“Chancellor on deck!” Admiral Mercer boomed across the cabin.
His voice was sixty decibels of mountain quarry explosive, reverberating through the Boeing 737 like heavy naval artillery:
“Chancellor Clara Eleanor Mercer.”
“Master Trustee, The 1944 Mercer Sovereign Lineal Charter.”
“And Tyler Richard Mercer Junior.”
“Sole Lineal Successor to the Sovereign Bedrock.”
Admiral Mercer slowly turned his cold, flint-gray eyes downward toward where Tyler and Vanessa knelt in the aisle.
He reached into his bridge coat, withdrawing an unsealed, red-labeled federal capias arrest warrant stamped with the raised gold seal of the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS:
**“Captain Tyler Mercer and Vanessa Sterling,” Admiral Mercer announced: “Three hours ago, naval forensic intelligence unsealed your commercial factoring correspondence in Vaduz—and you have just committed capital high treason against the sovereign defense bedrock of the United States of America!
