THE STAGE 32 LOGLINES

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LUCK IS A HARD TARGET
By Jan Pavlov

GENRE: Thriller / Suspense
LOGLINE:

After his life is threatened in the Gaza, Bulgarian-Israeli special agent Jean lands in Canada expecting a peaceful stay, but stumbles upon dangerous artifacts that throw him into a fierce battle with the Ndrangehta Mafia, the FBI and contract killers. He accepts the fight and despite the danger, manages to uncover two conspiracies against America’s national security.

SYNOPSIS:

Bulgarian special agent, Jean/Michael Kaminski is working with Israeli intelligence in The Middle East. After his life is threatened in Gaza, he is transferred to Canada with the help of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), under the false guise of a humanitarian asylum seeker. In St. John’s, Newfoundland, Kaminsky is hoping for the quiet life he has long been denied.

In accordance with immigration laws, he flies to the French islands of St Pierre and Miquelon, where he stays for several hours, which turns his life upside down. The pastor of the local church presents him with a long-held box of personal effects belonging to legendary gangster Al Capone, who used the islands decades ago to store smuggled alcohol. Among the priceless artifacts are notes written by Al Capone's personal bodyguard, Franco Rio.

Kaminsky reads the notes and learns that they reveal a well-kept secret about the blackmailing of Al Capone by FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover, the 31st president of the United States. This makes him fear that the FBI might want to destroy these notes, and perhaps the person who read them. But Kaminsky does not suspect that the unfolding of expensive artifacts is a patiently awaited event by people on the islands linked to the criminal world. Thus, far from leading a quiet life again, Michael Kaminsky becomes the target of both, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia and the FBI, and he is fully convinced of this when, just hours after acquiring the artifacts, several murders occur, including that of the pastor from whom he had received them.

Urgently moving to a safe house in the province of Alberta, Michael meets a sixty-year-old neighbor, The Big Tim, and after a sting operation, he meets double FBI agent Maurizio, who has infiltrated the 'Ndrangheta mafia. Kaminsky comes under extreme pressure for his safety, assuming that the FBI is in command of the Canadian CSIS, on which he relies. He's life is in real danger, after information about he's whereabouts is leaked, and "visits" and raids begin at his home. In the last and very bloody one, in which he is helped by The Big Tim, who turns out to be a former CSIS officer, and Maurizio, all three are seriously injured.

Because of his extensive experience in interrogation, Kaminsky obtains dangerous information that threatens America's national security: one of the FBI's top officials is being blackmailed by the 'Ndrangheta because of his direct relationship with an ISIS man, in fact his son. In coordination with Mossad, secretly from the FBI, Kaminsky and Maurizio depart to Afghanistan with a team of Canadian SEALs to find evidence of this "blackmail". In a fierce battle with ISIS fighters, they succeed.

In the end, chance helps Kaminsky not only to find Al Capone's hidden treasure, but also to make use of it.

Having a long and well-deserved rest, Michael is fascinated by the fate of two long-dead compatriots and inventors, Professor St. Naydenov and Iliya Valkov, who attempted to turn water into fuel. He is particularly intrigued that Iliya Valkov, later renamed Yull Brown, who had emigrated to Australia, had previously been in a Turkish prison and had been released by an FBI Major. A man of quick decisions, Michael flies to America and visits the FBI archives to find out more about Yule Brown, but the file is classified and Michael comes under the scrutiny of his FBI colleagues.

Irritated by this fact and highly motivated to deal with the situation, Kaminsky visits his black colleague and friend, Samuel Dante, in New Jersey and with his help obtains classified information about Yull Brown's former business partner, Griffiths, a former FBI officer who in the past, had a special mission to monitor Yule Brown's inventions. The information was secretly obtained from a relative of Sam's, Bruce, a top FBI official who is married to Patty, his wife's cousin and an oil tycoon heiress.

Extremely excited, Michael visits Griffiths in Seattle and learns that Yull Brown has been locked away in a Swiss bank vault, a chemical formula that turns water into fuel. Having gained Griffiths' trust, he is given the key to the vault and leaves for Switzerland, full of ambition and excitement. On his departure from the United States, however, he received a "friendly" helicopter visit from FBI officers, who hinted that he would be closely watched even in Europe.

Kaminsky finds the formula, but from that moment on, he falls in the eye of the storm. A call for highly paid assassins to steal the formula from him has been posted on the Dark Web, and the approved candidates come from five different countries. With the help of the Swiss police and Europol, Kaminsky survives the raids of the first two squads, but things get tough and his friend Samuel Dante arrives from America to help him.

Marcos Fizzotti

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