Beside my chair on the diamond-plate deck, fast asleep with his heavy golden head resting across my boots, was Barnaby.
In the adjoining pressurized observation suite, visible through the reinforced ballistic glass, my seventeen-year-old daughter Willa sat beside her great-aunt Eleanor, drinking hot chocolate, reviewing the sovereign university trust covenants that proved she would enter Johns Hopkins School of Nursing with four million dollars in fully endowed scholarships, completely severed from her father’s criminal debts.
Across the table sat **Vice Admiral David Mercer**, Chief of Naval Operations, his service bridge coat unbuttoned, his four gold stars catching the instrument lights.
Beside him sat **Major General Michael Grant**, Deputy Director of Special Operations Command, and United States Attorney Marcus Cooper.
On the table between our forearms…
Resting atop the blue vellum deed to Conduit Ten…
