“**Commander on deck!**” Admiral Mercer boomed across the subterranean bunker.
His voice was sixty decibels of mountain quarry explosive, reverberating through the reinforced concrete walls like heavy naval artillery:
“Commander Daniel Arthur Mercer-Whitaker.”
“Master Trustee, The 1944 Mercer Sovereign Lineal Charter.”
“And Sole Lineal Custodian of Conduit Ten.”
Claire Collins let out an ear-splitting, strangulated shriek from the floor, her hands clawing at her emerald dress as her skeleton seemed to dissolve into ash:
*“DAVID…?! Four stars…?! The Chief of Naval Operations…?! Why… why are you saluting my handyman husband?!”*
Vice Admiral David Mercer slowly lowered his salute, his cold, flint-gray eyes shifting forty-five degrees to lock directly onto Claire and Arthur Vance:
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 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO**:
**“Claire Collins-Whitaker and Former Chief Justice Arthur Sterling-Vance,” Admiral Mercer announced: “Three hours ago, naval forensic intelligence unsealed your commercial factoring correspondence in Vaduz—and you have just attempted the armed seditious theft of the strategic nuclear continuity spine of the United States of America!”**
The heavy parchment of the federal capias arrest warrant struck the concrete floorboards right beside Arthur Sterling-Vance’s trembling fingers with an authoritative, concussive *THUD* that sent pulverized plaster dust spraying across his cashmere lapels:
*THUMP-SLIDE.*
The silence that clamped down over the subterranean records archive was so dense, so absolute, that the rhythmic *tack… tack… tack* of the antique 1956 Admiralty Gold Chronometer on Vice Admiral David Mercer’s wrist sounded like a mechanical detonator counting down inside an armored vault.
United States Attorney Marcus Cooper—Chief Federal Prosecutor and Special Admiralty Master—stepped to the center of the vault, opening the heavy, four-hundred-page federal grand jury indictment stamped with the raised red-wax dry seal of the **DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY // SPECIAL ADMIRALTY CHANCERY**:
