Brief

Sam gets thrust into a dark world after his friend dies from a mysterious virus. He is tasked with uncovering the plan to release the virus into the public. He meets Rainee and together they have to stop Albright who is working to free the virus.. They succeed but find themselves facing a new foe when they think they're safe.

What We Liked

Sam gets thrust into a dark world after his friend dies from a mysterious virus. He is tasked with uncovering the plan to release the virus into the public. He meets Rainee and together they have to stop Albright who is working to free the virus.. They succeed but find themselves facing a new foe when they think they're safe.

Film: Two attractive, intelligent, capable leads have insurmountable obstacles thrown in front of them again and again in interesting and scenic locations. There is plenty of violence and murder to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. It's a very high concept and timely - a killer virus in the hands of a shady cabal. The structure is there and so is an intricate plot to appeal to discerning audiences.

TV: Two strong leads and lots of twists and turns could keep an audience from episode to episode. It's sexy and exciting, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Interesting locations would also differentiate this show from others and attract viewership.

Key points:
Deadly virus
Terrorism
Sexy leads
Evil arch-villains
Blood and gore

Synopsis

Poland, 1941. Nazi soldiers massacre refugees. A small boy is taken away by his father and brought to some other men whom he says will take care of him. His father is shot. The boy stays with the men and swears a lifetime oath. They are known as The Keepers. Texas, present day. Sam, 40, trauma surgeon, complains to himself about how busy the hospital is. John, another doctor and college frenemy, startles him in the hall. The hospital chief of staff, Bill, 60s, is brought in by his wife, Anna. She doesn’t know what’s wrong with him but wants Sam to attend to him. They seal off the area as Bill is in serious trouble, but Sam doesn’t know what kind. His body morphs and hemorrhages. Sam is in a protective suit but gets nicked. They try everything but Bill is dying. He whispers to Sam, “custos collegium” and “brother seven.” Bill dies, and Sam has no idea why. Ana is being comforted by someone named Simon. Sam goes to his office to sleep, dreams of treacherous John in college, then gets up for a burger. His wife Lauren would be playing tennis then getting drunk. He goes to Anna’s house where mourners have gathered and pulls her aside. She tells him that Bill was already cremated and John and Simon, who works for the Israeli government, are handling the arrangements. Sam is shocked by all of this. He and Lauren go to the wake. He goes to see the new chief of staff who tells him it was cancer that killed Bill and that Sam should let it go. Sam is outraged. He goes to the pathologist Dr. Morris who also blows him off. Later, Morris is shot dead in his office in what is called a robbery gone wrong. Sam calls Anna and goes over to her house for lunch. He tells her about all of the irregularities in her husband’s death. Neither Anna nor Bill knew he even had cancer. Anna allows Sam to go through Bill’s office for any clues. Sam finds a ton of internet searches on terrorist attacks. Maybe Bill was looking into his son’s death. His son had died from terrorists as a soldier. Then, they hear on the news that POTUS has died. An insulin overdose. VP Housier makes the announcement on live television and says he will shortly take the oath of office.

Sam finds his bed empty and sleeps alone, until he wakes up in the middle of the night and catches Lauren and the pool boy having sex in the pool. He punches the pool boy and tells Lauren to get her things and leave. He leaves her, and moves into a new house. He goes to Anna’s one Saturday at her behest to review Bill’s will and some papers she’s found. He talks to Simon, whose wife died in a terrorist attack - and his daughter’s legs were blown off. He also reveals he is Mossad. Sam goes to the research lab where Bill’s tissue samples should be but they’re all gone. He goes to the head of the department and is told to go mind his own business. Infuriated, a beautiful Dr. Rainee Arienzo, 30s, approaches him and tells him she knew Bill and he was interested in a disease she discovered in the Congo. They may be being watched, so they’ll have to talk another time. Brenda from the hospital asks him on a date and he goes to her apartment and they eat and then have sex. Sam is turned on, then turned off and leaves. Brenda is pissed. He accepts an invitation to meet Rainee at lunch. She explains that the disease that killed Bill is going to be weaponized to take out terrorists or even whole ethnicities and she’s known about it for 17 years. It’s called Factor 7. Her father worked on it too. Bill wanted Sam to be involved, hence her invitation to talk. She wants him on her side but he’s baffled as to why him? Why didn’t she go to the government? It’s too dangerous. They need to get into Bill’s files to see how he and John were coming along with a treatment. Sam is very displeased to hear about John’s involvement but reluctantly agrees to help. He goes to the lab and retrieves the one blood sample from Bill that was taken and sent somewhere other than the rest of them. He meets Rainee and they run tests. She says they have a sample with possible Factor 7 - and that will be the proof they need. Someone vandalizes Sam’s Porsche. John shows up and invites him to dinner. He meets Rainee and she tells him to have dinner with John; he may reveal something. Also, they should go to Mexico where Bill has a house because he mentioned a safe down there. Sam gets permission from Anna to check it out. Sam and John have dinner and John gets drunk and Sam is convinced that he knows something about Factor 7.

