Dennis Blackmon

Second Scene – Introduces one of the two protagonists, sets the story in Colombia, and reveals the catalyst for the story – a plane crashed. NIGHT RUNNER Chapter 2 A Long Day The ringing was a warning. The next ring jolted through Margaret’s nightmare and she opened her eyes to see a dark bedroom. She was alone in her condo in Georgetown. She pulled the covers over her head, but the sound of the phone ringing penetrated the fabric, hornets stinging her brain. Reaching an arm out from underneath the bedding, Margaret glanced at the alarm clock glowing a red “AM 3:47.” She tilted her caller ID box to see the name Harrison Burr. He is finally going to fire me, she thought. She picked up the phone, but before saying anything, she shrank back into the bed. “Loughlin,” she said from under the covers, her voice grinding like bald tires over dry gravel. “Wake up, Maggie, I’ve got an assignment for you,” said Harrison Burr, her boss. She sat up. Boss – assignment – a crash – not fired. She glanced at her “Go-bag” in the corner. Harrison continued, “Looks like we got a plane down on the side of a mountain. No radar or radio contact. Need you to help the Army take a look at it.” She straightened up to improve her posture and pulled the T-shirt down a little to cover herself. Did he say Army? “Maggie, you there?” “Yes, yes Harrison, I’m just a bit foggy. Where is the plane again?” she asked, slurring her Scottish accent. “Colombia,” he answered. “Army wants us to share the load on this one. Can you get to the airport in an hour?” She remembered her car was still parked at a bar downtown, but she answered, “Of course, National?” “Yes, you’ll fly out of National to Bogota. Flight leaves at 5:30.” “Got it, boss,” she said, already standing. “Takahashi will meet you at the gate with the file. Keep it close. This situation requires discretion.” “Was he still at work when the teletype came in?” she asked “I think so. He’s the one who called me,” Harrison said. Hayato Takahashi, her amazing assistant, needed a better work/life balance. Then she paused, “Doesn’t Charlie have emergency duty this weekend?” On the one hand, she had tried to jump ahead of some of her crewmates before, and didn’t want Charlie pissed at her, too. On the other hand, “Never mind, I’m going.” She would buy Charlie a drink when she returned. Silence. Then, Harrison said, “Charlie, yeah, he’s retiring. He told me he wasn’t going to spend his last few weeks in Colombia. Anyway, you need this one, Maggie. And they requested someone who speaks Spanish,” he said. “I’ve already talked to the Ambassador, and he is expecting you. He’s Brett Crenshaw, an old friend from law school. He’ll take care of you.” She looked at the phone incredulously. The Ambassador, holy shit. “Hey, Maggie,” he said. “Before you hang up, this case could help you. Some important people are counting on us to lend a hand. I know you’ve had a rough patch, but you’re a good investigator. I believe in you. Just don’t let your emotions get the best of you this time. Everyone is going to be watching, so make me look good.” Doubt crept out of the dark recesses of her unconscious and cast a shadow over her image of success, to perform well for Harrison. “I won’t let you down,” she said, trying to convey certainty. Harrison’s confidence in her added an extra layer of pressure. He was like a second father to her; she would never want to let him down. She had the sensation that things were moving quickly and that she was already behind. She needed to get to that crash site. Harrison said, “You see anything, you call me, Okay. You call me at the office or at home.” “Absolutely, boss,” she said. This would be only the fourth aircraft accident she had inspected, and she would be working with the Army, and the crash was in Colombia. She didn’t want Harrison to hang up. “Can you tell me anything else about the plane?” “You’ll get the file at the airport,” Harrison said. “Get moving.” She heard the dial tone and then hung up. She picked the pistol up off the nightstand and put it in the drawer beneath. Her D.C. apartment was small, so it was a short shuffle into the bathroom. The sudden light hurt her skin. Last night, whiskey flowed and lies were told. Was today Saturday, she wondered, or Sunday? In the mirror she saw her pillow creased face under a bird nest of red hair. Her ratty tee-shirt needed to find the dustbin. She dressed to impress every day but slept looking like a hobo when she slept alone. She filled a glass with water and gulped it down without coming up for air. Rubbing the palm of her hand on her eye, she decided to take an aspirin before showering. She opened the medicine cabinet and retrieved the big yellow bottle of pills, the largest size available for purchase. Looking in the mirror again, she felt the fatigue of the long day ahead. She had only an hour to get to Washington National Airport. The United States government was flying her to Bogota to investigate why an Army plane had lost all communications and dropped off the radar, gone.

