Chapter 10 - SINS OF THE FATHERLAND
Within twenty minutes, two platoons of Marine Security Guards from Marine Barracks Washington had locked down the entire perimeter of the federal courthouse. The local police were pushed back three blocks; this was now a military counter-insurgency zone.
In an empty witness room on the fourth floor, Miller was strapped to a steel chair. Agent Kane stood over him, holding a stack of decrypted financial transfers retrieved from the intruder's encrypted phone.
"You're facing treason, espionage, and attempted murder of a grand jury panel," Kane said, his voice terrifyingly quiet. "Your corporate indemnification clause doesn't cover federal terrorism charges, Lieutenant. You have exactly thirty seconds to tell us where Arthur Sterling is."
Miller coughed, blood speckling his split lip. He let out a ragged laugh. "You're too late, Commander. Arthur isn't in Virginia anymore. He’s aboard his private command yacht, the *Chesapeake Monarch*, docked at his private terminal in Tidewater. The final shipment cleared customs an hour ago. Two hundred crate-loads of classified avionics. By dusk, that vessel will be in international waters, under a Panamanian flag."
"And Harlan Vance?" I demanded, leaning over the table until Miller could feel the cold barrel of my sidearm resting against his collar. "What was his cut?"
"Vance was just the gatekeeper," Miller spat. "His brother owns the terminal at Tidewater. You think you won because you broke Vance's badge? Vance's family has owned that coast since the Civil War. You federal pricks are tourists. By tomorrow morning, the evidence will be at the bottom of the Atlantic, and your career will be shredded in court."
May you like
I pulled back, holstering my weapon. I looked at Kane. "Get Captain Reynolds. Tell him to scramble the boarding teams from Little Creek. We aren't waiting for a civilian search warrant."
"Commander," Norris spoke up from the doorway, his eyes burning with a strange, dark intensity. "The private terminal... I know the access tunnels. Sheriff Vance used to take me there when I was a rookie. There's a submerged maintenance culvert beneath the old coal docks. You can't reach it by air or sea without them triggering the scuttle charges. You have to go in through the mud."
