Beside her stood Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Bennett, Chief Trial Counsel for the Military District of Washington, wearing his dress green uniform, holding an unsealed, four-hundred-page leather litigation brief bound with crimson silk ribbon:
THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
SPECIAL ADMIRALTY CHANCERY // DOCKET: 2026-CR-00914-TREASON
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & THE MERCER-VANCE SOVEREIGN ESTATE
v. CHIEF JUSTICE ARTHUR M. STERLING-VANCE,
MARCUS STERLING, ET AL.
CHARGES: CAPITAL HIGH TREASON UNDER ARTICLE THREE, SECTION THREE,
PREMEDITATED ATTEMPTED FIRST-DEGREE MURDER BY CHEMICAL POISONING (18 U.S.C. § 1111),
PREMEDITATED ATTEMPTED VEHICULAR HOMICIDE OF A MINOR HEIR,
AND THE SEDITIOUS USURPATION OF SOVEREIGN ADMIRALTY ESCROWS.
EXTRAORDINARY CAPIAS BENCH WARRANT: IMMEDIATE ARMED ATTACHMENT.
I stepped down the aluminum air-stair.
My hand-welted leather boots made a clean, concussive tack… tack… tack against the wet marble.
Barnaby walked beside my knee, his dark coat glistening with sleet, his amber eyes locked onto the massive bronze central portals.
Holding my right hand firmly, his small boots stepping onto the stone with fearless, measured cadence, was Leo.
He was bundled in a dark wool pea coat, his right arm tightly gripping the restored red Mack truck.
Beside us walked Claire Reed, her face radiant, her step firm, her hazel eyes steady under the glare of the tactical spotlights.
