Thursday, June 21, 2007

Burn Notice Short Story Assignment.




Every once in a while, there's a PayPerPost assignment that really demands that I share, so ladies and gentlemen, here's your assignment, courtesy USA Network's Burn Notice

Posties, what if you worked for the CIA and were fired? Starting June 28th Michael Weston, a CIA Operative on USA Network's new TV series, Burn Notice, will experience the dreaded firing.

Write a fictional short story telling us why and how he was fired. Since we're talking about the CIA.... let's be creative!

Direct your readers to http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice to find out the true story behind his termination.


Click "Read More" to see what origin scenario a cynical anti-authoritarian would set up. I have made a point of not reading their setup; the fun is going to be seeing how far from the mark, or how close TO the mark I was.

If you have been thinking about clicking that "review this post" link, why not do it now? It's an elegant way to strut your stuff.

But if you feel altruistic, just drop YOUR scenario into the comments.

Yes, your scenario could easily include political figures like Ron Paul, but I think that's a bit of a stretch. Likewise, 9/11 conspiracies - a bit obvious. Reptilian aliens ruling the world - SO X-files. For an assignment like this, I wanted something that is both completely plausible and completely unbelievable.



Protagonist is a CIA Agent who is doing some Counter Intelligence deskwork between foreign postings, and is tracking paper trails of known and suspected terrorst organizations. That is to say, the trails that are so unlikely as to either to be a complete waste of time - or the minimal, almost undetectable trails of actual professionals.

Due to a computer glitch, typo, or some other means (tech) protagonist is directed to the wrong file, and before he can gouge out his eyeballs, he's discovered that Keelie Kurtus of the "Platinum Network" is a fellow covert operative, and that network is and always has been a covert government organization, predating the CIA!

Unauthorized knowledge of the existence of this operation is sanctionable, and the glitch doesn't prevent all kinds of alarms going off.

CIA won't simply give him up to the American Television Company but they won't get in their way, either; the "burn notice" is their way of giving him enough warning to get the hell out of town and resolve the situation - even as the Secretary Disavows All Knowledge.

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