DAY OF TERROR
I’ve been compiling material for a forthcoming book called APOCRYPHA (which will be given free to former newsletter subscribers). In doing so, I’ve been digging deep into my archives, and have come across two-dozen or so projects that died on the vine (comics like Animal Man, Booster Gold, Red Sonja, Re-Animator, and a Devil-Slayer follow-up, novels like the previously discussed Thunderbird, etc.) This led me to ask on Twitter last week if any of you were interested in seeing this material. The answer was a resounding yes. And thus, seeing as how I’m still simultaneously rebuilding after horrendous storm damage, and trying to work on several overdue novels and manuscript reviews, and don’t have time to post anything else, here’s a look at one of them.
Back in 2010, J.F. Gonzalez and I were approached to write something for one of the big mass-market publishers. It should be noted that we were both still recovering financially from the Dorchester/Leisure meltdown, and were very happy being at non-mass market Deadite, and were dubious about ever signing with a big publisher again. But the editor who approached us was legendary, having worked with dear friends like Tom Monteleone and David Schow, and we were intrigued by the query, so we decided to hear him out.
And thus, J.F., myself, the editor, and Mary SanGiovanni had dinner in New York City in early 2010 and discussed the possibility of J.F. and I ghost-writing a novel for a very prolific 80′s multi-genre pulp writer who had since passed. Both of us had devoured this author’s output when we were younger, so we were further intrigued. (Please note, I am not mentioning or confirming the author’s identity — so don’t try to guess in the comments section or I’ll delete it).
Before this, J.F. and I had already discussed collaborating on a political-military thriller involving a massive terror attack on the United States — something on the scale of the CLICKERS books for sheer size and scope. As it turned out, the editor was looking for something similar, and thus, we pitched a novel code-named DAY OF TERROR.
The original pitch was our original political military-thriller idea. You’ll note that our idea was that Muslim extremists and White Supremacists were working together, but were pawns of Globalists with a bigger agenda. The editor and the author’s estate requested that we change these villains to anarchists and socialists (something J.F. and I were both uneasy with, but we needed the money badly and our names weren’t going to be on the book anyway). So we retooled the pitch (and also toned down the nationwide carnage, by request).
The pitch was accepted. We were told the estate liked it, as well. We anticipated what would have been our biggest payday ever, as authors. And then… the whole thing fizzled. We never found out why (although I suspect someone higher up in the company saw the names Brian Keene and J.F. Gonzalez and said, “Are you insane? They’re part of the group who took down Dorchester! What will they do the first time we screw them? And you know we’ll screw them. It’s how we do business.” But J.F. says I’m being paranoid, and that it is obvious the government stepped in and shut the project down and put us on watch-lists.)
In any case, although the project had supposedly been greenlit, promised contracts never showed, and our puzzled emails and phone calls were never returned. And all we had left was this synopsis (and renewed convictions that we will never again work for the mass-market houses, because obviously, nothing has changed).
One day, we may get around to writing this book yet, but we’re both getting older and time is speeding up and there are a lot of other things to do first. So, in the advent that we never get around to it, here’s a glimpse at what might have been.
DAY OF TERROR
Brian Keene & J.F. Gonzalez
America. The near future. A nice Spring day. Millions of Americans are tuned in to the morning news programs – The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, CNBC – all of whom feature live shots from the streets of New York as part of their regular morning programming. Thus, those millions of viewers witness the brief flash of blinding light, just before all of those news programs and every other show broadcasting from New York City simultaneously go off the air. A mushroom cloud rises over Manhattan.
In Washington D.C., dozens of commuter trains, subways, and city buses simultaneously explode. A small twin-engine plane, no bigger than a crop-duster, crashes into the busy downtown streets of Chicago. It is followed by another. And another. Then more. When emergency personnel respond, they are fired on by terrorists. In Los Angeles, a tractor trailer deliberately swerves to cause an accident on the busy 101. The freeway turns into a parking lot, and amid the gridlock, dozens of armed men exit from nondescript white vans and open fire, indiscriminately shooting passengers trapped in their vehicles. Roving gunman appear in the ghettos of Detroit, Newark, Miami, Atlanta, and New Orleans, and in the ritzy, security-fenced neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, Palm Springs, Augusta, the Hamptons, and elsewhere. The residents are slaughtered in the streets, in storefronts, and in their homes. The mayhem is repeated in shopping malls all across the country, as well. Explosions rock Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, and Bangor, leveling Federal buildings, Jewish cultural centers, and other landmarks. And in small, tiny, quintessential towns in Kansas, Iowa, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and elsewhere throughout the nation’s heartland, schoolchildren are gunned down on their school playgrounds.