They take a private jet to Mexico and make it to Bill and Anna’s house. They search for the safe and finally find it - behind a brick wall. They try and break through to no avail, then walk into town where a strange man, Gustavo, who’d been watching them, offers to send workers over to help. He does, then doesn’t charge them for the work. They get into the safe and start to read the contents: Bill apologizes to family and friends, but he’s been in contact with an ancient but noble secret society known as The Keepers, not to be confused with the evil Keepers Collegium or Keepers Brotherhood. Bill met a man named Kenneth Guidry through his brother Steven who introduced him to the Collegium, who knew of plans that could destroy the world. He’s introduced to mysterious Mr. Z, who seems to be a clandestine ex-CIA officer who has been involved in all major middle eastern plots and nefarious organizations. Bill and Steven are recruited. John created the disease and is to create the vaccine. Sam is incensed - John would get the fame and fortune he admitted to be after.. Bill goes on to say he was ignorant of the rest of their plans, only that the disease would kill anyone within 12 hours. The virus would mutate and no one would be safe. Secret government funding allowed the project to go forward. John leaked some of the science to a journal. Rainee’s father found it and was killed by Mr. Z. Bill lists a lot of peoples’ names and countries who are involved and goes on to state that Simon is a radical who wants to destroy Islam so Jews can take over. Sam is thoroughly disgusted in Bill from his involvement in this. When POTUS was a problem, they had him killed. The next one was in danger too. Bill has pancreatic cancer but he’s stored all of this information on a flash drive. Bill’s final words are that he hopes the military leaders of the world can wipe out the people he’s listed. Sam is overwhelmed and has no idea how to stop this.

The next morning they reveal each other’s feelings for one another, but put sex on hold until they can copy the documents. They go to a hotel and order drinks while Sam uses their copier, but Rainee disappears and he frantically searches for her, fearing the worst. She’d just gone to the drug store next door. They have dinner then go home and have sex, wake up and have sex again. Packed for the airport, they are kidnapped by Mexicans and driven to an abandoned mine. It’s a modern and expensive lair inside, stuffed with priceless art. Gustavo has Sam and Rainee brought to his office and he explains that he is the biggest drug dealer in the world and he is in business with the Collegium but they have betrayed him and he will help destroy them and ensure that Factor 7 is never used. He wants them to buy companies for him to take over once he has taken over the Mexican government. He also wants them to learn plastic surgery and give him a new face. They feel they are at his mercy. They’re taken to their plane and back to Texas. On the news, a man they know has been decapitated. Just as Gustavo promised. They are confronted by John, who wants Bill’s papers. Sam goes into his house and gets his gun, then shoots at John, who bolts. John calls Mr. Z asking for money. He has to go on the run - someone is after them as evidenced by the decapitation. Mr. Z and Guidry are shredding documents and getting ready to shelve the whole operation. They tell John he’s on his own. John goes back to his hotel and finds Simon, dead and decapitated. He then goes and robs an old man and uses his credit cards. Sam and Rainee see the news that Simon has been decapitated. They visit Anna, who’s moving away. Gustavo calls and tells them they’re coming back in three months. Under Sam’s doormat is a dead rattlesnake and a threatening note. Mr. Z and Guidry are busy destroying everything related to the Factor 7 project in a warehouse. Jorge, Gustavo’s man, shows up with a bunch of other Mexicans and they slit Guidry’s throat then beat up Mr. Z, who pleads for his life. They tell him it’s too late and drive away as the warehouse blows up with Mr. Z inside. Sam and Rainee see news of the explosion on the news and surmise it was Factor 7 and wonder if it’s in the atmosphere now. They’ll just have to wait and see. John, on the run, buys some syringes and other supplies then checks into a cheap motel. He extracts a lot of blood from himself. He pours it in the car to make it look like he was killed there then takes a taxi to the border and heads into Mexico.

