Internecine

“Inter-what?” In the tradition of the Hitchcock-style “wrong man” spy thriller, with Internecine, veteran screenwriter David J. Schow shakes up the crime genre with a dash of post-cold war espionage conspiracy, a sprinkle of Hollywood secret history, and a whole lot of big guns…When advertising executive Conrad Maddox returns from a red-eye flight and finds a mysterious locker key waiting in his rental car, his curiosity prevails and he discovers a briefcase loaded with guns and money. Several hours later, his entire life tumbles down a rabbit hole when he meets Dandine, owner of the case and former contract assassin for a shadowy organization called Norco… which is now out to nail both of them.For Conrad, “internecine” means conflict, mutual destruction, and slaughter—or, as Dandine tells him, they are now inadvertently at play on a field of “terrorism, counterassassination, military coups, dirty tricks, Watergate, spy vs. spy, murky secret organizations, that sort of thing.” A world where people like Conrad—ordinary citizens, or the “walking dead”—are sometimes collateral damage. A world in which being innocent can’t save you, the police can’t help you, and your only hope of getting out alive is to risk unheard-of dangers against opponents with nearly unlimited power. To free themselves from the spider web of black ops, murder, madness, and betrayal, Dandine and Conrad must delve ever deeper into the spiraling, dangerous maze that is Norco, where everyone seems to be in on the most lethal of games… except you.