The Book of Joshua II: Believe (Prologue)

Mexico

As a CIA operative, few things surprised Joshua Lassiter. As a man, many things disgusted him. Those were his thoughts as he pulled sheets of paper from the container he was holding. Inside were several documents with a letterhead he knew well. The documents were from the White House with the seal of the United States of America at the bottom. It wasn’t the Presidential Seal, he knew for he had several documents with that seal himself. No, the document he was holding held another prominent seal in the center. Glancing at the document, the signatures of the Secretary of Defense and the Vice-President glared back at him in bold black ink.

Joshua shook his head not wanting to believe what he was reading. Pulling out his handheld, which he affectionately called Sally, he scanned the document then sent it electronically to Ned, his handler. He knew the original had to be authenticated, however, this would at the very least, give him an idea of the true source of the evidence he’d found.

Tucking Sally in his breast pocket, he pulled out a long thin item that resembled a pen. He held the document up, clicked the top of the item, shinning a black light over it. There were certain security features in the paper used by the White House that could not be seen with the naked eye. The features were there. Someone from the White House gave immunity to this man. Joshua looked around at the weapons of mass destruction. “Who in the hell would allow these weapons on U.S. soil?”

He folded the paper and placed it inside a covert section of his coat pocket, near the small GPS button. If something happened to him, Ned would be able to locate the coat using the GPS. The document would be found. He quickly scanned through the other five documents in the file, sending a copy of each to Ned, then placed them back.

This was not his mission. He was in Mexico City to deliver a secure message to the President of Mexico without being detected. Afterwards, he stopped in Monterey to see an old friend, Alejandro Mateo.

Mateo was the head of the Mexican Cartel, but from time to time, he had proven to be a friend to him and the United States. Never hurt to have friends on both sides of the law in his line of work. It would not serve him or Mateo any good if a CIA agent were seen leaving his estate. Joshua used a back way to return to his chopper, which he’d landed at the tail end of Mateo’s property some ten miles away. He was about to turn into the densely wooded area where his chopper was, when he heard gunshots, then loud cheers. Turning away from the chopper, he walked towards the sounds and found men taking target practice with M2 Browning machine guns. Sitting next to them on the ground, was an open case of the weapons. He heard the men talking and knew this was an arms deal going down. Joshua thought it was one of Mateo’s deals and was about to turn away when he heard the man say, Mateo would have him killed if he knew about this. The other man testing the weapons turned, causing Joshua to pause. Standing not fifty feet away was a face from the past. The last time Joshua saw the man was outside a window in Richmond, Virginia with the scope of a rifle, firing at the police chief.

Jonas Gary, what in the hell are you doing here?

Joshua listened a little longer and discovered Gary had been granted immunity from the highest level in the U.S. He mentioned the documents were in his safe. Joshua was shocked.

“I’ll take all you have. Come with me,” Gary said as he turned towards the building.

Using the trees as cover, Joshua followed the men to a log cabin style house, with a warehouse type building to the left. The man placed his hand on a panel to the right of the door, to unlock the building. Another man backed a truck up to the door. Using Sally, he took pictures of the men unloading weapons from the truck and carrying them to the warehouse. He made himself comfortable next to a tree. He wanted to see what was in that building.

It was hours later, when he deactivated the sophisticated alarm system, then walked through the door at the back of the building. He couldn’t believe his eyes at the sight of the stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. The M2s were only the tip of the iceberg. He sent Ned a message. We have an issue. He sent pictures of semi-automatic rifles, AK-47s, AR-70s, Uzis, AR-15s, MAC 11s, even his favorites, grenade launchers. From the floor to the ceiling, there were crates stacked across the room. Walking through the building, he had the feeling someone was preparing for a war with a small country.

“Whew,” he murmured as he stood there in disbelief. A few thoughts crossed his mind. Was Mateo aware these weapons were on his property? Were the weapons taken from Mateo without his knowledge? The last thought sent a shiver through his spine. Were these weapons meant for the United States? It was the last thought that caused him to survey the room a little closer. There was a door to what appeared to be an office. Walking over, he tested the door. It was locked. Using Sally, he pushed a few buttons. In a matter of seconds, the lock clicked. He deactivated the alarm on the office door, then entered.

The office wasn’t large, maybe twelve by twelve. There was a desk with a chair against the wall and two chairs in front of it. Against the wall near the door was a metal file cabinet. On the opposite wall, there was a tall glass case with an assortment of rifles displayed. On the far wall, there were pictures that caught his attention. Joshua stood looking at pictures of Jonas Gary shaking hands with several people he recognized. There were two in particular, that triggered an alert. One was the man named to lead the United States Military, Admiral Mark McGary. If that didn’t scare him shitless, the next picture did. Smiling and shaking hands was a picture of Jonas Gary and the Vice President of the United States, Jerry McClintock. Both the Admiral and the Vice President are advisors to the President of the United States.

It was a fact that Joshua himself hadn’t been too fond of the United States for the past three years and had wanted to blow up a few places himself. In fact, he had, but that island in Southwest Virginia had been used to imprison young boys in that area and needed to be destroyed. Him blowing up crap was acceptable, but he’d be damned if he would allow anyone to put weapons of mass distraction on the grounds of his homeland.

Looking around, his curiosity was piqued. “What are they doing in a picture with a man like Gary?” He walked over to the file cabinet, then sifted through the files. Not much, records of sales mostly. Not what he was looking for. The man mentioned a safe. Using Sally, he activated the sensor. If a metal safe existed, Sally would find it. And she did. It was in the floor under the two chairs and the carpet in front of the desk. That’s where he found the papers he was reading.

Now, standing in the warehouse with his arms folded over his chest, he knew there was no way he could allow these weapons to move from this location. With Gary involved, his gut told him the weapons were slated for the United States. Smiling, as a thought occurred, he nodded his head. “Why the hell not?”

He took the walk back to his chopper, activated the sleuth mode, then took off in the direction of the building. Using night vision glasses, he flew in the dark. Before emerging from the trees, he saw activity on the ground. Something must have alerted the occupants of the house, for two men were standing outside of the building and another was running back into the house.

“Oh hell, sorry guys. I wanted to destroy the weapons, but since you are there, I guess you have to go too.”

Just when Joshua was about to fire a missile to destroy the weapons below, the sensor on the chopper panel went off. A missile had locked on to him. He looked out the window to see a man standing with a land-to-air missile pointed at him. His first thought was how in the hell did they detect him? His second was anger. “No, you did not fire at me.”

He swung the chopper around.

“BOOM.” He dropped the missile, then flew away from the explosion.

Flying in the direction of the Mexico and Texas border, Joshua was using every evasive maneuver he knew, but the missile had locked on him. He could not shake it. The only thing he could do, was find a dense area with no population and go low. A second explosion ricocheted below, but he could not celebrate, for he still had a missile on his tail. He flew towards a mountainous area, headed towards one, then pulled up, right before hitting it. The missile nipped the tail end of the chopper sending it into a tailspin, before exploding into the mountain.

The chopper was out of control. Joshua sent a message to Ned. Going down. He was still in Mexico, not far from the first explosion. The monitor on the dashboard of the chopper indicated his location was close to Laredo, Texas, just not close enough. He knew the men on the ground would get to him before anyone from the United States could. Moments later, just before his chopper crashed, his last thought was, he never gave his mother grandchildren. Sally was going to be pissed.