew why the order to lay low had been given. When the Minutemen had left the compound, they’d headed into the mountains. Feeling a little sorry for the search teams, Joshua didn’t know about the attack on the Germans or about them blocking off the roads, trapping the group at the compound.

  That idea had come from Gene. It hadn’t taken long to get chainsaws and go to work after the attack, dropping big timber all over Highway 57.

  As Moore had been sitting down for the meeting, Joshua was climbing off of King, grabbing his ghillie suit and putting it on. “They can’t be far,” Joshua whispered and patted King, leaving him with Jack at the bottom of a ridge.

  Moving carefully and slowly through the trees, Joshua headed up the slope. It was late afternoon when he heard voices and moved parallel along the ridge. Seeing a clearing ahead, he slowed more and pulled his ghillie hood over his head.

  Checking his M4, Joshua eased closer, seeing six men sitting in a circle and talking in a small glade. “I can’t wait to get out of here,” one said cheerfully. “I don’t care where they send me.”

  “You got that right,” another said as Joshua eased closer, stopping next to a tree.

  “Why aren’t any of you on guard duty?” he mumbled to himself as one said something he couldn’t hear and the others laughed. Giving a shrug, Joshua raised the M4 up, hitting the record button and moved the crosshair
s from one target to the other. After practicing for several minutes, Joshua took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “Sorry guys,” he mumbled, slowly rotating the safety, so it wouldn’t click. Bringing the stock up to his shoulder, Joshua put the crosshairs on the furthest and squeezed the trigger. The rifle coughed and he moved his crosshairs as the group became silent when the man’s head exploded.

  Before the first one had moved, another man fell over as his head exploded. Joshua moved to the next as the men dove to the ground. Following the man in his crosshairs, Joshua squeezed the trigger as the man stopped and moved to the next target as the man yelped when the bullet hit him in the neck, almost taking his head off.

  Letting his crosshairs settle on the next target, Joshua saw a man getting to his knees and aiming toward him. Moving his aim, Joshua squeezed the trigger four times rapidly, seeing the bullets punch in his chest.

  Moving back to the original target, Joshua saw the man turn to run and squeezed the trigger twice, hitting him between the shoulder blades. As the man fell in a dive, Joshua moved back to the group and found the other man crawling on all fours across the clearing.

  Letting the crosshairs rest on his side, Joshua squeezed the trigger four times and watched the man collapse grabbing his side and letting out a frothy yell. Moving his aim, Joshua shot him in the head, then ejected the magazine and slapped in a new one.

  He moved back among the group, now shooting the one he’d hit in the chest in the head. Moving his aim to the one he’d shot in the back, Joshua couldn’t see his head as the man tried to crawl away, only using his arms.

  “Shit,” he said, getting up and keeping his rifle aimed at the man. Moving out into the clearing, he walked slowly past the others, confirming they were dead and moved toward the crawler. Stopping ten feet behind him, Joshua brought the rifle up, squeezing the trigger twice and hitting the man in the back of the head.