Brightlights: A US based contemporary action/thriller. It is the story of JAKE McDANIEL, on first appearance the answer to all the discarded families of missing Vietnam Vets dreams. Someone who not only believes that their sons and husbands may still be alive, but who actively participates in their quest to uncover the truth about a loved one’s fate. 

But in reality, Jake knows that his profession is one of betrayal and lies, where he is first an effective pawn then an unwilling scapegoat in the continued cover-up of the lost and abandoned sons of the Vietnam war. However, in discovering the truth Jake knows he can find redemption. 

The BRIGHTLIGHTS are the key, but what will the truth uncover? And how far are those involved prepared to go to see that the lock remains firmly and permanently closed? 

SYNOPSIS:

Brightlights:

Jake works for the D.I.A, a dept of military intelligence where he is tasked with providing misinformation concerning the fate of MIA/POW’s. Indeed, the first time we meet Jake he is deep in the jungles of South East Asia on a bogus rescue mission with an elderly couple, the PETERSON’S.

Back in Washington he meets his match when BOBBY SELLERS asks for his help in locating her father an MIA, a man she has never met. Jake is reluctant to get involved but pressure from his superiors leave him no choice and we are introduced to the full ranges of methods used to deceive.

But, like Jake, Bobby is not all that she seems. She is in fact a TV reporter who has been investigating him.

Exposed on TV Jake feels almost relieved, but he was given a watch to pass on to Bobby as evidence of her fathers continued existence. A watch he assumed like other ‘evidence’ to be fake.

The problem is that the watch is genuine, and Jake becomes aware of his own part in a much bigger conspiracy, and the dangers of knowing too much and being unsure who to trust.

He learns about BRIGHTLIGHTS, the code name given to live sightings of POW’s from after the end of the war. For years these sightings and reports coming from South East Asia, but since the early 90’s originating in Central America.

In finding out this information Jake is further compromised when a friend murdered, a crime he is blamed for as the stakes are raised even higher.

What secrets do the jungles of Panama and Guatemala hold? Jake intends finding out as he, Bobby and a TV crew fly down to find out.

What they find is another deserted camp, but one recently inhabited and still guarded, by uniformed Vietnamese. Too late Jake realises the trap and both he and Bobby are captured, the unfortunate TV crew slain.

Taken back to Washington Bobby is reunited with her FATHER, with him is PETERSON. Jake discovers the true extent of the deception, and where loyalties lie. They manage to escape, but their fate still appears bleak with their pursuers close behind, but at least they have SELLERS and PETERSON.

Peterson proves to be the key to their salvation, Jake arranges to reunite the man with his mother, at the most visual and appropriate place he can think of, the Washington Memorial to fallen heroes of Vietnam, and the MIA’s.