A month later, Sam and Rainee go to a village in Mexico and tend to the poor under Gustavo’s direction. The work is satisfying even though it’s funded by a drug dealer and murderer. Back in Texas, Sam quits his job and they commit to each other. Sam is forced to deal with the fallout from his hookup with Brenda, who’s harassed other doctors who all go to the police. Huitt, the new chief of staff at the hospital, shows up at Sam’s with two other men. They’re all undercover FBI. They’ve been following Sam and know about Collegium. Hoping to recover Bill’s documents, they question Sam. They know that two presidents have been assassinated and all the other details but don’t know about Gustavo. They swear Sam and Rainee to secrecy. Also, they reveal John is dead since his blood and belongings were found in a rental car. Sam isn’t so sure.

They fly back to Mexico and perform plastic surgery on Gustavo while being housed in his underground mansion. He is very pleased and gives them a million and a half dollars in cash. On the way back to the airport, they stop off at a garbage dump and give it to poor people. They skip Texas and fly to Vancouver to confront Ana. Sam suspects she was the FBI informant. They surprise her and she admits that it was her. Angry about her son’s death at the hands of Islamic terrorists, she encouraged Bill to join the cause and go after terrorists regardless of the collateral damage to innocents. After a heated argument, they leave her and go back to Texas, then decide they’ll go to Italy and then join Missions of Medicine and help poor people. They fly to Mali where they spend grueling, heart-breaking weeks treating the poor then are attacked when they get on their returning flight. Sam is accosted by a Chinese man who tells him he knows too much and that his Western so-called Capitalist Democracy doesn’t stand a chance against his Communism. He’s gone rogue, and he has a bomb in a briefcase. He wants the formula to Factor 7, thinking it’s in Bill’s papers. Sam tries to convince him that he doesn’t know it. Then, Sam attacks him and sticks three syringes full of Demerol into his neck and he passes out. They aren’t sure what to do about the bomb in the briefcase, but they’re landing in London. Authorities are waiting for the plane and Sam sees another Chinese man running with the briefcase and tells everyone to get down. The bomb goes off but injuries are few.

Back home, Sam gets a call that Ana has died. He has her ashes flown down and buried next to her husband and son. She left him her estate, and he divides it up among charities. Since she told him that Bill’s documents were on a flash drive that she threw into his grave, the FBI digs it up, then executes the officer who was in charge, who knows too much, and who told Sam and Rainee about the conspiracy. Sam and Rainee are summoned by Gustavo again. Terrified, they find that he is dying from cancer and help him go out peacefully. Then, his sons and his second in command fight over control of the cartel as Sam and Rainee are dumped off at the airport. Sam sees a man at the airport who gets close to him and makes a threat - Sam thinks it’s John and is spooked. He gets a call from an anonymous Scottish man and agrees to meet him at a public restaurant. Sam and Rainee meet the Scottish man and his German colleague. They give them a gold disc with a number on it in Roman numerals. They say to call the number if they’re ever in trouble and thank them for their heroism and for choosing good over evil. They say they are The Keepers.

About The Author

J.D. May is a third generation Texan from the Lower Rio Grande Valley. May attended Sam Houston State University, San Miguel de Allende Instituto, and Rice University where she studied drama, art, creative writing and Spanish. J.D. May worked in advertising for most of her career. She is married to a former award-winning surfer and has a daughter and soon to have a brand-new granddaughter.