Song The High Road by Three Days Grace

Damon glanced out of the window of Eric's white Porsche coupe as they drove across the bridge into Brooklyn, heading to the safe house. There was no doubt in his mind on that  Black Rifle Coffee company was the key to everything. But something kept nagging at him with a loose thread he couldn't put his finger on yet. He'd been careful when he had gone to the warehouse, making sure that he wasn't followed after all Eric had taught how to avoid being tailed. He had learned quickly.

"Eric, You still have the usb drive I gave you to keep safe," he asked.

"Yes, Don't worry, I have it at my safe house," Eric replied, keeping his eyes on the road.

"I need to take another look at the file again, maybe the answer is on it," he told Eric.

"Listen, Damon, I already looked closely and there's one name that I recognize. Elizabeth NightShade, she's a very dangerous and powerful private contractor," Eric stated.

Damon raised his brow as he thought about it where he had heard it before. Of course, he'd remembered hearing it in the Senate hearing about Iraq war and war Veterans with PTSD. So there had to be a connection to Iraq then. But what was it? Wait, he thought to himself, She's a private contractor, gun running. Everything was starting to come together  for him now. He wondered if someone from the coffee shop had maybe alerted her that he had poking around there asking too many questions.

"Eric, who does this Elizabeth Nightshade work," Damon inquired in a worried tone.

"She's works for the U.S government: The CIA, Pentagon, DIA, White House," Eric told Damon

"We have been running guns for a long time, ever since we trained The Afghan freedom fighters to fight the Russians in Afghanistan.  These companies have  ties to the U.S Intelligence community who had hired overseas arms traffickers to sell their weapons to rogue countries. And NightShade is one of them and she has connections to  echelons of power in Washington, DC, Eric explained to him, as they drove into Brooklyn.

They drove through the neighborhood passing by houses before coming to the safe house and parked in the driveway. Stepping out, Damon grabbed the door handle, as he looked at the house. It looked just like an ordinary house to him. He thought it would be more sophisticated than this. He glanced sideways as Eric climbed out, closing the door behind.  Walking up the driveway to the entrance of the safe house, Damon says. " Eric, This doesn't even look like a safe house".

Damon stared wide-eyed at the den in the corner of the living room, seeing what looked like massive screens on the wall inside. His eyes darted over to the Storm Hardigg case laying on the floor. He glanced over at Eric and says. " Fuck Eric you know, sometimes I think you are like James Bond and the other times like I don't what to think?"

"You'll be safe here Damon, I'm glad you think I'm like James Bond,but I'm nothing like I take out my target from an extreme distance with one shot," Eric told him, as he walked over to the kitchen and strode over to the refrigerator. 

Damon glanced over to the picture hanging on the wall of Eric and Brayden standing outside their barracks on the base in Iraq. He didn't know  a lot much about Eric's brother only that he was a Major sergeant; he wondered why Red  hadn't talked about  Brayden before. He made his way over to the counter outside the kitchen and asked.

 " How come you never talk about your brother? It must be hard."

Eric opened the refrigerator and took  out a cold bottle of vodka as he strode over to the cupboard and opened it. Then he took two shots and says. "You know, as an assassin, I have kept my emotions in a box tucked away. But when I found that Brayden had been killed in an explosion, driving back to the base was furious. I wanted to go after  the bastards who killed him. Every day, I look over at the photograph of him and remember he wouldn't do that go down that way."

After that, he closed the cupboard door, strolling over to the counter where Damon stood, and placed the two shot glasses on them. Then he poured some vodka into glasses, handed one to him and took a sip, savoring the burning taste in his throat. Putting the glass back on the table, he rubbed the 50. caliber casing on his chain and said," It's time for me to do what I do best, Damon."

"How are you even going to get close to NightShade if she's as powerful as you," Damon asked.

"Don't worry, she'll never see me coming I can promise you that Damon," Eric replied, walking out from behind the counter and strode over to his Hardigg case. 

He strolled over to his weapons vault, entering a password on the panel on it, as the door clicked opened. He entered, grabbing his night vision scope and ammunition. Three minutes later he emerged in his gore tex camouflage suit and closed the door behind him. He glanced back at Damon and then headed out the door down the driveway to his Porsche Coupe.

Eric tossed the Storm Hardigg case and the ammunition in the duffle bag into the back as he slid and closed the door behind him. He sped through the neighborhood and punched in Jenning's number on his encrypted burner, connecting to Bluetooth on his speaker.

Damon finished sipping the chilled vodka in the glass, made his way over to the sink, and washed it before placing it back in the cupboard. After that, he headed over to the den. He entered as his eyes darted over to the keyboard on the desk and the large screens and thought to himself; he was glad to have Eric as his friend and on his side. He'd remembered seeing Eric at a shooting range. When He hit a target from an extreme distance, knowing what he was capable of doing.

He strode out of the den and his way over to the sofa, as he sat down and grabbed the remote for the television to see what was on the news now. He switched the channel to CNN to see what they had to say.

Wolf Blitzer flashed onto the screen Major headlines it read across the screen. "Military advisors urged President Roberts to take action in Malta to stop a rising terrorist organization Dark Ale. Intelligences sources  believe that  the terrorist group has ties to the Russian Mafia."

The world was becoming too scary and chaotic, Damon thought to himself, he wondered if Elizabeth NightShade had been running guns for them too. After a while he closed his eyes and rested for a bit. After a while he closed his eyes and rested for a bit. He opened his eyes as another news, headline flashed across the screen. 

Wolf Blitzer announced. "We're going to a live press conference at DoD where General Bryce Donovan is taking questions."

"Understand this a new terrorist organization that came across our radar for the first time. Until we know more we take do anything about it," General Donovan stated.

If he'd  been at the press conference at DOD, he would have asked the more important question which would have been why is the U.S government running guns and what do they hope to gain from it knowing that he would be escorted out by armed security guards to his car and maybe even threatened. He had been onto something at the Coffee shop in Salt City, whatever it was, Nightshade all over it.