Song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

Present Day

New York

Mazie laid on her side with her hand under the pillow where Colt 1911 rested looking into Eric's eyes. It felt good being back in their own bed after travelling all over the world to promote her thriller. Eric's silver Desert Eagle lay on under his pillow, his finger resting on the trigger. They had to be ready for any threat as a specialist and an assassin. It was midnight when her burner vibrated on the nightstand near the bed. She rolled over as long black hair flipped over, letting go of Red's hand and snatched up her burner answering in a soft sleepy tone.

"Hello, who is this?"

"MaIzie, It's Alexander. I need her help A.S. P,"

Maizie jolted up from the bed without disturbing Eric. She tried to fight the tears in her eyes, hearing, his voice. Why was he calling her on her burner? she thought to herself. After all, he was her father's asset. She figured her father must have given him her encrypted number for her burner. Whatever the reason was, it had to be vital for him to call.

"Alexander, do you want to tell me what you need my help with please?" Mazie asked in a suspicious tone.

"I need you to go to the old dead drop site outside the UN and receive a briefcase for me," Alexander told her.

"Listen, Alexander, I'm not the teenager on your balcony anymore. I'm a highly trained weapons specialist. Just tell me what the hell is going on?" Mazie stated.

"The Shadow Directive," Alexander told her in a secretive tone over the phone."

"What the hell is the Shadow Directive?" Mazie inquired in a skeptical tone.

"It was your father's moniker in the CIA, that's all I know," he told her.

"You're telling me this has to do with my father Alexander?" Mazie asked.

"Yes, In a way it does. Just retrieve the briefcase," Alexander told her and ended the conversation.

She placed the burner back on her nightstand and walked over to Eric, and whispered in his ear. "Darling, I'm going to need your help with this."

Eric slowly opened his eyes as he says. "Maizie, what it is? I know when something is wrong with the expression on your face."

"You remember me telling you about Alexander?" she asked him.

'Yes, I remember you telling me about him, sweetie. Wasn't he a friend of your family and an asset to your father," Eric says.

"Yes, he was, and still is. He just called me on my burner and wants me to retrieve a briefcase from a dead drop site outside the UN for him," she told him.

Eric immediately climbed out of the bed, his face rough, not shaved and his hair not combed. But not unusual for him. He grabbed his 50-calibre semi-automatic pistol as he made his way over to the closet and snatched a t-shirt to throw on. He clipped on his hip holster and slipped his Desert Eagle into it. Mazie did the same and placed her ball cap on. They headed over to the door leading into the garage. Eric opened it, and they stepped in.

Walking over to the Porsche Coupe, they slid in as they grabbed the door and closed it behind them. They sped out of the garage as the door opened and closed behind them. He'd often used dead drop site when he was in a foreign country through a cutout that Holiday had used for intelligence work. He glanced sideways into the rearview mirror to see if they had a tail on them. So far, from what he could, there was no vehicle in sight. A sudden drop in his stomach told him that something was off.

After a while, they arrived at the UN and parked across the street as they stepped out, closing the door behind them. Eric surveyed the surroundings while his ears listened for anything out of the ordinary. Maizie strode over to the bench as she looked and saw the briefcase. She snatched it and placed it on the bench. She could hear her own heart pounding now. She remembered her dad telling her how to open a briefcase after getting it from a drop site. She clicked on the sides and it opened. Inside was a large vanilla thick envelope she opened and pulled a list of Oligarchs who were behind the Russian President. 

She then put the list back in the envelope and placed it in the briefcase, but before she closed it, her eyes narrowed on a note inside and she immediately grabbed it as she read It."Dear Mazie,

I'm so sorry to drag you into my shadowy world of intelligence, but by the time you read this note, I assume you will be in the military and that Alexander would have reached out to you. I am glad that you are safe now and away from Ukraine. The Shadow Directive must be successful; it's our only hope. You must move quickly and discreet Love your father Avery.

She tossed the note into the briefcase as Eric pivoted, walking over to her, he saw the tears in her eyes and that she was trying it back. He glanced over to the briefcase and then to her, trying to put everything together. The one thing he didn't like about dead drops is that they could be compromised easily and that he made him worry. Out of nowhere, motorbikes roared at them and the Russian assassins opened fire. Bullets blasted everywhere.

Dazed by gunshots, Mazie closed the briefcase, snatching it as she headed over to the Porsche Coupe. Eric whipped out his semi-automatic pistol and fired a round at the motorbike. The metal on the bike sparked as the assassins slid into an oncoming vehicle and crashed. The assassin slowly jumped to his feet, clutching his MP5 submachine gun in grip and fired rapid shots at Eric. He bolted down the sidewalk and searched for a vehicle to take cover behind.

The Russian operative darted down the sidewalk, looking for his prey, not aware of his surroundings as a bullet was fired into his head from a distance. Eric jolted to his feet. He glanced over to his Porsche Maizie wasn't there, then he spotted a shiny reflection in a building. She must have figured that he was going to need to back up and eliminate the Russian operative from a distance.

He made his way over to the lead assassin and inquired in a demanding tone. "I want to know who dispatched you?"

"That's a need to know," The Russian growled, trying to get up.

"That's not good enough. Tell me now or I'll put a bullet into you," Eric snapped, aiming his barrel at the assassin's head.

"Our orders are to eliminate the daughter of the CIA station chief in Kyiv," The Russian assassin growled.

Eric's features hardened as he pulled the trigger, firing a round into the Russian assassin. He knew all well that two of these weren't ordinary agents, they have highly trained Wanger men Russia secret Private contractors, which meant the Kremlin had ordered them to scrub Mazie before she could retrieve the briefcase and now they really needed answers that only Holiday and Director Hamilton could give them. 

Mazie sprinted down the emergency staircase behind one of the apartments carrying her Remington 700 sniper rifle in her grip as she walked over to Eric standing in front of the dead Russian operative.

"Maizie, these assassins were dispatched to scrub you!! What has your old family friend Alexander got you involved in? Eric asked in a worried tone

"Eric, All I know is what he told me, The Shadow Directive. Shadow was my father's moniker inside the CIA; he was a station chief in Kyiv," Mazie stated.

Eric slipped his semi-automatic pistol back into his hip holster and pulled out his burner. Then he entered an encrypted number for Director Hamilton at the Central Intelligence Agency. He held up the phone up to his ear as he waited.

"We need some answers right now. Two of the Wanger men tried to scrub Mazie. All that she told me was Shadow Directive and that she got a call on her burner from Alexander," he explained to her.

There was a long pause before Director Hamilton spoke again.

"We'll meet at one of the Secure location, facilities outside Langley, Everything will be explained to you guys there," Director Hamilton told Eric.

Eric didn't like the sound of her tone over the phone. Whatever was going on, it was very secretive that they had to meet at the safe house. He ended the conversation on his burner and figured it was no use calling Holiday; he knew he would get the same reply from him.