Story Statement – NIGHT RUNNER Dennis Blackmon Investigator Margaret Loughlin must solve the mystery of the plane crash and live to escape Colombia and reveal the truth. Antagonist Sketch A middle-class outcast at his Connecticut Prep School, Brett Crenshaw hated his privileged classmates. He is determined to join the ruling class. He graduates with honors from Harvard and marries a Senator’s daughter. His father-in-law gets Brett appointed as Ambassador to Columbia. Brett, however, cannot remain faithful to his wife and she leaves him. Now his father-in-law wants to destroy him. Desperate, Brett brilliantly orchestrates conflict and generates income from the drug trade. He knows time is running out. He manipulates the deputy ambassador’s wife, Mandy, into relapsing on cocaine, has her arrested, and blackmails her into trafficking cocaine. When an American spy plane intercepts communications between rebel leaders, Brett leaks the story to the press, orders a Stinger missile, and has the Stinger delivered to a paramilitary group in the jungle. He forces Mandy to bring him the flight plan of the spy plane from her husband’s office. The paramilitary shoots down the plane with the Stinger. When Investigator Margaret Loughlin tells Brett about missing American soldiers, and that the crash wasn’t pilot error, he decides to silence her and eliminate the soldiers. Brett flies to Paraguay to run his cocaine cartel. Titles 1. Twisted Metal Tombstone 2. Canopy of Lies 3. NIGHT RUNNER Comparable Novels 1. Don Winslow, The Cartel (too much?) 2. Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Also too big?) 3. Bonnar Spring, Toward the Light 4. Tina Wainscott, One Last Promise Hook Line – Logline A troubled aircraft accident investigator on the verge of being fired must solve the mystery of why a spy plane crashed in Colombia, escape the forces who want to silence her, and live to expose the truth. Inner Conflict In my story, twenty-seven-year-old Investigator Margaret Loughlin is a hot-headed aircraft accident specialist who was almost fired once before. Her boss and mentor, Harrison Burr, has been like a father to her since her own father died. He assigned her to investigate this crash in Colombia. She thought it was because he believed in her abilities and that he had confidence in her. After a brief tour of the debris field, she expressed her initial theory to the Deputy ambassador, Eugene Norwood, that the plane appeared to have broken apart prior to impact with the ground. His reaction and words cut her to the core. An excerpt from the novel is below: Norwood wasn’t finished. He pointed across the aisle to Margaret and said, “Don’t you tell Ambassador Crenshaw or anybody else that bullshit or you may never work in government again. Crenshaw has pull, you know. I think you need to fly on out of here when we get back to El Dorado International and we’ll do our own investigation. It was a mistake bringing you here in the first place. Fucking Crenshaw wanting to do some political hack a favor.” Norwood had to stop because he was out of breath. Margaret froze with shame. Harrison had to call in a favor? I’m that toxic, she thought. And now I’ve just gone off on the next ambassador. Her swagger was gone. She felt like the air had all gone out of her body. The men stared at her. Margaret feels like a charity case, a pitiful step-child, sent to rubber-stamp whatever these men concluded. Maybe Harrison didn’t have any confidence in her. He just sent her down here after asking the current ambassador if he could do him a favor and take her off his hands for a few weeks. No one really wanted her opinion, and no one respected her expertise. The fact that Harrison was a father figure made the slight hurt more acutely, personally as well as professionally. Secondary Conflict In my story, Margaret is assisted by the Chief of Missions from the embassy. His name is Gabriel Colón. He is from Puerto Rico and he works for the State Department and the CIA. During their dangerous journey, Margaret begins to have feelings for Gabriel. He is brave, handsome, and skilled. She and Gabriel hide in the house of an old friend of his, Julia, and the following takes place: Margaret asked, “So, how do you know Gabriel?” Before Julia could answer, Gabriel came back in the kitchen. His face showed the strain of the deteriorating situation. This evening was a welcome respite, but Margaret knew they were still in grave danger, as were one or two American airmen. Gabriel said, “Julia, darling, could Margaret sleep in the spare room. I’ll take the couch.” “What, you two not together?” said Julia. Then, looking straight at Margaret, Julia said, “Why not?” Margaret felt a flush. Why not? No. Why did Julia say that? Gabriel answered quickly, “It’s not . . . uh.” Margaret blushed, “Oh, we are not – I don’t even . . . uh” She babbled like a middle school girl with a crush. Her face burned red with shyness. She looked at Gabriel for help. Why did she feel embarrassed? She was a grown-ass woman, but she struggled to look Julia in the eye. “Margaret and I - we work together,” said Gabriel. Julia looked at the two of them and laughed. Margaret was relieved. But is that all we are? Is that really what he thinks we are? We work together? Margaret swung about to escape into the spare bedroom, cut her eyes over her shoulder at Gabriel and said, “Call me Maggie. Yes, well, good night, then,” and disappeared into the room, alone. Setting This novel is set almost entirely in Colombia, one of the most dangerous countries in the world in 1999. The scenes are set as follows: In the canopy of the rainforest where the pilot hangs when her parachute is caught in the tree tops. She gets out of her parachute, down the tree, and into the rainforest. Her travels through the vines, shrubs, ferns, rivers, and mountains challenge her resolve. Further, the forest is full of rebels and paramilitary groups who would do her harm. She rescues one of her crew from a rebel camp deep in the jungle. On the side of a mountain where the plane crashed, Margaret must inspect the muddy debris field and the broken bodies of the dead crew. She encounters a village that has been destroyed by the paramilitary, passing by burning body parts and tortured deceased villagers. She also has scenes in Bogota at her hotel, in restaurants, in a private home, and at the embassy. She and Gabriel are captured by the paramilitary group and Margaret is taken to a room to be tortured, but a sudden gun battle outside spares her and she escapes. Some scenes involving her boss, Harrison, take place in and around Washington DC. I hope the exotic setting of the Colombian jungle, combined with the inherent danger of being killed, kidnapped, or worse by enemies all around will enhance the drama of my thriller.