SYNOPSIS
A resourceful but impetuous Jackie Randolph goes in harm’s way when she travels from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Colombia to get a first hand look at the ranch she inherited from her deceased lover, Carlos Suarez. She and her business partner, Mark Logan, arrive at El Rancho del Tigre on November 18, 2000, expecting to have an uneventful visit. Instead, they find themselves in a hotbed of civil unrest and anarchy where countless atrocities are being committed. Fighting to save her ranch against a paramilitary force that has evolved into a terrorist organization, Jackie and Mark coordinate a futile defense with the assistance of the ranch’s manager, Paul Martinez. Jackie and Mark’s adventures in Colombia are only a prelude to a perilous journey that will occur over the next several years.
Upon their return to the States, Jackie and Mark work hard to build their fledgling security business. As a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Iraq war, physical security becomes a hot item, and their company, American Security International (ASI), expands exponentially. But in August 2003, ASI suffers a huge setback when Mark disappears while on a security job in Iraq. The loss of Mark is a huge blow to Jackie. A year later finds Jackie back on the rebound with the help of her brother James, an ex-navy SEAL. Just as her life is returning to normal, Jackie receives an ominous note in the mail warning her to keep her mouth shut. She remembers an e-mail she received from Mark prior to his disappearance that discussed a terrorist cell operating in Virginia and trafficking in drugs. Rather than be intimidated, Jackie decides to fight back. By coincidence, Ralph Mallory, her boss when she was a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), offers to assist in her quest for information on these terrorists in exchange for her assistance by performing in an undercover role against former college classmates from the University of Virginia who are involved in a drug trafficking ring in Richmond. With mixed emotions, Jackie accepts Ralph’s proposal and maneuvers to get invited to a two weeks wilderness retreat in Tennessee with her classmates. True to his word, Ralph informs Jackie that the leader of the terrorist group that kidnapped Mark is Rafi Mustafa.
Five couples arrive at the Parch Corn Creek wilderness retreat in rural Tennessee on Sunday, August 22, 2004. Posing as Jackie’s boyfriend is Special Agent Jonathan Knight of the DEA. During the first week, there are several disturbing incidents—ranging from harassment by unknown pranksters to disappearing husbands and the wilderness retreat’s hosts. Agreeing not to bring along cell phones on this vacation and having no other communication means, they are shut off from the outside world. Sleepy Joe Holloway and his kinsmen—erstwhile moonshiners—are now marijuana producers and traffickers and are doing the harassing because the clique of vacationers has reneged on a $400,000.00 drug deal. His intent is to punish the culprits, but events get out of control.
As more bizarre and scary events unfold, the vacationers realize they are confronted with a formidable adversary who wishes them ill. The harassment becomes more daring and malevolent, and Jackie tries to convince her friends that they must escape their entrapment before someone else disappears or is seriously injured. Saturday brings more confrontation and concludes with a deadly shootout during the night. The surviving vacationers make their escape from the lodge late Sunday morning, led by Jackie and Jonathan. But their ordeal has only begun as they must hike their way through the wilderness in 95 degree heat, knowing that some unpredictable people are searching for them and could attack them at any moment.
While Jackie and her friends are struggling to evade their tormentors and survive in the Tennessee wilderness, Rafi Mustafa and his group of Islamic extremists are bringing a stolen miniature nuclear weapon into the United States to use against the Watts Barr Nuclear Power Plant, located 50 miles north of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Rafi is assisted by Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers in smuggling the weapon through South and Central America and across the U.S. southwest border into Texas. The courier for the weapon of mass destruction is Paul Martinez, who is in desperate need of money to sustain El Tigre ranch—sold to him by Jackie who wanted to wash her hands of any interest in the ranch. His rendezvous with the terrorist leader happens to be in the same backwoods as the wilderness retreat.
Well entrenched in the cocaine trafficking trade is Roberto Escobar, the leader of the Mexican drug traffickers. Besides assisting Rafi in smuggling the WMD across the border, he has planned a move against Sleepy Joe and his kinsmen by attempting to take over their marijuana production operation. Aware of the Mexican’s intrusion into his territory and fearful that his primary source of revenue could be gone forever, Sleepy Joe schemes to fight off the Mexicans.
Jackie and her companions come upon an isolated log cabin where they run into an anxious Paul Martinez who Jackie has not seen or heard from in four years. Paul explains that the cabin is a safe house for the Mexican drug traffickers and the staging point for a group of Arab terrorists who are planning a nuclear attack against the United States. Paul informs them that he is a courier for the drug gang and had unwittingly brought a suitcase nuclear bomb into the States. He warns them that the terrorists are about a mile away readying their delivery vehicle—a powered parachute—and could return at any time for the bomb. When Jackie learns the leader of the terrorists is Rafi Mustafa, the man who she believes caused the disappearance of her lover, Mark Logan, she swears revenge and with Jonathan’s assistance prepares to ambush the terrorists upon their return.
The inevitable confrontation between these various antagonists leads to a whirlwind of deadly consequences. Terrorism’s Shifting Winds swirls the dynamics of human interaction into a potent blend of greed, deceit, depravity, courage and passion to conclude with its poignant finale.
