DO NOT REACH FOR COAT POCKETS!”
Bradley Mitchell’s fingers touched the titanium casing of his satellite transceiver:
*CLACK.*
Two SOG tactical operators stepped forward in fluid, synchronized mechanical precision:
Their gloved hands caught Bradley by his bespoke collar and his right wrist in mid-flight, spun his six-foot-two frame one hundred and eighty degrees against the wall, and drove his face down onto the oak parquetry with four hundred pounds of downward kinetic leverage:
*SLAM.*
His cheek struck the wood, his gold Rolex watch popping from his wrist and skittering across the floor:
*click-clatter-roll.*
A pair of heavy-duty, double-locking, high-security stainless-steel military transport restraints ratcheted around Bradley’s wrists with two sharp, definitive snaps that sounded like twin rifle shots across the silent room:
*SNAP.*
A second set of chains clamped around his ankles—the identical stainless-steel irons used for capital traitors at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth:
*SNAP-CLINK.*
*TACK.*
*TACK.*
*TACK.*
The sound of hand-welted naval leather bridge boots stepping through the pulverized crystal of the entrance was unhurried, rhythmic, and concussive.
Walking through the breach behind the tactical stack…
Wearing his full service dress blue uniform, his four solid-silver stars catching the emergency searchlights, his broad chest covered in ten dense rows of decorations including the Navy Cross with gold star, the Silver Star with two oak leaf clusters, and the Distinguished Service Medal…
Was my maternal grand-uncle.
**Vice Admiral David Mercer**.
Seventy-four years old.
Chief of Naval Operations.
Surgeon General Emeritus of the United States Navy.
Chief Master Surveyor Arthur Mercer Senior’s surviving younger brother.
Beside Admiral Mercer walked **Major General Michael Grant**, Deputy Director of Special Operations Command, and **United States Attorney Marcus Cooper**, Chief Federal Prosecutor and Special Admiralty Master, holding an unsealed, four-hundred-page leather litigation brief bound with
