The Three-Sided Fort (A SCREENPLAY)

Quarter Finalist: LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL SCREENPLAY AWARDS

During an assault on a three-sided Afghan fort, SSgt Jesse Duma saves a ninety-something burka clad Cemal, finds she speaks English and has knowledge of the fort’s secrets.

Finding a plethora of intelligence in caves below the fort, Jesse’s team and the concussed Cemal are leaving by helicopter just as Cemal’s stepson, Azaz detonates a bomb bringing the cave down on the Special Forces team left below.

Flown to Washington for rehab and therapy, hypnosis reveals Cemal’s real name is Anna. Her therapy pieces together a remarkable life as the daughter of Russian royalty exiles growing up in China during the Sino-Japanese war, of a strong father who refuses to let her become a victim and of her first job with the Chinese American airline, CNAC, and of her first love, Captain Billy Schott who uses her for espionage—of her surviving the rape of Nanking, and then of her romance and marriage with Clipper pilot, Alex, during the siege of Hong Kong and their epic escape by Clipper to the United States.

In America, Anna turns over documents damming Japanese atrocities to the government. Then, only weeks later Alex receives orders to return to China as a pilot for CNAC leaving the now pregnant Anna with his parents.

Threatening Anna’s child and her husband’s family, Japanese agents in America blackmail Anna into returning to China to work for them. Unknown to the Japanese, Anna becomes a double agent with America’s fledgling OSS before she returns.

Caught by the Japanese in China, Anna witnesses the beheading of Billy and Hovans. She is sent to Pingfang prison where she is to be used for venereal disease experiments followed by her own vivisection.

Terrified, Anna persuades the Japanese doctors and airmen that they must leave before the allies arrive. She argues that in the West they will be able to sell their research and pathogens to the highest bidder.

Fearful of their fate, the doctors allow Anna to assemble a team and load samples of their diabolical biological agents to be sold to the highest bidder. Discovered at the last minute they leave in a hail of gunfire for a flight over the deserts of Northern China and present-day Tajikistan only to crash-land—in Afghanistan, in front of the Three-Sided Fort.

Back in the states and in present time, Jesse fills in the missing blanks. Student language expert, Ariana explains that Azaz could mean “devil” and that his moniker, “horseman,” could refer to one, or maybe all of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. An affinity between Jesse and Ariana develops.

Released from therapy, for the first time Anna meets Alex’s father, Stephen, at his home in Maryland. Aware his plans are being thwarted by U.S. Intelligence, Azaz invades the re-union to extract his revenge only to be stopped by Ariana, in reality an Afghan mole, whose actual job was to send the signal that initiates the poisoning of America’s water supply with pathogens developed by the Japanese at Pingfang so many years ago.

Jesse and an assault force crash into Stephen’s house stopping Ariana before she can initiate the attack and then joins Anna and Stephen suggesting he will stay in the Army and finish his degree.

The Three-Sided Fort is my third completed screenplay project. Quarter Finalist Los Angeles Int SP contest. Another contest is pending.