America is under attack and facing the worst day of terror it has ever known. The news is erratic and unreliable. Some reports blame Muslim extremists. Others blame White Supremacists or a Tea Party splinter group. Communications, emergency services, and utilities are stretched thin, and the government is in disarray. And this is only the first wave.
During all of this, disgraced ex-cop Mike Connolly pulls up outside a high-rise hotel in Baltimore, adjacent to the convention center, where an IT convention is taking place. Mike works as a cab driver, and is dropping off Samuel Greenberg, who is attending the convention (and who also just happens to moonlight as a computer hacker). Their in-cab banter depicts them as polar opposites. Mike is a Conservative Republican. Samuel is a Liberal Democrat. Mike is Irish. Samuel is Jewish (by birth if not faith). Mike knows guns and self defense. Samuel knows Systems Administration and how to hack into a social networks’ mainframe.
When Samuel goes inside the hotel to check in, Mike follows him, hoping to use the restroom before heading back out to his cab. A group of gunman storm the hotel lobby in a Mumbai-style attack, and take hostages. They begin separating the hostages by the surnames on their identification. Samuel is singled out for being Jewish, and is about to be killed, but Mike, emerging from the bathroom, manages to cause a disturbance, and the two men flee deeper into the hotel, pursued by several terrorists. Mike and Samuel form an uneasy (and at times comical) alliance, and begin to unravel the terrorist plot—discovering that Muslim extremists and White Supremacists have formed an alliance of their own, have been planning these attacks for years, and that this is only the first wave. A second, more terrifying series of attacks is set to occur the next day, shutting down the nation’s power grid and communications when America is still reeling. They also learn that a terrorist training camp existed in Mexico, and that Mexican drug cartels have been instrumental in smuggling many of the attackers across the border. And more are on the way—enough for an actual invasion force.
Mike and Samuel must now stay one step ahead of the terrorists, save the rest of the hostages inside the hotel, and alert the authorities to what they’ve discovered before it’s too late, all while learning that perhaps they have more common ground than they first thought, after all.
The book is perhaps best described as Die Hard meets 24 meets Red Dawn. If desired, the ending can hint that there were elements embedded within the U.S. Government who were part of the plot, and used both groups of extremists as pawns in their globalist plot, thus setting up a sequel.
DAY OF TERROR (with requested revisions)
Brian Keene & J.F. Gonzalez
America. The near future. A nice Spring day. Taxi driver (and disgraced ex-cop) Mike Connolly pulls up outside a high-rise hotel in Baltimore, adjacent to the convention center, where an IT convention is taking place. Mike is dropping off Samuel Greenberg, a convention attendee who just happens to moonlight as a computer hacker. Their in-cab banter depicts them as polar opposites. Mike is a Conservative Republican. Samuel is a Liberal Democrat. Mike knows guns and self defense. Samuel knows Systems Administration and how to hack into a social networks’ mainframe. When Samuel goes inside the hotel to check in, Mike follows him, hoping to use the restroom before heading back out to his cab.
A group of gunman storm the hotel lobby in a Mumbai-style attack, and begin indiscriminately killing guests and staff alike. After an initial round of slaughter, they take the survivors hostage. Mike, emerging from the bathroom, manages to cause a disturbance and rescue Samuel. The two men flee deeper into the hotel, pursued by several terrorists.
Mike and Samuel form an uneasy (and at times comical) alliance. Mike captures and interrogates one of the terrorists, gaining enough information for Samuel to hack the terrorist network. Thus, they begin to unravel the terrorist plot—discovering that a group of anarchists and socialists are behind this attack. Worse, they discover that the hotel massacre and ensuing hostage stand-off are simply part of a series of distractions. Other localized distractions include arsonists setting forest fires along Maryland’s borders with Pennsylvania and Virginia, random shootings in city streets, improvised explosive devices and car bombs detonating on the city’s highways, etc. While the authorities are responding to these threats and their attention is diverted, the terrorists intend to raid a Johns Hopkins research center on the outskirts of the city and obtain a virulent pathogen, which they then intend to release on the public, somewhere in America’s heartland.
Mike and Samuel must now stay one step ahead of the terrorists, save the rest of the hostages inside the hotel, and alert the authorities to what they’ve discovered before it’s too late, all while learning that perhaps they have more common ground than they first thought, after all.
The book is perhaps best described as Die Hard meets 24 meets Red Dawn. If desired, the ending can hint that there were elements embedded within the U.S. Government who were part of the plot, thus setting up a sequel.
