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9 years, 5 months ago - Philip Caine

PICNIC in IRAQ

Synopsis:
February 1991, the Iraqi army retreats from their invasion of Kuwait. Omar Khaled, a Republican Guard Colonel, heads back to Baghdad, with twenty kilos of looted diamonds in two picnic boxes. He evades an American air-strike and hides the stones in the desert. He marks the location on a map, which he conceals inside the back door of his Landcruiser. The vehicle hits an IED and the colonel is badly injured. He is found by the American military and after treatment, is interrogated by the CIA. Before he can tell them where the map is hidden, he dies.

The story moves forward to 2008. Jack Castle is the Ops Director of a security company in Baghdad. His friend and colleague, Tom Hillman, is refurbishing an old Landcruiser, when he discovers the colonel’s secreted map. There is a hand written notation on the map, the best picnic in the world, which prompts Jack to recall a story he was told by a Washington Post journalist in 2003. He contacts Lisa Reynard, a respected war correspondent, who re-tells the colonel’s story, she had heard from a CIA contact.

They undertake a mission to recover the looted diamonds and return them to Kuwait for a substantial reward. Jack puts a team together and sets off to find the treasure, but one of the group betrays them to, The Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant.

ISIL pursue the team through the desert, until the diamonds are found. A gun fight ensues wherein the eldest son of the terrorist warlord is killed.

Jack and his men cross the border into Kuwait, to meet with the Kuwaitis and negotiate the return of the stones. The Kuwaitis disown the diamonds. Jack has the diamonds and uncut stones appraised and discovers the uncut stones are conflict diamonds. It becomes clear the Kuwaitis don’t want to be associated with blood diamonds.

Jack solicits the help of his fiancée Nicole’s father, Dimitri Orlov, a wealthy Russian oligarch. Jack travels to Dimitri’s island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The Russian outlines a plan to get the stones out of Kuwait and turned into cash.

Orlov contacts his friend, the Russian Ambassador in Abu Dhabi, who provides diplomatic papers for the team and the diamonds, to travel from Kuwait to the island.

Meanwhile the warlord initiates a fatwah on Jack, as retribution for the killing of his son. He dispatches a hit squad to kidnap Nicole, and plans to ransom her for the diamonds, before killing her. Nicole is snatched from the island by the terrorists. Jack and his men undertake a daring attack on the kidnappers’ dhow, culminating in a successful rescue mission.

The cut diamonds are turned into cash and shared between the team. Orlov has the uncut blood diamonds cut and polished and distributes the proceeds anonymously to several charities.

Ends……